Depends if you already own a CRT or a CRT Monitor. No reason to own one unless you have those or want to use official accessories. Same with the PSX, kind of redundant with Duckstation looks far better and can be played with CRT Shaders without any error.
I think its a good investment if you're interested in the library. It emulates pretty well, but there's no emulating that controller/VMU experience.
Games for the system, especially the ones you'd want the most, are quite expensive though. They good thing about that is piracy is EXTREMELY easy on Dreamcast, all you have to do is burn a game to a CD-R and you're good to go. Just make sure the model you get is one of the ones that can handle burned discs, but thats not much of a challenge to find. Most units in circulation are able to do so as far as I'm aware.
I'd reccomend it highly, especially if you have a CRT TV like @Nebulon_Galaxy said. Even more so if you have an old 480p LCD or CRT monitor, since the console can output VGA to get that full 480p image quality.
I still have my father's old black SEGA Sports Edition SEGA Dreamcast from back in the day (sadly not the matching controller it came with though as it was not working and my mother and I sold it off)
had to get its internal clock battery replaced by professionals at eStarland but it still works like a charm
I feel like owning an actual Dreamcast is neat if you have a CRT of any kind to plug it in as the Wii can't emulate Dreamcast games well plus most models have laughable copy protection so you can burn games onto CD-Rs to play on the console relatively easily
and there's also SD adapters that plug into its serial port that play games being sold on numerous online market places as well
as for online though: https://dreamcastlive.net/
If you found a good lot locally with some good games at a decent price, I'd probably say yes.
But then I'm reminded that you probably want a couple of stuff minimum like the VGA Cable (& that TV/Monitor/Upscaler to hook it up to), a few VMUs & a whole lot of CDs to burn games with.
The authenticity of playing the games on the actual console is nice though!
I think its a worthy investment, depends on price and what extras you get too. but i'd say around 100 is fair just for the console & controller and like a game thrown in.
also I use a KAICO HD adapter which makes the image quality look very nice on modern TV's.
Honestly It would be a great purchase.
The dreamcast has a bunch of great games and it feels good playing them on the real console with the real controller.
Not knocking emulation because I love emulating everything.
I bought one a couple of months ago, I would say if you're interested in playing its library, want the intented experience and don't want to go the emulation route that on my end caused a lot of problems then go for it but pay very attention to not get scammed. Dreamcasts are one of the most inflated? console that I've seen, a lot of people sell them online for double or triple their real value because they know that the Dreamcast has some sort of cult following behind it.
There's some info that i would have loved to know before buying one, these are not really talked online from what i've seen:
-Its memory cards storage are laughably small, you have 200 blocks for one VMU (the standard memory card of the Dreamcast) and while most games only uses 2-3 blocks a lot of them uses more than 60 so yeah enjoy having only 6-7 saves for one VMU, it is manageable but it's really the only console where I have this storage problem. If by any chance someone knows if you can emulate VMU storage with a GDemu then let me know lol thanks.
Speaking of the VMU, its battery will drain very fast, the two CR2032 (if i remember correctly) that it needs won't last you more than 2 months and that's it only if you don't use it at all.
-For playing games on it, I would recommand to install a GDemu or something similar, you have a high chance that the optical drive of a Dreamcast being sold is barely functionning and will crash your game half of the time when it needs to load something, this is something that happened on my dreamcast and others from friends and in local videogame convention, I've heard mixed result from people regreasing and cleaning their disc drive hoping to resolve the problem. This problem is mostly seen when you're using burned CD-R games which you'll want to use because of the insane price of dreamcast games these days. I wouldn't recommand the SD card adapter that plugs in the back of the console I've seen a lot of people online saying that the loading time are greatly increased and the compatiblity of it is hit or miss but I might be wrong.
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I sounds harsh in my post but I still love my Dreamcast lol
Not bad at all. There's plenty of good affordable HDMI options for the Dreamcast, ODE replacements for the disc drive, modernized controllers and VMUs, and more.
It depends on the person, buying a Dreamcast today is more of a collectable, no different than buying an NES Mini imo.
Having said that, there are a couple of factors to consider, first off, not every one has access to a powerful hardware (computer/android device) to emulate Dreamcast games properly and playing on a phone isn't a comfortable experience, another factor is multiplayer, Dreamcast has a nice library of multiplayer games, emulation may not be the best experience, and of course there is the VMU experience which cannot be replicated via emulation, some games like Sonic Shuffle took advantage of the second screen so every player can hide their cards, Sonic Adventure 2 let you transfer your Chao and play it on the go like a Tamagochi, and Resident Evil used it to show your status at all time, to name a few examples.
That aside, if you only wish to play Dreamcast games solo and don't care for the authenticity I think emulation is good enough and might be the better option, the Dreamcast controller lacks duel analog and the triggers and analog stick are a bit too stiff for my liking, I grew up with the Dreamcast and it has a big sentimental value for me, in my opinion the Dreamcast has by far the most charming UI of any system, but the practicality of getting one nowadays isn't enough tbh.
you have a high chance that the optical drive of a Dreamcast being sold is barely functionning and will crash your game half of the time when it needs to load something, this is something that happened on my dreamcast and others from friends and in local videogame convention, I've heard mixed result from people regreasing and cleaning their disc drive hoping to resolve the problem. This problem is mostly seen when you're using burned CD-R games which you'll want to use because of the insane price of dreamcast games these days.
It's a bit of a clunky pain in the ass by not automatically switching to the per-game folder sometimes, leaving you needing to cycle through memory cards and pages, sometimes not automatically mounting the same name game folder because the game ID on a physical disc doesn't pair up to the GDI image you might install on an ODE when going between different consoles, but most often it is good. Virtually unlimited storage for saves.
More than a few times I would need to jump into the BIOS memory card manager, cycle the Pro over to a proper game folder created when booting a game up, and swap old saves in and out of a secondary OG VMU just to make sure old game save data I have been playing is dropped into the folder for the ODE's version of the game. Even games from the same region, different revision or whatever.
I have been awake for too long. Too many Dreamcast consoles kicking around that need modding.
I was aware of these VMU replacements, the VMU pro looks very good but it's sadly over budget for me, I was wondering if there was something that could replace physical VMU and use the storage from the ODE instead but it seems that the Dreamcast lack such option sadly. The 4x memory card doesn't really look like a good option since they costs almost as much as 4 VMUs and the storage to price ratio is the main limiting factor for me. I have enough storage for myself (I have 2 VMUs) but I sometime have to juggle saves around and delete some of them.
I didn't knew that the PS1 trick of putting your console upside down would also work on the Dreamcast lol
I was aware of these VMU replacements, the VMU pro looks very good but it's sadly over budget for me, I was wondering if there was something that could replace physical VMU and use the storage from the ODE instead but it seems that the Dreamcast lack such option sadly. The 4x memory card doesn't really look like a good option since they costs almost as much as 4 VMUs and the storage to price ratio is the main limiting factor for me. I have enough storage for myself (I have 2 VMUs) but I sometime have to juggle saves around and delete some of them.
I didn't knew that the PS1 trick of putting your console upside down would also work on the Dreamcast lol
The 4x memory card doesn't really look like a good option since they costs almost as much as 4 VMUs and the storage to price ratio is the main limiting factor for me.
Man, the post-pandemic prices are insane. You're totally right they're pricy now. I think I bought mine for like $10 bucks 6-7 years ago when I first got into Dreamcast. Hell, I bought a green VMU new in box for like $30 back then... I hate what's happened to prices these days.
If they are interested in starting a collection and want real hardware... as mentioned, and they have a CRT and can find a working one with the hookups, controller, and VMU, which most likely will need the battery replaced, I say go ahead....
If they simply want to enjoy the games, there's really no need. The Dreamcast is a great little system, but the constant optical drive noise can be a pain in the ass, and they can get loud as they age. Add in the capacitors will start to fail sooner rather than later due to the Dreamcast's age. Capacitors typically have a lifespan of about 20-30 years, sometimes longer depending on the manufacturer, the care they received, usage, etc.
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