What is the best thing I can do with my Sega Dreamcast?

[Doomsday519]

I recently bought one for cheap. Powers on, interface is there, etc etc but it appears the disc drive is not working. At first I would pop in a disc and it would spin for a bit then stop but after that, it stopped spinning altogether. It sucks cuz aside from the original box, it came with everything from the original package as if it had been never used so I have been stuck for now. Question now is do I attempt to buy a new optical drive online and hope after install that it works or forego it and aim for a GDEMU? I really want to keep it in it's original state but modifying it in the latter way is so tempting.

 

[moonbits]

I think a GDEMU is the way to go. The optical drives for the Dreamcast are notorious for wearing down quickly since they are made for a specific reading format.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

It's a long shot, but I have seen people with this exact same issue apply some sort of hardware mod to trick the console into thinking the lid is closed and the disc is spinning even when it's not.

Both of your own options sound fine, too.

 

[AlfajordeFrula]

Aim for a GDEMU, its better, load faster and you can put all you want in there. And, also try to flip upside down your dreamcast to see if the disk drive is fully broken o partially desync and maybe you can still use it with a fine tunning.

 

[SeventhSon]

the best thing to do with a [working] Sega Dreamcast is FIVE CRAZY MINUTES

 

[skramz]

put it on your coffee table so you can always have a conversation starter

 

[Lod 10]

InstalarInstall an HDMI port and insert a memory card, replacing the hard drives.

 

[PacGuy]

Soft dreamcast smooches

 

[Lod 10]

I don't know how to send links, but I know several guys in my country who convert these video game consoles to HDMI and install memory card slots so you can put all the games you want on them.

 

[PacGuy]

 

[G.L.a.D.O.S.]

While these are all great options, I understand you want to keep your Dreamcast as OG as possible.
You may have to replace the laser if modding it isn't an option. Simply swapping it out isn't hard. I myself would go for a GDEMU if I were so inclined to keep it as close to factory as possible, aesthetically anyway.

 

[Sumea]

Play games on it.
Play Andrew W.K.'s "I Get Wet" on it.

 

[tk45]

I recently bought one for cheap. Powers on, interface is there, etc etc but it appears the disc drive is not working. At first I would pop in a disc and it would spin for a bit then stop but after that, it stopped spinning altogether. It sucks cuz aside from the original box, it came with everything from the original package as if it had been never used so I have been stuck for now. Question now is do I attempt to buy a new optical drive online and hope after install that it works or forego it and aim for a GDEMU? I really want to keep it in it's original state but modifying it in the latter way is so tempting.

I have two Dreamcasts, one modified, and one untouched. If the disc drive doesn't work, I would say you have the perfect excuse to just go the GDEMU route. Unfortunately Dreamcast games aren't cheap so GDEMU saves you money in the long run.

 

[throughdarkness]

I have modded 3 Dreamcasts now. The GDEMU is awesome and I would get one even if your disk drive worked. Two of my systems I had bought with bad drives for this case but I saved the drives and heard from some folks that a common point of failure with the gdrom drives are capacitors, which shouldn't be hard to replace (havent done it yet but will).

The other thing I'd do while you're in there is buy a battery kit and solder it in place of the button cell so you can swap batteries if you ever need to again. Use ML2032. Do not use CR2032. While in there also swap the fuse with a resetable fuse. Controller ports have been shown to blow if controllers are hotplugged. Not huge but these are all things you can do to really deck out your DC and pretty easy to boot.