If you’re keen on upgrading your Dreamcast for the modern era, then you’ll already be aware mods such as Optical Disc Emulators and HDMI-out already exist. These enhancements allow you to run games from flash media and obtain the best possible picture quality but are quite expensive when purchased individually.
Thank goodness, then, for modder AshEvans81, who has created a new project that takes these two elements and combines them in a single board.
“I made a Dreamcast GD Emu thingy,” says the modder. “Designed in about six hours. Using (mostly) code from Marcus Comstedt / zeldin. About two days debugging, to finally get it working. Loading times need some improvement. It has HDMI output, but I need to design a custom flex cable, to actually hook up to the Video/Audio DACs on the DC. There is an “IDE” port passthrough, for a Slave HDD or SSD for Dreamshell etc. I haven’t tested that yet.”
AshEvans81 adds that there’s still a lot of work to do beyond improving load times, as audio is still patchy, and it has taken a while to get things working properly.
He also adds that he’s not sure when this will be available to purchase, but it sounds like that’s the eventual plan – which could be a game-changer for the world of Dreamcast modding.
Go on.... treat yourself to a new game.
