# Dreamcast USB Loader Coming Soon



## Heran Bago (Oct 21, 2014)

​



​ 
It's a Dreamcast USB Adapter. For those who don't understand why this could be a good thing, here is my personal list of how it'd be nice:

The Dreamcast's disc drive is really loud.
Dreamcast backups on a CD-R are limited in file size since the original GD-ROMs are bigger. Some Dreamcast ISOs have to get clover to fit on a CD-R with lower quality audio, video, voice acting, or removing some of these altogether. 
GDIs on the real hardware
The Dreamcast drive will die eventually. You can tune the laser strength to give it a little extra life but a busted drive is the eventual fate of most disc based gaming consoles.
Dreamcast emulation isn't perfect. The Dreamcast owns and playing stuff on the real hardware owns. Just Emulate It is a bad attitude for retrogaming.
 

There was an attempt at a Dreamcast SD card loader earlier. It turned out not to be very good. The big downside to this is that it altogether replaces the disc drive in a Dreamcast. This is great for units with broken drives, of which there are plenty. Also noteworthy is that it doesn't appear to reduce load times much. It's probably going to be super expensive and Stone Age Gamer kind of sucks.


Here's the announcement with my comments in *bold*.


			
				Stone Age Gamer said:
			
		

> From the creator of the 3DO USB Adapter *(the what?)* comes the Dreamcast USB Adapter.
> 
> Features:
> - USB 2.0 Host
> ...


http://www.stoneagegamer.com/


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## Thomas83Lin (Oct 21, 2014)

Nice, but it looks like I would have to desolder and move the Usb socket, I'd prefer just to keep it inside the console at all times. instead of it sticking out, and having to cut the case.

edit: Heres a better quality Img, hmm that usb doesn't look to bad


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## WiiCube_2013 (Oct 21, 2014)

Eh, would have been more ideal if the USB port was at the front than at the back.


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## loco365 (Oct 21, 2014)

WiiCube_2013 said:


> Eh, would have been more ideal if the USB port was at the front than at the back.


 
Wii says hello.


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## Hyro-Sama (Oct 21, 2014)

Haven't most of the worthwhile games for the Dreamcast been ported now anyway? No reason to go buy a USB loader for the one "definitive" game that was overlooked.


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## WiiCube_2013 (Oct 21, 2014)

Hyro-Sama said:


> Haven't most of the worthwhile games for the Dreamcast been ported now anyway? No reason to go buy a USB loader for the one "definitive" game that was overlooked.


 
My favourite series of Dreamcast (PowerStone) was ported to PSP and while they remastered it nicely for the system it looks awful because the screen's so small.


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## Foxi4 (Oct 21, 2014)

If streaming content works then this is ideal. Using the serial port is hit and miss and burning CD's only takes you so far. As far as NTFS support is concerned, that'd be completely useless since no Dreamcast disc image goes beyond 1.2GB as far as I know, the system used GD-ROM's _(derrivative of CD-ROM)_.


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## FAST6191 (Oct 21, 2014)

Consider my interest piqued. I will still bet on emulation in the mid to long term (even if the texture replacement people are not doing as much as the N64 and GC lot) but this could help a few things along.


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## Armadillo (Oct 21, 2014)

Want. Want it now .


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## Bladexdsl (Oct 22, 2014)

a little late


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## kristianity77 (Oct 22, 2014)

I'm still waiting on one for the PS2!


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## Necron (Oct 22, 2014)

kristianity77 said:


> I'm still waiting on one for the PS2!


You already can?


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## endoverend (Oct 22, 2014)

I don't want to remove the drive though...


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## Foxi4 (Oct 22, 2014)

kristianity77 said:


> I'm still waiting on one for the PS2!


The PS2 has plenty of loading alternatives - SMB, USB and HDD loading isn't hard to achieve and doesn't require any chips at all. With the Dreamcast, the only alternative to burned CD's is the serial port, and even that requires a boot disc.


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## VashTS (Oct 22, 2014)

I mentioned a DC ODE a while back. Glad to see its coming to life. Probably will be to pricey but still nice.


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## kristianity77 (Oct 22, 2014)

Foxi4 said:


> The PS2 has plenty of loading alternatives - SMB, USB and HDD loading isn't hard to achieve and doesn't require any chips at all. With the Dreamcast, the only alternative to burned CD's is the serial port, and even that requires a boot disc.


 

Whats the compatibility like then these days?  As when I tried it a few years back it was quite hit and miss with what it worked with and a fair few games I tried were quite glitchy.  I'd say my success rate was about 80% at best previously.  Cant remember what I used though HD loader or something but it wasn't much good.


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## cvskid (Oct 22, 2014)

endoverend said:


> I don't want to remove the drive though...


 You don't have to remove the drive though, you can either copy the games themselves from the ps2 right to the harddrive which takes a while to finish, or you can FTP games through a ethernet/crossover cable to put games on it without having to remove the harddrive for a ps2.


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## endoverend (Oct 22, 2014)

cvskid said:


> You don't have to remove the drive though, you can either copy the games themselves from the ps2 right to the harddrive which takes a while to finish, or you can FTP games through a ethernet/crossover cable to put games on it without having to remove the harddrive for a ps2.


 
Was talking about the DC adapter. I use Ethernet for PS2 loading, in case you're curious.
How did DC serial port loading ever work? I heard nothing about that.


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## cvskid (Oct 22, 2014)

endoverend said:


> Was talking about the DC adapter. I use Ethernet for PS2 loading, in case you're curious.
> How did DC serial port loading ever work? I heard nothing about that.


Ah ok, and for me personally using the serial port for dreamcast games are hit and miss. Some work fine while others have heavy lag.At the very least emulators work alright through the serial port. Still sort of convient to have around though.


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## cdoty (Oct 22, 2014)

WiiCube_2013 said:


> My favourite series of Dreamcast (PowerStone) was ported to PSP and while they remastered it nicely for the system it looks awful because the screen's so small.


 

Buy a Playstation TV, it can play PSP games on your TV. I think the PowerStone collection is available in the Playstation Store (it is in the Asian store).


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## cvskid (Oct 22, 2014)

cdoty said:


> Buy a Playstation TV, it can play PSP games on your TV. I think the PowerStone collection is available in the Playstation Store (it is in the Asian store).


If he still has his psp he also has the option of connecting it to a TV itself and playing it on a bigger screen if it is a 2000 model on up.


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## mickcris (Oct 22, 2014)

MNEMO has sold some already. If you want more information from some users that have it already, they have been posting about it here:
http://www.assemblergames.com/forum...e-GD-ROM-emulation-happen-quot-Facebook-group

i have the GDEMU (sd loader) that has been out a bit longer and it works great. MNEMOs looks nice too.


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## cdoty (Oct 22, 2014)

cvskid said:


> If he still has his psp he also has the option of connecting it to a TV itself and playing it on a bigger screen if it is a 2000 model on up.


 

Yep, those cables should be cheap.


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## Magnus87 (Oct 22, 2014)

Next Step! Sega Saturn!


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## mickcris (Oct 22, 2014)

Magnus87 said:


> Next Step! Sega Saturn!


 
Denuan is fairly close to finishing his:
http://gdemu.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/cool-features/


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## Foxi4 (Oct 22, 2014)

kristianity77 said:


> Whats the compatibility like then these days?  As when I tried it a few years back it was quite hit and miss with what it worked with and a fair few games I tried were quite glitchy.  I'd say my success rate was about 80% at best previously.  Cant remember what I used though HD loader or something but it wasn't much good.


Very high. HDD loading is almost perfect, SMB is a close second, USB comes last due to slow transfer speed. I use SMB and so far I only found two games that didn't work and two that had issues, which is a good result considering the fact that I went through 200+ GB's of games on my Slim.


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## chr0m (Oct 22, 2014)

Heran Bago said:


> ​There was an attempt at a Dreamcast SD card loader earlier. It turned out not to be very good. The big downside to this is that it altogether replaces the disc drive in a Dreamcast. This is great for units with broken drives, of which there are plenty. Also noteworthy is that it doesn't appear to reduce load times much. It's probably going to be super expensive and Stone Age Gamer kind of sucks.


 
I have the SD based GDEMU and it is awesome, what are you on about? The only downside is the size of SD cards. I've got a 64GB in mine and have over 50 games on it, which is more than enough on a single card. It sure beats CDRs anyway.
It also improves the loads dramatically over discs.


I'll probably get one of these for my other Dreamcast if it's not crazy expensive, but Stoneage gamer usually is.


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## trumpet-205 (Oct 22, 2014)

Very interesting. So now we have 3 announced GD drive replacement toward Dreamcast: GDEmu, DCIO, and this USB loader.

I'm eager to see how this loader pans out. I agree that DC emulation as of right now is far from ideal. You have to juggle between 3 DC emulators in order to cover most of DC library.

Someone mentioned PS2 having a USB loader as well, and I agree too. While PS2 has many options for backup loading, each one has some sort of shortcoming (HDD is limied to FAT and SCPH-70xxx, SMB will only have the best performance from direct connection / no router, ESR still runs on disc, etc). Plus PS1 game on PS2 right now is limited to disc swapping, modchip, or emulation via PS2PSXe (very crappy).


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## endoverend (Oct 22, 2014)

Does Dreamshell via SD serial adapter have good compatibility? They are sold here for 30$ which I would be willing to pay if games play as well as CD-R's.


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## mickcris (Oct 22, 2014)

chr0m said:


> I have the SD based GDEMU and it is awesome, what are you on about? The only downside is the size of SD cards. I've got a 64GB in mine and have over 50 games on it, which is more than enough on a single card. It sure beats CDRs anyway.
> It also improves the loads dramatically over discs.
> 
> 
> I'll probably get one of these for my other Dreamcast if it's not crazy expensive, but Stoneage gamer usually is.


 
i think he's talking about the sd loader for dreamshell that attaches to the serial port. That is pretty slow and not as compatable.


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## WiiCube_2013 (Oct 22, 2014)

cdoty said:


> Buy a Playstation TV, it can play PSP games on your TV. I think the PowerStone collection is available in the Playstation Store (it is in the Asian store).


 
I already own a physical copy of the game so I wouldn't be buying it again especially a digital format edition.

There's always PSPgo which can connect to a TV and use a DualShock 3 controller...


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## chr0m (Oct 22, 2014)

mickcris said:


> i think he's talking about the sd loader for dreamshell that attaches to the serial port. That is pretty slow and not as compatable.


 

Ahhh ok, that makes sense


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## Sterling (Oct 22, 2014)

Thomas83Lin said:


> Nice, but it looks like I would have to desolder and move the Usb socket, I'd prefer just to keep it inside the console at all times. instead of it sticking out, and having to cut the case.


 
If you're worried about aesthetics, get a slim USB drive.

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digi...13968445&sr=8-1&keywords=32+gb+slim+usb+drive


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## Thomas83Lin (Oct 22, 2014)

Sterling said:


> If you're worried about aesthetics, get a slim USB drive.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-32GB-DataTraveler-DTMCK/dp/B009CMN3V0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413968445&sr=8-1&keywords=32 gb slim usb drive


my main concern was cutting a hole in the case, but yes that's the kind of drive I had in mind


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## FAST6191 (Oct 22, 2014)

Thomas83Lin said:


> my main concern was cutting a hole in the case.


Get a small drill bit and a reamer. Makes this sort of thing a doddle.


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## Thomas83Lin (Oct 22, 2014)

FAST6191 said:


> Get a small drill bit and a reamer. Makes this sort of thing a doddle.


Yea was thinking about getting a dremel just for this. Or I may just hide the usb socket altogether. depends


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## FAST6191 (Oct 22, 2014)

I seem to have an increasingly large collection of dremels/rotary tools.

Anyway what about something like
http://www.dx.com/p/vojo-flat-micro...arging-cable-for-samsung-miui-htc-grey-293304

I am struggling to find a proper right angled, low profile, flat cable, flat male insert/shieldless/canless/PCB only USB extension cable but each of the others exists so I imagine this does too.


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## Sakitoshi (Oct 22, 2014)

Foxi4 said:


> Very high. HDD loading is almost perfect, SMB is a close second, USB comes last due to slow transfer speed. I use SMB and so far I only found two games that didn't work and two that had issues, which is a good result considering the fact that I went through 200+ GB's of games on my Slim.


 
While it's true than a large number of games works even better than with disc(faster loading times and such) some others have issues with audio/video streaming, Klonoa 2 Lunatea's Veil is one of those as well as the later Pop'n Music games(9 or 10 onward, can't remember exactly).
I know that the issue with the Pop'n Music games is resolved on the latest versions of OPL or if you used the good'ol HDLoader, but Klonoa 2 is still present on every form of backup loading that isn't disc based.
and that's why I got a PS2 fat with a working(and original matrix chipped) DVD drive and a nice 200GB HDD with PS2OSD mod installed, I don't even need a memory card to play from the HDD(of course I still need it to save).


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## trumpet-205 (Oct 22, 2014)

WiiCube_2013 said:


> I already own a physical copy of the game so I wouldn't be buying it again especially a digital format edition.
> 
> There's always PSPgo which can connect to a TV and use a DualShock 3 controller...


A big problem with PSP and PSP Go TV out is that they are letter boxed with slightly offed aspect ratio. More and more TV these days cannot fully zoom in the letter box PSP are using.

Vita TV does not have these problems.


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## codezer0 (Oct 22, 2014)

If this works as nicely as it looks, it would be worth picking one up, and a 1TB external hard drive... and have the complete collection readily available.


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## Plstic (Oct 22, 2014)

I hope stone age doesn't price gouge us like all his other products.


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## Sheimi (Oct 22, 2014)

Hope the price isn't too much. I do want to pick one up and scrap the CD Drive in my Dreamcast.


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## FAST6191 (Oct 22, 2014)

The notion of a full DC library intrigued me so I went and did the usual "best ?? games" but for the Dreamcast. Between the PC, the other ports and remakes we saw on the likes of XBLA over the last few years I am not sure how much there is to warrant me wrestling with one of those controllers. Mind you I am discounting a lot of the fighting games and a lot of the driving games on the basis of being early 3d and thus probably best avoided.

As ever there are likely to be a few shmups that I want to play, Mars Matrix and Armada being two I only just found out about, but I am not feeling it as much as I might for a Saturn one (for which I believe there are some credible rumblings).


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## Hop2089 (Oct 23, 2014)

I have a Dreamcast that I got from an anime convention for $40, I'll get it if it's not too expensive.


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## Jayro (Oct 23, 2014)

This invention is cool, but seems about 10 years too late... They should have made it back when the Dreamcast was starting to die out, that's where the cash-in would have been. They'll be lucky if a hand full of DC collectors even bother picking this thing up. The Dreamcast doesn't even have a very big software library, nor many GOOD games out of it worth this solderless hardmod. I give them a generous 8/10 for effort. (They lost two points for being late to the party.)


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## ov3rkill (Oct 23, 2014)

I haven't owned or played a dreamcast before. I guess it's time to own one and get this loader. Nothing beats playing retro games on a CRT tv.  I just hope it won't be that expensive.


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## Foxi4 (Oct 23, 2014)

Jayro said:


> The Dreamcast doesn't even have a very big software library, nor many GOOD games out of it worth this solderless hardmod.


You sir are insane.  The Dreamcast has a massive fan following and a sizable homebrew scene, people still develop _"retail"_ games for it. As far as being _"10 years too late"_, that's not the case either - 10 years ago ODDE's weren't _"a thing"_ yet, manufacturing such devices was not cost-effective.


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## Jayro (Oct 23, 2014)

I still think an ODDE could have been built fairly cheap back then, since U3 drives managed hardware emulation of ISO mounted images back then. I still use my U3 drive as a custom "USB CD-ROM". I keep the latest MS Office "burned" to it. So if a freaking USB stick could emulate a CD-ROM drive for cheap back then, I don't see why the dreamcast couldn't have this made cheap then too.


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## MushGuy (Oct 23, 2014)

Foxi4 said:


> The PS2 has plenty of loading alternatives - SMB, USB and HDD loading isn't hard to achieve and doesn't require any chips at all. With the Dreamcast, the only alternative to burned CD's is the serial port, and even that requires a boot disc.


The downside is that it only supports USB 1.1 instead of USB 2, affecting game compatibility. Another downside is PS2 Slim owners. Also, USB support for PS1 games, anyone?


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## Foxi4 (Oct 23, 2014)

MushGuy said:


> The downside is that it only supports USB 1.1 instead of USB 2, affecting game compatibility. Another downside is PS2 Slim owners. Also, USB support for PS1 games, anyone?


There's no USB support for PS1 for pretty obvious reasons - the PS1 had no USB. Your best bet is emulation, but that's hit-and-miss. As for USB, 1.1 is indeed a bottleneck, which is why I go for SMB instead - the Ethernet port is much faster and the compatibility is superb. Every Slim has the Ethernet port built-in, so it's a great alternative.


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## MushGuy (Oct 23, 2014)

Foxi4 said:


> There's no USB support for PS1 for pretty obvious reasons - the PS1 had no USB. Your best bet is emulation, but that's hit-and-miss. As for USB, 1.1 is indeed a bottleneck, which is why I go for SMB instead - the Ethernet port is much faster and the compatibility is superb. Every Slim has the Ethernet port built-in, so it's a great alternative.


Man, I really wish someone developed a hardware based USB loader for slim PS2's (not everyone has the privilege to connect a PS2 to a PC).

Edit: PS1 may not have a USB loader yet, but there is a SD loader on the way: http://ps-io.com/


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## Elfish (Oct 23, 2014)

Plstic said:


> I hope stone age doesn't price gouge us like all his other products.


i really hope that too :/


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## Foxi4 (Oct 23, 2014)

MushGuy said:


> Man, I really wish someone developed a hardware based USB loader for slim PS2's (not everyone has the privilege to connect a PS2 to a PC).


It's really easy though, you can just hook it up to your home network or any PC at all. It's super-convenient.  I'm interested in PS-IO as well, looking forward to it.


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## trumpet-205 (Oct 23, 2014)

Foxi4 said:


> It's really easy though, you can just hook it up to your home network or any PC at all. It's super-convenient.  I'm interested in PS-IO as well, looking forward to it.



With SMB, i found that direct connection to PC is the best (unless you have high end router). I'm actually thinking about buying Beaglebone Black or Raspberry Pi and set it up for PS2 SMB use (that'll free up PC independence).


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## Foxi4 (Oct 23, 2014)

trumpet-205 said:


> With SMB, i found that direct connection to PC is the best (unless you have high end router). I'm actually thinking about buying Beaglebone Black or Raspberry Pi and set it up for PS2 SMB use (that'll free up PC independence).


That's true - the throughput tends to be better if you connect directly. That being said, using a router is also an option if you don't want to connect your PC directly to the system or it's just nowhere nearby. 


Jayro said:


> I still think an ODDE could have been built fairly cheap back then, since U3 drives managed hardware emulation of ISO mounted images back then. I still use my U3 drive as a custom "USB CD-ROM". I keep the latest MS Office "burned" to it. So if a freaking USB stick could emulate a CD-ROM drive for cheap back then, I don't see why the dreamcast couldn't have this made cheap then too.


U3 drives launched in 2004, the Dreamcast was released in 1998. U3 technology was developed by Sandisk and M-Systems, two _huge_ corporations that had the money to fund R&D, your average household hacker or a small bootleg operation didn't have the funds or the resources for anything of the sort. That, and emulating a drive on a PC where things can be easily virtualized is a whole different can of worms than on a console where you have to hook up to the drive ribbon directly. There's a reason why ODDE's started popping up last generation - that's when the technology was viable to manufacture by small-time operations.


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## Lord Coolman (Oct 24, 2014)

trumpet-205 said:


> Plus PS1 game on PS2 right now is limited to disc swapping, modchip, or emulation via PS2PSXe (very crappy).





MushGuy said:


> Also, USB support for PS1 games, anyone?





Foxi4 said:


> There's no USB support for PS1 for pretty obvious reasons - the PS1 had no USB. Your best bet is emulation, but that's hit-and-miss.


 
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?45347-PS2-POPS-stuff
You're welcome.


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## trumpet-205 (Oct 24, 2014)

Lord Coolman said:


> You're welcome.


No thanks.

Like PS2PSXe, POPS (PS1 emulator written by Sony for PS2) is crappy in terms of compatibility. I don't consider PS2PSXe and POPS to be a viable alternative for running PS1 game on PS2.


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## Lord Coolman (Oct 24, 2014)

Just use an emulator, with the cynical air included. Damn, even a freaking Android phone... which kind of obscure games are you trying to play, anyway?


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## Sakitoshi (Oct 30, 2014)

Foxi4 said:


> There's no USB support for PS1 for pretty obvious reasons - the PS1 had no USB. Your best bet is emulation, but that's hit-and-miss. As for USB, 1.1 is indeed a bottleneck, which is why I go for SMB instead - the Ethernet port is much faster and the compatibility is superb. Every Slim has the Ethernet port built-in, so it's a great alternative.


 
We have seen the Wii loading Gamecube games through SD and USB, and IIRC the Gamecube doesn't have any of those options.
the real reason the PS2 can't do PS1 through USB is because the USB controller is the old processor of the PS1, and thus unusable in any other way when the PS2 is on BC mode.


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## chartube12 (Oct 31, 2014)

MushGuy said:


> Edit: PS1 may not have a USB loader yet, but there is a SD loader on the way: http://ps-io.com/


 

Too bad I through away my original 1.0 Playstation a long time ago. Its a wonder it's disc drive lasted as long as it did. There is a reason Sony started using a different disc drive in the playstation only 4 months after the north america launch.


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## Kazuma77 (Dec 21, 2014)

What can I say, the DC was in desperate need of something like this, to save it from the hypocrisy of "more accurate" dumps that only run on emulators. There's actually only a tiny handful of CDIs that aren't 100% complete. The only thing most GDIs bring to the table are a bunch of empty sectors. Still, 2 TB MyBooks are cheap, so, if they want to waste gigs of space on marginal improvements to 5 or so games, no skin off my back.

This resolves the main problem with the GDI format. The inability to test its accuracy. For an emulator-only format to become dominant is dangerous. I suppose it was hard to avoid with the Dreamcast using a custom disc format. But accuracy has a tendency to suffer when verification is not possible. The Dreamcast emulators that use GDI were at risk becoming their own platforms, just like Nesticle. This will ensure that the GDIs, the emulators that use them, and the translation patches for them, are accurate. Just like the N8 and Powerpak keep modern NES emulators and the iNES format true to real hardware, and cheap SNES carts like the Super Everdrive have finally led to bad translation patches like the one for "Ys IV - Mask Of The Sun" being corrected.

I didn't know they made something for the 3DO either. I'll have to check that one out as well.

Hopefully they'll do the PC Engine/Turbografx, PC-FX, Saturn, and Neo Geo CD eventually as well (as for Sega CD, the 10 or so titles worth playing aren't unmanageable, but if they make the device, I'll probably buy it just for the sake of completion).

For PSX, I'm currently using the PS3's PSX emulator via Multiman/Webman. You have to have folders for each letter (PSXISOA, PSXISOB, etc.), and rename so that it doesn't try to list all the games at once. Still, it's the best solution I could find for now. Much better than anything for the PS2. I will definitely go for the PS-IO when it's out though.

These ODDEs are coming at a good time for me -- my flash adapter collection's nearly complete (we're all still waiting on Harmony 2, and I'd pick up an Ultimate 5200 SD if I could find reasonably-priced 5200 controllers, but I'm using my XEGS to run most 5200 games already, courtesy of The!Cart and the SIO2SD I'm using to program it). My ultimate goal is to have every system where you can just turn it on, select any game ever made for it from a menu, and play it. No compromises, all 100% genuine hardware.



FAST6191 said:


> Consider my interest piqued. I will still bet on emulation in the mid to long term (even if the texture replacement people are not doing as much as the N64 and GC lot) but this could help a few things along.


 
That's a short-sighted bet if you ask me. Emulation is the Windows ME of retro-gaming. I wouldn't bet on it hanging around much longer, personally. Emulators were cool when I discovered them in 1996, but they just don't light my fire anymore. Super Road Blaster on a PC, yawn, cheap trick, PCs have relatively infinite resources compared to the SNES. Seeing it play on a real SNES, now, that was actually fun. Don't forget, for most people the priority is re-creating the original experience, not graphics hacks that won't even run on real hardware. Only "hard-core" PC gamers blindly sacrifice gameplay (not to mention their right to privacy) for graphics. Have a look at DICE, the only circuit-level-accurate emulator, and see how slow it is running even a game as simple as Pong. Emulation is at an impasse. FPGAs are the future. Only they can end the compromise, offering both circuit-level accuracy AND full speed. They can add extra resources to the reconstructed console too though. So, people who's thing is graphics hacks won't be left in the cold either. Not that I could recommend a device like the MiST at this time, because it's a bit too early in the game. Most of the cores still need a lot of work. That said, I may never play Pac-Man in MAME again (that's one damn good core).


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## FAST6191 (Dec 22, 2014)

Kazuma77 said:


> That's a short-sighted bet if you ask me. Emulation is the Windows ME of retro-gaming. I wouldn't bet on it hanging around much longer, personally. Emulators were cool when I discovered them in 1996, but they just don't light my fire anymore. Super Road Blaster on a PC, yawn, cheap trick, PCs have relatively infinite resources compared to the SNES. Seeing it play on a real SNES, now, that was actually fun. Don't forget, for most people the priority is re-creating the original experience, not graphics hacks that won't even run on real hardware. Only "hard-core" PC gamers blindly sacrifice gameplay (not to mention their right to privacy) for graphics. Have a look at DICE, the only circuit-level-accurate emulator, and see how slow it is running even a game as simple as Pong. Emulation is at an impasse. FPGAs are the future. Only they can end the compromise, offering both circuit-level accuracy AND full speed. They can add extra resources to the reconstructed console too though. So, people who's thing is graphics hacks won't be left in the cold either. Not that I could recommend a device like the MiST at this time, because it's a bit too early in the game. Most of the cores still need a lot of work. That said, I may never play Pac-Man in MAME again (that's one damn good core).




FPGA enhanced emulation is still emulation, though I can certainly agree that when FPGAs get that little bit more beefy and can sit in my PCIe slot to be used by emulators as an alternative to the "that'll do" of pure software emulation that it will be a good day. I can appreciate some people wanting a pixel exact recreation, that is very much not me though if I can instead have a nicer experience. I would also very strongly argue otherwise on percentages wanting pixel exact, percentages wanting a game that plays more or less as it would have (probably the bulk -- see also all the emulation collections/wiiware/andrios "ports"....) and those that would like to what went originally and spice it up some.

Full enhancements, save perhaps stuff like the lua addons for some games, I can see not appealing so much for 16 bit/2d era stuff, early 3d so very much wants enhancements though -- even if they do not know the words to describe the things they are seeing most will tell me the N64/PS1/saturn games look like arse if they are versed in more modern 3d. I probably would not do it to the exclusion of a "go stock" mode but the lack of textures, quality textures, lack of AA, low framerates.... stuff that can all be reasonably fixed with simple to use emulators, I would hold to be a very serious part of any appeal these things can have though. Mind you I have no particular love for what a lot of people playing in the console texture hacking/replacement world are currently doing, though I fear that might be the half backwards way they set about a lot of things I would otherwise do in ROM hacking.


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## XDel (Dec 22, 2014)

I meant to post about this. I think what I may do is recase my Dreamcast and an external 2Tb drive and just make a table top arcade cabinet out of one or something, who knows.... can't wait for this to release though!


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## shengoro86 (Apr 6, 2015)

BUMP:
Made a name here just to post this.
After a couple months of silence, StoneAgeGamer told me that they are still working on this product with the developer.
They will share an update when they have a formal one.


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## Digital.One.Entity (Apr 6, 2015)

April Fools ?


I hope this is still incoming as it would be great for my old DC


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## shengoro86 (Apr 6, 2015)

Digital.One.Entity said:


> April Fools ?
> 
> 
> I hope this is still incoming as it would be great for my old DC


Their response was a couple days later.


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## Elliander (Apr 25, 2015)

I still have my old dreamcast, but the games skip now which is the only reason why I don't really play it anymore. What do I need to get this to work? All I see on their website even resembling this is a USB controller adapter and that's just for using a Dreamcast controller on a PC.

http://www.stoneagegamer.com/dreamcast-to-usb-adapter.html 

That's still good though. I wonder if a modern PC can now fully emulate all games and make use of genuine memory cards for mini games. I remember that NullDC never had controller support, but it's open source, so it seems like it should be possible. Although ripping would still be the problem. I guess the ideal situation would be to connect the dreamcast parts directly into a computer.


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## The Catboy (Apr 25, 2015)

I need this in my life.
My Dreamcast is just sitting there collecting dust, not because I don't enjoy it, but because I don't want to kill my laser with CD's. This is something I need in my life.


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## Dork (Nov 21, 2015)

I wish there was a way to USB load games while keeping optical drive functionality; I still have my a huge collection of legitimate dreamcast games that I don't want to render useless.


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## Heran Bago (Jun 7, 2016)

Argh Stone Age Gamer isn't carrying it!

http://www.stoneagegamer.com/dreamcast-usb-en.html


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