Hardware Dreamcast disc drives

zfreeman · Aug 21, 2022

How are Dreamcast disk drives holding up? Are people still burning discs for dreamcast? Or is everyone using an ODE nowadays?

tech3475 · Aug 21, 2022

I switched to an ODE, although be warned you may need to make additional modifications to reduce potential heat issues.

zfreeman · Aug 21, 2022

I did see someone having dead Dreamcasts in the GDemu thread. I also went with an ODE and picoPSU to avoid that.

I'm sure there are also orginalists that prefer to play as originally intended. They're probably having an easier time than the Mega CD crowd. I was just wondering by how much.

esmith13 · Aug 22, 2022

I have one DC that has an ODE and another with the original drive using burned discs. Both have the noctua fan upgrade and their original PSUs. Both are doing well for me still.

My original launch Sega CD died years ago, and unfortunately had to be replaced with a MegaSD.

Same deal with my second hand PCECD which I replaced with a SSDS3. About 2-3 years ago.

My launch Saturn started having disc read errors which got worse and worse a few years back and I have since moved to ODE with that as well.

I have two GameCubes, one with original drive & XenoGC (works great) and another with GCLoader (done for convenience, drive works/worked well).

All of my PlayStations (1's, 2's and a 3) still have working disc drives, tho I replaced one with an X-station/PS1Digital/MemCardPro setup for "convenience".

Sorry for going a bit off topic but I figured a general state of console disc drives (from my experience) was possibly useful info.

aphexacid · Aug 22, 2022

I have 7 Dreamcast consoles that I’ve owned for years. A couple Japanese models included. 1 was a launch day US unit, and then the rest came when the discontinued it and I freaked out, so I bought every Dreamcast I could find.
Not one has dead disc drive. I’ve let friend borrow them, and they’ve been used with cdr’s for years. Some drives are louder and more annoying than others.
Long story short, I’m my experience, they’ve the best disc drive I’ve had. My launch DC is now heavily modded and has a GDEMU unit, but the drive still worked when I pulled it out.

Alexander1970 · Aug 22, 2022

No,no more optical GD-Drives in my two Dreamcast Consoles.I think one is left in "Stock" here but I have no Idea after over one Year,if it is still working.

2 GDemu Clones / 2 PicoPSU and good.

koffieleut · Aug 24, 2022

I've got 3 Dreamcast, one Pal with original drive, two NTSC-J with one having a GDEmu (clone) and one still having the original drive.

The one with the GDEmu is my main console though, I have installed a raspi0w in it for online play, replaced the PSU with a micro ATX PSU and also made a VGA mod on it.
But the other two are still working fine.

hippy dave · Aug 24, 2022

koffieleut said:
I've got 3 Dreamcast, one Pal with original drive, two NTSC-J with one having a GDEmu (clone) and one still having the original drive.

The one with the GDEmu is my main console though, I have installed a raspi0w in it for online play, replaced the PSU with a micro ATX PSU and also made a VGA mod on it.
But the other two are still working fine.

Oh does the pi stand in for a broadband adapter? That's pretty cool.

Alexander1970 · Aug 21, 2023

Good Morning.

I have reading an Article about why Dreamcast Classic is cancelled.
According to the "Reason" (they said,they must have use original Hardware for it and this Way is too expensive)

So I looked over the GDEmu Clones and was really surprised,that the Prices have near doubled.

....the last One I have bought in 2020 on Amazon was sold for 65 Euros.

KleinesSinchen · Aug 21, 2023

Alexander1970 said:
I have reading an Article about why Dreamcast Classic is cancelled.
According to the "Reason" (they said,they must have use original Hardware for it and this Way is too expensive)

What is that supposed to mean, "original hardware"? Dreamcast can be emulated nowadays, they don't have to produce the original chips again. Would be cool though.

====
About the main topic:
I've only one Dreamcast, normal GD drive, MIL-CD compatible. All working nicely. Rarely use it to be honest.

wolffangalchemist · Aug 21, 2023

I have 3 dreamcast all of them has working orginal gdrom drives, my main one is modded heavily, i have a v1 console with dual bios both stock and japanese cake bios and overclock mod , a internal serial sd adapter, and the old school ide mod that boots gdi's from a compact flash adapter with dreamshell. It plays all the games i have no issues so haven't seen a need for a gdemu. i still recommend the ide mod if you have the skill to pull it off as it isn't expensive to do. One is a v0 console that is only bios modded so far, and lastly a completely stock v1 console.

Alexander1970 · Aug 21, 2023

KleinesSinchen said:
What is that supposed to mean, "original hardware"? Dreamcast can be emulated nowadays, they don't have to produce the original chips again. Would be cool though.

https://wccftech.com/dreamcast-mini-considered-sega/

"If we want to release it as a console, it will be like $300 USD because we need to put real hardware in it and the technology is just not cheap enough yet to actually do that", he reveals in the video. "Nobody would be happy with the $300 USD price tag. People would be expecting $100 USD so everyone would be mad."

zfreeman · Aug 21, 2023

In this context, 'real' means serious or earnest; the opposite of trifling. Later in the video, he says 'emulation technology'. The technology to emulate Dreamcast in that small of a size is not at the price point that they want.

wolffangalchemist said:
I have 3 dreamcast all of them has working orginal gdrom drives, my main one is modded heavily, i have a v1 console with dual bios both stock and japanese cake bios and overclock mod , a internal serial sd adapter, and the old school ide mod that boots gdi's from a compact flash adapter with dreamshell. It plays all the games i have no issues so haven't seen a need for a gdemu. i still recommend the ide mod if you have the skill to pull it off as it isn't expensive to do. One is a v0 console that is only bios modded so far, and lastly a completely stock v1 console.

How is compatibility with Atomiswave games? Did you have to mod your case to fit the IDE? Could you elaborate more on the cake BIOS and overclock; do those increase/decrease compatibility?

What's your thoughts on a throughput SATA adapter? https://aliexpress.com/item/1005004117158852.html

Alexander1970 · Aug 22, 2023

zfreeman said:
What's your thoughts on a throughput SATA adapter? https://aliexpress.com/item/1005004117158852.html

Hmm......I think it need´s a BIOS Chip with some soldering Work......

https://www.amazon.de/s?k=dreamcast+sata+hdd&__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=2AKB55XMX94CD&sprefix=dreamcast+sata+hdd,aps,99&ref=nb_sb_noss

wolffangalchemist · Aug 22, 2023

It looks the same as the ide mod but uses a board with a ide to sata adapter built in, the bios is probably just mooded to auto boot dreamshell, probably required because it romoves the gdrom drive to be installed. I used a ide cable and solder the points to the motherboard by hand so i could keep the gdrom intact. I use 32gb compact flash cards with a cf to ide adapter, most sata adapters the dreamcast is extreamly picky about, i had one out of 3 diffrent ones that worked most the time but was iffy on speed. compact flash was a lot easier at the time, more consistentread write speeds and used cf card where cheap. i got two 32gb card for $10 on ebay, but this was about 3 or 4 years ago not sure if they can still be gotten for good prices.

More information on the ide mod here, https://www.dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11540

Compatability for dreamshell and retrodream

Hardware Dreamcast disc drives

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