Dreamcast in a cab

Probably not the right spot, but oh well.

I wanted a naomi setup, but Max_mega 330 suggested dreamcast instead -- cheaper and less of a headache.
Jeff Bogard hooked me up with the dreamcast to get me off my lazy ass to get the job done.

Well, I had a spare empty Double Dragon 2 cab (another thread here, found in trash a few years back) and a open frame VGA monitor.
I bought a DC VGA adapter and threw everything in the cab with a sony surround sound amp (overkill, but someone gave it to me). Anyway, I'll probably wire up the controllers to the cp sometime this week.

It kicks ass. Don't know why I didn't do this a year or two ago instead of storing all this shit in my shed. Now I have a big ass empty STUN Runner cab sitting in there instead.

I hear madcatz DC controllers are the easiest to hack up. Any opinions?

Waiting on my HoTD2 + guns now that I snagged up on ebay. More good times ahead!!!

topher said:

I hear madcatz DC controllers are the easiest to hack up. Any opinions?

Click to expand...

Hell yes they are. MUCH easier. The pcb boards used in them have little holes all over the place, so you find the button you want, stick the wire through that hole, and half the job is done. You could be so lazy as to tape them in and it still works (but solder, please). They're much better because the have face buttons for the shoulders, which are a real pain in the ass to hook up with the normal controllers (the shoulder buttons are hooked up differently since they're analog).

Good luck!

Thanks, I'm going to call around to some local used game stores and see if any are available. If not, ebay.

topher said:

Waiting on my HoTD2 + guns now that I snagged up on ebay. More good times ahead!!!

Click to expand...

Ahh so you snagged up that auction? Excellent score!

I was going to bid on it, however the seller opened the auction up to the entire world by offering shipping (was previously local pickup only). Had it been local pickup only, I think it would have stayed under $250.

Congrats!
-B

I have wanted to do that for a long time, but never felt like dealing with the control panel part.... I have the VGA adapter, but have only used it on an LCD, which was overly sharp IMO... and 2 games wouldn't run, they actually gave me a message stating the games are not compatible with the VGA adapter.

ended up getting a Naomi for cheap.... but I only have 4 games for it, compared to my DC which has about 50 games...

still want to do the DC in a cab, but not for quite a while

Here's how I did my dreamcast to jamma conversion (a bit out of the box compared to other ones I've seen).

As most of you know, I have sega astro city cabinets. I modded female control panel plugs to the ends of the joystick mod. This way, it was literally plug and play for the controls.

http://www.big-bill.net/dreamcast/

Hope that helps get some creative juice flowin...

-B

Here are my notes on this all:

1. Stock DC pads are hella easy to hack (http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/images/dcjoy.gif)

Notes for using an arcade monitor.
2. Pin 6 off the AV port has to be grounded, but not pin 7.
3. Use an RGB amp.... Without any resistors or caps.
4. Run the Composite Sync (pin 10) through an lm1881 circuit.
5. GROUND EVERYTHING WELL

good info here, I plan on tackling this as well in the near future

I've got an extra set of hacked Madcatz Dreamcast pads and Dual Shock pads if anyone want to PM me an offer. They are wired to a standard 15 pin molex connector.



[Update] Madcatz pads are now sold! PS2 pads still available. [/Update]