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| Dream Color Plus being tested with Resident Evil: Code Veronica. Credit: Costenaro |
There's been a lot of buzz within the Dreamcast fan community as of late over Dream Color Plus, a new controller mod from Brazil-based developer Nai Adventure, which converts your controller to show VMU graphics in full colour, as opposed to its typical monochrome display. The idea with the mod is that by taking apart an existing Dreamcast controller, and removing the existing PCB, you can pop the Dream Color Plus in, and voilà, you now have a wireless Dreamcast controller that has a built-in, backlit VMU screen that displays in full colour. The mod will also include on-board save game storage. You can watch the mod in action below. It's looking very impressive indeed...
Many of our followers have been tagging us under social media posts about the Dream Color Plus in the past week — don't worry, we've been paying attention, and since a crowdfunding campaign has been confirmed, we thought it was time we spoke with the dev to get the lowdown on this exciting project.
DCJY: Nai Adventure, thanks for chatting with us. The Dream Color Plus project looks awesome — it’s wild to see VMU graphics of games we’ve been playing for decades suddenly brought to life in full colour. Can you explain how it all works? And with such a huge library of Dreamcast games, how do you plan on colouring every VMU graphic?
Nai Adventure: The controller has three modes:
- Monochrome, like the original Dreamcast.
- Palette mode, [which is] similar to what the Super Game Boy does with Game Boy games. To switch palettes, you hold the analog stick (which works as a new button) and press A to change line colors, B to change background colors, and the start button to invert them (like a photo negative). Here’s a quick demo:
- Full color mode: for new games, devs can send pixel-by-pixel colors directly to the controller (I’m preparing some sample code for that). For older games, the process is more manual. We capture the frames that the games send to the VMU, color them, and whenever the VMU calls for that frame, the controller swaps it.
It sounds crazy, but we already have a good list of games converted. Of course, coloring the whole Dreamcast library is almost impossible, but the main games will get full color support. Since the PCB has an SD card slot, new games can be added little by little over time.
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| Left: Dream Color Plus showing off a coloured-version of the Sonic Adventure 2 VMU graphic. Right: The Dream Color Plus PCB. |
Sounds great! So is swapping the stock Dreamcast controller board out for the Dream Color Plus easy?
Yes! The whole idea is for it to be plug and play. You just open the controller and replace the PCB. That’s actually why we didn’t make a version with a second analog stick (something people ask for a lot). If we can get a partner to make new shells in the future, then a dual-stick version would totally be possible.
That potential dual-stick mod is something the community would go crazy for, I'm certain. So, with the Dream Color Plus, as it is effectively a VMU built into the controller, how much storage for saving can we expect to see?
Right now we’ve got eight VMU pages by default, but that number can be changed with a config file on the SD card. The controller also comes with built-in rumble. You lose the external VMU slots, but the main features are all there.