Hardware Review: DCHDMI - The 1080p Dreamcast

Playing older games in higher resolutions than they were ever intended to be played in is all the rage these days. Be it through emulation, or via the relatively recent trend of the remaster, getting titles of yesteryear to play on modern display screens in the best possible quality is a prize many are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to attain.

The Dreamcast CD player in 1080p (960p bordered)

Here in our little corner of the gaming sphere, things are no different. There are some people who will never plug their Dreamcasts into anything but a CRT television through an RGB SCART connection. Others champion the clarity of a good old fashioned CRT computer monitor and a VGA box. And for those who simply don't have the space for the luxury of a proper old television or monitor, there's the HDMI passthrough boxes from Beharbros and Pound Technology.

The Akura and Gekko are both well built, high quality devices

The limitations of these HMDI boxes and cables are well documented, but for those with either limited space or on a budget, simply connecting a Dreamcast to a flat panel HD display and enjoying their favourite games in 480p is a perfectly acceptable and affordable way to continue gaming on Sega's old warhorse in the modern era.

Of course, what the Pound and Berharbros adapters do is simply take the VGA signal from the Dreamcast and spit it out through a HDMI cable. There's no upscaling at all, and the larger the screen, the poorer the image. It isn't really true high definition gaming, in all honesty. Things are about to change though, as a new contender has entered the ring: DCHDMI.

The DCHDMI board is an internal mod replete with an onboard FPGA

The DCHDMI is an internal board that is slotted into the Dreamcast shell, beneath the main board and is connected directly to the Dreamcast's GPU. What this means is that a digital signal is taken directly from from the GPU and is output in true HDMI through a mini HDMI port on the back of the console. The results are truly staggering, and as we'll see in this review, outside of emulation, the image quality and clarity afforded by the DCHDMI is leagues ahead of anything ever seen before from a Dreamcast console...

Hardware Review: Beharbros Gekko HDMI Box For Dreamcast

Gekko is the latest device from self-styled artisanal retro-modders Beharbros. It takes the baton from the earlier Akura and delivers a simple method for connecting a Dreamcast to a modern HD television. Featuring the hallmark high build quality and hand-made aesthetic of the rest of the Beharbros product lineup, the Gekko represents a more pocket-friendly solution that offers similar functionality at a budget price point.

The BBS Akura (left) and Gekko (right)

In terms of form factor, the Gekko is very similar to the earlier Akura HDMI adapter, but has several features stripped out, meaning that this is a pretty painless device to set up. As with all of the boxes and cables  in this category (see our reviews of both the BBS Akura and Pound HD Link), the Gekko simply takes the VGA output signal from the Dreamcast and converts it so that it can be fed through a standard HDMI connection and into your television or monitor.

As with the aforementioned devices, there is no upscaling; the VGA 480p picture is simply passed through the internal gubbins and projected onto your screen, and if you're using a huge 4K television, the image quality will be much worse than on a 22" HD television. If you really want to get the full benefits of a device like the Gekko (or any of the others on the market), then a dedicated upscaler is what you'll need. But then, this type of device probably isn't aimed at the gamers who inhabit that end of the spectrum. If you own a Framemeister, OSSC or other similar device, then you'll likely not need something like the Gekko as your current awesome set up probably won't really benefit from the inclusion of a VGA to HDMI pass through device.

That point aside, if you are in the market for something that will allow you to connect your Dreamcast to a modern flat screen display, then the Gekko could be right up your street; and not least because it offers an interesting extra function not seen in the recently released Pound HD Link. First though, let's take a look at the physical design of the Gekko...

A Beginner's Guide To Dreamcast A/V Cables

While we here at the Junkyard pore over the minutiae of Dreamcast collecting and the more obscure side of the console's paraphernalia, it has become increasingly apparent that the Dreamcast is attracting a whole new audience as intrigued gamers start collecting for the system. The Dreamcast has been undergoing something of a renaissance for a couple of years now, and as such we thought it was about time that we offered up some basic 'beginner's guides' to various aspects of the Dreamcast for those who aren't fully au fait with the many foibles of the hardware.

First up, we're going to look briefly at the various cables that will allow you to connect your Dreamcast to a tellybox or monitor doo-dah, and what the pros and cons are. As the name suggests, this really will be a quick reference guide, giving the bare minimum that you need to know if you're a bit clueless when it comes to cables and connections and don't know your SCART from your composite or your VGA from your RF. Hey - it's a minefield out there if you're new to the scene, but luckily old uncle Junkyard is here to guide you...like the blind leading the blind! Please remember that this is a beginner's guide and so I'm not really going to go into the science behind it all. I'll leave that to someone with far greater knowledge than I have.

OK, so the first thing to know is that there are a number of different cable variants for the Dreamcast and they all give a picture of varying quality and have differing connectors on the business end. The bit that goes into the Dreamcast's A/V port is pretty much identical though and it looks like this:

The underside of this connector does have a differing number of pins depending on the type, but physically at least, they look the same. The key thing to remember is that you shouldn't try to jab this end into your TV or monitor. If you do, at best you'll end up with a broken cable; at worst you'll end up electrocuting yourself and burning the house down. Probably. Right, on to the good stuff. There are 5 main connection types for the Dreamcast and these are they...

Hardware Review: Beharbros Akura HDMI Adapter

Beharbros have a pretty solid track record when it comes to releasing display adapters for the Dreamcast. In the past, the self-styled 'artisnal retromodders' have garnered critical acclaim with a range of hand made devices that continue to keep Dreamcasts turning and burning, regardless of how much display technology accelerates away from the natural abilities of the system. The Toro, Hanzo, Kuro, Kenzei and SLR boxes all have distinct features, and while they come at a premium, they all help Dreamcast gamers achieve optimal image quality, whatever their choice of display.

The Akura is Beharbros' latest release and while it retains the familiar aesthetic of the other boxes in the catalogue, it eschews SCART and VGA connections and instead offers an all in one option for gamers who want to hook their Dreamcast up to a HDMI-equipped display. Weighing in at $85 with free worldwide shipping, the Akura requires no external power supply and connects directly to the console's AV port, delivering a native 480p image via the use of an HDMI cable that goes directly from the box to the television or monitor.

Be aware though - the Akura is not an upscaler, it simply chucks out a 480p picture through a HDMI cable (more on this later), and a series of switches on the side of the device yield a number of interesting extra features. First though, before we delve into the more technical side of the Akura and whether this is the box for your needs, lets take a look at the physical design of Beharbros' latest adapter and just what those little switches on the side are all about...

Akura VGA To HDMI Box Coming Soon For Dreamcast

Getting the best picture from a Dreamcast has always been a point of discussion in the Dreamcast community. The Dreamcast's ability to output a VGA signal has long been viewed (no pun intended) as the best way to get a crisp and clean image, and I'm not one to argue with that - indeed, when using an old-skool CRT monitor in conjunction with a VGA cable or box, the image quality is positively stunning. Not everybody has the space for a hulking great VGA CRT monitor though, and as time goes by they are becoming harder to find. Not only this, but finding HD or 4K televisions that have a VGA port is becoming more difficult as the standard falls further into the realms of obsolescence.

The options for getting a decent image out of a Dreamcast (and other older gaming systems) are getting narrower with every passing generation and the move away from analogue to digital signals means gamers are coming up with ever more ingenious ways of using classic consoles with newer televisions and monitors. However, the path to achieving a fantastic image is littered with pitfalls - I know first hand from my own recent experiences with VGA to HDMI signal converters just how frustrating it can be.

It appears that creators of the Toro, Kuro and Hanzo range of signal converters Beharbros feel the same way, and have recently unveiled the Akura VGA to HDMI converter for the Dreamcast.

Guest Article: Future Proofing Your Dreamcast

In the second of a series of guest articles from our man in Japan Ross O'Reilly, we'll be looking at how you can pimp your Dreamcast to within an inch of it's life and enjoy most (well, some) of the lovely features a modern games system benefits from. HD output, bountiful storage and online capabilities are all things we take for granted these days and with a bit of knowledge and a fat wallet you can enjoy the same with a Dreamcast right now. Let it be known that I have neither of the aforementioned. Ross, over to you.

So, you want the so called 'Dreamcast 2' (don't get me started on that!), you want a HD Dreamcast, right? You want the ability to play Dreamcast games online? Download DC software and run it on original hardware? Play with a wireless DC controller?

Well, what if I were to tell you that all of those features are available to you right now, today.
Yes, I apologise if I sound patronising to those of you who are regular readers and keep up with Dreamcast developments, but I'm here to tell you anyway, that all of those features and more are available to you already...just so long as you have deep enough pockets to shell out on the numerous devices required.

Let's start from the top...

Unconventional Ramblings

I went to Comic Con at the weekend. It was the first time I've actually been aware of such an event happening in my immediate vicinity, so naturally I jumped at the chance to attend...and I have to admit that it was a bit of a mixed bag. I don't really know what exactly I was expecting, but I'd seen various photos and tweets over the years about Comic Con events happening in other parts of the world so I was curious...but I wasn't as blown away as I thought I would be. Don't get me wrong - from the moment I arrived at the venue I was massively impressed by the number of other attendees who had put some fantastic amounts of effort into dressing up as characters from various comics, anime and games...but the actual event itself felt like little more than a massive table top sale where traders got to peddle their wares to the game and comic-loving public at inflated prices. I did see the guy who played Vaas Montenegro in Far Cry 3, and I also purchased this rather excellent squashy, handmade monitor from Sonic (which goes quite nicely with the early 90s plush toys that I have)...but I can't help but admit that I was a little underwhelmed by the whole experience.

Beats watching Big Brother I suppose

Maybe Play Expo in October will be more up my street, as I'm definitely more of a retrogaming nut than a comic reader. That being said, I still have to give kudos to all the guys and gals who dressed up in some frankly awesome cosplay outfits.

Moving back towards something vaguely related to the Dreamcast, last weekend I managed to pick up a used Nintendo Gamecube at a boot sale for a mere £5. What's that got to do with Dreamcasting? Well, I also got a copy of Wave Race Blue Storm...and what a lovely little game it is too. This got me thinking about the Dreamcast's only entry in the jet-ski racing genre, Surf Rocket Racers. So I knocked up a little comparison video:



I fully appreciate that Wave Race is a much better looking game than Surf Rocket Racers, and they both came out in the same year (which just demonstrates the technical gulf between the 'Cast and 'Cube)...but if you take out the water effects, Wave Race doesn't look that much better than SRR...right?! I mean, just look at the character models and the jet-skis themselves, and also the trackside details and you wouldn't really think that SRR is running on hardware that is vastly inferior to Nintendo's newer Gamecube. OK, this video doesn't really do much to fight the Dreamcast's corner, but I thought it'd be interesting to see how well our favourite Sega platform holds up against the last 'proper' Nintendo machine!

I finally got my hands on an S-VHS cable for my Dreamcast last week, and I'm very impressed with the image it kicks out on my CRT television. I do have a VGA box too, but both of the LCD televisions I have still give a fairly crappy image when I use the VGA adaptor (I'm guessing a contemporary CRT computer monitor would be the best thing to use with it). In the absence of such a display device in my abode, the S-VHS is probably the best option right now, and it has the added bonus of being compatible with all of the games I have in my collection. I did receive an email from a reader called Henrique regarding a Dreamcast VGA and Scanline Generator (thanks Henrique!), but as I haven't got one I can't really vouch for the quality of the thing. Reading the posts on that forum though, it seems pretty clear that the device is pretty nifty, so maybe I'll look into acquiring one in the future.

To wrap up this spectacularly random DCJY post, here's another short(ish) Youtube video I uploaded the other day. It's just a little bit of footage from an odd version of Doom I have on a CD-R I probably mentioned ages ago: Doom Classic Collection. It's Doom 2, but with the weapon and enemy artwork from Doom64 grafted in, and the file is simply called 'Requiem.' Enjoy.

HD-Cast

Just a few days ago, I was a wreck. A gibbering, sweating, puss-filled mess. And for once, it wasn't down to smashing in too many cans of Special Brew down the park and shouting at pigeons. No, it was down to the state of my eyes and contrary to what some may say, It had nothing to do with the Gok Wan-style goggles the cretin at Specsavers duped me into buying (left).

You see, several months ago I invested in a quite lovely Argos own brand HD-ready LCD telly. And you know what? It's sublime. Not only can I watch infinite Freeview repeats of Top Gear and Montel Williams in pupil-eroding clarity, but I can also romp through the Galaxy as Commander Shepherd in Mass Effect in the truly magnificent Xbox 360 hi-def. There was a problem though. Playing a Dreamcast on my new telly was something of a nightmare simply because the SCART signal gave such a crappy picture.

Take this guy:

and rub this into his eyes/hands:

And you have some idea of what I had to contend with when I wanted to play on my DC.

NOT SO ANYMORE, PEEPS! After moaning about this subject in my last post, the honourable Gagaman pointed me here. Behold the majesty of Racketboy.com! A magical place that offers DC VGA cables for under twenty quid - INCLUDING postage! All the way from The New World!

I seem to remember The Gagaman preaching about his experiences with a VGA cable some time in the distant past, but it's taken till now for me to have a reason to actually buy one, and boy, am I glad I did. Plugging the DC into a VGA compatible display opens up a whole new world of visual delight - everything becomes super-sharp and the Awesome Levels(TM) go through the roof! Granted, there are a few games that don't support this (mile) high-res display mode (most disappointingly is Hydro Thunder), but you have to take the rough with the smooth, I suppose.

Click here for a game compatibility list.

So, to reiterate, the crux of the matter is this: if you own a Dreamcast and a PC - which I'm guessing you do if you're reading this, click here. Get your debit card out and buy a goddamn cable! You'll be glad you did.

One thing I really must point out though, is that the VGA cable's connection is a 'female.' If your monitor also has a female connector, you'll need to invest in a male to male VGA adapter, like I did.

Recession? What you talkin' bout, Willis?

'Sup. Seeing as it's been about 9 millenia since I last ejaculated anything of note onto these hallowed pages, I thought it was about time I got back into the swing of things with a post of sorts. I have however, in my absence, been a regular visitor to the 'Yard and have been quite entertained by the exploits of the rest of the team over the past few weeks and months. Kudos where it's due.

So what's been happening then? Well, there's this 'credit crunch' thing going on at the moment. To be quite honest, if it wasn't for BBC News presenters constantly banging on in their painfully middle class accents about the ECONOMIC CRISIS gripping the ENTIRE MEGAVERSE, I'd be none the wiser to it's apparent existence. How so? Simple: I, like many other proletariat, live within my means, don't go fox hunting and don't take my obese kids to boarding school in a Range Rover. So, you see - for the normal person, everything is as it ever was: expensive. For the rich...well: WELCOME TO OUR WORLD, BITCHES! YEEHAW!!!

There is a point to my rambling on about this Bantha shit though - the price of Netto beans may have gone up by a solar system-shattering 1.5% in the last month (which has hit me hard, regardless of the contents of the last paragraph); but the meagre price of a Dreamcast game has remained constant, even in the light of Wall Street crumbling to the ground and the FTSE melting down into the sub-components of a Pot Noodle.

Want evidence, my Lord? Then wrap your festering eye sockets around this little lot:

Virtua Atlete 2K - eBay price: A QUID!

Never been much of a fan of athletics games. They're always the same - basically you have to either tap buttons so fast that your fingers seize like a Montego engine in winter; or you have to rotate the analogue stick until it buries itself into your palm and draws blood (something that actually happened to a friend of mine). Virtua Athlete 2K is no different. It's basically an unofficial take on the Olympics and involves you participating in a number of events such as running, running and jumping, throwing stuff and, well not much else.

The number of events is pretty small and there's no swimming, fencing or shooting involved. Granted, those aren't really athletics per se but with such a crappy roster of events (7, with a few unlockable ones) you'd have thought Sega would involve them just for the sake of longevity. Graphically, Athlete is fairly good looking. It's not Anna Faris good looking, but it's decent enough. For a quid, I'm not going to berate Virtua Athlete 2K too much but if I'd paid 40 notes for this back in the day I probably would've taken it back to the shop and projectile vomited bile into the face of the twat who allowed me to purchase it.

Resident Evil 2 - eBay price: £2.40

I recently ventured into a branch of Gamestation and was astounded to find that they had a handful of Dreamcast games hidden in one of those glass cabinets that they unusually preserve for the display of broken and/or stolen iPods. One of those games was Resident Evil 2, and they were asking £24.99 for it. TWENTY FIVE QUID! As much as I love the DC, there's not a chance in hell that I would even entertain the notion of paying that much for ANY DC title. Not even a white label disc that contained fully working versions of Picassio, Take the Bullet and Scud Race. Actually, I probably would pay 25 nicker for that, but Resi 2? Pfft.

But why was it so expensive? Is the DC version that much of an improvement over the original PSX game that it warrants such an incredible price point? The answer is a resounding no. It's basically the same game, albeit with higher resolution backgrounds and a new random item mode, plus a few extra bonus modes that were only available in the original after you'd completed the game. Everyone and their mum has played Resi 2 before so there's not much point in me going into the story in any great depth, but it's basically a survival horror set in Raccoon City, you can play as either Leon or Claire and you've got to shoot zombies...yada yada yada. On the plus side, the VM helpfully lets you know how much health you've got left...but this feature is made redundant if you're using one of those cheapo-nasty third party VMs with no screen. To put it bluntly, if you've ever sampled any version of Resi 2 before (excluding the pathetic Game.com version), you've played the DC version. But if you ain't - it's a classic; and at £2.40 it was a steal, too.

Razor Freestyle Scooter - eBay price: yep, another quid!

I seem to recall that at the very end of my last post I promised a review of Razor Freestyle Scooter. It's taken until now to do it because I simply couldn't be bothered. But here it is! Another entrant into the "I only paid a pound for it" Hall of Fame (Shame?), Razor is a sort of Tony Hawk style game, only with the 'coolness' associated with sk8r bois/MTV rejects ripped out and replaced with those hideous little folding scooter things that feral youths just love to ride along pavements up and down the country. They're also extremely useful as getaway vehicles after mugging old women for their pension money...erm...apparently. Cough. But back to Razor Freestyle Scooter.

Like I said, it's a Tony Hawk clone with frankly superb graphics...but only 3 - yes THREE! - stages. Oh, and a rather strange back story that involves a robotic paedophile who steals kids and takes them to his magic castle for a thorough seeing to (I would imagine). Dodgy storylines aside, Razor is a fairly enjoyable game for the time it lasts - all there is to it is riding your scooter around the various (3) stages doing tricks and collecting scooter wheels. It's clearly another one of those infamous kiddie games and it's predictably easy peasy lemon (muthafuckin') squeezy, but if you have a four-year-old who loves scooters AND has a penchant for rare Dreamcast games...by all means make Razor Freestyle Scooter your next purchase.

Moving away from my most recent purchases, I was toying with the idea of finally taking the plunge and buying a Dreamcast VGA cable. Y'see, I bought a fucking amazing HDTV a few months back and whilst it displays my Xbox 360 games in glorious 1080i HD-O-Vision(TM), when I plug my faithful ol' DC into it via SCART, it looks like someone has smeared a tub of beef dripping across the screen. I then, in my infinate wisdom, went and got an S-VHS cable off Amazon...only to find that it doesn't FUCKING work. So basically what I'm saying is: Can anyone out there in the ether tell me where to get a reasonably priced VGA box/cable from? Cheers, me dears.

Finally, I'd just like to congratulate Sega on their awesome homage to all things Dreamcast: Sega Superstars Tennis. Got it on 360 yesterday for a tenner...and it's simply brilliant.

That is all.