dreamcast lcd screen free sample

Crazy cool thing I just discovered: The LCD TV has a Picture-in-Picture feature, so if I was to plug to Dreamcast"s into the TV via different types of connection (Aerial and RGB, or something). could play two games at the same time! Even better, get out two copies of the same game, and compete against each other to see who can beat it first! I had a go at playing Sonic 1 with a Mega Drive and a Saturn at the same time and struggled on my own, but once a mate comes over..

As for your "grey box" with composite in (yellow cable) and VGA out, that"s not a DC VGA box. That"s a composite to VGA converter. And those suck, which is why you aren"t getting a good result. Get an official or officially licensed VGA cable or box made for Dreamcast (and only Dreamcast). You"ll see a huge difference.

That"s another thing: the article keeps mentioning the VGA box as a "converter". VGA boxes for DC (officially licensed for Dreamcast) don"t "convert" the signal. The DC outputs VGA natively. All the box or cable (there"s a VGA cable as well for DC that plugs directly into the console, so no need for a box) is carry that signal. Again, the DC outputs that signal on its own.

If you take A DAMN SECOND TO LOOK AT THE PICTURE...you will see that the VGA box IS directly hooked up to the Dreamcast. You can switch outputs on the box from VGA and Composite for games that don"t work with VGA.

If it was just a composite converter like you say the VGA box wouldn"t be hooked up directly to the Dreamcast. The composite would go from the Dreamcast into the VGA box Not Directly out of the VGA bo TO composite and VGA

I bought a VGA Cable for my Dreamcast to hook up to my 19inch LCD. And as i thought the picture looks horrible! LCD"s look crap if there not run in there native res. Luckily i have an old CRT so i used that instead and the picture quality is Amazing!

I guess you need an LCD TV for it to upscale from 480p? I"ve looked at all my Monitors options and there is no "Game Mode" or anything along those lines to upscale.

I got a VGA box but it doesn’t work with my LCD so I"m looking into a VGA to HDMI scalar. Anyone tried the lkv351? Comparison pictures of these also would be really handy to see how the Dreamcast looks scaled to 720p!

Well, another whole year has come and gone, and we"re all a little older and a little wiser. All a little bit more wrinkly and decrepit. All a bit more wizened and broken. All a bit more...I think you get the idea. Anyway, as has become something of a custom here at The Dreamcast Junkyard, we thought it would be totally radical (dude) to round up the majority of the content we"ve posted here over the last 12 months; so you don"t have to navigate the archive using that unweildy little sidebar thing.

Dreamcast translation projects - The Dreamcast English translation scene appears to be going from strength to strength, and so our resident translations specialist Lewis brought us news on projects involving such NTSC-J titles as Radirgy, Chaos Field, Panzer Front, Puyo Puyo~n, Cool Cool Toon and RUN=DIM as Black Soul.

Dee Dee Planet playable online - Dee Dee Planet was a pseudo sequel to ChuChu Rocket! that would offer online gaming to Dreamcast owners. Sadly, it was never released. That was until the Dreamcast community got hold of it, released it and added online functionality in 2022. Most impressive.

Driving Strikers - Jaz tracked down and chatted with Luke "Kazade" Benstead to discuss the concept behind the upcoming online-enabled Rocket League style title for Dreamcast, Driving Strikers.

If you"re a regular listener to our podcast, then you"ll know that we occasionally have special guests on the show to discuss their own history with the Dreamcast. Below are some of the highlights from the past year, however all of our regular "news" episodes can also be found at Buzzsprout here.

In Jörg Tittel, who previously wrote for the Official US Dreamcast Magazine. In this wide ranging chat, Jorg discussed how he got involved in writing for the magazine, and how his friendship with the late Shinya Nishigaki resulted in a cameo appearance in Illbleed.

DreamPod 106 saw us welcome WAVE Game Studios" Daniel Crocker and SEGA Powered editor Dean Mortlock. In this episode we chatted about how WAVE Game Studios was formed and how they have taken the Dreamcast scene by storm; and we also discussed Dean"s history in magazine publishing, from his time at SEGA Power through to his latest venture SEGA Powered.

Dreamcast Years, it also marked the very last episode of the DCY Podcast (well, unless you backed the physical minidisc release of the actual final, final episode as part of the Dreamcast: Year Two book).

Our guests for The SEGAGuys. In this episode, we chatted about Dan and James" entry into the world of Sega, their own podcast and YouTube channel, hypothetical Dreamcast sequels and of course there was a Sega-themed quiz.

In DreamPod 112 we were lucky enough to be joined by former SEGA Europe marketing director Giles Thomas, who spoke to us about how he was handed the task of launching the Dreamcast in Europe. From his time at MTV and VH1 music channels to joining Sega and overseeing the marketing campaign across the continent, Giles offered us a goldmine of interesting tales from the early days of the Dreamcast.

Naturally, we can"t predict the future. However what we can do is commit to continuing the same level of slightly obsessive coverage of any and all noteworthy Dreamcast related news happenings, and a steady stream of new podcast episodes, news, reviews and features over the next 12 months. Everything we produce here is done purely for a love of the topic, none of us do this as a regular job - we are simply a rag tag band of hobbyists (if that"s the right term). If you"d like to support us though, you can do so by visiting our "Buy me a Coffee" page here.

You can also continue to follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook group, join our Discord, subscribe on YouTube or simply leave us a nice (or horrible) review over on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you may get your podcasts). It all helps and is hugely appreciated. Here"s to another great year of Dreamcast related goodness.

A homebrew software suite for video game consoles developed to help in the evaluation of capture cards, upscalers, upscan converters, line doublers and of course TV processing of 240p video and scaled signals. The Wii, Dreamcast and GameCube versions have modes for 480i, 288p, 576i and 480p evaluation as well.

Current platforms are: Sega Genesis (Mega Drive), Sega CD (Mega CD), Sega Dreamcast, PC Engine/Turbografx-16, Super Nintendo/Super Famicom (SNES/SFC),

The 240p test suite itch.io page has binaries for the Genesis/MegaDrive, Sega/Mega CD, 32x, PCE/TG-16/PCE Duo/SCD, SNES/SFC, GameCube, Wii and Sega Dreamcast versions.

A grid which borrows its basic pattern from the CPS-2 grid. It is used to determine linearity on CRTs, but is presented here in order to align the screen and find out overscan on the display. It uses the full resolution of the target console, with a margin of red squares for the corners.

As the name implies, the screen is filled with solid white. The user can change the fill color cycling between white, black, red, green and blue. This pattern can be changed to a custom color by pressing the A button while in the white screen, and selecting the desired RGB values.

Pressing A while displaying the black screen and in NTSC modes will toggle between 7.5 IRE and the 0 IRE below black levels in all versions but the Genesis one.

The fully black screen might cause some displays or upscan converters to stop recognizing the signal, which is a common (and undesirable) condition during gameplay.

The user can toggle the frame used to draw the shadow with the A button on the Genesis or the X button on the Dreamcast. Backgrounds can be switched with the A button and the B button toggles sprites.

The main intention is to show a changing pattern on the screen, and given a visual and repetitive cue, play a beep alternating speakers. This can help you notice how you react to any lag (if present) when processing the signal. It must be stated that this is not a lag test.

As an added feature, the user can click the A button when the sprite is aligned with the one on the background, and the offset in frames form the actual intersection will be shown on screen. This can be repeated ten times and the software will calculate the average. Whenever the button was pressed before the actual intersection frame, the result will be ignored (but still shown onscreen).

The C button on the Genesis and the X button on the Dreamcast can be used to turn off the audio cue. In the case of the Dreamcast, if a Purupuru (Jump pack) is found, it will be used as well.

A pattern consisting of a full screen of horizontal black and white stripes, one pixel tall each. This is a taxing pattern, specially when pressing the A button which enables alternating each frame the color of the lines. A good 240p video processor should show all frames. On several displays we"ve observed that the screen stays static on the first pattern displayed on screen and no change is shown. For this a Frame counter is present, which can be enabled with the C button on Genesis or the X button on Dreamcast.

This test is designed to evaluate how a display deals with dark scenes. A single sprite of variable size can be controlled by the user on top of a completely black background. The dimming zones can be easily spotted while doing this and the rest of the screen should - in theory - remain off. The sprite can be hidden with "Y" (Dreamcast) or "C" (Genesis), and the sprite size can be changed with "A" and "B".

The Sega Dreamcast version includes more options, but the core functionality for 240p is the same. No special hardware or modifications are needed, it will run on any MIL-CD compatible Dreamcast after burning the CDI image (discjuggler format). It uses the KallistiOS as framework and SDK.

480i scaled 240p assets (NTSC): This is 640x480i at 60hz, but using all the resources at 320x240 using internal line doubling. Useful for testing for this case which is present in many Dreamcast and PS2 games. Also known as "Fake hi-res"

480i mixed 480p/240p assets (1:1/NTSC): It is 640x480i at 60hz as well, however some graphics are unscaled and shown only on the upper left corner of the screen (the first 320x240 pixels). Since there is a 1 to 1 pixel ratio as in 240p, tests can be performed for 480i de-interlacers and scalers. Some test are shown in full 480i, such as the grid and scroll.

576i 480/240p assets (1:1/PAL): It is 576i at 50hz as well, however some graphics are unscaled and shown only on the upper left corner of the screen (the first 320x240 pixels). Since there is a 1 to 1 pixel ratio as in 240p, tests can be performed for 480i de-interlacers and scalers. Some test are shown in 480 resolution, such as the grid and scroll.

PAL modes must be enabled from the Options menu and are only available in "European Flash ROM" Dreamcasts since other regions output a corrupt PAL signal.

The Dreamcast resolution is full 320x240 when in that mode and using the PowerVR (PVR) version (however the lowest pixel is not visible in most modes), there is a previous SDL version that runs on 320x234 mode, but the small framework was rewritten to use the PVR chip on the Dreamcast directly with a great advantage in speed for frame alternating patterns. However the SDL version is kept - but no longer maintained - for documentation purposes along with its source code.

The Wii version - just as the Dreamcast one - includes more options, but the core functionality for 240p is the same. No special hardware is needed, but your Wii system must be able to run homebrew. It uses the devKitPPC as framework and SDK, via pure GX calls.

480i scaled 240p assets (NTSC): This is 640x480i at 60hz, but using all the resources at 320x240 using internal line doubling. Useful for testing for this case which is present in many Dreamcast and PS2 games. Also known as "Fake hi-res"

480i mixed 480p/240p assets (1:1/NTSC): It is 640x480i at 60hz as well, however some graphics are unscaled and shown only on the upper left corner of the screen (the first 320x240 pixels). Since there is a 1 to 1 pixel ratio as in 240p, tests can be performed for 480i de-interlacers and scalers. Some test are shown in full 480i, such as the grid and scroll.

576i 480/240p assets (1:1/PAL): It is 576i at 50hz as well, however some graphics are unscaled and shown only on the upper left corner of the screen (the first 320x240 pixels). Since there is a 1 to 1 pixel ratio as in 240p, tests can be performed for 480i de-interlacers and scalers. Some test are shown in 528 resolution, such as the grid and scroll.

Damian Yerrick also created versions of the suite for Game Boy and Game Boy Advance. These are called "144p Test Suite" and "160p Test Suite" respectively because these handhelds" LCD video signals use a horizontal scan significantly slower than the 15.7 kHz of 240p video. These can be used with the Super Game Boy accessory for Super NES or the Game Boy Player accessory for GameCube, which themselves introduce scaler quirks.

These versions extend the "100 IRE" test to "Motion blur", which flickers between two shades of gray at a user-specified rate. This test highlights slow response, STN smearing, and row inversion artifacts of LCDs.

The Visual Memory Unit (VMU), also referred to as the Visual Memory System(ビジュアルメモリ, Bijuaru Memori) (VMS) in Japan and Europe, is the primary memory card produced by Sega for the Dreamcast home video game console. The device features a monochrome liquid crystal display (LCD), multiplayer gaming capability (via connectors at the top), second screen functionality, a real-time clock, file manager, built-in flash memory, and sound capability. Prior to the launch of the Dreamcast, a special Godzilla edition VMU, preloaded with a virtual pet game, was released on July 30, 1998, in Japan.

While its most basic function is as a removable storage device, the VMU may also serve as an auxiliary display during normal gameplay and, through the use of additional software (distributed as extras on Dreamcast GD-ROMs), acts as a handheld game console. Console-like features of the VMU include a screen, speaker, proper directional pad, four action buttons, the ability to connect and interact with other VMUs, and the ability to download additional games. While the standard VMU is white, colors were expanded to include many variations. Japan even saw the release of branded VMUs, such as those by Sonic Team, Capcom and Hello Kitty.

VMUs attach through either of two slots on the controller; the screen of the VMU attached in the front slot is visible through a window on the controller.

For use as a memory card and second screen, the VMU is plugged directly into one of two slots on a Dreamcast controller (up to two VMUs may be plugged in each controller, and eight VMUs per Dreamcast console).

Upon initial use, the player is prompted to set the date and time, and then select from a group of bitmap images to serve as the default background for the VMU (various Dreamcast titles may offer players additional background images for the unit). This image is displayed while the Dreamcast console is in the operating system menu.

When operated independently of the Dreamcast console, the VMU acts as a file manager, clock/calendar (with selectable clock animations), and handheld game console. VMUs may also connect to each other directly to facilitate file transfer or multiplayer gaming.

The VMU runs on two CR-2032 lithium batteries which are inserted into the rear of the VMU under a screw-secured lid. Without battery power, the VMU still functions as a memory card and auxiliary display, but cannot play downloaded mini-games. Additionally, a VMU without battery power will beep when the Dreamcast is powered on (if the VMU is inserted into a connected Dreamcast controller).

Several titles for the Dreamcast include mini-games that can be downloaded onto a VMU. The Chao Adventure mini-games (Chao Adventure and Chao Adventure 2 which features more activities and items). In the games, players can transfer Chao eggs to the VMU and partake in various activities to increase the stats of their hatched Chao, whereupon they can upload their improved Chao back into the Dreamcast game. Pocket GT, a top-down racer in the style of the 8-bit

Multiple Dreamcast memory cards with no VMU features have been released. The cards therefore omit a display screen, input buttons, speaker and built-in clock. Some have the same 128 KB storage as the VMU, equivalent to 200 blocks, while others have multiple "pages" with each acting as a 128 KB memory card. In the latter case, a button or switch allows the gamer to select the desired memory card. This is due to the Dreamcast having a limit of 128 KB per individual memory card.

The 4x Memory Card did not make it to retail in Europe, despite a planned release (along with the Dreamcast Broadband Adapter which was also unreleased in Europe) due to the Dreamcast"s unforeseeably short lifespan – although unofficial third party 4x Memory Cards were released in Europe.

The Nexus Memory Card is a third party version of the Visual Memory Unit that features four times the memory of a stock VMU with 800 blocks (4 megabit / 512 kilobytes) but lacks an LCD screen. The card is divided into 4 pages each with 200 blocks, each page can be selected using a button on the top left of the card.personal computer by USB, Parallel or Serial cable. A 3200 block (16 megabit / 2 megabytes) version of the Nexus is also available, but this model has been known to be unstable.

Nyko released two memory cards for the Dreamcast: the Jumbo Memory Pak X2 with twice the storage as a VMU, and the Hyperpak with four times the storage. The Hyperpak could also act as a Jump Pak by setting its switch to rumble mode.

It’s a shame, because the Dreamcast was miles ahead of its time: not just figuratively, but literally. Releasing in 1998 in Japan (and 1999 in the west), Sega’s console was the first of its generation by a clear year and a half (PS2 came in 2000, followed by Xbox and GameCube in 2001).

It wasn’t just a looker, though. The Dreamcast also had features that no other console did, like a built in 33.3kbps dial-up modem at a time when online gaming was the sole domain of rich people with big PC rigs.

As for the games, Sega was riding high in the arcades with numerous brilliant coin-op titles, and the powerful Dreamcast quickly became the home of countless arcade-perfect home ports, all exclusive to Sega’s console.

As a result, Sega officially discontinued the Dreamcast in March 2001, a mere 18 months after it had launched in the west, with 10.1 million hardware sales under its belt (even the famously ‘doomed’ GameCube shifted double that in its lifetime).

The Dreamcast was the final nail in a hardware coffin made up of recycled Mega CD, 32X and Saturn packaging, and Sega announced it was no longer making hardware.

I can happily state I bought (and continue to own) one of those 10.1 million Dreamcasts, and still play it regularly to this day, such was the timeless quality of many of Sega’s arcade ports.

You can find Dreamcasts fairly cheaply on eBay and the like so if you fancy catching up on a system with one of the greatest ‘good game – bad game’ ratios of all time, here are the 30 games I adored most of all and recommend above all else.

This list is in alphabetical order. Much like it’s pretty pointless deciding whether a game’s getting a score of 72% or 73%, it doesn’t really matter if Jet Set Radio is my 8th or 9th favourite Dreamcast game. Everything in this list was deemed good enough to make the cut, so I recommend them all with similar enthusiasm.

The Dreamcast was famously easy to play import games on. Simply download and burn a boot disc ISO from the dodgy website of your choice, load it on the Dreamcast then swap discs when you’re prompted. Hey presto, American and Japanese games on your UK Dreamcast.

Also – and I’m not going to get into detail here – the Dreamcast is also infamous for having the worst copy protection in console history. Sega assumed its proprietary GD-ROMs (special CDs that held around a gigabyte instead of the usual 700MB) would make it difficult to pirate but that ended up being a massive mistake. As a result – and again, you’ll need to look up the details yourself – these days there’s a procedure that allows practically any Dreamcast game to be burned to a standard CD-ROM and played on an unmodified console with ease.

Why it was chosen: The great thing about the Dreamcast was that most of Sega’s arcade output at the time ended up on its console before any other (or indeed at all in many cases).

As a result, Crazy Taxi was a Dreamcast exclusive for a while, giving the system a genuinely brilliant arcade racer that actually had a surprising amount of depth.

It was also well loved for its soundtrack, which fit the game like a glove. Despite only consisting of two Offspring songs and two Bad Religion ones, anyone who had a Dreamcast still spontaneously thinks “YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH” as soon as they think about Crazy Taxi.

Why it was chosen: THQ released three Evil Dead games throughout the early 2000s, but while the more action-focused A Fistful Of Boomstick and Regeneration were widely regarded to be better, I always preferred this first offering. Besides, it’s the only one that was on Dreamcast.

Sadly, the Dreamcast version didn’t feature the amazing three-screen mode seen in the arcade version (which stuck three TVs side-by-side to expand your viewpoint), but an extra five courses – including the Nurburgring and Laguna Seca – were added as compensation.

This Dreamcast version features an insane 220 wrestlers from 16 organisations around the world (including unofficial WWF and WCW fighters) and includes such features as barbed wire deathmatches, exploding cage matches and up to eight wrestlers on-screen at the same time.

Why it was chosen: Ikaruga is your typical Japanese bullet hell game in which the screen fills with bullets and the aim is as much to dodge between the gaps as it is to destroy your enemies.

Why it was chosen: Before it started working on racing games for Microsoft, developer Bizarre Creations first busted out this fantastic Dreamcast exclusive.

This isn’t a new phenomenon, though. The NBA 2K series has been consistently fantastic ever since… well, the year 2K, and the three offerings on Dreamcast easily outshined their PS2 equivalents on a visual level.

Even better for Dreamcast owners, they were exclusive to Sega’s console. That’s because the 2K series actually originally belonged to Sega before Take-Two Interactive bought it in 2005 and created the 2K Sports label.

Why it was chosen: One of the reasons the Dreamcast was before its time was it was introducing daft oversized plastic controllers long before we had Guitar Hero, Rock Band drums and the Wii Zapper.

At a time before motion-sensing became the sort of thing gaming snobs turned up their noses at, some of those same snobs were gleefully shaking their Dreamcast maracas about like goons to the likes of Livin’ La Vida Loca and the Macarena.

So, here are 15 more Dreamcast games that I don’t quite recommend as highly as the other 30 (otherwise they’d be in there), but would still gladly defend to the death, even if I had to punch a baby holding a flick-knife in order to protect them.

Shooter experts Treasure first released 10,000 copies of this little beauty on Nintendo 64 before porting it to Dreamcast. Pretty rare to find but a great risk/reward shooter, in which the size of your special attack depends on how many enemy bullets are on-screen.

The Dreamcast’s short lifespan meant this was the only Virtua Fighter game released for it. The ‘tb’ bit stands for Team Battle and not, as you may have hoped, a special mode in which all the fighters try to infect their opponents with tuberculosis.

CRTs can be abundant if you have good places in your local community to look, but they are getting trickier to track down each passing year. And while nothing’s stopping you from using a modern LCD for retro gaming, you may want to track down a square-shaped LCD (mostly 4:3 aspect ratio) so your classic content seems a bit more “at home” — avoiding those black bars.

So whether you’re looking for a cheap 4:3 LCD to use with your MiSTER FPGA setup, have a classic personal computer, or just want something for watching “full screen” video content or a emulation box to run on, I’m hoping this guide is helpful in your shopping.

Granted LCDs, especially older models, aren’t ideal for retro gaming compared to CRTs. LCDs often down’t have as deep of black colors and there is input lag involved among some other issues.

However, LCDs are easier to move around and store and use less electricity. And even though there are many die-hard CRT fans out there, there are also many long-time retro fans that have been using the recommended monitors below for a while and been happy with their performance. I’ve even quoted and handful of enthusiasts to give you a good perspective on these recommendations. And don’t forget, eventually LCDs might be much easier to find and purchase remotely then the CRTs counterparts.

Early LCD monitors may show a lack of technical maturity, however, near some of the later ones that we are focusing on have some decent IPS technology with reasonable color and response times.

In the end, I thought this would be a fun, lighthearted look at some options for those that are interested. If you have any commentary on the matter, please share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section below. Just be respectful — not looking for CRT vs LCD wars