00:00In the fall of 1999 Sega of America's
newly appointed CEO Peter
00:04Moore and myself
shared the same side of a bet
00:07going into the busiest shopping
season of the year.
00:10And fresh off
the commercial failure of the Sega Saturn
00:13the entire Sega corporation
bet big on the launch of the Dreamcast.
00:18Likewise, I did too well.
00:20While my friends were saving for GameCubes and PS2s.
00:23I decided to bet nearly 100% of my net
worth on the Dreamcast,
00:27and it was glorious.
00:30The graphics. Sonic
the Hedgehog in full 3D.
00:33The controller with a weird screen in it.
00:35That's also kind of a game boy.
00:37Even Bill Gates gave it the old thumbs up.
00:39Alas, it wasn't meant to be hampered
by poor sales and a shaky launch.
00:44The Dreamcast was all but dead
by the end of the year 2000, and shortly
00:48after that Sega announced that they just
00:50weren't
even going to make hardware anymore,
00:52making this console
the last breaths of a dying era.
00:56Which is a shame
because this is actually a great system
01:00with some really cool games on it.
01:01The problem is it's starting to show
its age and it's getting harder to enjoy.
01:06So today
we're going to take this Sega Dreamcast
01:09and modernize it for 2024.
01:13Sourcing the right Dreamcast was a key
part of this project.
01:16This is a Dreamcast version one,
01:18which counterintuitively is
actually the second hardware revision.
01:22These are the easiest to modify
01:24and many mods will only work
with this version of the hardware.
01:27Once I had the system disassembled,
I started stripping away
01:30all the parts that we aren't going
to need anymore.
01:32Like the fan,
the PSU, and yes, even the disc drive.
01:36But don't worry, I've got some really fun
stuff to replace them with.
01:41The only thing that
we're going to be removing permanently
01:43is the network adapter.
01:45Since realistically, I know that
I won't be playing this thing online.
01:49However, it is still possible
01:51to play the Dreamcast online in 2024,
which is kind of cool.
01:56At its heart,
the Dreamcast is actually a remarkably
01:59small console,
which I plan on taking advantage of later.
02:02But first, I still had some work to do
02:05removing the integrated RF Shield and heat
02:07spreader presented our first opportunity
to upgrade that system.
02:11I removed the original, tried out thermal
pads, thoroughly, cleaned the motherboard
02:15with isopropyl alcohol
and then took a second to admire
02:18the hardware that had generated
so many childhood memories.
02:22Then I cut some high performance
replacement thermal packs.
02:25These will keep the chips cooler and
ensure that they live a nice long life.
02:30But that wasn't enough for me.
02:32it was time to replace the stock fan
with a higher performance fan from Noctua.
02:37It's bigger so it'll move more air while
simultaneously generating less noise.
02:41It's your classic win win scenario.
02:44Unfortunately, installing
it was going to be a bit of a challenge.
02:47just splice all the factory connector
and then plug it into the Dreamcast.
02:51If you do, the system
won't properly detect the fans RPMs
02:55and will shut itself down after 10 seconds
or so to keep itself from overheating.
02:59So in order to prevent that,
you also have to solder a 10K
03:02resistor between the positive wire
and this yellow wire
03:05that reports
the RPMs back to the Dreamcast.
03:08So now that we've got the fan upgraded,
our next mod is also going to dovetail
03:13into this theme of making the system
run cooler,
03:15but it's also going to make the Dreamcast
more convenient to use.
03:18This is the stock PSU from the Dreamcast,
and as you can see, it's quite large.
03:23Its prone to failing with age
and it also dumps a ton of heat
03:27inside the Dreamcast as it converts
AC to DC power.
03:30It's also not really compatible
with some of the other ones
03:34that we're going to be doing later.
03:35So yeah, we're going to say goodbye
to that tonight.
03:38And now let me show you what
we are going to be replacing it with.
03:40This is the dream PSU
and it outsources the conversion of AC
03:44power to a wall adapter.
03:46Basically, you give it 12
03:47volts of DC power via a barrel plug
and it handles the rest from there.
03:51But I thought that I could make it
even better.
03:54The first thing I did was hardwire
the Dreamcast Power switch directly to it
03:58in a normal Dreamcast.
03:59There's plenty of room for that
04:01big connector,
but I'm not making a normal Dreamcast.
04:04Next, I replaced the original barrel plug
with a USB power delivery trigger board.
04:09I configured it to deliver 12 volts
of power by bridging these two contacts.
04:13And now I can power my Dreamcast
with all the USB power
04:17delivery adapters that I already have
scattered around the house.
04:20The only catch is that not
every adapter will supply 12 volts
04:24because, well, frankly, the power
delivery spec is a complete mess.
04:28So what I'm going to do is put some links
to adapters that I know will go down
04:32in the video description
04:34to all the other tools and materials
I've used throughout this project.
04:37Finally, I fixed the design flaw that at
this point affects every single Dreamcast.
04:43This is the CMOS battery and eventually,
like all batteries, it dies.
04:48Sega, in their infinite wisdom, decided
to solder it permanently to the PCB.
04:52This leaves the Dreamcast incapable
of remembering any settings
04:56once you power it down.
04:57So I replaced it with this holder
that takes a standard replaceable
05:02And now my Dreamcast
05:03will stop asking me for the date and time
every time that I turn it on.
05:07All the mods we've done up to this point
have been relatively easy to do,
05:11but this next one is where we stray
into the more advanced side of things.
05:15I want to add an HDMI port
to this Dreamcast because originally
05:19it was limited
to just RF, RCA and VGA outputs.
05:23Not only will
this make the Dreamcast easier to use
05:26with water displays
such as the one I have behind me here,
05:29but it should also provide
a serious upgrade in terms of graphics.
05:32Installing it is going to be a bit tricky,
but luckily I found a tool
05:37that makes it a lot easier.
Enter my digital microscope.
05:41It's capable of over 1000 times
magnification,
05:44which is going to be important
because in order to add an HDMI port,
05:48we need to steal the digital audio
and digital video
05:51signals from very specific contacts
on the motherboards.
05:54And those contacts are really small.
05:57But don't worry, it's
honestly easier than you might think.
06:00The first step was lowering
in the specially designed ribbon cable
06:03and then tacking it in place
06:05with a bit of tape with a lot of flux
and some careful soldering.
06:08I was able to connect it
to those aforementioned contacts.
06:11Soldering at this scale isn't so much
a matter of robot precise movements
06:14as it is constantly working the solder
over and over again
06:18until you get the results
that you're looking for
06:20and being able
to clearly see what you're doing
06:22and what the solder is doing
makes that a lot easier.
06:25And also just use a ton of flux.
06:28It'll help the solder flow more easily
and stick to your contacts better.
06:31Back in the macro world, I made some quick
modifications to the RF shielding
06:35and routed those stolen video and audio signals
back to the brains of the operation.
06:40This is the DC Digital
and it's job is to reconfigure
06:43those signals
so that they can be output via HDMI.
06:46This is all done without introducing any
additional latency or losing any quality.
06:51And as we will explore later,
06:53it can also introduce
a whole suite of graphical upgrades.
06:57So at this point
I could just take all of these parts
07:00and cram them back inside
of the original case and call it a life.
07:05But what would be the fun in that?
07:07Instead, I think I would like to redesign
the case from the ground up
07:11in order to customize it and slim it down.
07:14Everything we've done
so far has been laying the foundation
07:17for this part of the project because I removed
so many components from the Dreamcast.
07:21I now have the opportunity to create
something that history stole from us
07:27I started by carefully measuring the
locations of all the mounting points, ports
07:31and over the course of many iterations,
designed a 3D model for a new case.
07:35With my design finalized,
I fired up my 3D printer
07:38and printed everything in a carbon
fiber reinforced PLA.
07:41Not only is this plastic quite strong,
but it's also very rigid,
07:45which will make some of the later
steps a lot easier because there's
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09:06All right,
now let's get back to the build.
09:08You know how you can almost always tell
if something has been 3D printed?
09:12Well, what if I told you
that there's a way that you can fix that
09:15because of the way 3D printers work,
where they're just laying down layer
09:18after layer of plastic, you end up with
a number of different visual artifacts.
09:22The most obvious one is horizontal lines.
09:25But then you also have cross-hatching
in areas of sparse
09:28infill and a number of other small things
that just let you know
09:31at a glance that, yeah,
this is a 3D printed part.
09:34You can tell it because the way it is.
09:36So the next thing I want to do in
this project is some post-processing
09:39that is going to turn a part like this
into something
09:42that looks like it may as well
come out of an injection mold.
09:45The first step in our post-processing
journey is everybody's favorite activity
09:50sanding,
but sanding plastic is not like sanding wood.
09:54First, I'd avoid using any power.
09:56sanders they can generate a lot of heat,
09:58and it's surprisingly easy
to melt your plastic.
10:04in some soft sanding sponges so that you
can match the contours of your 3D prints.
10:08And then finally, unlike wood,
you really need to give your parts
10:11a very rough
sanding with, at most 120 grit sandpaper.
10:15You're just trying to knock down
the high points and smooth out
10:17any large imperfections
because in the next step,
10:20I'm going to borrow a product
from the automotive world.
10:22This is two in one filler primer.
10:25It's essentially a very thick
sandable primer that you can spray on
10:29to fill in all the micro valleys
on the surface of your 3D print.
10:32I applied three or four light coats
to build up a good solid base
10:35and then gave the whole thing
another thorough sanding.
10:38Then it's just rinse and repeat
until you get your desired results.
10:42So after a lot of sanding
and a lot of coats,
10:44we finally have a nice, smooth
Dreamcast case.
10:48So now we are ready
to put the final layer on it.
10:51And here is where the project went
a bit off the rails for me.
10:55I ended up trying several different
finishes.
10:57I started with copper, then I tried
Gloss Black, which turned out to be
11:01a fingerprint and scratch magnet.
11:03And eventually what I settled on
was matte black because it reminded me
11:06of the limited edition
Sega Sports Dreamcasts.
11:09I sprayed on three coats and sanded
between each one with a very fine
11:13sandpaper and I think the
final results look awesome.
11:19of you have noticed
that there are some pretty large gaps
11:22in my 3D printed parts
11:23and that's because I wanted to leave
some space for some accent panels.
11:27I cannot resist adding
some wood to these retro game consoles,
11:31so I have my shapes
loaded up here on the computer
11:34and we are going to cut them on the CNC while we wait for that
11:37paint to dry here
I was making three main components.
11:40The first is a top cover that will serve
as the face of the console,
11:44and we're going to do a little bit
more work on it in a second.
11:46But first I had to cut two grilles
that will serve as the exhaust
11:51All three of these
I cut with a normal straight edge bit.
11:54However, in order to do the next step,
I had to switch to my V carve bit
11:58because that bit allows me to carve
at a much higher resolution
12:02using its tapered sides.
12:03I was able to capture all the fine detail
in that iconic Dreamcast logo.
12:08After a bit of sanding,
I applied an oil rub
12:10finish to both seal the wood
and to bring out its natural color.
12:13And here's a pro tip if you don't want
your wood to warp or cup on you,
12:18it's always a good idea
to apply your finish
12:20to both sides of the wood
at the same time.
12:22Now that might sound funny
considering though to sand off this finish
12:25and do it all over again,
but trust me, it's all part of the plan.
12:28Before we talk about that, though, let's
talk about some fun Dreamcast trivia.
12:33Just like in my PlayStation two video,
I want to add a little bit of color
12:37back into this logo, but I've got myself
a little bit of a conundrum.
12:40You see, Depending
on where you grew up in the world,
12:42you might have a vastly different
conception of what the Dreamcast logo
12:46looks like Here in North America.
12:49but then in Europe it looked like this,
and then in Japan it looked like this.
12:54So I've actually already made my choice
as to what I want to do.
12:58But I'm sure no matter what I chose,
it was going to be
13:00at least a little bit controversial,
13:02starting with a part that we can all agree
on and mixed up a little bit of black
13:05metallic epoxy
and filled out the Dreamcast typeface.
13:09Then in keeping with my Sega sports
theme, I opted for a blue European spiral
13:14as you can see, it was pretty hard
to avoid overfilling the engravings,
13:18and that's why I applied the finish
before the epoxy.
13:21By sealing the pores of the
wood you prevent the epoxy
13:23from bleeding into the grain,
which makes removing all of that excess
13:27as easy as a quick sand
and then another oil rub down.
13:30With all of that taken care of,
I headed back home where another
13:33cool mod for the Dreamcast
had just arrived in the mail.
13:36So you remember earlier
how I removed this disk drive
13:39and then said we wouldn't
be needing anymore?
13:41Well, that is because we are going to be
replacing it with this, a GDEMu.
13:46And essentially what this does is replace
your entire GD-Rom drive with an SD card
13:51and I can get my entire game collection
onto a single SD card.
13:55So we'll just plug this right in here.
13:57And then this plugs into the same port
that the GD-Rom drive used to plug into.
14:01In addition to adding convenience,
it also makes load times
14:04quicker, decreases power usage,
forces games to run in a progressive scan
14:08mode and gives you a cool
little launcher screen,
14:11which I will show you very shortly.
14:13Now that we've got that cleared up,
14:14let's install everything
into our brand new case
14:18and here's where we put my 3D
modeling skills to the test.
14:21First, I glued my wood panels in place
using CA glue,
14:24which I bounds really well to
both wood and 3D printed plastic.
14:29Plus it sets super quickly
to keep the Dreamcast from sliding around
14:33and to provide a little bit of room
for air circulation under the console.
14:36I added these adhesive rubber feet
and then it was time for some fun with
14:41I wanted to make the internals easy
to access and service,
14:44so I opted for a completely tooless case
design.
14:47This meant positioning a pair of magnets
14:49in all four corners and gives
the lid a super satisfying thunk.
14:54The Noctua fan that we modified
earlier screws in here
14:57and then the motherboard gets lowered
into position and screwed in place as well
15:01because I remapped all the original
mounting points into my new case.
15:05This part was a breeze.
15:06However, since there was no factory
usb-c port, I had to create this
15:10little bracket that suspends
it directly above the AV ports.
15:14A little bit of glue keeps it in place.
15:15And then just to be safe,
15:17I put a layer of insulating
kapton tape over the exposed contacts.
15:21The daughter board
for the controller ports goes here,
15:23the power switch goes here
and the Wi-Fi antenna goes here.
15:27And then in order
to keep the GDEMU from sagging,
15:30I designed this little support stage
and screwed it in place.
15:33The last piece of the puzzle
was the power switch
15:35extender, which slots into position
and then pokes out through the top lid
15:41all buttoned up before we put it up and start
testing it out.
15:44I have one last thing
that I want to add to this project.
15:47Just like with my Nintendo 64
and my PS2,
15:50I want to give this console
15:51a wireless controller so that I don't have
to deal with cords all the time.
15:56But there is a problem.
15:57See, there's a lot of adapters out there
that will let you use
16:00a Bluetooth controller with the Dreamcast,
16:02but then you lose support
for the all important VMU.
16:06So I actually had to go on a preorder list
for this, but I managed to get my hands
16:11on a Striker DC, which is made
by the same company as the Brawler 64.
16:15This promises to be the ultimate wireless
Dreamcast controller.
16:20So let's crack it open,
see if it lives up to the hype.
16:27All right,
so initial impressions are quite good.
16:30The face buttons are very clicky.
16:32The stick here is a hall effect stick.
16:34So it's going to have great reliability
and it also feels really nice.
16:37And then the d-pad is just nice
and clicky as well.
16:40It's got a turbo button usb-c charging.
16:43You get a pairing button there
16:44and then oddly enough, you get shoulder
triggers and shoulder buttons.
16:48So what the boot up
the Dreamcast to see how those work.
16:51But first a mystery,
16:52because obviously looking at this thing,
there's nowhere to put the VMU right.
16:56So let me show you what you do with that.
16:58This is the view dock.
17:00So basically the way it works
is you plug your v
17:03IMU in there and then you plug this
into the front of your Dreamcast,
17:06and then this acts as the transmitter
receiver for the wireless controller
17:10and keeps your view
connected to the system.
17:13Overall,
I am very impressed with the striker.
17:16DC The only downside to it
is that it doesn't come in a black color
17:20to match my console.
17:21But you know, maybe retro fighters can
take care of that in a future revision.
17:25All right, let's set this thing
up and see how she plays.
17:39the bat, we
are greeted with the new open menu system.
17:42And this is a feature of the GDEMU.
17:45Here you can select any of the games
that you have loaded onto your SD card.
17:48And as you can see, you get the cover
17:50art as well as a little blurb
about each game, which is kind of cool.
17:53Now, if you'll permit me to take a trip
down memory lane, I would like to load up
17:58Sonic Adventure because that was
my favorite game back in the day.
18:06They did such a good job
18:07of capturing the sense of speed
in this game,
18:09even though I think it's only running
at 30 FPS, it feels fast and fluid.
18:13look at that lens flare.
18:14That would have been very impressive
back in 1999.
18:18I remember thinking that this scene
was photo realistic of the day.
18:22I was like, There is no way the graphics
are ever going to get better than this
18:26in this moment,
which is laughable in retrospect,
18:28but that's how I legitimately felt
at the time.
18:30So right away you can see that
18:32the graphics are incredibly sharp
and that's thanks to the DC Digital.
18:36If you remember the retro gem
from my PS2 video,
18:39this chip is nearly identical in terms
of functionality in the menus here
18:42we can scale the resolution all the way
from 480p right up to 1440p
18:47Unlike with the PS2,
18:48we don't really have much use
for the various de-interlacing algorithms
18:52as there only a handful of Dreamcast games
that don't support progressive output.
18:57You can also play around with the aspect
ratios, magnification,
19:00add fake skin lines
and a whole slew of other features.
19:04But I want to show you
one of my favorite features the ability
19:07to inject HDR into your image
by toggling this switch right here.
19:12We now get brighter brights, deeper blacks
and more vivid colors.
19:16Assuming that
is that your display supports HDR.
19:19Now any time you take a fairly low
resolution image and upscale it
19:23this much, you're bound to end up
with some pretty bad aliasing.
19:26Thankfully,
the DC Digital has a built in smoothing
19:29layer on it, which kind of acts
like a layer of anti-aliasing
19:32and to my eye
it actually looks quite a bit
19:35more aggressive
than what I was getting up to.
19:37Putting all of that together,
Let's compare what the original RC
19:40would look like and I think you can see
the differences are pretty night and day.
19:45This is a serious upgrade
to the graphical power of Dreamcast
19:50and I was going to leave it there,
but then I thought, Hey, wait a minute,
19:54they make cheap Dreamcast HDMI cables
that are supposed
19:58to do a lot of the same stuff
but for a fraction of the price.
20:02So is the DC Digital worth the complex
installation and the higher price tag?
20:06So let's compare them and find out.
20:12So yeah, the first thing I'm noticing is
that this image isn't nearly as sharp.
20:17And also there's a lot more
aliasing artifacts, and that's because
20:20now you're relying on your TV
to do the upscaling and TVs
20:24have to be optimized for a wide variety
of different content types,
20:28whereas the DC Digital uses algorithms
that are specifically designed for gaming.
20:32The colors also aren't nearly as nice
because you're
20:35losing your HDR support
as well as that smoothing layer.
20:38Plus you're losing
all the granular control over things
20:41like aspect ratio
that you get with the DC Digital.
20:43For me, I think the DC visual is worth it,
but if you're on a tighter budget,
20:48one of these cheap HDMI cables
will definitely still get the job done.
20:51Thermally, the system seems to be running
20:53nice and cool with its new cooling system,
except for this one chip on the PSU.
20:57So I added
this little copper heatsink to it
20:59and that seemed to drop the temperature
into a more comfortable range.
21:02And this controller man,
21:04I really like this controller
maybe even more than the original.
21:07The rumble functionality on It's
great. Feels good in the hand.
21:10The only real downside to using it
21:12is now the screen on the VMU
is way over here next to the console.
21:16So you can't really see it unless you're
sitting right next to the Dreamcast.
21:20and turns out that the trigger buttons
and the shoulder
21:22buttons do the exact same thing.
21:24So it's just whichever you prefer to use.
21:26I also crunched the numbers
21:27and my new Dreamcast is approximately
30% smaller than the original.
21:32So yeah, that is my Dreamcast Pro
or Dreamcast Slim, whatever
21:38you want to call it.
21:38And I am very happy
with how it turned out.
21:42about how I could have done it
even better in the postmortem analysis.
21:46Now, I'm not normally an RGB guy,
but I do think some interior
21:51lighting inside
the case would have looked really cool,
21:53especially if it illuminated the logo
on the top of the Dreamcast
21:58and the cool thing is
there is actually an extra 12 volt
22:01and five volt header on the PSU, so doing
it would be a relatively simple job.
22:06The VMU is also ripe for modding.
22:08They make replacement screens,
22:10rechargeable batteries
and a few other cosmetic mods
22:13that can make these things
look really cool.
22:15And then finally,
this one is actually more
22:16of a process change,
but I think in the future, instead of
22:20doing all of that
sanding and painting and filling,
22:23I might just take my design files
and send them a way to be professionally
22:273D printed or hell, even milled out of a solid
block aluminum
22:30by the time you account
for all the time it took
22:32and all the supplies, honestly, I think
that might end up being a cheaper option.
22:36All right, that's it for me.
22:37Let me know down in the comments
22:39if you'd like to see me modernize
any other consoles.
22:41And I will see you
guys in the next video peace.
