SD/Optical drive replacement

Video Games
#1

to preface: since switching over to everdrives on the cart based systems years ago, its admittedly rare that i get up to switch out carts from the shelf when i play…no doubt some of this came from the inevitable heart break of seeing childhood save games disappear to dying batteries.
the other common complaint i’ve seen about flashcarts is the idea that having entire libraries at your hand causes some to lose focus, and i get that! i recommend writing your backlog on a marker board with COFFEE IS FOR CLOSERS or something similar, it sometimes works for me

still, optical drives have given me such shit over the years - i’ve gone though numerous PlayStation 1&2s, my duo-r drops music when it likes, my local repair shop gave up on OG Xbox and is like “just softmod it, man”…oh and my dreamcast pots need adjusting

so i was pretty excited when this satiator showed up, and it does exactly what i want! i don’t even gotta burn a disc when new fan translations drop, and the saturn scene has been lovely for those in recent times. its so cool, and got me thinking about others:

  • PSIO - so my chipped PSX lacks a serial port, and i know it needs a single wire installed, but i don’t see anything else on the horizon at the moment, and this is one of my favorite libraries to dive into - theres a metric fuckton of crazy weird japanese games i wanna try out

  • HDD loader - i’ve had this with a dying hard drive on PS2 forever, debating a new drive and resetting it…the load time decrease on some compatible titles alone makes it cool for me (unsure what other options the scene has?)

  • DC Mode - i need to research this one, i know the install isn’t hard but losing disc use means i’d almost rather have it on a backup dreamcast. also not sure how compatibility is at the moment so please post here if you use it!

  • i know there’s a Turbo option that doesn’t work on said duo-r, but with the last model genesis everdrive offering sega-cd playback sans hardware, i can’t help but wonder if a similar device could work for pc-engine, or is that not really feasible?

i’m sure the scene will get around to gamecube one day, but i’ve personally had little problems with those. anyway what do y’all think?

#2

Another alternative for PS2 is to load your games over Ethernet from an SMB network share. I do this on my slim.

#3

For PSX have you looked into XStation? I like mine. It currently only works on certain models.

I haven’t used my gdemu (clone) a ton but it’s an easy solderless install. You can reinstall the gd rom drive too later if you want to.

Both Xstation and gdemu remove the optical drive completely so you’re not able to use discs with them installed.

2 Likes
#4

Having recently installed an x-station I can say that it is a pretty slick piece of kit if you have the hardware that is compatible with it. I think k I’ll be installing one myself soon.

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#5

i have not! can you please break this down like i’m a child, haha - legit interested

#6

oh man never heard of this one! gonna look it up now - the option to still use my discs is nice, but if my model is compatible here, that’d be mighty tempting…

and thank you, i said MODE with dreamcast but clearly meant GDEMU, hope to hear more about that one!

#7
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#8

so it turns out my late model PSX isn’t Xstation compatible either…i love that this unit is chipped, but i’m leaning towards the PSIO just to have the option for discs. bit of a longshot but does anyone know of a PSX for sale preinstalled with that kit? cheapest (of the right model PSX) on ebay is like $50, plus kit cost and my shop wants $75 just to install it…

#9

the MODE has worked superbly for me on the DC. I think I’ll get one if my Saturn’s reader goes to crap too

I love how easy the Wii is to softmod and doubles as a GC as well. 1 thumbstick for each console does the trick

but my favourite would have to be the fat PS2 with FMCB card and an HDD