GTA 3 on Dreamcast? 
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Finished Sonic Adventure for the first time last month and I was mightily impressed by it, despite the evident rushed nature of the original 1998 Japanese release which I played.
Compared with its sequel, it really does feel like an interconnected adventure thatâs centred around exploration and platforming as much as it is goal chasing. Itâs far more consistent than its sequel in how it applies each characterâs style of gameplay to each level, while having a much more coherent world and story.
I was honestly blown away by it, and would certainly prefer playing it to the collecathon style of platformer that ultimately came to define 3D platformers that werenât sandboxes like Mario 64 by the late 90s.
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I finished it for the first time a couple of years ago and walked away with really similar impressions.
Itâs an aspirational game and its reach exceeds its grasp but it really has that turn of the millennium feel of anything is possible. I loved it and would go back to it just to run around the stages.
Iâve tried to play the sequel but always end up dropping it because, really, its just a clunky 3d platformer without anything to distinquish it from the sea of similar titles out there.
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Thatâs such a perfect way to articulate what makes it special!
And yep, outside of the Sonic stages, of which there are few, the sequel ends up feeling like a bunch of disconnected content they created in separate and had to join together somehow. The Knuckles stages suffer since youâre just less familiar with the level layouts not having visited them thoroughly as the other characters as well.
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Mario 64 on Dreamcast
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I got the retrotime bluetooth adapter:
Itâs fantastic. All the blueretro features like button mapping, and removes the VMU problem by building in a memory card, like the N64 version but much more needed here. It looks fantastic, is very small and just works.
Currently on a âbuild my ultimate Dreamcastâ stint after I sold my previous ultimate dreamcast a few years ago.
Finally got a GDEMU and a nice blue case, PAL blue DC logo for the top, hacking the bios to have a blue swirl on bootup, fixing the battery, blue power LED. Will be quite a nice kit when complete!
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And then you wonât be so blue!
I just feel the PAL blue really suits the Dreamcast better. Sega colour.
Now on the lookout for US issue transparent navy blue controller to match too, even though Iâll mostly use blue(heh)tooth, since the case is now that colour.
In the past I had an aqua blue Japanese pad but itâs a lighter shade.
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Iâm biased because I grew up in Australia - but Iâve always associated Sega with blue. The blue swirl is the one of the few instances where PAL territories got the superior looking console.
Hereâs how itâs looking so far:
Matching GDEMU SD card riser
I resisted for years on the GDEMU because I like to be able to use my discs as well. Now theyâll just sit on the shelf forever. But with the Turbo Everdrive Pro in the same situation I guess itâs all in on ODEs.
I want to use the original grey buttons and controller port cover, but the cover has a tab broken on the old case, weirdly it seems to sit fine in the old case without any issue, but the new case has slightly different tolerances so it doesnât sit right. So Iâve ordered another Dreamcast to get the part lol, and will sell afterward.
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Also arrived - new Dreamcast game!
Itâs choppier than the Switch version (not 30fps but it drops frames) and apparently missing some parallax etc, but still solid!
And I grabbed one of these aliexpress HDMI cables, and it works great. Takes the VGA signal and maps the aspect ratio correctly to 480p HDMI.
Kind of a mixed blessing these chinese companies making clones and versions of what were previously niche hobbyists, but hey we can now get good quality stuff for cheap.
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Okay almost done now
And thanks to the region change hack, blue swirl on boot too! While video is still to set NTSC/60Hz too (so no jumping between 50/60Hz after logos).
Just need to swap out the power LED for a blue one, and replace the clock battery. I started working on it but canât find my desoldering braid so will get to it later.
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so, i enjoyed the 9/9/24 anniversary event a little too much, and now my GDEMU systemâs controller ports seem busted? we were messing with everything form fishing rods, mouse & keyboard, questionable 3rd party maracas & the like. now no controllers/etc work, despite testing them on my other, non-modded system
iâm gonna try to clean the contacts on the ports, see if anything looks damaged in there? anyone have any ideas on what to try as a fix here?
Almost certainly the fuse/resistor
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If you donât want to have to bust out a soldering iron, etc. The Dreamcast controller ports work fine if you just bypass that âfuseâ. I have two systems and both needed to have this done.
Simply twist the wires together to complete the circuit without the resistor included and your controller ports will work fine again. I have had zero issues and never burned the house down in years of usage post this fix. I think Sega was being overly cautious with this particular resistor, probably because the controllers have the VMUs in them which have a battery included (two actually) so were worried about current coming back down the wire or something. Thatâs my theory anyway⌠that and probably some FCC regulation that required it.
So twist and enjoy.
Also⌠whatever caused it in the first place is probably in or on a controller youâre using. You wonât know which one it is so itâll just do it again. In my case, I had a controller with a bit of a frayed wire in the cord. Noticed it after the fact.
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damnâŚwondering if itâs the rumble pack i use, or maybe the first & third party maracas i was messing with, ugh.
do you have pics/video on what youâre referring to specifically?
also kinda wondering if having the better PSU installed would help resolve this issue, iâd really rather not have it happen again 
If you do the twist thing, it will never happen again. It canât. That takes this resistor out of the equation entirely. I used a pliers to grab it and gently twist it around.
It could be any of your controllers that caused it. IIRC, Sega even says in the manual for the system (and maybe controllers too) to never plug controllers in while the system is on, and this is why. It can cause that âfuseâ to blow.
Itâs just a lousy design. Makes me wonder how many Dreamcasts are in landfills because of that circuit board.
Some more info here and in the comments. Itâs a very common problem.
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Hmm Iâm trying to decide between all blue and a blue/original shell combo.
The combo version matches the officially released blue controller, which has a grey back.
What do yaâll think?
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Tough choice, both are nice. Leaning a little towards all blue but only a little 
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Yeah I guess I can swap it back and forth if I change my mind.
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