How to deal with cables, VGA and region protections
This article was born in my head long time ago, but I couldn't finish it for a simple reason - I was missing a few cables to complete all the tests.
Now, I will write a little about running games on the SEGA Dreamcast console by using various audio-video cables to help you solve problems with displaying the image, or even force a 60 Hz refresh on games that only have the 50 Hz option (contrary to appearances, there are a few of them). By the way, we will also deal with various regional protections.
The article can easily be read by owners of RF, S-Video, RGB and of course VGA cables. It will guarantee you the highest image quality.
The basic information and tools we need are:
- The RF cable is the oldest model that can be connected to the TV. Of course, we plug it into the standard antenna input. Useful with very old CRC monitors not equipped with Euro or D-Sub sockets. This type of cable supports all games available on the market.
- The S-Video cable is a connector that guarantees better image quality than the RF-cable. It connects to the characteristic yellow TV inlet. With new LCD TV, LED or old CRT provides a worst quality then the Euro input. This type of cable supports all games available on the market.
- The RGB cable is a cable that guarantee you the best quality, both with the old CRT televisions or the new LCD / LED if you have a Euro input and no D-Sub input or a VGA cable. This type of cable supports about 97% of DC games, there are exceptions that require a patch to work.
- The VGA cable (Box) is a cable (or box) that provides the best image quality in high resolution 640x480. The cable works great on new LCD / LED TV sets, etc. This type of connection supports about 89% of games available on the market. Some games can be patched, so the percentage increases to around 95%.
- Hexedit - thanks to this editor we will make a patch and start support for VGA mode.
- IP CD Exploler - the tool will help us track hidden IP files and export them if we do not want to manually edit the file or create our own compilation.
- Ipbin4win - a program that can patch IP.BIN files and will generate a code line for us if we do it manually.
- PalPatcher - a tool thanks to which we will force a refresh of 60 Hz and we will deal with the RGB blockade.
- Action Replay CDX, which is a software that will allow you to run all games from any region on any Dreamcast console. The program also allows you to force PAL / NTSC mode on any console. The tool also has the most important feature - the ability to enter and use different types of codes.
- Utopia Boot Disc is a free program that must be burned on a CD, thanks to which you can run quite a large set of imports on any console (unfortunately not all of them). Utopia in the newer version does not guarantee VGA support if we do not apply a patch to the game.
For example, I present you a comparison of the screen quality with RF / S-Video and VGA cables connected to the LCD (of course, this is not a perfect image - the camera slightly distorts the colors of the TV picture).
Let's start!
Remember that most of these tools only work on an original GD-ROM (so I hope that you have a CD from the store and, for example, you made copies using an SD card). Action Replay is an exception here. Important! The VGA mode is best forced by the GDEMU module.
The first tool is the PAL Patcher from Megalex. It only works on .CDI (Discjuggler) image files and .BIN files.
In a simple menu, select the "fix" that interests us, that is, for example, change the refresh from 50 to 60 Hz and press the Search option. If the software finds something, click on Patch! and burn the final file on a CD or load it from the SD card.
The same applies to RGB support fix - just select the patch you are interested in from the second selected box and click on the Patch!.
There are also exceptions, so we have to do it manually by searching for
01 EC 9D FF 04 8D 00 EE 03 88
in the image or boot file and change it into:
01 EC 9D FF 04 8D 00 EE 02 88
The next step is to activate the VGA option for games that do not have it as standard. Unfortunately, after launching the game disc, we will receive the following message:
To solve the problem - start any hex editor and select either the IP.BIN file or the entire ready image of the game.
We target the sequence of KATANA characters in it. It is always followed by the JUE string (that indicates the region) followed by a few characters. We change them to 0799A10 and save. That's all the work we have to do. Then we burn on a CD or load it from the SD card.
If you want to add something to the VGA patch - e.g. mouse support or remove the regional lock, you have to run the IP.BIN 4 WIN program. It will automatically convert the IP.BIN file or generate a string of characters (marked with an arrow) to be pasted in the above-mentioned place for patching the game.
For people who have a problem with locating the IP.BIN file, there is the IP CD Explorer application, thanks to which you can extract files of this type from any drive (also virtual). As you can see below, the title I am editing does not have VGA support as standard. So we click on Extract and act as above. Don't worry that the program doesn't recognize drive names - it still works fine.
Finally, something for import lovers.
As we know, the Dreamcast does not allowed to run Japanese games on the PAL console and vice versa. There is a regional block.
Unfortunately, there is no program that imposes VGA support for original GD-ROM games. So we have to save either the game as a copy or use a swap trick - the important thing is that the games overlap. So a copy with a patch, for example World Neverland 2 Plus and original disc which does not have such modifications.
Coming back to changing the Dreamcast's region. For this we use the free Utopia Boot Disk (unfortunately it does not support a large number of games) and replace the CD with GD or use programs such as DC-X, Codebreaker or the Action Replay I used below. Why Action Replay? Because it supports both copies and original games and is the only one with a single click of the "X" key forces NTSC or PAL mode! (check below). The step of swapping the discs is similar to that used by Utopia boot disc.
I would like to remind you that you can test all such activities on the emulator or, if you have an adapter, on the SD card.
