Which is more powerful, the Dreamcast or PS2

Josey Wales · 28-03-2011 8:35pm #1

I was listening to a podcast this morning and the host made an off hand comment about the Dreamcast being more powerful than the PS2. I was just wondering if this was true.

CiDeRmAn · 28-03-2011 8:56pm

The answer is the Atari Jaguar

Retr0gamer · 28-03-2011 9:26pm

Josey Wales wrote: »

I was listening to a podcast this morning and the host made an off hand comment about the Dreamcast being more powerful than the PS2. I was just wondering if this was true.

What podcast? I think It's pretty obvious that the PS2 was the more powerful console. Where the Dreamcast beat it was that it had a custom anti-aliasing system that took very little processing power and was used in a few games while the PS2 was not capable of anti aliasing. The dreamcast also had more video memory meaning it could do better textures but it's main memory was half compared to the PS2 so it kind of evened out. PS2's graphics card also was much more advanced than the dreamcasts, capable of more effects.

Whoever was doing the podcast really doesn't know what they are on about.

CiDeRmAn · 28-03-2011 9:39pm

But, the PS2 was a brute, while the DC was a considerate lover, I just think it should be said, is all...

Retr0gamer · 28-03-2011 9:42pm

The DC did the best volumetric smoke in Under Defeat

Josey Wales · 28-03-2011 10:22pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

What podcast?

Whoever was doing the podcast really doesn't know what they are on about.

It was the Weekend Confirmed podcast from Shack News.

Retr0gamer · 28-03-2011 10:29pm

Ah right. Thought one so big would have a bit more well informed. Only really listen to the 1up one after giving up on giantbomb cast, not because it was bad or anything.

hare05 · 28-03-2011 10:32pm

The dreamcast was more powerful but only because they pushed the crap innards too hard. All that with a terrible cooling system. Every person I know that bought one melted it within 6 months.

Retr0gamer · 28-03-2011 10:35pm

hare05 wrote: »

The dreamcast was more powerful but only because they pushed the crap innards too hard. All that with a terrible cooling system. Every person I know that bought one melted it within 6 months.

Haven't heard of any reports of heat damage to Dreamcasts. It's usually just the reset issue and that is caused by dirty or bent connectors nothing more.

CiDeRmAn · 29-03-2011 12:05am

I had one and the control board "blew", a quick component replacement later and good as new.
Really the DC is quite robust, aside from dodgy games overworking the GD-Rom leading to medium term wear and tear and the need to replace.

K.O.Kiki · 30-03-2011 9:08am

The Gamecube was pretty damn powerful too, IIRC.

It could even give the Xbox a run for its money if done right.

Retr0gamer · 30-03-2011 10:03am

Gamecube was a fantastic piece of kit far more powerful than the PS2. It could give the Xbox a run for it's money for sure but it definitely couldn't match it. Not many games used the full power of the xbox but the ones that did (Halo 2, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Ninja Gaiden) the Gamecube hadn't a hope of matching. However since the GC wasn't constrained by Direct X API's it meant the Cube could pull off a few graphical effects that the Xbox couldn't as can be seen in it's amazing volumetrically lit fur shaders that have only now been replicated by the latest machines, somereally nice distortion effects and the atmospheric effects and lighting in Resi 4.

o1s1n · 31-03-2011 3:58pm

It's a shame that this was never released.

Would have let us all put those overworked GD-ROM drives to rest.

http://the-dreamcast-junkyard.blogspot.com/2009/03/dreamcast-sd-card-adaptor.html

edit - hang on, wtf?!

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=7818275499

Here's a guide on how to buy from that chinese site. Those adapters are dirt cheap! -

http://www.dcisozone.com/tutorial/1427/how-to-buybuild-a-dreamcast-sandisk-adapter.html

Retr0gamer · 31-03-2011 4:14pm

Want!!!!

Myrddin · 31-03-2011 4:32pm

I think it said something about what you need to make your own, I'm not looking again because I'll be in Radionics first thing Monday morning & I really have enough to be doing otherwise.

Either that or you have to assemble it when you buy it? Surely not...

7sr2z3fely84g5 · 31-03-2011 4:35pm

Theres 3 left on the bay at mo-

http://cgi.ebay.ie/SD-card-reader-SEGA-DreamCast-SDL-DC-Dreamshell-/270726965658?pt=Video_Games_Accessories&hash=item3f0895a99a

And there was a good article showing difference between xbox and dreamcast shenmue 2

http://shenmuedojo.net/new/extras/s2xboxvsdreamcast.html

Myrddin · 01-04-2011 9:29am

Could be my next mod, they don't look too hard to build

Plus doing it DIY you can mount the whole thing internally :cool:

o1s1n · 01-04-2011 9:32am

EnterNow wrote: »

Could be my next mod, they don't look too hard to build Plus doing it DIY you can mount the whole thing internally :cool:

So you could pretty much mount it internally and just cut a little slot in the console shell to insert SD cards into?

That sounds very slick indeed. Would be nice to get rid of all those CD-Rs. Err..I mean legetimate games.

Myrddin · 01-04-2011 9:33am

o1s1n wrote: »

So you could pretty much mount it internally and just cut a little slot in the console shell to insert SD cards into?

That sounds very slick indeed. Would be nice to get rid of all those CD-Rs. Err..I mean legetimate games.

Yep, seems a simple enough little circuit to build, I'm not sure I'd ad an access led though...depends if it was going to flashing all though a homebrew game or not.

o1s1n · 01-04-2011 11:50am

I followed the instructions on that site and managed to buy one of those SD card adapters. Came in at under €10. Not bad at all.

Myrddin · 01-04-2011 11:51am

o1s1n wrote: »

I followed the instructions on that site and managed to buy one of those SD card adapters. Came in at under €10. Not bad at all.

Ah in that case I won't bother, €10 is really a nice price. Let me know when you get it how it performs

o1s1n · 01-04-2011 11:56am

If it works properly that'll be amazing. I wonder how big the whole DC library is? Would it fall under 32GB?

Holy ****, you can get 32GB micro SD cards. How is that possible? Witchcraft so it is -

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/genuine-sandisk-micro-sd-sdhc-card-32gb-class-2-54353

Myrddin · 01-04-2011 11:58am

o1s1n wrote: »

If it works properly that'll be amazing. I wonder how big the whole DC library is? Would it fall under 32GB?

Holy ****, you can get 32GB micro SD cards. How is that possible? Witchcraft so it is -

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/genuine-sandisk-micro-sd-sdhc-card-32gb-class-2-54353

That'd be about 40/50 games, surely there's more than that??

o1s1n · 01-04-2011 12:06pm

Ah crap, you know what? I was thinking of compressed pre extracted sizes

Most DC games I've gotten images of are well under 250mb before extraction.

Retr0gamer · 01-04-2011 1:03pm

I really want this since it means you can mount full GD-Rom images and not the CD-R games that have reduced sound and video quality and in some cases they completely removed the music altogether (really annoying in Maken X because the music in that game is awesome and there's now only one track through the whole thing).

Myrddin · 01-04-2011 1:06pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I really want this since it means you can mount full GD-Rom images and not the CD-R games that have reduced sound and video quality and in some cases they completely removed the music altogether (really annoying in Maken X because the music in that game is awesome and there's now only one track through the whole thing).

Good point, I hadn't thought of that. There are reports of stuttering in certian sequences (obviously timing related), but games for the most part seem to run fine through it. I love stuff like this, because it means not having to worry about poorly made lasers dying on me :mad:

7sr2z3fely84g5 · 01-04-2011 1:11pm

Your mounting an image for dreamcast read,same as if you where doing it on a comp,lasers,i did say on other thread i came across small stock of them and gave a hack in the general discussion thread on using pc lens,*which probably make it back to using back ups..

o1s1n · 01-04-2011 1:11pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I really want this since it means you can mount full GD-Rom images and not the CD-R games that have reduced sound and video quality and in some cases they completely removed the music altogether (really annoying in Maken X because the music in that game is awesome and there's now only one track through the whole thing).

Well for a tenner you can't really go wrong. Just follow the instructions in that link i posted a page back.

Sign up for an account on http://buyfromtaobao.com/, paste the link of what you want, send them the money via paypal, they then buy it for you and send it on.

Pretty much the same as rinkya.com do with Yahoo Japan auctions.

Retr0gamer · 01-04-2011 1:21pm

Thanks. Bit broke at the moment after my car failed the NCT so hope there's some left when I do get money

Steve X2 · 01-04-2011 2:41pm

o1s1n wrote: »

If it works properly that'll be amazing. I wonder how big the whole DC library is? Would it fall under 32GB?

Holy ****, you can get 32GB micro SD cards. How is that possible? Witchcraft so it is -

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/genuine-sandisk-micro-sd-sdhc-card-32gb-class-2-54353

My hyperspin DC collection is 240GB and thats about 200 games, all in .gdi format. Would be great if that adapter supported SDXC as they have 64GB cards and higher on that format.

Which is more powerful, the Dreamcast or PS2

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