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Turns out I was only banned for a day. Anyway, I came back because I wanted to give my evaluation of the USB-GD as suggested by @ianinthefuture, now that I've installed it. I absolutely hate it and wished I'd gone with GDEMU. GDEMU allows you to force boot anything in 60hz, thus making it priceless: https://www.reddit.com/r/dreamcast/comments/9ruwq0/gdemu_pal_dreamcast_will_my_games_run_in_60hz/ Turns out USB-GD does not allow this. Making it utterly worthless to me. Trying to run certain NTSC games on a PAL Dreamcast with USB-GD results in it forcibly booting itself into 50Hz - meaning a letterboxed screen and slowdown. Disgusting. The following games are all broken: * Armada (US) * Bomber Hehhe (JP) * Border Down (JP) * Daytona USA (US) * Grandia II (US) * Ikaruga (JP) * Psyvariar 2 (JP) * Sega Rally 2 (US) * Soul Calibur (US) USB-GD is therefore not fit for purpose. I don't want to pay extra for an NTSC console. If GDEMU can make a PAL console dance like a 60hz marionette then so should this! And I have zero intention of using VGA since my Sony Trinitorn CRT does not have a VGA input, it uses SCART. The one thing I wanted to do, to sit down and play some American and Japanese games, I can't do because they run like trash. I literally had to redownload Soul Calibur in PAL format to enjoy 60Hz gaming. Which was fine (if slightly insane - NTSC is 50hz only, and only PAL allows 60hz). But there's a long list of games which are NTSC exclusive yet run in 50Hz, or the PAL releases are 50Hz only. For example Grandia II - the NTSC version boots in 50Hz, and the PAL version has no 60Hz option, so is only 50Hz. How do I make Grandia II be normal?! If I'd gotten GDEMU then all of these games would, according to people on Reddit, run flawlessly in 60Hz on my CRT over RGB SCART. You could just force them to run in 60Hz. I'm now stuck with the choices of playing trash in 50Hz (yuck!), or buying a GDEMU clone, uninstalling USB-GD, and then reinstalling this new device. Or maybe just sell the Dreamcast. I am honestly shocked at how badly my memories have betrayed me with this. Everything I want to play is forced into 50Hz. (I've tried using GameShark, which allows forced booting into NTSC mode, but that results in 40% of the screen being chopped off.) I've asked on Dreamcast-Talk and seemingly no one has a solution. If you have USB-GD there is no way to make a PAL system play in 60Hz, unlike if you had a GDEMU. This is an overwhelming oversight for USB-GD. It might as well disable VMU usage or two player modes - 60Hz is more essential than having sound. If you want an ODE solution: Go with GDEMU. The forced 60Hz is worth the trouble of building an SD card directory every time you want to add a new game.

That's very kind of you. Many thanks. However, I've been told I'm going to be banned from the forum, so I will have to decline. Thanks to all who helped with setting up my DC, modding it, recommending items, etc. I'll miss you guys. If anyone needs to contact me urgently, about items they sold to me, or something, message @strider who knows me on messenger.

The other is... Missing? Maybe. It's a Fission controller? What sort of price and postage?

So my Fission fishing rod arrived today. Turns out the scumbag seller had superglued the orange handles so they don't turn. FFS! Now I have to return this crap. We shall see how eBay handles this.

It is brilliant. I must admit, I've not even got the USB-GD yet, and I'm already massively enjoying getting back into the DC. Had a weird moment where I was about to start a new game and realised: oh wait, there's no need to download or update anything. That is how indoctrinated I've become with modern gaming. It's almost a muscle reflex to anticipate it.

Still not on commission?

Always a bit nervous buying stuff like batteries off ebay, but for just over a fiver worth a go I suppose. I shall solder that when I come to redo the controller fuse. Cheers for the link! While here I thought I'd also share: EGG is not only a fun little weird RPG with lush hand-drawn graphics, the localisation is also unintentionally hilarious. I bought a lot of American mags back in the day, yet somehow missed this gem?

Any branded ML2032 battery should suffice, to replace the internal, right? I have the little caddies that fit CR2032, which I used for my Philips CDI, but the input pins are in strange places, and I don't feel like buying more. I can just solder the replacement bat to the little metal tabs, right? EDIT: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maxell-ML2032-2032-Rechargeable-Battery/dp/B00HE282EI/ This is seemingly the only one. A loose thing without packaging?

According to the Scottish, no. (First time I've tried it!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaand You remove the curds first leaving only the whey. I basically used this recipe. Seems logical enough. Fruit wine doesn't go rotten and disgusting. I suppose you can ferment anything really. I draw the line at mince though.

Yes. It flicks the lure out, but then reeling it in feels... sluggish? Not as precise as I remember? I seem to recall being able to turn it millimetre by millimetre, the Fission 3rd party rod, and it would smoothly bring the reel in. But this was back in 2000. Today I received the official Sega rod, which I have never used before, and it feels a little jerky, the reeling in? Not as smooth or precise, with the odd erratic movement. I've just ordered a cheap Fission rod off eBay to test actually. Depending on which I prefer I will sell the other, along with the game, since I will eventually have a USB-GD.

I went and dl'd the demo of the ActionReplay disc, and that work. Man, i remember buying an issue of DC-UK magazine before I even had my Dreamcast, because everyone said the demo allowed you to play imports. I'm surprised the Utopia disc 1.2 doesn't work. Bass Fishing is still as fun as I remember it. I'm worried about the rod though. I know the official rod is silent while reeling (my 3rd party rod back in the day had nice clicks), but it feels a little unresponsive? Like I recall being able to reel very slow before, whereas here extremely slow reeling does nothing. Also sometimes the lure jerks around randomly, as if the mechanism inside might be dirty or not evenly balanced. Anyone have any experience opening their rod?

Sega Bass Fishing with rod arrived from Japan, and I thought I could just use the Utopia boot disc to load it on my PAL system, but it crashes every time to a black screen of nothing. Does anyone have an easy solution to play this JP import on a UK system, that does not involve me buying or ordering something? Is Sega Bass Fishing one of those troublesome imports? Will Action-Replay work?

I too would have gone NTSC. Ahh well. 50Hz is nostalgic, right? I keep hoping the romhacking community will make patches for stuff like this, and allowing American lightgun games to use the Japanese and British guns (they detect and region lock them).

Many thanks Ian! That is one heck of a self-made mod-job. Best photo in the thread? Quite possibly. As mentioned, I got the Micro-SD since I can always put it in my camera if it fails here. I might invest in some AV cables for the RGB problem games.

Looked for a topic on homebrewing your own wine, and found none. So here I am. I use CJ Berry's book on home-made wines. Recently bottles some rhubarb wine and honey mead. Nice, but not strong enough. Might get a better yeast next time, rather than the crap at Wilko. However, until then, I thought I'd take this little adventure off-road. So I'm making milk wine with rose petals.