Dreamcast Kiosk systems - Any advantages over regular systems?

[noname11]

Hi,

I just got a Dreamcast Kiosk (the console itself and nothing else) and Ive been looking for information all day about this console. Does it have any advantages over the regular release of the system?(As in durability, rarity, or value?) All I can find is some information about heat sinks but I feel like I'm out of the loop in trying to understand what everyone is talking about.

[Ed Oscuro]

I dunno...welcome to Club "DC Kiosk and nothing else," though! Mine just...sits there...in a box :(

[Moo Cow]

Hi,

I just got a Dreamcast Kiosk (the console itself and nothing else) and Ive been looking for information all day about this console. Does it have any advantages over the regular release of the system?(As in durability, rarity, or value?) All I can find is some information about heat sinks but I feel like I'm out of the loop in trying to understand what everyone is talking about.

Rarity and value should be higher than a regular Dreamcast.

[Chuplayer]

Don't they not say SEGA on them? From when SEGA was going to not use their name with the system? I think I saw one in Toys R Us in 1999 that didn't say SEGA. I was surprised when I got mine for Christmas that year, and it said SEGA above the controller ports.

[KingCobra]

Don't they not say SEGA on them? From when SEGA was going to not use their name with the system? I think I saw one in Toys R Us in 1999 that didn't say SEGA. I was surprised when I got mine for Christmas that year, and it said SEGA above the controller ports.

Nope, not true. I have two of theim and they say SEGA above the controller port.

I have one Boxed still and the other I've been using for 8 years and let me say they're very stong, mines still kicking and I play it just about every week.

[noname11]

Mine also says "Sega" on the controller port. And yes, the system itself seems to run better than any of my other Sega Dreamcasts.

No skipping, no dead contoller port. This thing is great! I was testing House of the Dead 2 for like an hour and got so into the game that i yanked the system about 4 inches off the ground and the game didnt skip or glitch despite a crash landing!

The label itself has some Japanese writing despite the "U/C" designation and the modem itself has some Japanese stickers. However, the system only plays US games.

Does this sound like everyone else's system?

[OdSquad64]

i don't have one, but i believe there's an extra heat sink or some kind of special heat sink inside

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

I have a full standing DC Kiosk. The system inside it however, has always been fickle. Sometimes I can put a game in and it fires right up no problem. Othertimes it will just give me the DC settings screen. Not the date/time settings, I mean the DC browser screen.

Another odd thing about this particular Kiosk DC is that it will not read any CDs of any kind. Audio CDs...CDRs....nothing. Just GD-Rom discs. I have taken it apart more than once to continually readjust the laser diode to fix the not reading discs issue but haven't seen anything out of the unusual on the inside aside from my other DC units. I do know this one is different from the others as it has a different model number on the bottom that I'd never seen on my other DC units. Another thing, it won't read any of the recently released homebrews or any other game on CD media. Best I can tell, the DC in this kiosk will not read CD media period. I believe it to be one of the rumored "Can't read CDs DC" units I read about from time to time.

[ProgrammingAce]

The kiosk systems should have metal heat pipes, and i believe they have the window to show the disc spinning that was taken out of the US systems.

[kedawa]

Yeah, mine won't play any CDs either, and it never harasses me for the date and time, even when it has been unplugged for weeks.

When I bought my kiosk, I noticed a couple differences right off the bat, specifically that it uses a non-polarized (XBOX style) power cord instead of a polarized (PSX style) one, and it is made in japan instead of taiwan or wherever the normal DC was made.

The tv included in the NA kiosk is also interesting in that it always displays the composite input, even though it has a coax connection. I'm not sure if it has no tuner, or just a custom bios, but there doesn't seem to be any way to watch tv on it.

The controllers included with the kiosk are assembled with security torx screws instead of philips screws, but I don't think they have any internal differences itself.

FYI, you can unplug those noisy kiosk fans as long as you run the kiosk without the clear window on the front.

BTW, Does anyone know if these Kiosk units are the same as the pre-launch BB rental units?

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

Well...I don't really know about all the plugs and such. My kiosk has a small 13inch Samsung TV in it. I can access the settings, but there isn't anything there to change the tuner so like yours it appears to be on composite input video mode only. All of the stuff on my kiosk appears to plug into some surge strip or something like that inside that I haven't quite seen for myself yet. The entire thing is powered up with a single 3-prong cord in the back. Upon checking mine out again...it also doesn't do the date and time as I thought it did. That is my other DC hooked up along side my PC's monitor that I play from time to time heh. Either way...it still won't play any CDs at all. And I would really like to see a pic of these heat pipes you mention. Then again, I've only taken my DC apart to only the upper case shell, and GD-Rom unit removal. I haven't ever gotten to the motherboard itself as I never have had a reason to. But I can confirm that the DC model in my kiosk still has a battery on the controller board which I believe is used to keep date and time.

[noname11]

My kiosk system also has no date/time nag screen. However, unlike everyone elses kiosk on here, mine seems to boot homebrew and Music CDs just fine. Especially homebrew :)

Maybe there are variations amongst the kiosk systems themselves. What's everyone elses Model number? HKT-3021 here...

[Dreadstar]

I feel like an idjit, and sorry for bumping an old thread, but I'd like to add my $.02.

I bought my first DC (console only, then added controllers and cables from ebay) back in late July/early August 07. Love it, but noticed that it didn't want to read a homebrew disc (Final Fight: The Last Round) no matter how many different ways I tried to burn it. I posted on another board and it seemed like the answer was "it should just work."

So today I'm out scrounging and I pick up a DC at Goodwill with cables and one controller for 13 bucks. Just for curiosity's sake I burn a fresh copy of FFLR and lo and behold, it plays like a charm on the new DC. So I compare the two consoles and come to the realization that the first one is a kiosk model. Had no clue that there was a difference. That's why I feel like an idjit. :embarrassed:

Anyway, my HKT-3021 does prompt for the date and time after a power loss. It reads both burned and retail audio cds. It will also boot to Utopia and play at least one Japanese title. But it won't boot a homebrew. Seems weird.

And the funny thing is I passed over a Genesis 2 (I think) with controllers but no cables, 3 carts, and something rattling on the inside before I found the DC. :)

[noname11]

I was just thinking about this thread the other day. Its been months of heavy use and my kiosk Dreamcast is running great!

If anyone has a choice between a normal Dreamcast and a kiosk Dreamcast, go with the kiosk model.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I'm not sure about the "kiosk" Dreamcast units, however, from experience I can tell you that the PRE-RELEASE "store demo" Dremcasts that Funcoland / Software Etc. received prior to the actual Dreamcast launch had some type of varied chipset/processors in them.

We found this out when the ENTIRE Midway launch lineup (which worked fine on our store demo unit) had MAJOR sound-skipping issues with all the launch Dreamcasts sold.

Midway LITERALLY needed to do an entire re-press (with bright green and orange "NEW" stickers on the cover) of their launch lineup the following month.

Sega even had some minor sound/loading issues with Sonic Adventure, and you can find a color variation on the disc in their second pressings.

Now, since those store demo units have long been "mixed" into the wild of used Dreamcasts, I'm not sure if you'd be able to track one down ... but if the "kiosk" was up prior to launch, it'll probably one of those, and won't have any issues with any of those early pressings of Midway's Dreamcast launch software.

[InsaneDavid]

It's very easy to tell the kiosk Dreamcasts apart from production models. First, it says right on the bottom sticker that it's a kiosk unit. Second, there's no modem, just a big chunk of plastic acting as a faux modem in its place. Then of course there are the internals. This thread (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74507) brought up a similar discussion years ago - REMEMBER THERE IS NO LIQUID IN THOSE PIPES DAMNIT! :)

Since that was so long ago, here's the picture I had there at that time...

Here's a picture of the additional air cooling on a kiosk Dreamcast I reburbished for a friend...

http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/kioskDCinside04.jpg

As you can see there is a radiator built around the fan prop that has piping running from it that leads to large heatsinks over the CPU and GPU.

There is no window in the door. As for homebrew, you have to specify exactly what you mean. If you mean a commercial pressing that was recently released than alright. If you mean an emulator like NESterDC then you have to make sure the disc was actually compiled and burned correctly before declaring that your DC doesn't run "homebrews." In other words it needs to run 100% in another Dreamcast or many other Dreamcasts - the same physical disc, not just the source image burned to different media / by different people.

The kiosk system above runs everything, it's no longer in my hands but I can get it back any time in exchange for a standard DC. The kiosk shell is extremely yellowed due to a fluorescent lamp in very close proximity to it in the kiosk display (was from a Target P2000 endcap kiosk). My friend wanted the shell painted so I swapped it into a standard DC shell that I painted gloss black. I retained the original shell as well as the fake kiosk modem so that the system could be reunited with it at a later date. One thing I will say about the kiosk DC's is that they seem to be louder than the production models.

[Dreadstar]

FWIW, my kiosk model does have a modem, and the modem itself has a different label than the modem on my retail model. I'll try to post pictures either at lunch or after work, just for poops and giggles.

[noname11]

Mine has a modem too, and japanese writing on the modem and system label itself. Oddly enough, it doesnt natively play japanese games :(

[Dreadstar]

Mine has a modem too, and japanese writing on the modem and system label itself. Oddly enough, it doesnt natively play japanese games :(
Same here.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2397/2232062274_1f15a71b77_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2134/2232061906_b07a8dc7bf_b.jpg

Odd that the labels are 180 degrees off from each other too.

[izarate]

It's very easy to tell the kiosk Dreamcasts apart from production models. First, it says right on the bottom sticker that it's a kiosk unit. Second, there's no modem, just a big chunk of plastic acting as a faux modem in its place.

Sorry for resurrecting such an old thread. I just got a DC at a pawn shop and to my surprise instead of the modem it came with this:

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/1174/img6836.jpg
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/5249/img6839m.jpg

I looked for some info and the only thing I managed to find on the whole web was your post. So it might have come from a kiosk unit then? I would like to know how did "Carlos Hernandez" get it and put in his Dreamcast (pictured below) LOL

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/1912/img6848.jpghttp://img821.imageshack.us/img821/989/img6840.jpg

I guess I'll never know...:sob:




By the way, I see that the posted pic about the DC with heat pipe cooling doesn't work anymore. Here's a picture for those who are curious about it:

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/825/img5270lz1.jpg

[Arkhan]

well if its in the kiosk...

you can stand up and play!

[Rickstilwell1]

Mine also says "Sega" on the controller port. And yes, the system itself seems to run better than any of my other Sega Dreamcasts.

No skipping, no dead contoller port. This thing is great! I was testing House of the Dead 2 for like an hour and got so into the game that i yanked the system about 4 inches off the ground and the game didnt skip or glitch despite a crash landing!

The label itself has some Japanese writing despite the "U/C" designation and the modem itself has some Japanese stickers. However, the system only plays US games.

Does this sound like everyone else's system?

I have a used normal Dreamcast that has no skipping; no dead controller port. Doesn't mean it's any more durable.

My point is, I wouldn't want to treat a kiosk unit any less carefully than a normal Dreamcast because there is no guarantee it's any stronger. If you're talking more along the lines that a kiosk unit could last longer, it really depends on how much you use it and what conditions it is exposed to. Even movement can cause something to mess up at any point in time with any of the disc based systems.

[kedawa]

I thin k the pre-release rental units also had empty plastic shells in place of the modem.

[Arkhan]

slight side tangent, but remember the PS3 kiosks with the empty plastic PS3 shell? lol.