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Thread: DC Utopia, VGA box

  1. #1
    Pac-Man (Level 10) NoahsMyBro's Avatar
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    Default DC Utopia, VGA box

    Last night I hooked up a newly-acquired VGA (Performance brand) box to my PC and Dreamcast, and tried it out.

    The sound volume from the DC is a lot louder than the PC, so I have to adjust the volume when switching modes, but the existence of the passthrough is terrific, and the picture is AMAZING. I ran Skies of Arcadia for a few minutes and it was gorgeous. I saw detail I never saw before, and the colors were exceptionally bright & vibrant. (I just wish I could hook Battlesphere up that way. My TV is too dark and I can't make out enough detail in Battlesphere to even play the game.)

    Then, anticipating being blown away, I tried to launch Rez. My Utopia 1.1 disc is incompatible with the VGA box!

    I downloaded and burned a Utopia 1.2 that I found from some link at a Japanese webpage that I found on groups.google.com, but it doesn't seem to work. When I try to boot the DC with it, I just get a black screen.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks,
    Steve

  2. #2
    Ladd Spencer (Level 17) Captain Wrong's Avatar
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    Ahh! I can fix your problem. First this disclaimer: Captain Wrong assumes no responsibility for any damage you may incurr to your Monitor, DC, software, or VGA box. Ok, legal department is happy, let's go.

    What you need to do is start your DC with the Utopia disc, like you were going to load a game, but have your VGA box switched to TV mode. Listen for the spin down and swap discs. Then when it starts loading your new game, hit the VGA switch. It may take a couple of tries to get the timing, but if you do it right, your game should load up in VGA.

    Now, the warning was because I've heard this isn't a smart thing to do and you risk damaging your gear somehow. I've done this many many times, including times where the timing was off and I had to start over, and everything still works fine.

    Also, here'a fun fact. Did you know that some DC games actually are VGA compatable despite what it says on the box? Here's another fun fact, some other games that won't load up VGA and don't appear to load up VGA will in fact play in VGA mode if you use the switch trick I described above (Q Bert is one game I can think of off the top of my head that loads in VGA with the switch trick).

    Hope this helps. Enjoy!

  3. #3
    Insert Coin (Level 0) 6502's Avatar
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    You could also try getting a copy of Cheats 'N Codes vol. 1, which is a stripped down version of the Gameshark software that doesn't allow you to enter new codes (and also doesn't require a dongle, which makes it perfect for a boot disc in my view). REZ works on VGA with a Naki box and the Cheats 'N Codes disc. I also have a Performance VGA box, but I can't test that as it's at my parents' house. Some VGA boxes don't support some VGA-compatible games for some reason (for example, my Naki won't boot Evolution on VGA even though Evolution is supposed to be VGA-compatible). You are trying to boot the Japanese NTSC REZ and not the Euro REZ correct (not sure if it makes any difference or not)?

    The switch trick that Captain Wrong describes also works. I've used it successfully on all the non-VGA DC games I have except for Air Force Delta (nothing I do works for that game). Interestingly enough, I don't have to listen for the drive to spin down before hitting the switch. As long as the bouncing swirl boot screen is finished, I can switch from "TV" to "VGA" at any time and it will work (guess this might be something peculiar to the Naki box).

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