Hoping to get some clarification

[emptythought]

Any suggests as to what I can ask a potential seller to make sure I'm ok?

I would first as if they know if the Dreamcast supports them. If they don't know ask them to check the manufacture date on the bottom of the Dreamcast. From what I know all Dreamcasts produced before December 2000 is a safe purchase. You can also ask what revision it is. It's a number circled near the manufacture date. If it is a revision 2 model, don't buy it.

Bottom line that I'm looking for is whether, if the SNES emulation is my main reason for purchasing a DC, it would be worth it.

I never played the SNES emulators much, though they're a bit rough if you're not used to low framerates. The currently best SNES emulator, DreamSNES, isn't perfect but it also isn't all that bad. I'd say it's about 50-75 percent of how an actual SNES would perform.

[curt_grymala]

Bottom line that I'm looking for is whether, if the SNES emulation is my main reason for purchasing a DC, it would be worth it.

I never played the SNES emulators much, though they're a bit rough if you're not used to low framerates. The currently best SNES emulator, DreamSNES, isn't perfect but it also isn't all that bad. I'd say it's about 50-75 percent of how an actual SNES would perform.

The real bottom line on SNES emulation for the DC boils down to what games you are planning on playing. Games like Donkey Kong Country and a few others actually probably run closer to 80% of full speed natively, and with the auto frameskip of DSNES, they run at about 95%, but the sound is a little buggy. The sound is even more buggy on SuperFamicast for that game (and the other two in the series), but the game seems to be more playable.

If you're playing games with transparencies, there is very little chance you'll get them to be playable (from what I've heard, they're probably lower than 50%, and that's with the transparencies turned off).

If you're playing games like Super Mario World, it's probably close to 75%, but it's definitely playable.

[Strapping Scherzo]

One game I remember working suprisingly well on DSNES is Super Punch Out.

[Sweater Fish]

The real bottom line on SNES emulation for the DC boils down to what games you are planning on playing. Games like Donkey Kong Country and a few others actually probably run closer to 80% of full speed natively, and with the auto frameskip of DSNES, they run at about 95%, but the sound is a little buggy. The sound is even more buggy on SuperFamicast for that game (and the other two in the series), but the game seems to be more playable.

If you're playing games with transparencies, there is very little chance you'll get them to be playable (from what I've heard, they're probably lower than 50%, and that's with the transparencies turned off).

If you're playing games like Super Mario World, it's probably close to 75%, but it's definitely playable.

This is, of course, subjective. I personally can't get into any games at all with DreamSNES. I can stand a framskip of 1 or *MAYBE* 2, but I find that all games in DreamSNES require more than that and it just bothers me. And auto frameskip is even worse, in my opinion, that just letting a game run slow, the stuttering and skipping sound and framerate really grate on me. So, unless the original poster has experience emulating stuff below full speed and knows how he feels about levels of frameskip, it's hard to say whether he'll find DreamSNES satisfying.


...word is bondage...

[impact135]

i dont want to say anything bad about dreamsnes.. but many other emulators on the dreamcast run much better.

[bentodd]

Dreamsnes is good but I am definately a nesterdc fan. By far the best emu for dc.

Brn

[JohnnyB]

DreamSNES isn't playable quite frankly.

[Cid Highwind]

My opinion:

If playing snes games is your reason you're buying a DC, you will have to wait till Chui's emulator shows more progress. Dreamsnes plays some games just fine, but I found the speed not good enough for 95% of the games to be enjoyable. I prefer to play them on a pc.

Now if you would like to play NES games, the DC is the perfect solution

[Coagulus]

Don't forget mind, Scherzo is still around and could still improve his emu! I'd love a bit of competition and a new impetus to get Snes emulation at a lovely level. Although it has to be said that Chui appears to have a fire under him at the mo!

[Chui]

SNES4ALL is not a competition, i only try to build a new SNES emulator using my SDL driver.
I think that using SDL is good for coding quickly, because it is possible to compile and run for Windows or GNU/Linux.

Also, you must remember that all my projects is open source, anything can be used at another emulators.

[Arqueiro]

SNES4ALL is not a competition, i only try to build a new SNES emulator using my SDL driver.
I think that using SDL is good for coding quickly, because it is possible to compile and run for Windows or GNU/Linux.

Also, you must remember that all my projects is open source, anything can be used at another emulators.

nice see you arroumd here Chui, be welcome !

[jessman]

Don't buy a Dreamcast solely for SNES, because it's still got quite a bit to go through. If you would, however, be interested in NES, Gameboy, Atari, Sega Master System/Sega Game Gear, Arcade, and a bunch of great fan-made games, then you should DEFINATELY buy one! All of the systems that I've listed run FULL-SPEED, except for some arcade games, but trust me, you could really have a lot of fun with a Dreamcast.

[Christuserloeser]

NeoGeo emulation, SCUMM VM (Lucas Arts adventures), Beats of Rage, loads of great homebrew games...

Some places to get you started:
http://www.dcevolution.net/ - Ready to burn images, compilations
http://dreamcast.dcemu.co.uk - News, downloads, great forums
http://www.dreamcast-scene.com - News, DC Wiki, great forums

Tutorial how to create/burn a Dreamcast CD:
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showth ... p?p=109630

Recommend emulators:
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=11086