"NOTE" Leave Sega licensing and Boot Intro on. If you turn it off you will run into some loading issues from time to time on certain Dreamcast titles and glitches can and will occur.

I'd heard of this mod! amazed how easy the install appears to be, no soldering or anything like that. definitely looking into checking out this mod for my system!

Just what i need, my DC laser is dead and i don't want to spend money and time to find a working laser unit, this will solve the problem, great video!

I got a faulty Dreamcast, $20 with defective optical drive, with one of these I'm very happy with the investment for access to the entire Dreamcast library (and a bunch of SNES games I found on a GD image online) what a treat

After going through my third laser, I'm sick of replacing them so I'm gonna go with a GDEMU. Thanks for showing this off!

Dreamcast: Digital Edition*

This is such a awesome alternative since nowadays most Dreamcast games are rare and expensive to get

This is super cool and almost makes me want to dust off my Dreamcast but I can barely spare enough time to play the new games I want to.

I would love to see a video of further mods you can do with a DreamCast.

If using the GDemu i'd recommend replacing the PSU with a Pico PSU. When you replace the GDrom unit you reduce the power usage of the Dreamcast and don't use one of the power rails... this leads to a LOT of excess heat being produced and the unit can get very hot. This isn't helped by the lack of GDrom unit disrupting the air flow from the fan. I'd especially recommend if using a clone as the quality of those isn't close to a real unit and they are more vulnerable to the heat.

One of my favorite channels making a video on my favorite console? Yes please. So two notes. Theres an application that sets up the SD card for you. Also, its recommended that you get a 3d printed holder for this. With the disk drive gone, the fan is now blowing air into the empty slace where it used to be. This can cause the power supply to start to overheat with longer play sessions. Id recommend getting a cheap 3d holder for it off ebay.

Great video buddy, going to link your video to mine ;) If people want to make there own GDemu Dreamcast system.

You should be able to use GDI also. The only reason to use CDI is cause they can be put on a CD-r. Plus GDI would not have any compressed files or sounds missing.

Have you looked into a power supply mod or a fan mod? Removing the gdrom drive makes the power supply run hot. Also while you're in there you can replace the hard soldered battery with a cheap mount so you can replace it in the future.

+ETA PRIME Just two things to note which would be worth mentioning in the description. Your Dreamcast needs to be VA1 for this board to work. If you have one that is VA2, it won't work. Quickest way to know is to look at the label at the bottom of the DC - there is a circle with 0, 1 or 2 and of course, it's 1 you want. I think the vast majority of Dreamcasts are 1 and only later models have 2. You also can't play burned games with a VA2 model either but even with VA1, you can only burn a CD sized game (or a game with lower quality audio or removed content to fit on a CD (remember, GDRom is bigger than CDRom and there are few (if any) CD drives for PC that can rip them). Thankfully, these GDEmus (and their clones) resolve that. If you ever see a clone for the Rhea (The Saturn equivalent of this), let me know where. I'd love to grab one but the guy who makes them (and the authentic GDEmu) is quite difficult to deal with.

You're the man! Almost considered spending a few racks on Chinese retro emulators, now that I've seen this will definitely be injecting more life into my beloved Dreamcast!

I bought one of these off of a guy selling his here in the Philippines. I was about to take a flight to Japan to hunt a lot of this stuff down; until I research the BONKERS prices. I'm emulating my collections all the way now. Between this and my KINHAWK I'm very happy replaying the old glory days!

So glad you are doing a video on this. I've been wondering what the hype with these GDEMU's was all about.

Wow, this was the last video I expected from you. Do more flashcarts

The best part about this is that you don't hear the drive anymore, not that it ever bothered me in the first place.

A quiet Dreamcast would be truly something to behold in person

The dreamcast is so cleanly assembled.

Man just got this done finally at 4:30AM...

Please add more videos about gdemu & Dreamcast: thumbnails, power supply, battery change... Great job as always

Dreamcast is one of my all time favorite consoles. Awesome video man.

You don't need to rename your game files to 'disc' within their numbered folders when you are using the GDMENU interface. Renaming game files to 'disc' only needs to be done if you are not using the GDMENU interface and using only the button on the device to change games.

I had no idea Chinese knockoffs that actually work exist! I just bought one thanks to you ETA Prime :D

Thank You for this presentation :) it costs more than I spent on a used dreamcast I recently bought..

High level video, I can finally play Rival Schools 2 again.

Let’s see more stuff like this!! Awesome!!

So getting this for my model 1 dreamcast. Looks awesome to being able to have the library on a memory card and no more noise!

DUDE THANK YOU! I've been on the fence about buying one of the clones for so long, and none of the reviews I found A) did I trust very much. B) did they mention it being a clone or original. This is the review / tutorial I've been waiting for! You're the man ETA.

i would recommend using the SD CARD MAKER for GDEmu 1.10 by MadSheep rather than doing it manually like this, especially if you are adding a lot of games and it makes loading the menu instant. i have a 512gb sd card in mine with the entire dreamcast collection on there in gdi format and it loads instantly and runs amazing.

I put a text file in the sub folders with the title of the game so when I put the SD back into the PC to add or remove games, I know what they are. :)

The USB-GDROM has better compatibility than the GDEMU. I had the GDEMU and sold it to get the USB-GDROM so I could have better compatibility and less issues.

My 2nd Dreamcast in the last year broke this morning. It makes a lot of noise when reading the discs during certain points in the game, I think I would benefit from making this switch. For the past couple of months I've got back online with a DreamPi and been playing Phantasy Star Online ver 2 which has been amazing! Would love to see those covered on your channel.

If you can get the GDI files you should.

For the moment, my Dreamcast run very well, but the day the laser will stop working, I will consider this solution, thanks for this video.

Ah man, the disc drive of my Dreamcast is so incredibly loud. This sounds like a great solution to that! :P

I went the USB-GDROM route for my dreamcast but I have a Phoebe for the Saturn and both are fantastic!

You're absolutely insane if you the Pound cable has good picture quality

Nice to see a Dreamcast Mod. I also thougt about the GDEMU but for me but its just to expansive. even with the clones one. Maybe when my laser starts to failing. And everyone who has a Dreamcast and don´t use the 480p VGA output. You have to use it. The quality is amazing.

Oh god, this is a dream setup. Unfortunately it's too expensive to import one unit to my country :(

A dreamcast mini with blutooth or usb controller options would be a big seller.

This gdemu clone works very well I was able to revive my second dreamcast. Easy, fast loading, with gdemusd allows to patch vga automatically, Top. Unfortunately I had to modify the psu with the 12v mod (remove transistor and resistor) but this results in the loss of rgb, the vmu are under power, the vibrations no longer work and the power supply always overheats. Finally I ordered the dc psu pico (I will receive it in a few days). The dreamcast is my heart console. Next purchase a new vgabox (kuro plus) to replace the rotten retrobit.

Oh great! I hope they do something like this for PS1 and PS2 as well.

I just ordered one off amazon prime, it was about 100 a little higher than eBay but if there’s an issue easy return. I’m just waiting on the file transfers then I’ll test it out. Used all the instructions got my fingers crossed. Sadly it seems a majority of sources I found have bin cue vs cdi/iso files. Looking at conversions for them and still trying out other sources. Got about 45 cdi files to play with most of what I want. Thanks for the play by play. One thing I noticed was the instructions stated that it has to be a model one or zero as model 2s psu will supposedly fry the GDEMU. Might want to addendum that, or not. Luckily of the three Dreamcast I had lying around 2 were model ones.

This'll save a lot of Dreamcasts from the junk bin.

I also use an sd card extended lead it makes swapping out the sd card so much easier

All ways wanted one of theses. But they costs so much. Happy to hear there are cheap versions out there.

4:17 Zero one driver

Did this mod. Clean the PSU pins of you run into issues. It's not the GDEMU. Easy fix works great!

I just got mine yesterday. used a 64gb sd card, formatted to FAT32, add the files, add Sonic Adventure, gave it a test. 1st I tried .gdi & apparently .gdi files don't seem to work. So I manage to get .cdi file, tested out & worked perfectly!

thanks great explanation just what i needed to work how to set up SD card using a mac

Replace the CMOS battery while you are in there... Unless you prefer to enter the date every single time you boot up ? They are not the normal CR2032 BIOS battery... but still only a buck or two on amazon.

Since my disk reader is trash now, i guess I'll be modding my dreamcast after 20 years

There is a 3D printed cover with a SD extender for easier access for 15 bucks in the ebay too

MVC2 Is definitely the best demonstration of the GDEmu, one of the worst games to emulate or run off backup discs of.

Might have to do this with one of my two dreamcast, especially since the GDEMU board is 55 dollars on amazon

I shudda went this route first I had bought a new disk reader for mi Dreamcast cuz it wuz dead and I went ahead n burned about 100 games most worked some didn't 😩 and now for some reason now mi dream cast ain't playing 96% of the burns that it wuz playing b4 and something told mi go wit the gdemu but I wu just used to the feel of changing CD's tryna feel that old skool FUK THAT NOW lmao mi GDEMU just got here yesterday as soon as I get home today goin in on that Dreamcast!! TIME FOR Surgery on the Dreamcast

i love that the dreamcast is a arcade machine it is sort of a sega naomi

Word of warning! You must change your power supply when using the gdemu mod. Your original power supply was built to take a load from the cd drive. When its removed the psu overheats.

Going To try this. I own 2 dreamcasts and both disc lens are worn out. Great alternative

This is amazing, I need to get me one of these. For now ill just play them on my pc.

Was very sceptical about getting a clone, plus i've brought from GDEMU/Denuan before so i would rather support him directly... HOWEVER, I always seem to miss the windows for GDEMU pre-orders so i guess my only option is to pick up a clone ODE instead. Thank you for the demo ETA PRIME!

You're the MacGyver of electronics.

I still have a Brand New in Box never used Dreamcast somewhere, got it for $99 when a electronic shop closed down about 8 years ago Might be time to find it, Cheers ETA

Is there a big difference between the one ETA used and the more expensive model? Does anyone know?

3:28 if you have a Mac you can do this in 5 seconds in disk utility. I could’ve saved myself a heap of time

Wow, I could only imagine how much lighter the Dreamcast console is with the optical disc components removed. With the extra space inside, you could maybe put in a Raspberry Pi, haha.

From the dreamcast's perspective it is just loading off a gdrom disc. Now all that is needed is a WiFi addon that goes in place of the modem card

Wow the insides look ancient techwise

ETA Prime, the emulation expert, said "CDI roms". 😮

My bootleggers in the early 00s was burning games on a disk literally over hundred games on a disc on dreamcast...

I've heard that this also heats up the DC pretty bad and that you will need to mod the PCU as well

That's it?! Just plug and play, no soldering?

Love your videos :) This one needs additional info though: For your PSU to survive long-term you definitely need to disable the 12V rail. Also, the inside bracket is also important as the missing GDROM drive affects cooling efficiency. Maybe a bit more research was needed for this one. Keep them coming though :)

$400? I just ordered a genuine one from the source for like $160.

i always preferred to preserve gdrom working because i have many original games. it could be usefull an ode working in parallel with gdrom.

Instructions: unscrew disc drive, plug in sd drive. Nice! Would Dreamshell work with this?

Excelente tutorial. Assistindo aqui no Brasil.

If anyone wonders, for multitrack roms, this is the naming convention: disc.gdi track01.bin track02.bin etc...

Excellent video!! I’ve been looking to resuscitate my DC for years now and have access to my games (one of them being mvc2) 3 quick questions: 1) using mvc2 for example, would this mod have access to the saved data in your memory card? Bc I have stored so much progress in there. 2) do you have a link that would show how to burn/copy your own disc game into your cpu? 3) where would I be able to access a large DC games library online to download? Any help is much appreciated, you def have my like and follow my guy!!

I'd heard something about putting resistors on the power supply to make up for removing the power-draw of the optical drive?

Sounds like something I could use. While I have a couple of functioning DCs, my original launch DC's laser is dead. I could replace the drive with this thing and continue to use it.

Holly shiz 😳 somthing needs to be done with the sega saturn also that would be class

If you buy one of these don't forget to mod the power supply and get one of those 3d printed inserts if you can afford it.

Pound cables aren't exactly quality. If one doesn't care about video quality and they just want to play have at it but the DC HDMI or even some of the Behar Bros cables/boxes are of better build and video quality all around.

Waiting for the dreamcast mini.

I was wondering when you were going to start covering stuff like this.

I recommend gitbash to compress your gdi images compresses some to just a few hundred mb I've managed fit well over 200 games on a 128gb card.

have you experienced any overheating from this mod? according to retro RGB because the ODE doesn’t use 12v on the GD-Rom drive, it’s safer to remove it from the power supply. I don't have soldering experience and would prefer to not do it if it doesn't affect the dreamcast

Iirc you dont need to name the folders 01, 02 etc. You can name them after the file for better sorting. Also echoing the room about SD Card Maker.

ETA PRIME, I love your content just on the fence with this video, only because the clones are profiting from the original creator’s work on the GDEMU.

Hey, I really appreciate all your videos but this one. The GdEmu runs hot weather it's a clone or real. Removing the clock battery is easy so you can talk about that. I would also talk about removing one capacitor to reduce the over heating or removing the power supply in general for a pico PSU. You could also talk about the noctua fans modes. And I can't stress it enough that the pound cables aren't good. They do bleed out the colors and not every game will work I don't know if pound paid you to say it's good or not I mean if they did then I get it.. money is awesome. But yeah you can do a lot of mods and the best of all for video is the DCHDMI mod. I currently use the Geko HDMI from bohoro Bros or however you spell it.

Use Gdemu maker! Way faster. WAY WAY FASTER. drag and drop

Nice video why did you have to rename the file folders disc?

Hey merry Christmas thanks for all of the great videos this year. Do u know if there is a max size sd card that works

I must buy this !! my dreamcast makes a lot of noise.. with this I think it would be so quite.

that link for the guiformater doesn't seem to work anymore , any safe suggestion for an alternative ?