what's your opinion on owning a japanese dreamcast?

[Xeoloux]

Originals only all the way

If you've got the cash that is

[pakopako]

Originals only all the way

If you've got the cash that is

The DC isn't that bad. Yet.

And after a bit of Googling, HERE is the DC console collection I was looking at all those moons ago.

(Doesn't the DC SDcard loader have massive amounts of lag?)

[jinn]

While it's great you can download every game you want from DCzone, I like to use original games as much as possible. Most DC rips are not optimized and will wear out the DC laser faster.
Just like me, there are lots of collectors that will only use originals and never burned CD-Rs.

Well you could be using the SD card Adapter and dreamshell to boot your games. Also I recommend underground-gamer for all your games since they have MASSIVE collections of everything.

I'm very into modding system, I have a DC with Dual BIOS, internal SD and OverClock'd mod.
I know all about playing games of SD, even though I have done everything possible to increase read speed for the SD, there is no way to play every single DC at FULL Speed 100%. Right now only about 8% of all DC games are compatible with SD cards and even they have small issues running of the SD.

There are several places to download DC games from. You need to understand that all CDI CD-Rs DC games are RIPPED version. This mean they down sampled video or audio, in some cases complete remove video or audio. Files are not optimized or no dummy files are included to push game data to outer part of the CD-R.
If you are going to download a game and not purchase an original, then my guess is also that you don't care which media you use to burn the CDI. Most likely you will be buying 100 CD-Rs for $10-$15 and when the laser dies you wont care because how everyone puts it "DC's are dirt cheap".

[Xeoloux]

While it's great you can download every game you want from DCzone, I like to use original games as much as possible. Most DC rips are not optimized and will wear out the DC laser faster.
Just like me, there are lots of collectors that will only use originals and never burned CD-Rs.

Well you could be using the SD card Adapter and dreamshell to boot your games. Also I recommend underground-gamer for all your games since they have MASSIVE collections of everything.

I'm very into modding system, I have a DC with Dual BIOS, internal SD and OverClock'd mod.
I know all about playing games of SD, even though I have done everything possible to increase read speed for the SD, there is no way to play every single DC at FULL Speed 100%. Right now only about 8% of all DC games are compatible with SD cards and even they have small issues running of the SD.

There are several places to download DC games from. You need to understand that all CDI CD-Rs DC games are RIPPED version. This mean they down sampled video or audio, in some cases complete remove video or audio. Files are not optimized or no dummy files are included to push game data to outer part of the CD-R.
If you are going to download a game and not purchase an original, then my guess is also that you don't care which media you use to burn the CDI. Most likely you will be buying 100 CD-Rs for $10-$15 and when the laser dies you wont care because how everyone puts it "DC's are dirt cheap".

You can find some gd-r rips that 100% true, infact theres a whole collection thats like 400gb on underground-gamer. Wonder how those would play on a sd card.

[jinn]

I think we have gone of topic way too much.

If you want a JPN DC get a Limited Edition.
If you just want to play US and JPN game, get a US DC and add a region free chip.
If you need a modchip or BIOS chip let me know.

[theclaw]

Naturally the more frequent you plan to play different region games than your console, the more time is saved with a chip. Disc swaps for light use don't matter much. But it might get irritating after a while to need to swap often.

[Axelord83]

From a collector's point of view I always preferred the Japanese version of the games because of the packaging/artwork/originality. As for the Japanese Dreamcast, it's the same reason. I would rather not deal with mod-chips or swapping discs. If you're able to find one go ahead and grab it.