MGCD impressions?

[zinger]

I'd really like to be able to play Border Down and Under Defeat on my cabinet, but don't feel like spending several hundred bucks on a Naomi setup + games when I already have the DC ports.

So, I was wondering if anyone around here has any experience with this device? How reliable is it? User friendly? Maybe there are better options? And oh, soldering isn't really my thing.

[zakk]

I'd really like to be able to play Border Down and Under Defeat on my cabinet, but don't feel like spending several hundred bucks on a Naomi setup + games when I already have the DC ports.

So, I was wondering if anyone around here has any experience with this device? How reliable is it? User friendly? Maybe there are better options? And oh, soldering isn't really my thing.

I don't use the video portion of the mgcd, so keep that in mind.

The video is 15khz only (which if you only have a 15khz capable cab, no big deal). I thought it sort of looked crappy when I did have to use the video for some debugging. Others may think otherwise, as I didn't put extensive time into it.

It's mostly just plug and play, however, the pinout is somewhat non-standard. In order to have all the buttons work, they used some of the jamma grounds as buttons. You don't have to modify your cab for this to work, you can make a small jamma adapter that does it. If you're not the soldering type you'll need to get this made (or just learn how).

Just about any game will work if you put the mgcd into 'time for credits' mode and set the time per credit to something insanely high.

Andy at ultimarc did do a jamma<->dreamcast thing that's mostly plug and play. It uses a slightly modified version of his PSX adapters and then uses a PSX->DC controller adapter. However, I find his solution way too expensive.

[zinger]

My monitor is 15khz only, so that's not a big deal. However, I saw some photographs of the unit in action with some relatively big letters across the bottom of the screeen indicating credit count, don't tell me there's no option to turn that off?!

I'm afraid I'll have to go with Andy's device, pricey, but does save me a lot of trouble. Thanks for the tip and your detailed description!

[Dave_K.]

Do a search on the site here for MGCD, I know I both zakk and I wrote extensively about it. Its possible to hack the MGCD to remove the timer in 15khz mode, as well as use the VGA box like zakk said for my cabs which support 31khz. Zakk also discovered you need to feed the 31khz sync from the dc vga box back into the MGCD. In this respect, it is far from plug and play.

[zinger]

search

Right, thank you!

[sven666]

My monitor is 15khz only, so that's not a big deal. However, I saw some photographs of the unit in action with some relatively big letters across the bottom of the screeen indicating credit count, don't tell me there's no option to turn that off?!

I'm afraid I'll have to go with Andy's device, pricey, but does save me a lot of trouble. Thanks for the tip and your detailed description!

depends on the MGCD, on some the credit count fades out after a few seconds, on some it just stays on

high-res systems will always look kinda crappy on a 15khz monitor, no way around it (certainly not a cheap one anyways) just as lo-res games will always look better on a dedicated 15khz monitor.. its a question of how picky you are vs your wallet...