Hi Ben,
I'm an Avid retro gamer - with the Dreamcast being my console of choice. It was actually your original Dreamcast portable mod that helped me stumble onto your channel and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it - I felt that it didn't solve what I'd consider to be the three biggest problems with the console.
My main issue is with the disc laser which is prone to failure - and as a result I've gone through four or five Dreamcasts over the last few years (which is both expensive and annoying). Another problem I face as a Retro gamer is space. With limited space and 5 or 6 consoles and a satellite receiver set up under my television - I struggle to keep things tidy. My final problem is the controller. I actually quite like the controller (I know you're not a fan) - but keeping different controllers for all of my consoles lying around can again be messy and having it wired feels strange having become accustomed to wireless..
I'm aware that there's a device which plugs into the board (GDEmu) that mimics the disc drive and allows you to boot games directly from an SD card which would solve the issue of the laser and allow the final design to be a little more compact (I know the size of the drive was an issue when creating your portable). As for the controller - I was wondering whether it would be possible to use a micro-controller of some sort to allow an X-Box 360 pad to be used with the Dreamcast.
I know you've already worked on a big Dreamcast project and so might not want to do another - but I'd love to see you give this a crack.
Love the show and look forward to seeing what you come up with over the coming months and years!
Tom.
