About a month ago at a rummage sale in a brown box there was an dreamcast with matching controller hookups and a few other misc items at the time i assumed it was the sega sports bundle i bought the entire box brought it home and forgot about it. Fast forward to today i opened it up and started taking it out and to my amazement there was no sports logo on the dreamcast or controller JUST PURE BLACK i hook it up low and behold its all in Japanese i pop in my usa Shenmue ....it doesn't boot i try Japanese sword of berserk and it loads beautifully, anyways what do i have in my hands how can i tell if this truly is one of the (as i have come to learn) rare super black dreamcasts? Also if it is a super black dreamcast what is a round about price that it's worth because i got it for next to nothing.
Here are a few pictures sorry for the crappy quality (cell phone) i will retake them as soon as i get a hold of my girlfriends camera.
It's definitely not painted, i was looking at in closely in the light and there is what could be a "rub" mark on both the console and the controller i assumed it was just from being in the box of stuff for so long. If it is a normal sports edition did they release them in japan? What would account for it only reading imports? Thanks a lot!
Actually, I was about to mention the possiblity of simply rubbing out the Sports logos, but you seem to have possibly answered your own question. Thing is, It doesn't look to be a Japanese unit by way of the consoles casing. The bottom sticker info reflects that of a US console as well the "compatible with Windows CE" logo (although its dam hard to see it clearly from your shady pics). Now with regards to the console reading JPN software exlcusively... It could that the previous owner had a JPN DC, found a SS black US DC, and started frankenstiening that MoFo.
if my memory serves me right wasn't there the dream point marble(?) black edition? I do recall they had pure pink(?), and other colours so black would be no brainer but it's been a long while so can't trust me memory...
I might be talking out of my ass here, but wasn't there a way to permanently change a DC's bios from one region to another? Some super simple mod? Looks like a sweet find, from here. Even if it turns out to be "nothing special" it still looks like a nice machine to have around!
I think it is probably a sports model. I rubbed off the sports logo on my controller and it looks just like that. The rare JPN black dreamcast looks like this on the bottom - as with the other Japanese dreamcasts of all types - note the comparatively smaller info sticker compared to a US model The surefire way to tell is that the JPN black console would say "designed for windows CE" whereas the sports model would say "compatible with windows CE". I can't tell what your console says from the pics, but that's easy for you to look at. As for the "permanent" region change, there is a fairly simple way of doing it without a modchip or reflashed bios: http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/dreamcast-region-change/
Speaking of that region mod, don't forget to take the wire off when you're done! And OP, you might open your DC up and make sure someone didn't do this mod -AND- leave the wire in.
