User:Al Balog

Enthusiast & experimenter of the PS1, Dreamcast, PS2 and Panasonic 3DO. Helping to clarify all of the different models with the vast collection that I've had over the years.

Below are the Dreamcast consoles that I casually use for gaming, themed after "Dr. Death" Steve Williams (my all-time favorite wrestler & lifetime role model) and I designed them to match his color scheme in AJPW (All Japan).

The white one is a VA1 from September 2000 using a GDEMU, and the red one is a VA2 from December 2000, which can't read burned games at all with its BIOS. I had up to four (!!!) VA2 consoles at one time, and I didn't care since I already have all my favorite Dreamcast games on legit GD-ROMs. 😊 Sadly though, two of the VA2 units died over the years. but I used them to help research & experiment for the "greater good" of the retro-gaming community. 😅 I use my VA1 to mod Kiss Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child, my all-time favorite first person shooter.

I also had all models of the PS1 and PS2 Slim at one point, which I got cheaply over the years. Took photos of all of the differences as I still had them. Decided to keep the SCPH-79001 PS2 Slim since it doesn't scratch my discs, while selling the other four units I had "for parts" and "somewhat working" in an eBay batch. Two died, the third could only read DVD games, and the fourth could only read CD games.

As for my Dreamcast, I feel that having a modded VA1 with a GDEMU and a late VA2 help keep the balance of my "real disc" games and my amateur ROM hacking.