The MODE from TerraOnion - Review - Game Sack

Episode
285 - Terraonion's MODE is an optical disc emulator for Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast that lets you play games on real hardware without the original discs. how does it work? Is it worth the investment? Let's find out!
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[@Write-Stuff]

"Show yourself, demon!" Joe, you're the best. Actually, in all honesty, I watch Game Sack when I'm feeling down. It has an indescribable way of easing my sadness.

[@esotericmissionary]

That ending was great!

[@deltadcrouse]

Qommodore I do the same thing I have watched his videos over a over helps keep me going seen your comment and I felt like I should comment don’t know what you have going on but hope you get through it my hubby and son help me or I wouldn’t make it god bless

[@mattstevenson1334]

I'm dieingggggg. Joe's grumble man voice is the best. Why is there a disembodied voice in my house?!?!

[@kirillian358]

Terraonion are scumbags mocking Krikzz for escaping the war in Ukraine with his family. Don't support those garbage humans

[@fameismine2]

Game Sack still running strong been one of my favorite KZbin channel for years.

[@HonestyArt]

Totally! One of the best.

[@Jellycakelap]

Weekends rule with new Sack.

[@kayceecheshall2818]

Donate!

[@ls190v2]

How old are they?

[@Protofall]

"Sorry for not testing every variant of every game of every region" "If it has a 2, you can go straight to hell" He's saying what we're all thinking.

[@MegaManNeo]

If you happen to have a 2 on the back of your Dreamcast, you must have real bad luck.

[@Protofall]

@@MegaManNeo "You've won the unlucky lottery" - Adam K

[@MegaManNeo]

@referral madness SEGA later on released a revision which had the exploit patched which allowed for games on CD-R and thus homebrew games to run on the system. In case you have one of those Dreamcast, new games won't work for you either.

[@mofoblitz7482]

Good thing mine has a 1

[@DanielAyy]

What are we thinking exactly?

[@SomeOrangeCat]

"Show yerself, demon!" Found my new public restroom stall catchphrase!

[@8thLife]

Bahahahaha yessss.

[@SwankeyMonkey]

Yes! Before THIS, mine was always, "Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?"

[@SomeOrangeCat]

@@SwankeyMonkey Admitted, that is a pretty good one. Another good one is the :41 second mark on Roundabout.

[@Girichoko]

My Dreamcast's optical drive sounds like a washing machine on drugs. I would love one of these.

[@PoutingTrevor]

If cost is a factor, and if you want a solution now, I'd recommend the GDEmu. Clone units are available for as little as £35/$50. It's plug and play, so no soldering necessary. And as the Dreamcast has a library of roughly 600 games, you can split them amongst a few SD cards. I've got about 300+ games split over 2 x 128GB SD cards, but I've also used a 256GB micro SD card in an adapter without issue. Games are easily managed using a utility called GDEMU_SD which renames your games in a format that makes them easier to read for the system. There's tons of videos about the GDEmu with lots of resources available. If you want one look on eBay for a good deal.

[@RedSoul001]

That ending skit had me chuckling Joe. Well done 😂.

[@Jesse__H]

yeah that was a good one.

[@kirillian358]

Terraonion are scumbags mocking Krikzz for escaping the war in Ukraine with his family. Don't support those garbage humans

[@H00ps]

How this show only has 248k subs is beyond me. Should have at least 1 million, minimum...

[@zombiegeorge749]

Damn, I always forget how good the DreamCast is. Those games still looked amazing.

[@emarskineel]

Yeah, even that street fighter game looked flawless

[@DarthEquus]

Upvoting just for your icon.

[@justdev8965]

It doesn't look as good as the new machines. It's not amazing at all. You blind?

[@charlesurias]

So you’re saying Dreamcast games don’t look as good as PS5 games? Who said they did? Obviously he meant that they look surprisingly good for the time and hold up well.

[@mbe102]

Ahh! Was actually awesome seeing you on the TO discord. Also, thanks for helping me on Twitter with the Mega-MSU1 stuff, I eventually got it figured out! You're a great dude, and your content is ALWAYS awesome.

[@JazGalaxy]

I love it when you do these kinds of tech episodes despite not ever having bought anything like this and having no plans to ever buy anything like this in the future.

[@eightbitminiboss]

To fix the Starting Disc issue, just hold the A button and it brings up a context menu to let you clear what they call the disc queue.

[@asperita]

2:00 am baby!

[@Marzimus]

00:19 PST bro!

[@argedismun2]

Yeap

[@Deanster101]

“Just make sure your dreamcast has a 0 or 1 on the bottom, if it has a 2? Well you can go straight to hell.” 😂

[@apocalypticminister1369]

🤣

[@lukasperuzovic1429]

Its Canon Christian law , Got a Dreamcast with a 2 on it, you are going to hell. "Thy Dreamcast shall be revision Zero or One, as Two is the mark of damnation the heretic offending god shall burn in the everlasting fires of hell." Romans 19:9.9

[@Rockymann27]

@@lukasperuzovic1429 Why is it not good?

[@osurpless]

Rockymann27 It was a revision to the DC that prevented the use of CD-Rs and hombrew games. Yet when you consider what that feature (not a bug) was intended by Sega to do (facilitate playing import games) I’m not sure if our anger at such a revision isn’t misplaced...

[@lukasperuzovic1429]

@@osurpless Actually that not the issue when it comes to version 2 Dreamcast hardware and an Optical Drive emulator (ODE) like the MODE or GD Emu. The GD drive circuit board on versions 0 and 1 were both with the optical drive, when you replace the optical drive on those versions you also replace the circuit board for the drive. Version 2 has those circuits integrated with the mainboard/motherboard. The ODE has to replace the Drive's circuit board in order for it to work. There no way to replace the Drive's board on version 2 as its integrated with the mainboard. But there some, and I do mean some very early version 2 Dreamcasts that did allow for Mill-spec CDs which was the exploit allowing the Vers 0 and 1 Dreamcasts to read games on CD-Rs. Version 2 Dreamcast can still read Music on CD-Rs.

[@nomadicmonkey3186]

I was specifically looking for a product that will give me a guaranteed jail sentence so this comes really handy cuz pirating is too hard for my tiny brain.

[@foreignuser_]

yeah i mean i keep calling the cops on myself and telling them i am emulating games, yet every time they show up they're just like what seems to be bothering you boy? did you download a car or something?

[@skins4thewin]

Hey, what the hell TerraOnion?! I didn't get my free trip to Jail with my MODE! I demand a refund!

[@apocalypticminister1369]

Lmaooooo Pass Go! 😂

[@johneygd]

Ahahaha😊

[@NosralTserrof]

honestly underrated joke in the episode

[@bruceg22000]

Just turn yourself in to the police and explain your situation about how you are a major game pirate and want to be punished.

[@NosralTserrof]

@@bruceg22000 GIVE ME THE CHAIR

[@riddleiddle]

Gotta watch every game sack video. Even the ones covering stuff I'm not necessarily interested in are must-sees for the humor alone. You're killing it Joe!

[@slyguythreeonetwonine3172]

"Not only am I hearing voices, these voices think it's 1999!?" Dead.

[@Midori_Hoshi]

Loved the ending skit. Maybe your best one yet.

[@NikateeN]

Still one of the best gaming channels on KZbin through all these years. Thanks Joe, for putting out this quality content year after year. Your fans appreciate it!

[@MegaDeox]

Huge props for using Rayman music in the introduction!

[@kellybrincks]

That ending cracked me up. Thanks for the great content and laugh

[@mrjotz]

That may be my favorite post-credits sequence you've made. It's the exact right kind of silly.

[@mattjenkin2884]

I love that Mr. Bones music near the start of the video.

[@RengaBeats]

Man.. these ending skits are pure awsome!!!

[@treimfei4901]

Tou are my favorite YT channel. Congratulations.

[@davidhale9730]

"Show yourself, demon!" LMAO! 😂

[@embrikchloraker8186]

The skits at the end of the episodes are better than modern AVGN.

[@CSGraves]

I wonder if that outro counts as... well, breaking the '3.5th wall'.

[@cirinaharvey1466]

Happy Gamesack day

[@judigbr9430]

That skit at the end was really funny

[@Khabaal87]

I'm impressed how you always manage to break out of jail after each episode! You should start to call yourself *Jailbreak Joe* ;D

[@90sGasPrices]

Come on game sack! Almost at 300k subs with over 30k views on the first day. KEEP GOINGGG

[@CGQuarterly]

I bought one, primarily for my Saturn. Not worth it for me to buy a second one for the DC when I play it so rarely, so I'll just move the MODE over as needs be. I agree about the super slow artwork loading, so I just leave mine in list mode. Haven't had the problem with the question marks in the list, but I am using the most current firmware, so maybe that solved it. Anyway, really happy with the MODE. Totally worth the $200 and whatever that I paid for it.

[@kirillian358]

Terraonion are scumbags mocking Krikzz for escaping the war in Ukraine with his family. Don't support those garbage humans

[@cd4playa1245]

So can you play rpgs like the English translations of the shining force 3 games? Can you save game files to a memory card?

[@12ealDealOfficial]

This is a pretty good proposition. Think about it: you've got a Dreamcast but you only have a few games for it. You want one or two super rare titles though. For the same price as those two ultra rare games, you can have them and every other game made for the console by getting a MODE. I'll pick one up!

[@francis6610]

@Fat Chocobo you can burn them but playing burned games isn't good for the dreamcast laser. So you would eventually have to buy a mode anyway if you keep using burned games

[@RLHendrick58]

I am definitely one of those people who likes to play on original hardware, so thank you for showcasing this. I even have a Saturn with a broken optical drive.

[@animatedplastic]

Great episode. I find it fasinating there are modern solutions for these retro systems. I would love to see an episode that shows all of the Sega Saturn hardware variants. I learned that there are several different companies that made them and there are some unique differences between them. I still dont' know why they spent time to change the US Saturn Logo boot-up menu and controller that no-one liked.

[@MetaSynForYourSoul]

3:04 Ahh....Panzer Dragoon Saga! Truly I can tell you are a man of culture and refinement (and also DEEP POCKETS of you didn't purchase it back in the day like me 😁) One of my top 3 Saturn games. Truly showed what the system was capable of. Some of the rendered cutscenes were just incredible.

[@theodorerelic2718]

Funny thing about that ending; I got my Dreamcast (pre-order) at my local Electronics Boutique...on 9/10/1999, since that was my payday. I still have my original DC, though the drive is kaput (I use a spare DC).

[@the1ucidone]

Since I've already got a GDemu for the Dreamcast I'll most certainly pick this up for the the Saturn. Very exciting times to live in. We may be in the Golden Age of gaming right now!

[@SuperKokuJin916]

I have mine coming in the mail soon and can’t wait to put it in one of my spare Saturns! I have a mod chipped US model 2 and a stock JP Hi-Saturn model 1 (both with dead lasers), AND their respective, fully functioning stock consoles. Can’t decide which one is gonna get it! I couldn’t score a Rhea/Phoebe from the maker and was not going to pay the ridiculous scalper prices online for one either. This awesome alternative came in at the right time. Thank you for showing a visual of how a multi-disc game is supposed to be shown in the folder. This takes away a lot of the guesswork. Maybe in the future you can do an ODE comparison video with the MODE, Fenrir, Rhea/Phoebe, and the Satiator (when it’s released). Great vid as always, Joe. This makes mid-weekends special!!

[@uncannyx]

I have a broken Saturn and a broken Dreamcast, both with dead optical drives... this would be a perfect fix, and the fact it works for both is great

[@Cyrus_Nagisa]

I myself have moved on to emulation, but I love seeing this stuff, my big worry for the disc systems has always been the drives and discs themselves. We are at the point where almost every disc system has a SD or HDD load, and I love it. Almost makes me want to get back into original hardware again.

[@nastybedazzler]

Of all the consoles I used to own, it's the Dreamcast and the Nintendo Gamecube I miss the most that was such an awesome generation for consoles. I still have my Gamecube but all the cables are missing, but my Dreamcast just vanished I have no idea where it went and that sucks. It was such an awesome system.

[@paulpatrick885]

Looks like a quality product and good to have a few different options now for ODE for Saturn and Dreamcsdt. I have a rhea for my Saturn which works great but is a bit fiddly to set up the SD card. MODE looks so much easier to set up and organise your games.

[@dorlow3765]

Nice choice of background music. Rockman X4 - Magma Dragoon

[@pixelvisiongames7485]

Great review Joe! I just installed one into a Sega Saturn. Some info no one seems to mention, you can use a usb extension cable and route it out the back expansion port for hot swapping external drives and usb sticks. I'm only using a usb 2.0 extender and I didn't notice any difference with load times compared to using the sata or micro sd ports.

[@kirillian358]

Terraonion are scumbags mocking Krikzz for escaping the war in Ukraine with his family. Don't support those garbage humans

[@luismartins3785]

This is another awesome episode. The MODE sure is pretty awesome I feel. Thanks Joe

[@GameTechRefuge]

That outro made my day, still laughing. great stuff.

[@acecarrera1]

14:28 Inside your brilliant yet twisted mind, Sir.

[@thatryeguy6145]

9/9/99 for $199.99. It was an innovative system, easy to develop for, and had online play. Sega really learned from their mistakes and did everything right. Should have been very successful.

[@allissondiego1989]

Can anybody please compile all the instances in which Joe tell us to go straight to hell? That shit's so funny

[@silentfanatic]

Good review, definitely going to get one of these for both systems.

[@Level1Sword]

Pretty cool product. Maybe with future updates Terra Onion will add the option for adding emulators.

[@slopesgameroom]

Awesome overview Joe... Looking to get a couple of these myself when they are back in stock!

[@OnlyEpicEmber]

Oh hey it's Mr Slope

[@hazy33]

Someone is getting too much Patreon money! :-)

[@slopesgameroom]

@@hazy33 not enough sadly, I missed it first time round

[@Videoman343]

,

[@Nordlicht05]

@@hazy33 I go for a modchip because of the price

[@eulusgarza5765]

I can't take my hands into a Saturn but if I can in the future, I will add this for sure ! Saturn is the most amazing computer architecture ever used in a console, all others are quite a different due to their generation but for the era, Saturn was IMPRESSIVE !

[@WebstersYouTube]

I've got a GDEmu Dreamcast on its way in the post. I've recently gone in on a GameCube SD2SP2, EZ Flash Omega IV for GBA, and Ever Drives for my Mega Drive and N64. I think they're all amazing products in terms of sheer preservation efforts.

[@prestige_materials]

Finally I can deck out my Saturn. I ordered a new one 6-7 years ago and waited for a proper SD solution.

[@hannahw7315]

tbh, on the list for next tax season. had no idea this was a thing! I love how game sack introduces us to new stuff, especially for hardcore gamers and collectors! the wry humor and upbeat narration is great, too. :)

[@JOPIKS]

Does it emulates only the games of the console on which this mod was installed? Or can it emulate both regardless of the console?

[@NIProductionsLLC]

How is the heat on the Dreamcast when using the stock power supply? I have a GDEmu and the System kinda heats up quickly if I leave the top on.

[@Ghost_Of_SAS]

I want to express my appreciation to Joe for actually putting a summary of the video in the description, instead of _SIGN UP FOR SKILLSHARE TODAY WITH THIS AFFILIATE LINK_

[@Nexus9_KD6-4.8]

As usual great video Joe. Keep up the great work. I usually prefer emulation myself, but I may end up getting one of these because I have a Dreamcast locked away in my closet that I would love to play again. It's awesome you cover stuff like this because I personally would likely never know about it otherwise.

[@1chiTheKiller]

The ending where he screams, "WHAT IN THE HELL!?!?!?!" as the voice is talking to him cracked me up. I always stick around after the credits to see these scenes. :)

[@saudnaajihadam]

Sack still going strong and keeping up the quality. 👊

[@WooMaster777]

That ending skit... 🤣😂🤣😂🤣

[@gveltaine]

The end skit is Joe in the far future, and the voice is Joe from the past, he uploaded the narration through internet explorer

[@KainDrake]

So what other pros and cons are there between the gdemu and mode? I was thinking of getting the gdemu, but the mode sounds good too.

[@lonreed9743]

I always look forward to the endings. Funny stuff!

[@AnalogX64]

Great quality video :) Thanks Joe.

[@WolfyKingOfDorks]

I was literally working on my Launchbox (similar to hyperspin) setup while watching this video on another monitor... I feel attacked Joe 😅😂

[@kevinwoolford123]

I have one for my saturn and after the fw update beta file its been perfect to play with no issues at all. The multi disc thing may have been you holding A and setting up a few games as disc queue but if not that was a strange thing to happen haha 😆

[@incudust953]

Can you use VMU just like if you are playing the disc games? And do the saves work the same?

[@IcePakOG]

Joe sums up the internet at 12:28: "Or you can just emulate them 4 freeee lolol u r so stoopid". :D Great episode, Joe.

[@AndreLuiz-ec3tl]

Great review,! Great sketch!

[@AleksLazar]

I think it’s pretty awesome. Installation looks easy enough. Even comes with the rubber feet 👍🏻

[@alexlecy4252]

Can someone help me? I installed the MODE into a Dreamcast and found a USB to upload Roms. I changed it to exfat and made folders but for some odd reason it’s not starting. It looks for a disc drive the entire time. What did I do wrong?

[@alistairblaire6001]

Those menu bugs look relatively trivial to fix. It's fantastic that these ODEs exist now. I don't think I ever dreamed of it back in the day.

[@GameSack]

Yeah I can't imagine the menu bugs hanging around very long.

[@tuffasgong]

I would love to get one for my Saturn. Quick question if anyone knows can you use the Action Replay cheats with the MODE?

[@8thLife]

The outros always get me! *Show yourself demon!* 😂

[@Latchfpv]

God, what a beautiful end skit. Show yourself Demon!!

[@parallaxspectre]

"Make no mistake about it, I WILL be going to JAIL"... lol Never change Joe!!! Love your brand of humor. :) TAAAAAAATE MODE!!!!!!!

[@juiceala]

That’s an interesting idea, there are tons of virtual disc drive software for PC, and this seems to do just that, it’s really interesting.

[@cd4playa1245]

I may have heard that wrong but can you play any rpgs and save to a memory card or anything or is this terra onion just for arcade games basically?

[@hc130radio]

Ordered one for my Saturn. How long from ordering to delivery did you experience?

[@PersianImm0rtal]

What game is playing in the background at 8:10?

[@teh_crazydude]

nice to see an alternative to the rhea and phoebe for saturn owners[even if installing it is a bit involved], but it being able to work with the dreamcast is a nice bonus.

[@zetsuyoru662]

Great video. Could you try smaller image files to view the games quicker?

[@CircsC]

I'm glad there's competition in the Saturn ODDE space

[@awesomeferret]

Pretty funny that they gave a toggle to slow down the speed of the drive emulation (something almost everybody can live without) with something that many people would feel they can't (disabling the sound effects).

[@kingtom]

I bought one of these when they were first announced some months ago, and I just received it last week. As I don't want to put the whole Saturn library on a hard drive, I'm using a micro SD with an extender since you otherwise can't reach that slot without removing the lid. Anyway, it works sooooo well, albeit with some trial-and-error. ISOs from certain, let's say sources, just wouldn't work for me, and the MODE would NOT load them. I've found ripping the games off of a real disc via ImgBurn provides the most consistent results for getting Saturn ISOs that boot every time (except for my Bug! disc for some reason). One minor complaint I have is the size factor of the MODE board itself. On my US Model 1 Saturn, I found that it was a very tight fit vertically, since placing the board too far back would block the cartridge slot, but placing it too far forward would make one of the sticky mounting pegs rest on the ribbon cable that goes from the mobo to the controller port, and this made me incredibly uncomfortable. I hope future MODE revisions can downsize the board if that's even possible, and maybe place the micro SD slot where the unnecessary USB port is.

[@xybur]

I got one for both my DC and Saturn. Very happy camper!

[@koolmissionary7612]

amazing episode, joe

[@cestusfr]

You had me at "show yourself demon!" MUWAHAHAHAHaaaa...

[@bigdaddy0614]

The comedy skits at the end real lack bite since Dave left.

[@RedArremer]

So I'm watching a Game Sack episode, AND SUDDENLY I'M HITTING THE LIKE BUTTON!

[@aspinia]

for dreamcast there is a homemade mod that allows you play from sd cards (not recommended because is not fully compatible and runs too slow) the ide mod is recommended but it can be messy and if you want to make an extra mod you can add a second bios so the dreamcast wont have to run dreamshell from the gd drive.

[@rars0n]

I got a Satiator for my Saturn. It's got some drawbacks: it's more expensive, only takes SD cards, more basic menu, fewer features. However, the main reason I got it (aside from wanting to support all of the work that Dr. Abrasive did to create this wonderful little thing) is that it doesn't require any modification of the console. It just slides right into the MPEG slot on the back of the Saturn. I'm no stranger to opening things up and doing modifications. I'm not worried about a difficult install or anything. But like Joe, I do have a bunch of games on disc and my Saturn works perfectly, so I really didn't want to just chuck those parts away for something like the MODE. Additionally, the SD card thing is not that big a deal, as I've already put most of the games I want to play on a 64 GB card I had laying around. I will likely just buy a 128 GB card for it, as that should be plenty of storage space for me. I don't actually want ALL of the games on the card, as there are some games that I will either never want to play or would rather play on a different console. I will likely get a MODE for my Dreamcast. It's also still working perfectly, and I lament having to remove the drive, but at least the install is less complicated than the Saturn's and I will just store the optical drive in a safe place. I like the ability to use a SATA SSD since Dreamcast games are usually a bit bigger. Interestingly there's now an option to use the MODE with the PSX, but the XStation is half the price. XStation also is limited to microSD cards, but it has some cool features like over-the-air updates via WiFi. I will probably eventually get a 512 GB card or something similar for PSX games, which is only a fraction of the size of the full library, but there are likely a LOT more games that I'll never want to play for PSX than almost any other console I own. I like having lots of games to play at my disposal but often find it overwhelming if there are TOO many options, so I'm sure that will be plenty of space for me. Then I just have to get around to buying a Mega SD, an Everdrive 64, an FX PAK PRO, and a bunch of HD Retrovision component cables for all of my different consoles!

[@CamelliaSinensis]

The beard is looking fantastic!

[@yeahnicebro]

My sunday begins good

[@SegaFanatic5188]

For the Grandia issue, can you tell me some details about what happened? If I can reproduce it on a disc then it's an issue in the patch and I can try to fix it. Otherwise it's a MODE issue.

[@MatSpeedle]

Fitted mine to my Saturn, very impressed although getting a 2.5 SSD to work has been so far unsuccessful... despite adding the optional 5v. Still even on a micro SD the load times are impressive, and it's going to keep my Saturn going for decades to come :D

[@GamerPastHisPrime]

Definitely want one for my Saturn initially. Not sure I’d get two.

[@anthonyjohnson9088]

Awesome shirt Joe.