I’m almost done with current GDEMU batch so I will open orders for Rhea on Saturday.
After that is done I’ll try a short GDEMU batch targeted towards US west coast, since that place is the most disadvantaged when it comes to time zones. Depending on how many people will try to get one I might have to put a temporary geo-restriction. I dislike that idea and it’s more work for me but it would be silly to target west coast and end up selling everything to EU and Asia.
And, after all that is done, comes Phoebe. Probably the last week of March or early April, depending how well shipping goes. I might not make any additional posts, rather update this one, so please visit the blog before every weekend to make sure you don’t miss any ordering windows.
In the meantime I’ll try assembling the first few Marty ODEs and will ask some you that wanted one if you still do. As with every new device there might be some initial issues or limitations, and there is no menu software yet (working on it). So keep that in mind.
EDIT: I guess I didn’t make myself clear – when I said there will be a short GDEMU batch after Rhea is done I meant after I’m done shipping everything. Not this weekend.
EDIT2: Rhea orders are now open. Sold out.
EDIT3: In case you didn’t get your confirmation email the TL;DR version is “Wait up to 3 weeks, check your Paypal every few days and don’t bother me unless it’s important”.
Also, pray to whatever gods you fancy for the MLCC shortages to end quickly or it’s going to get ugly soon…
GDEMU 
Does anyone know about how long it takes GDEMU device to reach east coast USA? No problem being patient, just curious at this point. Looks like the shipment left Poland on the 8th and now on the 22nd not a peep. I guess tracking for USA is dead/broken for a long time, so don’t really have a way to see progress. Anyways, very excited to receive device!
I live in MA and it usually takes 2-3 weeks from when it leaves Poland. If you go to the Post Office with the tracking # they can actually look it up for you (unless they are lazy or don’t know how) to see where it is, but only after it arrives in the States.
Good info thanks….I live in the Boston area.
Perfect, thanks for the reply. I am also in MA.
DID WE JUST BECOME BEST FRIENDS!??! 😉
Haha of course, we’re now WICKED good friends.
Never got an email in spam or inbox or paypal. Can I know if I got in the list? Or get a confirmation email?
Same here… Perhaps my order didn’t go through.. 😦
Read “Edit #3” it can take 3 weeks to get payment request.
Received mine today ( I live in the UK) haven’t tried it out yet, but it looks the dogs bollocks ( slang for business) .Many thanks gdemu
Really excited to get in on the Phoebe or the GDEMU. I will be waiting 🙂
Since gdemu sale hasn’t happened yet, does that mean phoebe probably won’t be the last week of march or first week of april?
@gdemu I just received the payment and paid. as this is my first purchase from you, and I had not received the confirmation email in my inbox or in my spam. I sent you an email via PayPal to give my details. did you receive it?
Your address, except the second name, is the same as on PayPal so I will only change that.
Transaction status will be updated with tracking number after I ship your device.
I have a tip to ask for connoisseurs ODE. I have my rhea which is shipped, but I do not have saturn yet. I would rather be sure to have rhea before saturn. I understand that for VA0 and VA1 the buttons are oval. but most saturns with the oval button are JAPs. rhea are intended only for saturn JAP? or are there PAL models with oval buttons? thank you
Just grab a Japanese one and lift leg 79. I am very amature at soldering and PCB repair and was able to do it without any trouble using a surgical scalpel with very fine end. If you wire leg 79 to the rhea it can automatically change from 50hz (PAL) to 60 hz (NTSC) mattering which game you play. Also save yourself a bundle as the japanese Saturns are much cheaper.
I just saw an ad from a saturn with oval buttons whose CD-ROM drive no longer works. a PAL version I think. ideal for editing with rhea. but no possibility to know the version. is it possible that it is a VA2. the VA2 are for phoebe
in addition the price is very interesting, but the CD-ROM drive is dead. so almost impossible to resell if the rhea does not settle
Before buying you can either check by serial number or the original console had the power supply attached to the lid which looks different from the outside. If you check the image you will notice the top power connector looks different, these are the ones which have the PSU in the top at it’s a VA0. http://i45.tinypic.com/29ne7a8.jpg If you tell me the serial if available and I can help determine which one it is.
Sorry, just to add you have to be careful with the Japanese oval consoles and other ones like hi-saturn and other special japanese consoles, because they can have oval buttons but actually they require a phoebe.
99% of the time on the oval Japanese systems if you look at the back of the system and they have 3 screws (NOT 2) by the power supply it is a 20 pin.
the problem is that there is no picture that shows the power and the seller does not tell me the serial number. and I’m afraid the saturn is for a phoebe
As for a picture of the back of the system. IF by the PLUG there are 2 Screws holding the plug to the system and then a 3rd screw below it. It is 20 pin. If it is only 2 Screws then there is a very good chance it is a 21 pin saturn.
See PIC
https://ibb.co/mnFWPn
Oui je comprends pour les 3 vis . Ça confirme ce que je pensais , la plupart sont des version JAP . Les JAP sont en 110v . Moi je suis en France , pour la faire fonctionner sans convertisseur, si je change juste le câble d’alimentation ça fonctionne ? Ou faut il changer le CPU ?
Oui comme sur Dreamcast, il faut remplacer l’alimentation (mais par une 220V du même modèle, car il a existé 3 alimentation différentes (en molex, longue, courte).
Cordialement.
If you check the image ABE posted you can tell the VA versions by the serial number. 1st letter(s) or number refers to the country it was made in. 2nd number is the production year, 3rd number is the VA type. The rest of the numbers is the actual consoles unique serial number. You can see it quite clearly with the 21 pin model because of the big space between the numbers.
So the top model is
B – Made in Japan
4 – Made in 1994
0 – VA0
Needs Rhea
Bottom model is
B – Made in Japan
5- Made in 1995
2 – VA2
Needs Pheobe
This works on the standard models, but I believe the special versions have a different layout. I have had 4 Saturn’s and they were all correct when using this method.
Arrived today, installed, card added and been playing excellent Saturn games all day long. Thanks so much.
SO been playing with my FM TOWNS MARTY for over a month now, pretty much since DOC BROWN was announced. I will admit. Since the DISC burn and play it would be great to have an ODE with a Menu system like GDMENU or RMENU but I can live with Burned CDROMS. Then Today after like 20+ years the laser DIED!!!! It no longer reads anything. I tried to adjust the POT but no use. The Disc spins and I can hear it trying to read but the Laser is gone and Finding a replacement is like impossible. SO now I put the Marty on the Shelf until DOC BROWN arrives to rescue him from his boring life of just sitting around.
With that said… I did go looking for laser replacements. In my research I came across this awesome variation called a CAR MARTY which I knew nothing about . It is made by Fujitsu 10 which the car division in Japan. Apparently they made like a HISATURN like MARTY. The Marty Mounts under the seat of the car. Connects to a 5 inch screen has Navigation software and plays all games just like a marty. It does work as a console as well as you can plug it in with a power adapter and a cable to connect it to a TV. In my research they are expensive with all the parts, but even a CAR MARTY on their own sell for over $1000 USD today. There are TWO on ebay with no accessories for over $1200!!!! It is Slot loading like a PS3 and seems really cool. I would love to get one, I very much doubt a DOCBROWN would work in this variation not would there even be a reason to make one. It is so rare and hard to get. There are only like 3 youtube videos and there all LAME..
So I will just sit and wait for DOC BROWN to pull into the lot and then my Future will be filled with Past video games again. I really was enjoying my MARTY… If anyone know of where to get a laser please reply. I would love to keep my laser even after I install a DOC BROWN for completeness purposes.
I won a Marty on Yahoo Japan Auctions about a month ago. It only arrived the other day. Has a bad laser too.. IT does boot games but sometimes you can hear the drive trying to read over and over and it takes a while. Sometimes it boots right up! I also want a DOC BROWN. I have like 30 games already ripped and ready to go on a HDD.
HDD? DocBrown is SD-based ODE. Also, open and inspect your Marty for leaky capacitors – those happen pretty often and will kill your console if not replaced and spill cleaned.
GDEMU – you misunderstand.. I know it will be SDBASED. I already ripped 30 games to my Hard drive so I can create a SDcard when the ODE launches. That is all I meant. I am getting Prepared.
Dumb question, but is it ok to have both CCD and CDI images on the SD card at the same time, or does it have to be all one or the other? And does using a microSD through an adapter have performance problems? The only 128GB card I could find was a micro, but I used a utility to format it to FAT32. I can’t wait for my Rhea to arrive. I feel a little bad though, because my VA0 Saturn still runs like a Swiss watch but I keep asking myself “Yeah, but for how much longer?” Better to head off any problems before they appear.
Why would it not be OK? One game image per folder and the format can be anything supported by ODE.
Its shipped luckily, I’m guessing that it’ll arrive by the 5th of april to my area. thanks again for giving us all the oppurtunity to preorder your fantastic product!
are you still expecting to sell phoebe this week or is there a new projected date?
When orders are open will this be the place to ask to get on the list? I dont see anything on the blog section.
No don’t ask about be on the list.
Gdemu said that i won’t accept any question about be or not on the list.
Just be sure that you fill correctly the form for Phoebe Order.
Fingers crossed Phoebe goes on sale this weekend and for once I don’t miss it. Does anyone know generally when ordering goes live? I’m in California and it seems I miss it overnight every time. Happy to stay up all night if that’s what it takes at this point!
received my rhea today, thank you
Hi, it’s really today the orders for Phoebe ?
Because it’s often the morning and nothing this morning.
Guys, it’s seems that the orders for Phoebe will not be this week end…
Looking forward to getting a GDEMU now that I have a compatible Dreamcast in working condition.
Rhea arrived yesterday. It works well. Thank you. 🙂
I got my Rhea for 2 weeks ago, most of games i tested it said “games disc unsuitable for this system” only few games worked. I used UltraISO to converted from *.bin/cue to *.img/.ccd/.sub or *mdf/.mds
help me please
It might be a region lock issue, I believe that by default Rhea does not region patch. If it’s a NTSC/PAL issue I cannot help you, but if it’s a simple US vs Japan region lock issue, what I had to do to get a message like that to go away was edit the Rhea.ini to include the line: auto_region = 0 (0 is for my Japanese console, you would have to use a different number if yours is different) See the page on this site about the INI files for full details.
Your method for converting your rips might also be sub-optimal. What I do is I mount the old bin+cue rips with DTLite. You must use an old version or it won’t read the image properly. I use “DTLite4491-0356”, just google that and you’ll find it. Then with my old rip mounted on the DTLite virtual drive, I rip that to .CDI using Padus DiscJuggler 6 (another easily obtained free download).
“By setting the region in Rhea.ini, you are turning region patching on. So you definitely always want it set to your console’s region so the Rhea can patch the game to your system. By omitting the setting, region patching is turned off (and other region games would need to be patched manually). “
RHEA.INI FIle….
auto_region = U **if your system is NTSC USA**
or
auto_region = J **if your system is NTSC Japanaese**
reset_goto = 1
open_time = 300
detect_time = 150
That should solve your issue and allow you to launch anything
what if my system is PAL Europa?
RHEA.INI FIle….
auto_region = U **if your system is NTSC USA**
or
auto_region = J **if your system is NTSC Japanaese**
or
auto_region = E **if your system is Pal Europe**
reset_goto = 1
open_time = 300
detect_time = 150
My Rhea shipped on 3/22. The tracking number that was provided shows that it left Poland shortly after, but the USPS tracking still does not show a result. Does the tracking number only work until it leaves Poland, or does that mean that it hasn’t yet reached the US?
Probably haven’t reached US yet but do note that USPS page will not track it. For whatever reason, as it used to work. But you can call them or visit their office and then they will track it for you. Again, once it actually crossed Atlantic.
As a point of reference, I’m on the East Coast it usually takes 2-3 weeks to arrive after it leaves Poland.
It arrived today, but I wasn’t home, so they left a slip. If I was able to track it, I could have left them instructions. It’s weird how that apparently works. Well, I have something to really look forward to tomorrow.
Whatever happened to the West-coast GDEmu sale? Is that still happening?
And also Phoebe sales, i waiting all this week end for the opening of the orders… nothing
I really need a phoebe that’s why i checked the web page all the week end.
I am waiting for both. My consoles are disassembled and ready to go. Just need the orders to open up. (And I gotta have the luck to get the orders in)
Did all Rhea Palpals go out. It’s been 3 weeks. Both me and my buddy were both up and both got order confirmations on the page. We both were up all night waiting and we both got in ASAP. Yet no emails for either of us? or Paypal reqeust? Are some people still waiting?
There are currently people selling GDEMUs on ebay for upwards of $1,000USD. One seller somehow had 13 available units and has sold all but 2 of them, and their asking price is $999. What are your thoughts on this? I find it somewhat funny (and disturbing) That I could sell my GDEMU on ebay and us that money to put a down payment on a car.
That sux monkey balls.
“A fool and his money are soon parted.”
If you feel you’d rather have money than GDEMU then sell it. Nothing wrong with that.
Any upcoming order openings?
Supply and demand. Indicates gdemu’s price should be higher giving which would give GDEMU more capital to build supply and hopefully lower prices.
@Rusty Shackleford : Pheobe normally, but GDEMU don’t said anything about it =/
It should be opened this week end but nothing.
When will you have a Sega Saturn rhea and Phoebe
Received my Rhea today. Mailed 3/19, received 4/2. Poland to California. Install was as easy as can be. Good golly oh molly converting the games to a workable format sure is a pain. A ton of my US rips are bin/cue.
If you have anything but doll hands I would also very much recommend the 3d printed insert. I haven’t dropped my SD yet but it will happen.
Was wondering if you were able to track your package? Cause it’s been some time since PayPal told me it was sent out on I think the 26 of March. So let me know if you were or you just waited.
Use UltraISO to convert. Insanely easy! Load bin/cue. Choose MDF as your output format. Works like a champ.
https://imgur.com/a/50pEB
Here I am struggling with it. This is why you want a 3d printed insert. Look at all that space!
Did orders ever open today? I’ve been watching since early this morning.
The rhea finally arrived lol and it looks amazing, thanks for the opportunity of ordering it and stuff!
Got my Rhea. Works like a champ! SD out of the box was formatted but had an unused small unformatted partition. It wouldn’t work until it was wiped (used MiniAide to format). Love it!
My item was shipped out on March 23rd and I have not received my rhea yet. I’m on the east coast and Im beginning to worry about this
@gdemu to make rhea work. should it be updated? where is she already? or download the software to put in the root sd to play? thank you
Every Rhea should work as received. You can always reflash the firmware of course, even downgrade in case the newest one has serious issues. Follow the instructions on the blog.
Is there a capacity limit for the SD card? because I see some who sell gdemu or rhea with 200g sd cards. it surprises me a bit that we can put a card with so much storage. since you are the one who makes them, can you confirm me, so that I do not buy one for nothing? thank you
Official limit is 32GB SDHC card.
ok thank you that reassures me. how do they make those who score abilities greater than 32go. they lie or they force the ode to the risk of damaging it?
There is no risk of damage but a bigger card might not work properly. And in any case it will have to be reformatted to FAT32.
Hi!
I just installed my eagerly awaited rhea.
The ode worked for a while then it started to present me with issues.
Initially the games hang, but after a reboot i could restart the saturn.
But after that i could’nt boot any games and the device would hang what ever i tried.
I have tried multiple sd-card, i have checked the wires, i have tried to update it to the latest firmware. I have tried with or without ramcart, and with or without rmenu and finally with several format apps.
Still i cant get it to work. I have a video to show if the flickering lights on the rhea are any help to diagnose the problem.
Any help is deeply appreciated.
/ Jimmy
Please email me.
Sure thing, only problem is your address. I cant find it anywhere.
Can you please direct me.
Sorry, i am stupid. Saw it in my mail. I will mail you.