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I'd love to say this is an original idea but I'd seen it before online, although I since can't find the link to it. Since then I'd been wanting to give it a go. Whilst on holiday in Tokyo in February 2018 I saw this cheap broken Dreamcast for sale in a the Super Potato shop in Akihabara. It was only a few pounds and equally importantly - not yellowed like so many of the old ones are. I've always like the form of the Dreamcast as a pirce of industrial design, so it's nice to have one both visible and useful in my workroom all of the time. So let's go.
Step 1: Here's the Broken Dreamcast as it cam from the shop. 780 Yen, plus tax. It's here on the kitchen table for my Tokyo AirBNB and the first half of this process is me stripping out the insides in order to keep the weight down for my luggage. The Dreamcast is a heavy item for it's size.
Step 2: Opening up the expansion port, which can be done by hand.
Step 3: Having also bought a screwdriver (a regular Phillips crosshead) I've opened up the casing. There are 4 screws, one at each corner with one inside the exapnsion port opening revealed from step 2.
Step 4: Stripping out the innards from the expansion port I will keep the network connector, as the goal is to have the Dreamcast looking as normal as possible from the outside, so the ports will be kept blocked.
Step 5: There's a fair bit of weight just in this circuitboard alone.
Step 6: The laser motor, mechanism and housing is removed.
Step 7: Pause for a moment to notice the SEGA logo, the Dreamcast's project name "KATANA", and the fact that it's actually made in Japan.
Step 8: With all that removed, it's already feeling lighter and looking spacious.
Step 9: We don't need this ribbon cable, although the controller ports will be put to one side and kept for reinstallation later.
Step 10: The motherboard, it's heatsink and casing are the bulk of the remaining weight.
Step 11: Here's the motherboard in all it's glory. It's no doubt sat inside some Tokyo home for years giving out entertainment.
Step 12: Another pause to admire the Made in Japan tech.
Step 13: Finally we have a casing that's empty enough and light enough to make for an easy journey home to the UK from Japan.
Step 14: Back in the UK, I find some Kleenex that'll fit almost perfectly into the Dreamcast's empty case. It'll need a bit more work yet however to make it perfect..
Step 15: There could be a bit more room inside, and one of the areas for improvement is the back near the AC input and AV out.
Step 16: These bits are not needed for one thing.
Step 17: And neither is this metal plate which is perfect for ripping tissues.
Step 18: The AV ports will be screwed back down here, but there used to be the spacer of the main motherboard, and so I make this space up at points A, B and C with some scrap circuitboard and superglue.
Step 19: AV Ports now screwed back in place on top of the spacers.
Step 20: Another place we can gain space is by the removal of the area highlighted in red below. I want to keep the SEGA logo and the Made in Japan section for nostalgia reasons, so I don't remove the entire board.
Step 21: This can be cut off with a fine hobby saw. Wear a mask!. If you choose to copy this, all health risks are on you.
Step 22: And now sanded smooth. Wear a mask!. If you choose to copy this, all health risks are on you.
Step 23: There are some other small nubs of plastic worth clipping off at this point.
Step 24: Supergluing the port back into the exapansion case.
Step 25: The tissues now sit more tidily into the Dreamcast lower casing.
Step 26: Test fitting the top of the case. All is good. But there's one more thing I can do to make it better.
Step 27: All tissue boxes have this transparent plastic to make the tissues come more easily out of the opening. I can adapt this.
Step 28: Removed from the tissue box.
Step 29: Cut, folded and taped into size and position.
Step 30: The Dreamcast is reassembled, complete and good to go in it's new life as a tissue box. A possible future project might be to hook up an LED and battery to that ON/OFF switch ,and make it come to life.
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