Topic: weird dreamcast problem

I recently picked up a dreamcast at my local used game store, and its been working fine for about two days, but i was playing it earlier and everything on screen got really dark and the darkness wouldnt go away (no it wasn't just part of the game). I restarted my dc and havent had the problem since, but any idea what happened?

Could be number of things, from the AV cords to a deeper problem with the system itself. Or it may have simply been a case of the game glitching. Since you said it only happened once I wouldn't be too concerned.

Haven't heard that sort of problem before. Probably nothing major. The Dreamcast was actually a very well-designed and reliable machine in my experience -- the only problems i've ever had with it were when i had a problematic disc.

it went dark again and sometimes, while playing crazy taxi it'll kind of slow down then go back to normal speed, like sonic on the genesis.

It went dark on the same game or a different one?

same

Probably something wrong with the cart then, rather than the system.
As for the slowdown in Crazy Taxi, that sounds like a normal thing games do when things get too hectic for the processor to handle. Unless it's just doing it randomly for no apparent reason. @Everyone else: Did Crazy Taxi have framerate issues? I never played it.

@Raylax Dreamcasts use discs.

The first Crazy Taxi was plagued with that problem, any ramp or crash will slow the game down something fierce. The second one corrected that issue, and it's a lot of fun to play too. The graphical issue sounds like a problem with the graphical processor inside the system, or a bad set of RCA cables. A question though, do you happen so see a saturated purple, pink or cyan before it goes black?

nope