Slight delay getting this up, but I blame Super Bowl weekend for that.
Last week saw a couple of arrivals I’d been waiting for, my first USA N64 games, and a replacement Dreamcast shell very generously donated by Danny (@dog_retro from twitter). Friday night I sat down after dinner, got the tools out and got on with a bit of (mostly) straightforward console modding.
Firstly, swapping the Dreamcast over:
I watched a couple of youtube videos of Dreamcasts being taken apart to aid the process, but if anything they managed to make it look much harder than it actually was!
Whole thing took about half an hour of console modding, really easy, and very pleased with the results.
Secondly, modding my Japanese N64 to play USA carts:
This is fairly straight-forward following the guide here. I did have a slight misadventure where I misread the instructions and didn’t pay enough attention to the pictures.
The physical differences between the two carts, in order to get USA games working on a Japanese system, (and vice-versa) you just have to get them to fit in! 
the consoles have blocks that align with the cut out bits in the bottom corners of the cart
On my first reading of the instructions, I believed the intention was to just cut out those two blocks. Â This would work, but they are very solid, and would require a stronger tool. Â I did attempt this first anyway, as you can see:
I then realised (after stopping the bleeding) that in fact the guide just suggests removing a whole chunk of the plastic. Â Like so:
Easy with my hacksaw! Â Also very satisfying for the little die-hard SEGA fan in me to take a hacksaw to a Nintendo console. Â I then reassembled and tested it with my USA copy of Wipeout 64. Â Much rejoicing and a successful Friday evening.
Ta-da! 
Yes I know about the aspect ratio, I fixed that before I played. ^^
  Enough console modding for now, on with the gaming!