RF Generation Message Board

After reading that article in issue 3 of Retro Revival, I was inspired to have a go at running emulators on my own Dreamcast. Nothing particularly  wrong with the Dreamcast as a console, it's just that I never really got into it.

Anyway, after spending the weekend messing about with it, I realise what a versatile machine it is. I've been playing SNES games on it.

To someone like myself, who doesn't use emulators often, it seems mre natural to use console, rather than a PC for emus.

Yup.  A big part of what I loved so much about the Dreamcast (aside from the large collection and high percentage of great games) was that there is tons of homebrew software out there.  The emulators are really great.  It was especially nice for me because I have to keep my whole collection in boxes in the basement, so it's not very easy to pull out the NES for quick gaming.  Having all those games on one disc and still playing them on my TV with a controller was great.

Another really nice thing about this is for the more advanced ROM hacks, like Zelda Outlands.  If you're not familiar with it, it's basically a complete re-haul of The Legend of Zelda, with a new overworld, new enemies, new dungeons, a higher difficulty level, and a lot more.  It is a great game, but playing it on PC kinda sucks.  Put it on a Dreamcast though, and you're in business, especially since you can add a custom Zelda Outlands startup screen in the emulator's menu.

There are also a lot of solid homebrew games out there, and some good non-game homebrew software.  The MP3, DivX, and OGG players spring to mind immediately.

I dunno if you used it, but SB Inducer allows you to put multiple emulators/homebrew games/homebrew utilities/demos on one disc.  It's really, really nice, and soooo easy to use.  Back in the day, burning these things was a huge pain, and often took two discs per emulator/utility.  Then, they often required a boot disc.  Now, you can do it all on one self-booting disc in just a few minutes.

If you ever need info on these things, let me know and I can probably answer your questions for you.  I need to get back into this stuff....

What are some good sites with info on emulating on Dreamcast?  If it's as easy as you guys are saying it is, I need to try it.

http://consolevision.com/dreamcast/
http://consolevision.com/members/sbiffy/
http://www.dcemulation.com/ (Warning - annoying ads.)
http://www.dcevolution.net/
http://www.boob.co.uk/emulators/emulators.html

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/emulators.html#dcast

There is a Zx Spectrum emulator, loaded with 180 games there ^^

I have downloaded it to my PC, but have yet to attempt to burn it on to a disc.

This is a direct copy paste of the Read Me file;

             DreamSpec V0.0005
             -----------------
                   
                   Please README!!!!

Thanks to DCemulation.com, Marcus Comstedt of Dreamcast Programming,
Utopia and Jules for his cool Nero burning guide.
Also thanks to World Of Spectrum for a more legal games list.
( http://www.worldofspectrum.org - best Spectrum link in the Universe! )
Thanks also to Vaggelis Kapartzianis and his cool "zx32"
( Also for his nice "keyboard layout" pic, which I pinched...sorry :)


History
-------

V0.00005 - SymbolShift fixed.
          "Menu" keys now goes in and out of menu. (allows VMS saving )
              Saving and Loading to/from VMS!
          RGB and VGA output now work!!!!!!!
          Keyboard saving to VMS

V0.00004 - Small fix for screen problem - (pooh)

V0.0003 -  Emulation now full speed.
          Keyboard support added.
          IM2 interrupt now emulated better.
          Basic support for delayed memory.
              Sync'd to 50Hz (  I hope )
          port $001F (kempston joystick) forced to static state (uridium)
              Hires-colour added (Uridium - Anyone know any others?)
             
              BIG THANKS to "Marcus Comstedt" and his programming page and samples
          HUGE THANKS as well to http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~pak/cssfaq/index.html
              for the spectrum tech faq.
             
              Note: Uridium still can't be played yet *sigh*

V0.0002 -  Disk access added. Can now load games from disk
          Disk menu added. Joystick mapping added via .TXT file
              HALT command emulated better
              Port $00FF emulated (Cobra)

V0.0001      -  First basic version. Manic Minor works.
          Slow. Autoboots.


Only .SNA files loaded so far

Multiple directorys supported. Up to 28(ish) files per directory - not sure why...ISO?
/GAMES/ULTIMA/
/GAMES/OLDIES/
/GAMES/


To re-enter menu press left and right triggers together.
To exit menu press left and right triggers together.

Some games included don't work as well as I'd like.... yet.

Bigboy




Loading and Saving
------------------
************************************************************
* :DANGER::DANGER::DANGER::DANGER::DANGER::DANGER::DANGER: *
*                                                          *
* DREAMSPEC WILL OVERWRITE THE CONTENTS OF THE VMS, PLEASE *
* USE A DEDICATED VMS!!!! THIS IS NOT AN OPTION!!!!!!!!!!! *
*                                                          *
* :DANGER::DANGER::DANGER::DANGER::DANGER::DANGER::DANGER: *
************************************************************

Left trigger is the LOAD selector
Right trigger is the SAVE selector

Depress one only.

Then select the slot ( 1 or 2 ) using Y or B

Your game will now load or save from that slot.
do not remove the card while saving!!!!!!


Using a Dreamcast Keyboard
--------------------------
F1                              -      Menu on/off
F2                              -   Display Spectrum 48K Keyboard layout
F3                              -   Refresh Disc directory (insert a new disc)
Left  arrow                  -      Move into selected directory
Right arrow                  -      Move back to parent directory
Numeric Pad Enter      -      Load selected Game



Saving Using a Dreamcast Keyboard
---------------------------------
Put a VMS into a joypad and insert into port 2
Power on Dreamcast.
( You can't insert a memory card during gameplay! So make sure its in at the START! )

Shift+F5 will load from save slot 1
Shift+F6 will load from save slot 2
Shift+F7 will save to save slot 1
Shift+F8 will save to save slot 2



How to add more games
---------------------
Simple!  Simply put the .SNA files a directory (or root) of the disk
then create a .TXT file to go with it. In here you add the key mappings
you would like to use. You should try and use the default keys if you
can, since having to select game options uses yet more keys.

The .TXT file has 9 characters in them, in THIS order

DPAD UP
DPAD DOWN
DPAD LEFT
DPAD RIGHT
A BUTTON
B BUTTON
X BUTTON
Y BUTTON
START Button

Use Uppercase letters, and "#" as enter, and "?" as shift.
"." should be used for any UNUSED keys/directions to avoid
dummy key presses.


Example
-------
MANIC.SNA
MANIC.TXT

MANIC.TXT="..QWM...#"

This is something i have always debated doing too.

I have seen selfbootable sets of NES SNES and Genesis roms for DC to name a few.

Thanks for those links Mike.
Hopefully i will be able to try doing it before i die.

Somewhere in one of those links, I think they have pre-made self-booting CD images that have a bunch of public domain ROMs on them.  Those would be an easy place to get started.

Thanks so much for the links!  Here's another one:

http://nesterdc.emulation64.com/index.html

I went to Dreamcast Emulation Zone (above) and downloaded a Dreamcast NES emulator and it works dandy!

I've got all of my NES ROMs on a disk and the emulator on another disc.  Good stuff!

To be honest, that's all I really want for now.  I never really got into any emulation besides NES, but I'm sure I'll get to SNES and Genesis emulators someday.

Well...thanks to a program associated with a Dreamcast SNES emulator, I've had to reinstall Opera and in the process have deleted all of my bookmarks.  So, if any of you use Opera for your internet browser, avoid "Provlist.exe" (A program for DreamSNES that renames your ROM files.).  It's bad news...

I too played around with SNES, NES, and SMS emulation on the DC.  Very cool.  It's exceedingly cool on the XBox, however, as you can even build you rown USB NES controller and splice it in to a controller cable to use on the XBox.

The wide variety of emulators for XBox is really outstanding, however you will need to get 'er modded.

OD

Ant, why don't we try this on friday?

Dreamcast rocks because it does not need a mod chip.  Emulators for the PSX suck because you need a mod chip.

I saw a bunch of Xbox burnable ROMs online the other day. I probably would have got them except i don't want to mod my xbox.