Technology Can any of you guys help?

Casey

Casey

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#1
#1
OK, so back in the day when I played more videogames I would probably have known where to go, but as it stands right now I've not a clue.

Basically, there was this disc that you could get and put in in your Dreamcast that would allow you to play copied games. You put this disc in, then put in the copied game and it would play. I think it may have been called Utopia.

So what I'm trying to find is a site or a place where I could download this software and burn it onto a CD - as well as finding PAL versions of Dreamcast games that I could download and burn ,and play them using that workaround software disc.

I do recall seeing links for Dreamcast games on one site around a year ago, but they were all NTSC.

Anyone got any ideas?
 
masta247

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#2
#2
funny thing is, since 2 hours I'm searching for it too.

I found Shenmue disc 1 and 2 but can't find 3rd and 4th working.

I also found Dreamcast pc emulator and it kinda works.
 
Casey

Casey

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#3
#3
I think I may have found Utopia.....and it may possibly also have the ability to play foreign games on my Dreamcast, which I didn't know it could do. I'll be checking this out for sure.
 
Casey

Casey

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#5
#5
OK, I researched this all night, and wow, this is bigger than I thought.

Turns out there's massive communities and forums basically dedicated to Dreamcast mods, hacking, homebrew software and emulation.

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin is the one i've been reading.

Anyway, from what I can gather, you generally don't need the boot disc these days, at some point people figured out how to make the ROM images "self-booting". But you will need to right programs to burn the images. Apparently there is one called DiscJuggler that is the best.

I found one called BootDreams that will convert the .cdi images that most of the Dreamcast game downloads are in, to a Nero image. I tried it out with Virtua Tennis 2 and it worked! I was playing that game for a couple hours last night with no problem.

Also, there's a massive world of emulation on the Dreamcast. I managed to find a SNES emulator called DreamSNES. It took me a while to figure out how to get it to work, but once I did it was awesome, I found a tool that would burn it as well as including any ROMS you may have, so I added in all my snes roms and played Super Mario All Stars for a while! It was a bit laggy but apparently you can speed it all up if you make sure to only use PAL roms and not NTSC ones, and turn off some of the options on the emulator.

I didn't get a chance to try it yet but apparently there is also a fully working MegaDrive/Genesis emulator. It's fully working because it came from Sega themselves. :D
What seems to have happened is that Sega released a Sonic compilation for the Dreamcast with the old Sonic games on it, somebody hacked it and found out that it was an emulator and managed to find a way to add other roms to it and re-burn it! LOL. It's called SegaGen and is supposed to be quite hard to find, but I think I should be able to find it.

Anyway I'll be trying more of this stuff out later tonight. I have to find a laser calibration guide for Dreamcast first though as it's on the blink. There's supposed to be something you can just tighten up, if you take it apart that re-calibrates the laser. It took me about 9 or 10 times of opening and closing the lid to get the burned Virtua Tennis to play lol. And I burned Sonic Adventure 2 this morning but it wouldn't load. So hopefully once I re calibrate it should be all good.

Thanks for links Zimbabwe!
 
C

ChrisZimbo

New Member
Staff member
#6
#6
Casey Rain said:
OK, I researched this all night, and wow, this is bigger than I thought.

Turns out there's massive communities and forums basically dedicated to Dreamcast mods, hacking, homebrew software and emulation.

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin is the one i've been reading.

Anyway, from what I can gather, you generally don't need the boot disc these days, at some point people figured out how to make the ROM images "self-booting". But you will need to right programs to burn the images. Apparently there is one called DiscJuggler that is the best.

I found one called BootDreams that will convert the .cdi images that most of the Dreamcast game downloads are in, to a Nero image. I tried it out with Virtua Tennis 2 and it worked! I was playing that game for a couple hours last night with no problem.

Also, there's a massive world of emulation on the Dreamcast. I managed to find a SNES emulator called DreamSNES. It took me a while to figure out how to get it to work, but once I did it was awesome, I found a tool that would burn it as well as including any ROMS you may have, so I added in all my snes roms and played Super Mario All Stars for a while! It was a bit laggy but apparently you can speed it all up if you make sure to only use PAL roms and not NTSC ones, and turn off some of the options on the emulator.

I didn't get a chance to try it yet but apparently there is also a fully working MegaDrive/Genesis emulator. It's fully working because it came from Sega themselves. :D
What seems to have happened is that Sega released a Sonic compilation for the Dreamcast with the old Sonic games on it, somebody hacked it and found out that it was an emulator and managed to find a way to add other roms to it and re-burn it! LOL. It's called SegaGen and is supposed to be quite hard to find, but I think I should be able to find it.

Anyway I'll be trying more of this stuff out later tonight. I have to find a laser calibration guide for Dreamcast first though as it's on the blink. There's supposed to be something you can just tighten up, if you take it apart that re-calibrates the laser. It took me about 9 or 10 times of opening and closing the lid to get the burned Virtua Tennis to play lol. And I burned Sonic Adventure 2 this morning but it wouldn't load. So hopefully once I re calibrate it should be all good.

Thanks for links Zimbabwe!
Click to expand...

No probs. Used to play Snes & Sega games on my old PS2, so i sort of figured what you were talking about.

Might try out the DC Emulator & Shenmue this weekend, since you and some of the folk on here have made quite a buzz about it.


peace
 
Casey

Casey

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#7
#7
Zimbabwe said:
No probs. Used to play Snes & Sega games on my old PS2, so i sort of figured what you were talking about.

Might try out the DC Emulator & Shenmue this weekend, since you and some of the folk on here have made quite a buzz about it.

peace
Click to expand...

I don't know how good the DC emulator for PC's is, but if it's anything less than 90% then playing Shenmue on that is really doing a disservice to the game. You'd better off getting a cheap Dreamcast off eBay or something and playing it on there.
 
C

ChrisZimbo

New Member
Staff member
#8
#8
Casey Rain said:
I don't know how good the DC emulator for PC's is, but if it's anything less than 90% then playing Shenmue on that is really doing a disservice to the game. You'd better off getting a cheap Dreamcast off eBay or something and playing it on there.
Click to expand...
yeah ill search about for one :thumb:
 
Prize Gotti

Prize Gotti

Boots N Cats
Staff member
#9
#9
The proprietary GD-ROM format was the only means of copy protection and was quickly defeated. Using a combination of reverse-engineering and insecure firmware, one piracy method was made possible by the existence of regular-CD booting code in the Dreamcast BIOS to enable multimedia functions (called Mil-CD) for music CD releases on the Japanese market. This led to the creation of the Utopia bootdisk. Mil-CD support was removed from the final Dreamcast revisions.

Copying discs for backups required CDs over 900 megabytes and in most cases the game plays like the original. Because of its proprietary format, the Dreamcast reads CD-R's twice, functioning as a 6 speed CD-ROM instead of the traditional 12x. Some backups will be plagued by slow-down during menus and gameplay, with possible longer load times. Fast write methods and scratched disks also hamper gameplay.
Click to expand...
If you can find a CD that holds 900mb and a cd burner that will support it (I read some forums about 900mb cd burning, not fun from what i read) then I wish you luck.
 
Casey

Casey

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#10
#10
Prize Gotti said:
If you can find a CD that holds 900mb and a cd burner that will support it (I read some forums about 900mb cd burning, not fun from what i read) then I wish you luck.
Click to expand...
That's not needed. The Dreamcast game ripping group compress the files enough to fit onto a CD without affecting game play. Trust, I was playing my burned VIrtua Tennis all damn night and didn't notice any slowdown, lag or anything different to the regular.

Check this out:

http://thepiratebay.org/browse-user.php?b=1&c=Hellraiserftw&orderby=&page=0

All Dreamcast games, and all can fit on a CD.
 
Prize Gotti

Prize Gotti

Boots N Cats
Staff member
#11
#11
sorry didnt read the whole thread, download that hover board game, i remember getting thrown out of argos because i stayed until i completed it on the demo stand.
 
7 Syns

7 Syns

Well-Known Member
#13
#13
Dreamcast is the best machine to never be properly advertised. One could ONLY imagine what if the Dreamcast did well and how a successor would have been? Think ps3/360 years before the ps3/360...

peac3.
 
Rukas

Rukas

Capo Dei Capi
Staff member
#14
#14
7 Syns said:
Dreamcast is the best machine to never be properly advertised. One could ONLY imagine what if the Dreamcast did well and how a successor would have been? Think ps3/360 years before the ps3/360...

peac3.
Click to expand...
Agreed.

Dreamcast was amazing. It was ahead of its time, it had Live before there was Live the problem was back then most people still had dial up and the world just wasnt ready for it.

I wish Sega would come back to consoles.
 
Casey

Casey

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#15
#15
Definately the best console of all time in my book. The control pads are the most comfortable of any consoles, the Visual Memory Units were absolute genius, especially once games started making use of them. And of course, the games. If I were to make a list of the games that I've had the most fun playing, the majority would be Dreamcast games. Off the top of my head, I spend a ridiculous amount of time playing the following Dreamcast games:

Shenmue
Shenmue II (only released on DC in Europe, no English voices but English subtitles.......later released on xbox with English voices)
House Of The Dead II (with the light guns)
Virtua Tennis
Soul Calibur
Crazy Taxi
Power Stone (one of the most fun fighting games ever)
Chu Chu Rocket! (ridiculously addictive and multiplayer was AWESOME)
Space Channel 5 (pure jap anime kitsch genius)
Ready 2 Rumble (I fucking hate boxing games. But I loved this one. Says it all, I think.)
Fur Fighters (never had the whole game but the demo was awesome)
Sega Bass Fishing (with the fishing controller! Who would have thought fishing would be this fun?)
Jet Set Radio/Jet Grind Radio (FUCKING IMMENSE. I played this game for hours on end, the graffiti and the rollerblading mixed with the crazy graphics and killer soundtrack =awesomeness)
Metropolis Street Racer (just like with Ready2Rumble, I don't really like racing games, but I really enjoyed this one)

Zombie Revenge (this was awesome. A House of the Dead spin-off, but a side scrolling beat 'em up like Streets of Rage)


..and of course I can't forget the absolutely fucking incredible Sonic Adventure.

Now. I had a Megadrive/Genesis growing up, and I have always held the Sonic series pretty close to my heart. I had em all, Sonic 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and the disappointing Sonic 3D: Flickie's Island. Was a big fan.

So when I got the Dreamcast, I have to say I wasn't sure how Sonic Adventure would be. Given that I didn't enjoy Sonic 3D, and also I disliked the 3D version of Mario that they made on the N64 called Super Mario 64. But maaaan I was wrong. Sonic Adventure is fucking amazing. It's one of the best Sonic games in my opinion if not THE best.
 
masta247

masta247

Well-Known Member
Staff member
#16
#16
yeah it was a great console. I wish so much that Sega would release a PS3/xbox360 competitor console.

I think only psx gave me as many great memories but it wasn't as good as a console (It was only game-wise).
 
7 Syns

7 Syns

Well-Known Member
#17
#17
It'd be hard for Sega to bring back a console, considering how much they lost on the Saturn and Dreamcast tho. That's not even including how much money and time they spent on the Neptune only for it to never be released. Hopefully tho one day... because in all honesty the only Sega brand game I'm enjoying is the new Sega Rally..

The new Sonic was eh. The Sonic & secret rings was eh. too. Then there was that Altered Beast from 2005 which was heavily under done. Especially considering it was based on a Sega cult classic like the og. Altered Beast.

peac3.
 
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