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Emulators and ROMs on CD-Rs
Cloud121 - Dec 9, 2001
  Cloud121 Dec 9, 2001
ok, CD-Rs and crap that are not GD-ROM format harm the laser a little right? well, since you NEED to use CD-Rs for emus and ROMs on DC, and since the CD-R needs to be in at all times that you play this will really screw the laser up right? how much will it shorten the life of the drive?

BTW, which is the best Genesis emulator on DC? SNES? NES? SMS?

 IceDigger Dec 9, 2001
NO NO NO.

dammit, I thought this stupid rumor had finally died. a laser is LIGHT. light. nothing physical. that light beam ain't gonna be damaged cause you got a blue and silver disk instead of a silver disk in there. the stupid "cdrs will break your dc in half and burn your house and rape your sister" bullshit is an invention of the anti-piracy clowns.

 Cloud121 Dec 9, 2001
*bashes head against wall for making Arakon mad and remind him of that rumor, does it twice cause he now remembers about the anti-piracy stuff he had forgotten* anyway *rubs bruised head*, you need a bootdisc to make the emus work right? then after the emu works, swap in the ROM disc? I don't really get all this DC emulation stuff, so bear with me (that's cause I don't have one yet ). can I burn emu discs, and ROM discs in Easy CD Creator 4? if not, what do I use to make the discs?

(Edited by Cloud121 at 7:47 pm on Dec. 9, 2001)

 eatpenguin Dec 9, 2001
uh, not really cloud

for most of the emus (most, not all), you can burn a disc that is both bootable AND contains roms (####. tried to refrain self from saying that god-forsaken forbidden "r" word....)

then again, nothing about emu's right? its just that i cant mention any illegally obtained softwares...

*looks to the right, then looks to the left*

anyway, head to www.dcemulation.com... or boob's site for info.. beware tho, the ppl at dcemulation's forums have grown really hostile lately.

anyway, for most of the emulators, most authors post the emulators in binary forms. binary form is THE bare-bone format. i.e. if the emul uses Microsoft's WinCE lib, chances are it's not included and u have to find it on your own; the file is NOT BOOT-ABLE. if they are nice enough, they will post the same file in DiscJuggler/Nero format so you wont have to use that *illegal* utopia bootdisc (oh no, of course i would know anything about it X_X).

so you're left with TWO options.

1. burn the binary on one disc, burn utopia on one disc (to boot the emu), and burn the...files that start with letter r on one disc. this is probably the least complicated way.

or, the LEGAL way,

2. get the emu on the binary form. extract the binary using one of them ISO proggies. edit ip.bin to your heart's content; have fun with it. follow the steps on the emu's site on how to add your **legally-obtained** roms (usually under the

oms directory). if the emu uses MS's WinCE lib, add that to the corresponding directory. compile the files into single binary. then add dummy-file to make emu boot a LOT faster. use bin2cdi.exe to **legally** make it self-boot-able. burn it using DiscJuggler OR nero, after doing cdi2nero.exe

it looks a little complicated at first, but it's really not

####. i hope i dont get banned from this forum. remember, i tried (hard) to minimize the usage of the forbidden 'r' word AND almost everything on my how-to is legal, except where otherwise noted. have fun;_)

 ExCyber Dec 9, 2001
The "need" for a boot disc is the other side of the bullshit coin - one was never really needed as such, it just made warez releases easier to burn. That's about it. The big secret is pretty much that the DC won't boot anything on the first session of a CD-ROM - killer protection, eh?

 Cloud121 Dec 9, 2001
so basically, there's no need for a boot disc to play the emus and ROMs?

 Fabrizo Dec 9, 2001
Nope, boot disks arn't neccesary, but somtimes youl need one like the one made by the utopia group in order to boot things like gyplayer. Oh, and as far as the best emus for the systems you mentioned:

NES: NesterDC (works with almost all games with full speed and sound)

SNES: DreamSNES (Still needs work, runs at about 85% speed, with sound)

Genesis & SMS: Don't know, never play them on emu's.

One last thing, you obviously like (aka love) the final fantasy games Cloud121, so I thought you might wan't to know that some peaple are talking about different ways to make bleemcasts play different PSX games then they were ment to play. In other words, you might be able to play you PSX FF's on your DC, with better grafx and such. Look around on the board, you should be able to find something about this.

 MasterAkumaMatata Dec 9, 2001

  
	
	

		
		

			so basically, there's no need for a boot disc to play the emus and ROMs?

Doh, someone said the "R" word,

Cloud121: That's right, as long as you know how to self-boot it, the boot disc is not necessary. The drawback of self-boot vs. boot disc is that you have about 23 MB (used towards the dummy first session) less for use on your CD-R.

 Cloud121 Dec 9, 2001
I hope to get a DC soon (if not, it'll be after I get FFX regardless if I have a PS2 or not, which will be after Christmas) I just wanna do this whole DC emulation scene because, playing Final Fantasy V, VI, II, and III I can't stay interested long enough on a PC. I'd rather be surfing the net. And if I can get the emulators on DC, I'll then be able to play them through the console and stay with them.

(Edited by Cloud121 at 11:42 pm on Dec. 9, 2001)

 MasterAkumaMatata Dec 9, 2001

  
	
	

		
		

			well, how do you self-boot it?

Just follow the self-boot instructions (don't request it here though for you know why). Common programs used to do self-boot are CDRWin and CDRECORD.EXE; I've seen instructions with Nero as well but not Easy CD Creator 4.

 lancastoor Dec 12, 2001
back to the original topic of cd-rs overheating/wrecking dcs..

everything arakorn said is true.. but there is one angle you can take on the 'copies wreck your dreamcast' theory..

once recompiled the files on the cd aren't in the original order anymore (generally iso builders put em back in alphabetical order).. so theoretically now your dreamcast is doing much more seeking, moving the carraige more, which would lead to it burning out sooner than if you played the painstakingly-optimized commercial GD-ROMS.. i always assumed this was the cause of the 'copies wreck your dreamcast and kill your dog' rumour..

truth is tho, thru experience, i've noticed the DC doing a #### of alot of seeking on commercial titles.. and the old 'hand on the console' test results say it runs just as hot with originals as it does with backups..

i have tried a couple backups that obviously do fuck something up with the seeking.. bad crack or whatever.. Garou MOTW seems to seek a little too much, and Dinosaur is constantly moving the laser around while you're playing.. it seems to me that if you played one of these for hours and hours on end it could shorten the laser-carraige's lifespan.. fortunately, dinosaur sucks ass and garou was released stateside as fatal fury..

 Cynnamin Dec 12, 2001
You can fry the drive in your Dreamcast if you aren't careful... I did that watching tentacle porn on someone's dreamcast.... they informed me that most new games released barely play on it. I rejoiced.

 Cloud121 Dec 12, 2001
Why the #### do you like that tentacle hentai crap? I mean, that crap's morbid (BTW, Skank showed me a picture of you, I must say, you are quite the babe )

 Shaneus Dec 12, 2001
hehe... is that the 10,000 tentacle-penis pr0n? lol

btw arak, i think *maybe* what cloud was getting at, was the fact that the majority of the data was stored on the outer ring of a normal GD-ROM, and that with a CDR, the motor that tracks the laser back and forth would be on the inner ring, rather than the outside one...

moving back and forth more, and thus killing the GDR assembly...

i think... i've never heard of it happen before...

 lancastoor Dec 14, 2001
the laser assembly on the dreamcast (sega cd, psx, saturn, 3do, dvd player, sony walkman, whatever) is a moving part, and as thus it *will* wear out..

so if a ripped game seeks mebbe 20% more, it would logically wear out 20% sooner.. but not really.. they rate the drives for x million power-on/in use hours, and i dont think that the amount of seek on a backup is way out of spec with what they originally planned for..

in actuality, i dont think its that bad. I think the very few reports of dreamcasts overheating/dying are probably due to bad units.. theres no way to compile the numbers but i figger its probably close to the predicted failure rate..

its not much of a coincidence that with the move to self-booting titles, alot of this talk died down for awhile.. seems to me people were more likely to fuck their systems snagging the disc out of the drive before it had completely stopped spinning..

anyhow, it all started (this thread) with emu's.. seems to me that once a (properly coded) emu has loaded itself and a rom file, the drive has done its job, and needn't be accessed.. thus it would spin down, the whole system would get a well-needed rest..

and with your backups.. play sensible, not forever besides, you need a rest too..

#### who cares when a replacement is 50 bucks brand new.

 MasterAkumaMatata Dec 14, 2001

  
	
	

		
		

			#### who cares when a replacement is 50 bucks brand new.

Good point, but you better get them fast before those brand new 50 buck replacements run out.

 Cynnamin Dec 14, 2001
tentacles r0x0r me

 MasterAkumaMatata Dec 14, 2001
You don't say, how many can you handle at once?

 RadSil Dec 19, 2001
Making self-boot stuff is easy; I would write a tutorial for it except it can be used for some frowned-upon purposes (at least on this board).