Dreamcast emulation on other 128 bit consoles

[cessnaace]

I have recently seen an emulation disc that would let you play Japanese Dreamcast games on the U.S. Dreamcast. I think it would help Microsoft with marketshare if they were to come out with an emulation disc to play Dreamcast games on the Xbox. This would increase it's library by some 300 games, and save gamers from having to hook up 4 different 128 Bit consoles. :P

[davidbrit2]

I think emulating a system like the Dreamcast would pretty much make the CPU burst into flames. How fast is the Dreamcast's CPU clock? And how difficult would it be to emulate/redirect the graphics hardware calls? I seriously doubt you'll see anything like this soon.

[Captain Wrong]

This can't be done. First, DC games are printed on Sega's propritary GD-Rom discs and in order for a machine to read the game disc you'd either have to put a GD-Rom in the Xbox, or use all ripped copied of DC games.

Second, I don't think there is such a thing as DC emulation for the PC that really works. Meaning if it can't be done using top of the line current PC components, it really can't be done using 2 year old PC components.

Third, Microsoft would have to license the technology from Sega. They couldn't just release an emulator. I don't think it'd be worth the money for them to do that. Think about it, if people weren't interested in playing these games a few years ago when the DC was new (and for the most part they won't) why should they care about it now?

And fourth, MS is trying to establish it's own identity for the Xbox. Having a major selling point of emulation someone else's console doesn't exactly do much for that.

I don't think the Xbox needs DC emulation. It would be cool, but I think it's doing just fine without it.

(BTW, what you saw wasn't an emulation disc for the DC. Why would you need to emulate the DC on the DC? What you saw was a disc that gets past the region lockout inherent in the system. There's no emulation involved, it just confuses your system into thinking whatever game you put in is supposed to run on that machine.)

[davidbrit2]

This can't be done. First, DC games are printed on Sega's propritary GD-Rom discs and in order for a machine to read the game disc you'd either have to put a GD-Rom in the Xbox, or use all ripped copied of DC games.

Heh. I can't believe I forgot about the biggest hurdle.

[Bratwurst]

This can't be done. First, DC games are printed on Sega's propritary GD-Rom discs and in order for a machine to read the game disc you'd either have to put a GD-Rom in the Xbox, or use all ripped copied of DC games.


Now I know the ripped copies of DC games had to come from somewhere, but will PCs be able to truly emulate from the GD-Roms (be able to read them) when the processing power is there in the future?

[davidbrit2]

I think most DC dumping has either involved putting a GD-ROM drive into the PC (your guess is as good as mine,) or by dumping it directly from the DC using custom software to stream over the serial port or ethernet adapter.

[buttasuperb]

Just play DC games on your fucking DC system. It's thinking, remember?

[zektor]

Since a GD-Rom drive is completely different than a CD-Rom drive (in media storage space, how it's read, etc), it will not matter what the speed or power of your PC is, you will never be able to read the original discs. And since there are no GD-Rom drives manufactured for the PC (and I doubt there ever will since there's no point really) you will never be able to read the GD-Rom on your PC that way. There will be only two options to play the games when the emulators progress (there are some in the works BTW) and that will be A. Downloading illegal copies, or B. Hooking your DC to the network card via the BBA and transfering you legitimate game copy directly to the PC.

PS: How come I always see emulation related questions here in the main forum? Our forum is just a scroll down on the main index! :(

[Captain Wrong]

AFAIK, the way people ripped games from DC was via a special serial cable that went from the DC to the PC. (I think I can say that as it's not something that it really easy to do anyway, and just playing the damn game on the DC is so much easier.)

@Zektor...yeah, I feel your pain. Almost every day there's at least one Restoration or Import related question on the main board (usually one that's been answered already at that!)

[The Unknown Gamer]

I have a friend who rips Dreamcast games all of the time. Besides you can get Quake 2 which was never offically released for the Dreamcast on
www.dcemulation.com Lets not forget the other emulators on that site.
All you need is a boot disc to run them.

[davidbrit2]

Yes, you only need a boot disc to run them, but getting them into a format that a PC can actually read is a little trickier.

Has the process been simplified much? I.e. is there a utility disc that you can download which will read an inserted GD-ROM and send it over the BBA via TCP/IP?

[zektor]

Yes, you only need a boot disc to run them, but getting them into a format that a PC can actually read is a little trickier.

Has the process been simplified much? I.e. is there a utility disc that you can download which will read an inserted GD-ROM and send it over the BBA via TCP/IP?

There is a utility to read a GD to the PC hard drive using the BBA, but I can't remember exactly what it is called....it's been awhile. I believe I got it from the Boob! site.