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TolTic
May 28th, 2009, 16:57
Greetings,

After playing SNES all weekend at my friend's house, I've gotten very interested in homebrew apps for my older systems. I had a dreamcast lying around and decided to give the old bugger a go. Upon startup, I found that the controller ports weren't working and I have to get a replacement, but this isn't why I am posting. I'm posting because I'm quite confused as to how I am going to burn an image CD for it.

I pretty much get everything except for binaries.

In this tutorial (http://www.racketboy.com/guides/burn-dreamcast-discjuggler-images.htm) it seems pretty simple and easy. Just burn the CDI image, but when using other programs (such as BootDreams, as stated in this thread (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=21631)) it asks for a .bin file.

A binary file? I searched and found that these files are the files that the dreamcast basically uses as its BIOS before handing over control to the disc.

I have several questions, does each program/utility need its own binary file or is there just one binary file that you need for all of your games?

Also, where do you get these files?

Can I not play on my Dreamcast without these files burned onto the image CD? Sources point to "no" when trying to burn things like DCHakker and such... but what about stand-alone non-commercial Dreamcast games?


EDIT: Ehhhhh, this is in the wrong forum, just noticed that. Apologies; move me, please?

Darksaviour69
May 28th, 2009, 17:36
The .bin is the emu/app/homebrew.

For snes you want :

http://dreamcast.dcemu.co.uk/superfamicast.php

or

http://chui.dcemu.co.uk/snes4all.html

TolTic
May 28th, 2009, 19:06
The .bin is the emu/app/homebrew.

For snes you want :

http://dreamcast.dcemu.co.uk/superfamicast.php

or

http://chui.dcemu.co.uk/snes4all.html

I see, so the ip.bin in the download is a 32kb file, is this the emulator (sounds about right)?

So let's say I want to burn any freeware game, I've read that I can use the ip.bin (32kb one) found in the other download... is this true? If it is, all I'd need to burn onto the image CD is the "Tetris_2CG.cdi" file and ip.bin with BootDreams?

Sorry if I'm sounding like a nub, I'm new to the homebrew world. :o

Darksaviour69
May 28th, 2009, 19:12
cdi is a ready to burn cd image (discjuggler). I think BootDreams can burn cdi files, can't remember.

If you use nero burner, you can use a progam can cdi2nero, to convert the file.

the ip.bin the boot file for all homebrew to work, but bootdreams (and DChakker) does that all for you, so you don't have to worry about that.

TolTic
May 28th, 2009, 20:35
I think I'm good, then! :thumbup:

Coming from an IT background, I am used to following procedure to the "T" unless otherwise specified or it's an unknown problem. This might be why I found it hard to understand it from pulling information from all of the tutorials and threads out there...

Thanks for your help! I'll repost here when I go home and try it (if need be, it can be closed).

EDIT (5/29): Got it to work, thanks for all of your help!