Tutorial: How to create and/or burn a Dreamcast disc in 5 minutes

[Christuserloeser]

This tutorial has three sections:
1 - General Info you should know.
2 - Burning a .CDI with BootDreams
3 - How to create and burn your own DC image with BootDreams


1General Info:

Media:
You'll need CDRs. Best are 80min/700Mbyte. CDRWs and other media are -NOT- supported.

You do -NOT- need a modded DC. About any Dreamcast will work with CDRs. Very, very few won't.


Format:
Standard in Dreamcast software is the DiscJuggler .CDI format. Nero's .NRG format would not work on MAC and LINUX, also any Nero version newer than 5.5 had its problems with the DC format.

Most downloads for Dreamcast come as .ZIP or .RAR files. WinRAR should help you with unzipping/unraring:
http://www.winrar-rog.com/eindex.html



2 Burning a .CDI file with BootDreams:

To burn a *.CDI file, it's recommend to use BootDreams' CDI-burner. BootDreams is VERY easy to use and it's for free:

Website: http://dchelp.dcemulation.com/?BootDreams


1. Download BootDreams and install it to e.g. C:/BootDreams/

2. Download the image you'd like to burn and unzip/unrar it somewhere, e.g. to C:/

3. Start BootDreams and choose "CDI Burner". Now click on "Browse" and point BootDreams to the CDI you would like to burn.

4. Click on "Burn CDI Image". That's it.



Other:
Nero Burning ROM isn't recommend for Dreamcast software but Alcohol120% (in TAO mode) works good too. Download the free trial version here:
http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/download_120.php



3 How to create and burn your own DC image with BootDreams:

1. Download BootDreams and install it to e.g. C:/BootDreams/

2. Download the emulator/game/app you would like to burn and put it in a dedicated folder, e.g. C:/BootDreams/SNES4ALL/

3. Now unzip/unrar your emulator/game/app into that same folder. The 1ST_READ.BIN contains the actual DC programme.

4. Start BootDreams and point it to C:/BootDreams/SNES4ALL/. It will then guide you trough the process. I recommend the 'CDRecord' method.

[v2freak]

Hi, I'm a new member. This looks like a really nice thorough guide but I just have 1 problem. The files I've downloaded are not in .CDI format. They are zipped, but when I extract them with WinRar, I get BIN files etc.

[Darksaviour69]

Hi, I'm a new member. This looks like a really nice thorough guide but I just have 1 problem. The files I've downloaded are not in .CDI format. They are zipped, but when I extract them with WinRar, I get BIN files etc.


step 3

[v2freak]

Oh alright, thank you!

[Kaiser]

Thanks for the guide. Got my "new" dreamcast running some genesis classics.

[joeman1212]

{no warez}
thanks.


DC for life!

[lil_daddy]

hey I tryed the download link for dream boot and got a empty page with a red x is something wrong with it.

[Darksaviour69]

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=17763&highlight=bootdreams

[fackue]

The page was moved.

http://www.consolevision.com/members/fackue/index.php?My_Projects:BootDreams

[That Guy]

I tried to download from the link in DCEMU but the file i got said it was corrupt when i tried to extract it. I was able to download a working version from Fackue's page. Thank you for the info/tutorial it may prove to be very useful.

[Christuserloeser]

Updated the links.

[ovalbugmann]

I thought the Dreamcast scene was dead, until I got a computer, then the internet, then I found several Great! Dreamcast sites including dcemu.co.uk! I've been making coasters out of so many CDs, mainly because I was using Nero 6.0 (no DAO feature) not 5.5 and below. I've been sticking to the premade disk images, using DJ and Alcohol 120% for Nero images. But I'm still wasting a lot of CDs trying to use Dream Inducer and Bootdreams. I was using UNRAR(suks) instead of WINRAR. Those Bor mod games are really fun. Anyways, thanks to info I've seen from people like christuserloser, I am getting more proficient at making a bootable DC disc, although my success rate for DI & BD is only about 25% or 1 in 4 discs will actually boot up on my DC. So, it's been a learning process for sbi's and plain files and scrambled and unscrambled eggs um files.

[Christuserloeser]

Hehe, thx ^^ but it's Fackue who you should thank for BootDreams and burnerO for SBInducer.

If you got any problems just start a new topic about a disc that you can't seem to get working and we'll surely will try to help you. ;)

[rian202003]

this forum is awsome,
i just bought a DC yesterday and im really looking forward to finding out a lot about what it is capable of.
the burning guide here is great and very clear.
its good to see that there is a lot of members here and kudos to you guys who run this forum.

:cool:

[Christuserloeser]

You're welcome! Have fun with your DC :)

[havoc200322]

hey...I used boot dreams 1.01 and it said that I created a cd image for disc juggler and it doesn't really work...I opened another program to view it and it came up saying that it was a .wav file...wtf??? I burned everything on it the way your tutorial said and I tried again another way and it did n't work either...I have been doing this for some time now so what is it that I am doing wrong??? my first try tries to start in the dreamcast but goes back to the start screen every time then I tried to burn it with disc juggler that came with boot dreams 1.01 and it wouln't even truy to boot that one....I know this is long but I wanted to make sure that if anybody could help me with my situation, they would know the whole story...thanks any ideas???

[Darksaviour69]

yeah i had trouble with disc juggler too, i used dc record and used bootdreams to burn it, that worked fine for me

[havoc200322]

if you dont mind me asking where did you pick that up? I have the sega obsidian emu and I extracted it so I could add more games to it since all of the games on there do not work I want to replace them with other ones and see if their replacements will launch....

[Darksaviour69]

sega obsidian emu

ah thats your problem, thats a ripped illegal emu, that does not work with any homebrew boot disc/methods

+ GenesisPlusDC: GPWT is much better

http://dreamcast.dcemu.co.uk/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,32,338

[havoc200322]

its only one file what do I do with that? and actually I wound up getting obsidian to boot but it didnt load any rom bin files...damn...

[havoc200322]

so what do I do with the bin file from GenesisPlusDC: GPWT, is there an emulator that's supposed to come with that or any source codes? I guess I'm not as smart as I thought I was...

[Darksaviour69]

when you unzip it you will get a .bin file


3 How to create and burn your own DC image with BootDreams:

1. Download BootDreams and install it to e.g. C:/BootDreams/

2. Download the emulator/game/app you would like to burn and put it in a dedicated folder, e.g. C:/BootDreams/SNES4ALL/

3. Now unzip/unrar your emulator/game/app into that same folder. The 1ST_READ.BIN contains the actual DC programme.

4. Start BootDreams and point it to C:/BootDreams/SNES4ALL/. It will then guide you trough the process. I recommend the 'CDRecord' method.


the .bin is the emulator

Actually

ROMS.TXT

Pretty straight from the readme:

In GPWT-3c there is no directory browsing - just that fixed list of names for that fixed list of games.

You put your (zipped) ROMS in the directory:

\gpwt\data\ROMS

It also expects to find a file:

\gpwt\data\ROMS.txt

In ROMS.TXT you can put the names of your games in there plus the name you'd like to see displayed on screen:

SHINOBI.ZIP The Revenge of Shinobi

'SHINOBI.ZIP' (or 'shinobi.zip') would be your actual ROM, 'The Revenge of Shinobi' will be displayed on screen. Each file + name goes into a seperate line in ROMS.TXT.

ROM List Creator v1.2

A helpful tool to automate the process would be ROM List Creator v1.2 by kRypT:

Download it here.

Start ROMLST.EXE and choose /gpwt/data/ROMS/. You'll get a file called ROMS.LST. Rename it to ROMS.TXT, open it in Wordpad and auto-replace the ":" for " " (space). (Big thanks to Juan for the info!)

http://www.dreamcast-scene.com/index.php/Main/GenesisPlusDC

[havoc200322]

okay...are there any apps I have to apply?? I kinda thought that was the emulator but wasn't sure...

[Darksaviour69]

oh here is a complete guide ( a completey different way of burning it)

http://www.dreamcast-scene.com/index.php/Main/GenesisPlusDC-How-to-burn

[fackue]

Not to encourage it, but BootDreams will make selfbooting CD images of Katana and WinCE games. I added a check to check if your 1ST_READ.BIN is a Katana or WinCE binary and it leaves it alone instead of telling you it's unscrambled.

The file hosted here of GenesisPlus GPWT is actually missing a few of it's GUI files. BlackAura released just the 1ST_READ.BIN to be dropped over Warmtoe's previous releases a couple days before. You can grab BlackAura's build with the GUI packed with it over here (http://www.dreamcast-scene.com/index.php/Main/GenesisPlusDC) in either SBI format or the plain files. These versions of GenesisPlus need a ROMS.TXT file listing all your ROMs and a breif description about the game in the following format:


Aladdin.smd The Disney game Aladdin
Mortal_Kombat.smd The first Mortal Kombat game
Sonic_the_Hedgehog_II.smd The second Sonic game

Notice the filenames don't have any spaces if they do the menu will look funky. I believe you can zip the games too, just make sure you set the right extension in the ROMS list. Warmtoe made a batch file that will create the ROMS list (http://www.dcemulation.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=893694#893694) for you.

[havoc200322]

just curious but what is the best dreamcast super nes emulator and does anyone have a web address that will send me to it. I've been using dreamsnes and its just too damn slow...

[havoc200322]

by the way thanks Darksaviour69 for all of the help...I finally got the damn genesis emu to work but I think someone needs to point out that in the roms.txt file that you don't rename the smc to zip necessarily...you rename the smc to whatever file extension the roms that you possess are in...like mine were bin files so that was one reason that i kept screwing up and decided to change the extension to bin instead of zip and it worked...changing it to zip however just issued another coqaster to my collection...

[havoc200322]

Darksaviour69...do you or anyone else on here know how to burn a neodc2.3 dreamcast bootdisk? Ive been looking for a tutorial or some kinda FAQ and have not been able to locate on as of yet...your help will be much appreciated

Thanks for all of the help

[fackue]

http://consolevision.com/members/dchelp/?My_Projects:NeoCD%2FSDL_DC_Selfbooter

[havoc200322]

thanks man...I'm sure it'll take me a while to figure this out but I'm sure I will sooner than later with your help...

[havoc200322]

how do you make a neocd romdisk??? I got the emu to boot and it wouldnt let me just add a roms file to it to read...so what do I have to do to get it to read my roms???...please help

[Christuserloeser]

You should find help here:
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=27860

[Atari]

I've been looking around for a way to inject actual audio files into the first track of a DC image, AND make it selfbootable. This way I can test some fenix cd audio playing code that I've written. So far, any info describing this method has escaped me. Anyone have a link to such information?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Smurph]

I've been looking around for a way to inject actual audio files into the first track of a DC image, AND make it selfbootable. This way I can test some fenix cd audio playing code that I've written. So far, any info describing this method has escaped me. Anyone have a link to such information?

Any help would be appreciated.

You can have CDDA tracks before the data track.

[mesosade]

ummmm it says pick a boot filename dunno wat dat is and plus there's no 1'st read bin file in my iso...

[Smurph]

Umm, it says to pick a boot filename. I don't know what that is, and there isn't a 1st_read.bin file in the ISO...

Then it can't be booted.

[lo]

Check the IP.bin via editor.
The file shown there is the first one that got bootet.

Ip.bin
**********
SEGA SEGAKATANA SEGA ENTERPRISES236C CD-ROM1/1 JUE E000F10 T0000 V1.00020061018 1ST_READ.BIN BootDreams REPLACEMENT IP.BIN
....
***********

But there can be more files, that 'need to know' the offset number...

Greetz
lo_

[fackue]

I've been looking around for a way to inject actual audio files into the first track of a DC image, AND make it selfbootable. This way I can test some fenix cd audio playing code that I've written. So far, any info describing this method has escaped me. Anyone have a link to such information?

Any help would be appreciated.
There's currently not really an automated process for this. You'll need to do it manually with CDRecord. I don't know the commands off hand so you'll need to take a look around.

I believe you can use the following to burn the audio first:

cdrecord -speed 4 -multi -audio track1.wav track2.wav track3.wav

Then use the following to burn the data:

cdrecord -speed 4 -xa data.iso

Remember to get the multisession info after you burn the audio and set it to data.iso before burning it.


ummmm it says pick a boot filename dunno wat dat is and plus there's no 1'st read bin file in my iso...
The boot filename is the 1ST_READ.BIN. I'm not sure why you're using an ISO... I don't understand what you're saying honestly.

[Mourningstar]

3 How to create and burn your own DC image with BootDreams:

1. Download BootDreams and install it to e.g. C:/BootDreams/

2. Download the emulator/game/app you would like to burn and put it in a dedicated folder, e.g. C:/BootDreams/SNES4ALL/

3. Now unzip/unrar your emulator/game/app into that same folder. The 1ST_READ.BIN contains the actual DC programme.

4. Start BootDreams and point it to C:/BootDreams/SNES4ALL/. It will then guide you trough the process. I recommend the 'CDRecord' method
Ive done this with nxDoom, but its still not working....

Ive wasted countless numbers of CD-Rs trying to burn nxDoom and none of them work. I make a folder named "Doom" and place the nxDoom 1st_read and IP files along with my WADs into the folder, make a CDI of it with BootDreams and burn it with Alch 120%. And all they do is show the DC bootup, the Sega logo, and then nothing but a black screen....

Ive had no problem burning other HB like QUake, NES, etc. but this nxDoom is ****ing killing me....

Please help...

[Atari]

There's currently not really an automated process for this. You'll need to do it manually with CDRecord. I don't know the commands off hand so you'll need to take a look around.

I believe you can use the following to burn the audio first:


Then use the following to burn the data:


Remember to get the multisession info after you burn the audio and set it to data.iso before burning it.

I found the old Echelon selfboot tutorial which describes the method you just explained. I've burned two discs so far, but the DC sees them as audio discs unless I use DC Hakker to boot 1st_read.bin, and even then, it won't read the audio information off the disc (which could be a fenix bug for all I know). I must have done something wrong, so I'll try again.

Thanks for the info.

[fackue]

I'm not sure that CDRecord will accept any other audio format other than wav so make sure you're not giving it mp3s or ogg formated files.

I forgot to mention that when you create your ISO you need to insert the IP.BIN in the bootsector. It's as simple as doing -G IP.BIN for mkisofs.

Burn audio:

cdrecord dev=x,x,x speed=4 -multi -audio track1.wav track2.wav etc

Get the multisession information next:

cdrecord dev=x,x,x -msinfo

Create your ISO:

mkisofs -C x,x -R -J -l -G IP.BIN -o data.iso data

Burn the ISO:

cdrecord -dev=x,x,x speed=4 -eject -xa1 data.iso

That should do the trick.

[Atari]

I'll give it a try. Thanks.

[mas52292]

I have used every program to try to burn dreamcast games onto cds but nothing seems to work. I have looked at every guide and followed all the instructions and have only got 1 disk to work, and that was some NES emulator that didn't have any games on it because I didn't know how to put games on it, plus I didn't even want that. Please can someone give me a full picture tutorial on the steps I need to take.

[VampDude]

I have used every program to try to burn dreamcast games onto cds but nothing seems to work. I have looked at every guide and followed all the instructions and have only got 1 disk to work, and that was some NES emulator that didn't have any games on it because I didn't know how to put games on it, plus I didn't even want that. Please can someone give me a full picture tutorial on the steps I need to take.

use Alcohol120%

[mas52292]

i have used that, didn't i say every program

[lo]

How fast have you burned?
Max. is 12x or something like that for Dreamcast games.
Here is an instruction (sorry no pictures):
http://www.dreamcast-scene.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=797

[Mashmore06]

Would this method work for MAME4All ?

[fackue]

It should.

[logicbomb.de]

I have used every program to try to burn dreamcast games onto cds but nothing seems to work. I have looked at every guide and followed all the instructions and have only got 1 disk to work, and that was some NES emulator that didn't have any games on it because I didn't know how to put games on it, plus I didn't even want that. Please can someone give me a full picture tutorial on the steps I need to take.

To be completely honest, some CD/DVD burners just wont burn a bootable Dreamcast disc no matter what program or speed you burn them at.

I had a external Fire-Wire DVD burner that would burn Gamecube, XBOX, PS2, Saturn, and PSone discs perfect everytime but it would REFUSE to burn a working DC disc. The closest I got to getting it to work was that I got a rip of Guilty Gear to boot up and play but there was no BGM/CDDA. Hardly successful in my book. I would advise that maybe you look into updating your burner. I can verify that the Pioneer 111D (one of the recommended burners for xbox 360 games) has no issues burning 100% working DC discs.


BTW, does anyone know if the dreamcast will recognize 800MB CDRs? I found a rip of Shenmue II that has the Japanese Voice file intact, but the image is about 800MB in Alcohol 120% format (MDS, MFD).

TIA!!!!

[Christuserloeser]

The closest I got to getting it to work was that I got a rip of Guilty Gear to boot up and play but there was no BGM/CDDA. Hardly successful in my book.
That is no proove of anything. Rips aren't perfect copies of a game, the Dreamcast pirate scene is known for releasing images of Dreamcast games that do miss the CDDA or have low quality BGM/cutscenes, either because the game's data wouldn't fit on a 80min CDR or just to save bandwidth.


BTW, does anyone know if the dreamcast will recognize 800MB CDRs? I found a rip of Shenmue II that has the Japanese Voice file intact, but the image is about 800MB in Alcohol 120% format (MDS, MFD).
Dreamcast images above 700MByte will fit on a standard 700MByte CDR. Still, I got no idea if said Shenmue II rip will work on your Dreamcast.
That said, DCEmu UK does not allow discussions of illegally obtained software - and trust me, it's a very good idea to just buy the original game.

[vizion1978]

hello. i am a newbie to all of this emulator stuff but i have been playing games since the atari 2600 so this is awesome that these games can be played with these programs. it was very exciting when i first stumbled upon these various emulators. it feels like being a kid in a candy store. unfortunately i also feel like a kid when trying to use some of them.

i was able to get dreamsnes and nesterdcse to work pretty easily, but this genesisplusdc has me frustrated. i followed the tutorial at dreamcast scene. it said to download selfboot inducer v4, which i did. then it says to download the gpwt sbi(genesisplusdc-gpwt-260706-blackaura.sbi) and i did that and then extracted it with winrar to its own file in the C drive the folder looked like this C/GenesisPlusDC-gpwt-260706-BlackAura and contained these folders: C/GenesisPlusDC-gpwt-260706-BlackAura which contained a folder called "inducer". the "inducer" folder contained 4 folders: "emus", "gpwt", "images", and "readme" each one having their own files which i will not list.

the tutorial then says to place the gpwt sbi ,that i downloaded, in the folder C:/SBINDUCR/SBI. so i put the GenesisPlusDC-gpwt-260706-BlackAura folder (that i unzipped with winrar from the initial download) into that folder (C:/SBINDUCR/SBI/GenesisPlusDC-gpwt-260706-BlackAura/inducer....... is what it looked like when i moved it, basically moving the complete unzipped sbi program i extracted to the SBI folder of the sbi inducer.

then it said to start the C:/SBInducr/SBInducer.exe and check the file showing up in the right window, but there was nothing showing up in that window. i tried moving the GenesisPlusDC-gpwt-260706-BlackAura folder to different folders within the SBINDUCR but that didn't help. is there a mistake i am making within those steps? i would really appreciate any help you could give me.

[Christuserloeser]

the tutorial then says to place the gpwt sbi ,that i downloaded, in the folder C:/SBINDUCR/SBI. so i put the GenesisPlusDC-gpwt-260706-BlackAura folder (that i unzipped with winrar from the initial download) into that folder (C:/SBINDUCR/SBI/GenesisPlusDC-gpwt-260706-BlackAura/inducer....... is what it looked like when i moved it, basically moving the complete unzipped sbi program i extracted to the SBI folder of the sbi inducer.

I assume you mean this tutorial: http://www.dreamcast-scene.com/index.php/Main/GenesisPlusDC-How-to-burn

You need to move the GenesisPlusDC-gpwt-260706-BlackAura.sbi file itself into C:\SBIncudcr\SBI\, not the extracted archive ;)

Just try again and it should work :)

[vizion1978]

wow!!!!, thanks for responding so quick. ok so i will try that when i get home. and yeah the tutorial i was speaking of was
http://www.dreamcast-scene.com/index.php/Main/GenesisPlusDC-How-to-burn.

the next thing i am worrid about is the whole romlist thing, but i think i actually got that part right, except that when i used the provlist program it renamed them with numbers and no titles, so when it was done i was unable to tell what games were what. is there a step i missed for making a list with the actual names of the games and not just numbers? or is there a more newbie-hold-your-hand method of doing this. again, thank you so much for helping, you guys are awesome......

[Christuserloeser]

Smurph's ROMLister is a very good alternative to Provlst:

http://dreamcast.dcemu.co.uk/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,68,481

[Christuserloeser]

Please download the SBI file again. I found a problem... :(

[vizion1978]

ok. i will try all of your suggestions when i get back to my personal computer. i might be back with more questions. and in regards to your last reply
"Please download the SBI file again. I found a problem...",
is that directed towards the topics we were discussing or something else? thank you!!!!!

[Christuserloeser]

No, TechnoWolf at DCEmulation.org found out that the the binary within the SBI itself wasn't linked properly from the .dxl file, so it wouldn't work. I recently updated the SBI, that's probably when this problem occurred but it's fixed now. :)

[vizion1978]

WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!! IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!! i finally got genesisplusdc to work. many cd-rs lost their lives but the war is won. much appreciation goes to all of your tutorials and downloads. it took much trial and error and determination and coffee but it was worth it.i never had a genesis growing up, i had the super nes which i loved but i never got to play the games my friends had on genesis. this is so freakin' cool. now if only the dreamsnes ran at full speed. one question though. when i tried alot of the games i noticed a ticking sound that played through one side of the speakers. is that normal. it seems to mainly be in between stages and at the start loading, but in some games it didn't go away. is there a way to adjust that or diminish it through the options? but that is a minor complaint because otherwise it is freakin awesome. thanks, Christuserloeser for your help and to everyone else who works on these projects. i gots to go now, "gunstar heroes" and "general chaos"is calling me...............:thumbup:

[budu8383]

hey everybody!!!Im a little new to the burning of dc games. But i need all the help i can get at this point..I down loaded a .cdi file for rival schools 2. I followed the directions here in this forum to burn cdi files using bootdreams. Now everything went according to plan and i burnt at 8x. Everything went fine until i put the disc in my dc and it read it but loaded up in the music played section and then when i press play it says please insert game disc..What could i be doing wrong???? I followed all directions correctly..I would greatly appreciate any help or advice that could get this moving quicker..

[Christuserloeser]

I've got no idea what went wrong but you should also give Alcohol120% a chance. There's a free trial version available.... If it doesn't work you'll at least know it's the image you're trying to burn that's not working. Still, BootDreams was primarily made for homebrew not warez. ;)

Also last time I checked our rules didn't allow the discussion of downloaded Dreamcast images whether or not you own the original. =P

@vizion1978: Your problems with SMSplusDC and Neo4All are solved ? If you need help with something, just post again and I'll try to help when time permits.

[budu8383]

Yeah i gotcha...You're right man . My Bad. Thanks much tho!!!

[vizion1978]

@Christuserloeser
yeah, i got those to work, thanks for your help. i just keep trying different things and tutorials until i stumble upon the answer. right now i wish i could figure out how to use pcecast with sbi inducer and add my own iso to it. i am not sure where to put the different files and such. i can't find as much detailed info for pcecast as some of the others. any help that doesn't violate the forum rules would be great. thanks!!!!!

[UltimaDude]

Nice I got it working easily at 4x, Nice guide!

[dartdude6]

Ok, but how do I make a game with Bootdreams when my game file is a .nrg file?

[Darksaviour69]

.nrg is a cd image that's burned with nero

[bonang]

This tutorial has three sections:
1 - General Info you should know.
2 - Burning a .CDI with BootDreams
3 - How to create and burn your own DC image with BootDreams


1General Info:

Media:
You'll need CDRs. Best are 80min/700Mbyte. CDRWs and other media are -NOT- supported.

You do -NOT- need a modded DC. About any Dreamcast will work with CDRs. Very, very few won't.


Format:
Standard in Dreamcast software is the DiscJuggler .CDI format. Nero's .NRG format would not work on MAC and LINUX, also any Nero version newer than 5.5 had its problems with the DC format.

Most downloads for Dreamcast come as .ZIP or .RAR files. WinRAR should help you with unzipping/unraring:
http://www.winrar-rog.com/eindex.html



2 Burning a .CDI file with BootDreams:

To burn a *.CDI file, it's recommend to use BootDreams' CDI-burner. BootDreams is VERY easy to use and it's for free:

Download: http://dchelp.dcemulation.com/index.php?download=bootdreams_061.exe
Website: http://dchelp.dcemulation.com/?BootDreams


1. Download BootDreams and install it to e.g. C:/BootDreams/

2. Download the image you'd like to burn and unzip/unrar it somewhere, e.g. to C:/

3. Start BootDreams and choose "CDI Burner". Now click on "Browse" and point BootDreams to the CDI you would like to burn.

4. Click on "Burn CDI Image". That's it.


If BootDreams doesn't recognize your CD drive, download WNASPI32.ZIP and unzip it in your C:/BootDreams/Tools/ folder:
http://dchelp.dcemulation.com/index.php?download=wnaspi32.zip


Other:
Nero Burning ROM isn't recommend for Dreamcast software but Alcohol120% (in TAO mode) works good too. Download the free trial version here:
http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/download_120.php



3 How to create and burn your own DC image with BootDreams:

1. Download BootDreams and install it to e.g. C:/BootDreams/

2. Download the emulator/game/app you would like to burn and put it in a dedicated folder, e.g. C:/BootDreams/SNES4ALL/

3. Now unzip/unrar your emulator/game/app into that same folder. The 1ST_READ.BIN contains the actual DC programme.

4. Start BootDreams and point it to C:/BootDreams/SNES4ALL/. It will then guide you trough the process. I recommend the 'CDRecord' method.


Once again: if BootDreams doesn't recognize your CD drive, download WNASPI32.ZIP and unzip it in your C:/BootDreams/Tools/ folder:
http://dchelp.dcemulation.com/index.php?download=wnaspi32.zip
I was wondering if you could tell me the progarms I need to make a emulators for the dc to play Ex: like how do i burn a Dreamssens emu to get it to work on the Dc. Also one other thing can you burn any roms from anywhere to play on any emulators that work on dc like " snes roms with Dremsnes and finally how do you burns roms to a disc. I'm new at the whole emu and roms sorry for all the question. Thanks JaSe !!!!

[Christuserloeser]

This is a pretty good tutorial (http://dcemulation.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=68460).

Other than that, some general things:

1. All programs you need (e.g. BootDreams) can be ound by following the links.

2. You can burn ROMs with the emulator to one disc. The tutorial explains how to do that.

[duckypwns]

Sorry, I'm new to this and it's really confusing me. Here's how far I got. I've downloaded winrar and bootdreams. I've downloaded the game that I want. I've extracted it into the same folder. Now, how do I convert it to a .CDI file? Do I do it in the winrar or bootdreams program?

[Christuserloeser]

Not that hard actually:

- Install BootDreams to C:/BootDreams/

- Extract the game files in a dedicated folder, like C:/BootDreams/MyGame/

- Start BootDreams and point it to C:/BootDreams/MyGame/

[mcdougall57]

cheers for the guide my dreamcast sits in a shelf with 1 inch of dust, looks like its time to bring it out

[duckypwns]

Not that hard actually:

- Install BootDreams to C:/BootDreams/

- Extract the game files in a dedicated folder, like C:/BootDreams/MyGame/

- Start BootDreams and point it to C:/BootDreams/MyGame/

In bootdreams, do I select diskjuggler, nero, DCRecord, or CDI burner? I picked diskjuggler and it took me to a folder with 3 folders, the bootdreams program, some other things, and the game I want in CDI form. The extracted things are in another folder, do I just put the CDI in there and burn it?

[~Legit~]

ok im burning the mvc2 cdi to a disc right now..is this game gonna be self booting or will i need a format disc for my dc?

edit:

aight, i burned it and it didn't work..this is sposed to be a "self booting" version so iowno....i dl the zerositty thing (the mvc2 file) and it gives me like 7 files called zer-r001.r01 zer-r02.r002 etc etc and then one called zer-mvc2.rar....when u unzip the mvc2.rar it gives u a .cdi.... so ok I tried burning just the cdi to the cd and that didnt work..i even tryed using the homebrew boot disc..still no luck...then i tryed putting the cdi with the other files in a folder and using bootdreams-->cdrecorder--> and using that folder for it...and it just ultimately locks my computer..then i thought what if i take out the .rar so it's just the .r01 files and the cdi...still ultimately locks up...plz help anyone plz :D!!

[InuRyoushi]

Cool thread, thanks for making it. Well, I recently tried to burn a .bin file to a blank cd using bootdreams' cdrecord method (in Audio/Data format) and it worked (it ejected my disc and said "disc was sucessfully created."), but when I put it in my dreamcast, the memory card starts up along with the system, and it goes as far as the SEGA Lisence screen then going back to the start-up, lisence screen, and back again. Is there anything I did wrong or anyway to get past this.

[Christuserloeser]

In bootdreams, do I select diskjuggler, nero, DCRecord, or CDI burner?

CDRecord would be a good choice, except if you really want to burn a .cd file. Then Disk Juggler is what you should select.


it goes as far as the SEGA Lisence screen then going back to the start-up, lisence screen, and back again. Is there anything I did wrong or anyway to get past this.

What did you try to burn ? It seems you did everything you needed to on the BootDreams side of things, but something is missing for the program you wanted to burn.

[InuRyoushi]

I tried it again and this time, I used a .cdi image with BootDreams' CDI Burner and then I did the CDRecord. I put it in my dreamcast and the screen just sits at the Sega Lisence screen. I don't know what Im doing wrong. If anyone can tell me, Id appreciate it.

[Bear_XI]

Sorry to bumb but is there a way to have multiple Homebrew/Emulators on the same disk?

[Darksaviour69]

dream inducer

[rickster1970]

I'm starting to pull my hair out trying to burn some CDI images to disk using BootDreams they dont go any further than the Dreamcast start up screen which just keeps repeating (if i'm lucky) or do nothing at all:mad:
I have tried Alcohol 120% but for some reason I am unable to lower the burn speed from max. I have still had more luck with Alcohol 120% at full burn speed than BootDreams, with one disk booting up and asking for the screen refresh rate then it crashes back to the Dreamcast screen:(
Help please

[rickster1970]

I'm starting to pull my hair out trying to burn some CDI images to disk using BootDreams they dont go any further than the Dreamcast start up screen which just keeps repeating (if i'm lucky) or do nothing at all:mad:
I have tried Alcohol 120% but for some reason I am unable to lower the burn speed from max. I have still had more luck with Alcohol 120% at full burn speed than BootDreams, with one disk booting up and asking for the screen refresh rate then it crashes back to the Dreamcast screen:(
Help please

Have now tried Disk Juggler with no success:eek:

What settings should I use?????????

Please help me

[Christuserloeser]

What game/emu/app are you trying to burn ?

[The_Inferno]

sorry to noob it up in this thread but since there are already 8 pages of it, i figured i'd jump in. So I've followed your guide and most of my backups are in .cdi so I burn them in bootdreams with the cdi record. I thought they were self-booting but when I put them in the dreamcast (i have it set to not autorun gdroms) and click play at the dashboard, it isn't recognizing any of my games. says please put a cd in the drive. so i burned the utopia cd loader 1.1. the dreamcast played it. i have a screen with a reindeer turning around and around. so i suppose my burning is fine. but i put one of these burnt games in, and the reindeer gets choppy as the dc tries to run the disc, but the games never loads. eventually the drive spins down and the reindeer goes back to normal, as if the operation timed out. its the same with the bootloader 1.2 disc. i tried running one of the boot discs form a boot disc, thinking well since they runn it should boot to them, and it doesn't. then i tried booting a retail shenmue disc 1 from the boot discs and it makes the reindeer choppy forever; never times out.
i figured someone with experience in dc modding would be able to tell me whats going on and some idea of what to do. my dreamcast is from launch day 9/9/99. it seems to run retail games perfectly, although if they are the least bit dirty it can freeze up or not recognize the disc to begin with.

[fackue]

I've followed your guide and most of my backups are in .cdi so I burn them in bootdreams with the cdi record.
There's two things wrong with that sentance. One is backups, but I'm not gonna go on why it's wrong. It's a rule, and they're not meant to be broken. The second thing is that you're using BootDreams to burn them. Sure, some CDIs work but not all. It doesn't support CDIs with CDDA. If you were using the latest version, you'd see that BootDreams detects any unsupported image.

If you ever have problems buring CDI images, use Alcohol 120%. Or if you're more advanced with command prompt use CDIRIP and CDRECORD.

[The_Inferno]

well the bootdreams i have simply opens a command prompt and uses cdrecord.exe. and im not sure if you're referring to the backups having not been backed up by me even though i own these retail games or did until i lost them. or if you're suggesting that backups is bad grammar in a sentence where you type the word "sentance" that doesnt exist, or if there's something else wrong with it haha. anyway i guess i could try nero or look for cdirip.
thanks!

[The_Inferno]

sorry dont know why i said nero i meant alcohol.
also cdirip was included with bootdreams. and its for making cdis. my files are in cdis already. how does that help

[hammerhead13]

I am not sure if this was mentions already but are there any preference to Media Brands that are the best to use for the DC?

[fackue]

Not really - I buy mine from Costco. Which are TDK, by the way.

I stay away from Memorex when I can.