Burn Dreamcast-Compatible Discs on Your PC
Burn your own special, personal Dreamcast CD-Rs.
In order to burn standalone self-booting Dreamcast discs on your PC, you need the ability to burn relatively complex CD images. The BIN, CUE, and ISO formats generally lack sufficient disc information. Therefore, most Dreamcast-disc images come in NRG or the more popular CDI format.
As for the media itself, normal CD-Rs will work. There’s no possible way to burn GD-ROMs, the Dreamcast’s proprietary format, unless you have a special Dreamcast-specific burner and a Dreamcast developer’s kit. Unless you’ve done some very pricey eBay shopping, it’s doubtful that you do.
The CDI format originated with Padus Discjuggler (http://www.padus.com/products/discjuggler.php). It’s now also available in the $50 utility Alcohol 120% (http://www.alcohol-soft.com/). Fortunately, there’s a 30-day full-featured demo version. This is one of the best products with which to try Dreamcast CD burning.
NRG, the less common alternative, is a custom format created by the Windows program Nero Burning ROM, more often just called Nero. There’s a demo version of Nero available on the official site (http://www.nero.com/) that is limited to single-speed burning. The full version costs around $80.
Here’s the step-by-step version of burning a CDI image using the trial version of Alcohol 120%:
Download the trial Windows version of Alcohol 120% (http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/download_120.php) and install it to a sensible location ...
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