Retro Gaming Hacks

Emulate Classic Computers on the Dreamcast

Get some serious use out of that Dreamcast keyboard you bought on sale.

Much has been said about the quality of the Dreamcast—it’s a fantastic game system, no doubt. When I was still playing Quake 2 on my PlayStation, Dreamcast players were fragging each other to bits in Quake 3. But that’s not why I love my Dreamcast—fact is, it’s one of the best choices for a dedicated emulation console. It plugs into my TV, is relatively small and quiet, and runs more emulators than I have time to play with.

Burning Dreamcast CDs

Burning Dreamcast CDs is very easy on Windows, but not too hairy on other platforms. If you’re a Mac OS X user, check out the tutorial at http://www.dcemulation.com/mactools.htm. If you’re on Linux, you will find help at http://www.dcemu.co.uk/linuxburn.shtml.

I used Selfboot on Windows to create a disk image. This program can create either a Nero (DAO or TAO) or DiscJuggler (CDI) CD image. You can download SelfBoot from either of these sites:

http://www.dcevolution.net/DCHelp/index.php?id=apps

http://www.dcemulation.com/neededtools.htm

When you run the SelfBoot download, it will install itself on your computer. Open the folder where it was installed, and then run SelfBoot.exe. You’ll need to pick a top-level directory containing your emulator files, and then choose which type of image to create.

Once you have the image, you can use Alcohol 120% (http://www.alcohol-software.com/) or DiscJuggler (http://www.padus.com/) to burn a ...