Burnt Sega Dreamcast games

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Hey guys, so i just recently burned a few sega dreamcast games using alcohol 120%. After a few plays though the game freezes and stops working, or refuses to load up. Whats the best way to burn dreamcast games? for you know "archiving"

[flojocabron]

hello new person!

I am not a fan of alcohol 120. I prefer disc juggler.

this thread is not a first. It's been talked about before. Just do some better searches.

Since you're new at burning discs, you will go thru some wasted ones. It happens. Anyways when you burn, use the lowest speed.

There are some sites that give the best rips of dreamcast games.

you can use these to get the better versions.

someone post some goodies to help out this noobie

[bacardipr05]

It may not necessarily be a bad burn per say. Some Dreamcast's will read "archived " games better than others. Not sure maybe depending on the wear an tear on the laser. You can hand that game to someone else and guess what it will load no problems on their unit. You can try burning on a lower speed also using different media until you find the combo that works. The best i found well the most compatible seem to be Taiyo CD-'s. Also the Sony ones you get at Wal-Mart seem to work pretty good. I tried a pack of Maxell- Cd-r Pro and got more coasters than usual. They used to be made by Taiyo but i think they are Ritek now. Also you can try adjusting the DC laser as well. I have no problem with Alc 120, but i seem to like Disc Juggler a little better. Also img burn is a nifty program as well. I went through a learning curve myself when i started this last summer. After some experimenting and some coasters i pretty much have it and now what to do when a problem arises. Before that i never knew what mounting an image on Daemon tools was. lol...Or how to reassemble RAR how to burn MDF or what a RAR was. Now i can burn a dc game several different ways.

[Ziggy]

What's important to realize with Dreamcast games is that they're not 1:1 copies of the games. A lot of the dumps that were compiled into the CDI's you'll download weren't carefully crafted. Most are decent, some are just terrible. There's a couple of guys that have been making their own DC releases, paying attention to quality. The one I always point people to is TuxTheWise. You can find his releases here:

http://snesorama.us/board/showpost.php? ... tcount=101

He pays attention to stuff like file order, making the lens in your Dreamcast have to move less to read data. His releases usually have much better quality when something has to be compressed (if a game is larger than 700MB, it has to be compressed so that it'll fit on a CD-R). Games that are smaller than 700MB are dummied for CD-R's. He includes info with each release on exactly what he did.

As for burning, check this out: http://www.racketboy.com/retro/hacks/ho ... e-software

Specifically, this: http://www.racketboy.com/retro/hacks/ho ... ftware#cdi

It's worth noting that we now have the ability to add the CDI driver to ImgBurn to add teh ability to burn DC games. However, I haven't tested this out yet and thus haven't updated the guide with this info. Still, that guide has 3 ways of burning DC games. Two of which I have done many times, successfully.

[Jontendo]

A bit tangential, but IME burned discs are very taxing on drive lasers that weren't originally designed for them. Adjusting the laser strength can help them read better, but contributes even more to its early demise.

Just something to keep in mind...

[Ziggy]

Which is why, IMO, TuxTheWise's releases are the only way to go if you're gonna play burned discs. It's still be a CD-R, but at least the drive will have to work less to read it, in most cases.

[Anthony817]

It's not just Tux that makes optimized releases, Captain Dreamcast and the ReviveDC team I happen to be a part of, do the same. We have over 50 releases of rare games.

http://www.theisozone.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=53

Most people uploading games to Theisozone upload optimized releases too, even if they rip them themselves, and I have personally gone through all our uploads there and removed all the bad uploads with the help of my friend Smashey9(since I am the moderator there), and he reuploaded games he told me were bad and reuploaded the best releases possible.


Don't worry about screwing up your system, optimized releases in many cases load faster and more silent than original retail GDR disc's.

The best program to use nowadays isn't Discjuggler or Alcohol, it is IMGBurn with Discguggler plugin files. It can burn anything you throw at it with default settings, so it is far simpler to use as well.

http://www.theisozone.com/downloads/dre ... g-package/