For games too large to fit on a standard CD-R...

[Original_Name]

This mostly pertains to the larger GD-Rom games the Dreamcast offered.

Okay, so there are at least three games I can think of for the Dreamcast which are too large to fit on regular CD-Rs; these are Shenmue II, Skies of Arcadia, and Segagaga. I was wondering if it's possible to modify the game data so that the game would ask you for a disk change at select moments. That way, though you'd have to switch disks more often, you could experience the whole game. For instance: Shenmue II could take 8 CD-Rs instead of 4 GD-Rs, Skies of Arcadia could take 4 instead of 2, and Segagaga could take 2 instead of 1. Although it would require more disk changes, things that previously had to be omitted to CD-R Dreamcast players could be replaced.

Is this possible? If it is, I think it'd be a great way to preserve these games for future players as these games decrease more and more in availability to newer players.

[Mozgus]

Well the most famous rip of Grandia 2 did that, but without any swap disc screen. It just said in the NFO where you were supposed to swap. (somewhere around getting the sword ship thing.)

Actually coding in a new screen like that might be tough for some people, but there are ways to edit textures and pre-rendered backgrounds. You could just replace those objects with black space and big white letters saying "SWAP TO DISC 2" or something, so the user wouldn't miss it.

[t0yrobo]

I imagine it could be done. But as DC emulation gets better I doubt anyone would be willing to put the effort in, a full gdi on a computer would be just as good.

[Niode]

I'd like to see this happen. It's a long shot though. You'd definitely have to mod your DC so that it doesn't know when you have opened the lid. Otherwise it will just reset. Besides, surely the DC would have no idea where the data is once you have swapped discs. It would continue seeking in that current sector. Unless you could inject code that tells the system that the new data is on the first readable sector on the next disc...

I can't see it, It's a lot of work and would require a lot of internal knowledge of how the DC reads data from a disc.

Although we do have a member with a dev kit. If he ever gets it working. I think he's Corn 619. Not 100% though.

[marurun]

Even having a dev kit would only help so much. While yes, ripping and distributing games is technically illegal, even more illegal would be using Sega APIs and code without a license, especially to modify said illegal rips. So if someone used the dev kit to do it they'd be best off doing it without Sega's software tools, and I'm not sure homebrew tools would be adequate for that task.

[Niode]

I don't see how legality has anything to do with this thread.

[t0yrobo]

It might be possible, but not really worth it. DC emulation is slowly getting pretty good, they could ust be played that way.

[Niode]

It might be possible, but not really worth it. DC emulation is slowly getting pretty good, they could ust be played that way.

You still need a reasonably powerful PC to run them properly though. There is a benefit to being able to boot 1:1 copies of DC games on the DC. Especially when some of the games are getting pretty rare these days.

[Mozgus]

It might be possible, but not really worth it. DC emulation is slowly getting pretty good, they could ust be played that way.

DC emulation is still piss poor, and hasn't made any real progress in over a year.

[t0yrobo]

Yeah being able to play on the system is nice. But what are the chances of getting someone to do a ton of work hacking up one game for disk swapping like that, compared to improving emulation so that every game can be played on a pc. It seems like alot to ask without much any return.
Besides, you can get Shenmue on xbox, Skies of Arcadia on gamecube and it's supposed to run well in nulldc. And is segagaga even missing much, I've never heard anything to bad about the version of it that's floating around, I'd rather the translation of it come out someday than a 2 disc version really.