Idiots Guide to Dreamcast Backups

[JD!]

Since I started collecting DC games a few months ago and have been poking around various sites and forums I keep hearing that folks backup their DC games by burning ISOs on disk and also using these ISOs as a kind of try-before-you-buy system to see what games they want to try and pick up.

However, I’ve not really been able to find a definite guide to what this is all about and I must say I’m feeling quite confused about the whole thing. So far I understand that folks get these ISOs off the net somewhere (I’ve not been able to find anything myself), burn them to a CD and then use a boot disk to play the games. Is it really that simple or am I missing something?

Could someone explain this process to me please?

Thanks in advance.

[FreshChurros]

The programs you will need are:

DiscJuggler (for images in the .cdi format, among others) http://www.padus.com/
Alcohol 120% (for images in the .nrg format, among others) http://www.alcohol-soft.com/
7-Zip (for whatever unzipping you may need to do) http://www.7-zip.org/

Step 1: Download game images http://dcisozone.com/index.php

Step 2: For the following steps I'm going to assume you are using a .cdi image. Run DiscJuggler

Step 3: Click the icon that opens a new file > Burn Disc Images

Step 4: Click the Source icon (the blue piece of paper with the silver disc on it) and locate the disc image on your HDD.

Step 5: Under "Method", move the slider down to the lowest write speed.

Step 6: Click the tab that says "Advanced", switch the Mode to "Mode 2", and check the box that says "RAW Write".

Step 7: Put a blank CD-R in your drive, watch the "Start" button light up, and click it.

Wait, and you've got a game! I hope this helps.

[t0yrobo]

Personally I wouldn't bother dealing with discjuggler it's always given me trouble, and other software does the same thing and more. Just get nero and possibly alcohol 120%. I used to use alcohol the majority of the time for burning my backups, but I've found nero to handle more formats and be more reliable. Plus I can use it for pretty much any other burning needs. Once you've gotten the game (I use Underground-Gamer, pm if you want an invite) just open nero and choose to burn a disc image. I normally burn them at 8x just to be safe. The pop it in your Dreamcast and go. There's a few games that need a bootdisc to work, the one you want is called Utopia (no idea what the latest version is) I wouldn't worry about that yet though, there's only a small chance you'll even need it.

If you run into problems it's possible that your burner just won't do it. DC games do something odd that some burners just aren't capable of. I used to have a real nice plextor drive that simply couldn't make dc games. I've since gotten a lite-on that has no problems. I think it's just kinda a hit and miss thing, I'm pretty certain that it's far more likely to have a drive that works than not though.

[JD!]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have Nero on my PC so I'll try useing that before downloading Diskjuggler. FreshChurros, I'll give those steps a try when I've more free time (supposed to be working now, hee hee).

One further question - does one has to worry about region lockout during this process? I have a PAL Dreamcast so does that mean that some US game files may not run without a boot disk?

[ScreamingPixel]

You can also use Alcohol 120% to burn the games, theres a guide on youtube. I will link it to the page when I'm home , it works really well and i recently tried it with Ultimate fighting championship for the dreamcast.

[Japhei]

I bought and released most of those games you guys are playing right now LOL.

Still play my Dreamcast and Naomi everyday!

[nickalley211]

are there any kinds of cd-rs that work better than other kinds for burning Dreamcast games?

[RackGaki]

I burned all of my Dreamcast backups using Sony CD-Rs. Worked fine for me. Is that cruel or what?

[ruiner]

I've used Alcohol 120%, Since I found out i could burn dreamcast games. For the sony CD-R Comment thats just plain wrong lol.

[futuramaguy42]

So you can play these without modding your console?