Difference between pages "Nintendo Switch emulators" and "Sega Dreamcast emulators"

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m (Clarified early days of the switch emu pioneers. Cleaned up speculative & subjective verbiage in yuzu, Ryujinx, SphiNX, and Egg NS sections, consolidating information to only contain factual statements.)
 
(Emulators)
(Tags: Mobile edit, Mobile web edit)
 
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{{Infobox console
 
{{Infobox console
|title = Nintendo Switch
+
|title = Sega Dreamcast
|image = nintendo-switch.png
+
|logo = DreamcastConsole.png
|image2 = switchdocked.png
+
|developer = [[:Sega]]
|imagecaption = The Switch in its two forms, portable (above) and docked (below).
+
|type = [[:Category:Home consoles|Home video game console]]
|developer = [[:Nintendo]]
+
|generation = [[:Category:Sixth-generation video game consoles|Sixth generation]]
|type = [[:Category:Consoles|Home video game console]]
+
|release = 1998
|generation = [[:Category:Eighth-generation video game consoles|Eighth generation]]
+
|discontinued = 2001
|release = 2017
+
|predecessor = [[Sega_Saturn_emulators|Sega Saturn]]
|predecessor = [[Wii U emulators|Wii U]]
+
|emulated = {{}}
|emulated = {{~}}
 
 
}}
 
}}
The '''[[wikipedia:Nintendo Switch|Nintendo Switch]]''' is an eighth-generation hybrid gaming console released by Nintendo on March 3, 2017 and retailed for {{Inflation|USD|299.99|2017}}. During its development, the Switch was known as the NX (short for NeXt or Nintendo "Cross") and was widely speculated up until its announcement. Aside from specialized components unique to the console, the hardware is more or less off-the-shelf, being built around a semi-custom variant of Nvidia's Tegra X1 system-on-a-chip which was also used on a number of [[Android emulators|Android devices]]. The Switch contains 4 ARM Cortex-A57 CPUs and 4 ARM Cortex-A53 CPUs running at 1.020 GHz with 4GB of RAM and a proprietary GPU codenamed GM20B.
 
  
While Nintendo intended to step up the security of the console, vulnerabilities were still found early on that allowed tons of system files to be dumped, including dumps of games in the form of romfs.istorage archives, an exefs folder, and license files. These game dumps eventually got shared online by scene groups except for their licenses but were missing important files to run and even if they had been completed, there were no custom homebrew apps let alone solutions to load unofficial game dumps for the system. A number of prominent hacking teams (starting with shuffle2 and fail0verflow in collaboration) all came across a new exploit independently of each other that allowed complete control over the system, later officially recognized by Nvidia as CVE-2018-6242.
+
The '''[[wikipedia:Sega Dreamcast|Dreamcast]]''' is a sixth-generation console released by [[wikipedia:Sega|Sega]] on November 27, 1998 in Japan and later on September 9, 1999 in NA. It retailed for {{Inflation|USD|199.99|1999}}. It had a Hitachi SH-4 RISC CPU at 200 MHz with 16 MB of RAM and 8 MB of VRAM. It had a PowerVR2 GPU at 100 MHz, which theoretically was capable of pushing 3 million polygons/second on-screen. There is a 2 MB audio RAM, which complemented a powerful 67 MHz Yamaha AICA sound processor, with a 32-bit ARM7 RISC CPU core. The audio chip could generate 64 voices with PCM or ADPCM codec and provided ten times the performance of the [[Sega Saturn emulators|Saturn's]] sound system.. Sega also released the '''[[Sega NAOMI and variants|Naomi]]''', an arcade system board with similar components to the Dreamcast. Sammy's '''[https://segaretro.org/Atomiswave Atomiswave]''' arcade board was also based on the Dreamcast and Naomi.
  
A "debugging emulator" for the Nintendo Switch, CageTheUnicorn (now [https://github.com/reswitched/Mephisto Mephisto]), popped up not long after the first components were dumped. It was designed to emulate sysmodules with "no support for graphics, sound, input, or any kind of even remotely performant processing [...] by design". A couple of months later, members of both the [[Citra]] and [[Dolphin]] teams announced the release of [[yuzu|their own emulator written in c++]], which was capable of booting some homebrew applications; almost simultaneously, developer gdkchan released an emulator written in c# named [[Ryujinx]], which was capable of booting commercial Switch game Puyo Puyo Tetris.
+
Sega collaborated with Microsoft on the Dreamcast's development, and this partnership would continue later with the [[Xbox emulators|Xbox]]. What came out of this was the possibility for games to be developed for an optimized version of '''Windows CE''' (with DirectX) on each disc. However, Windows CE wasn't mandatory to use and most developers opted for Sega's development tools instead out of convenience. Even in major emulators, this aspect isn't implemented (or implemented well).
  
 
==Emulators==
 
==Emulators==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
+
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
 +
|-
 
! scope="col"|Name
 
! scope="col"|Name
 
! scope="col"|Platform(s)
 
! scope="col"|Platform(s)
 
! scope="col"|Latest Version
 
! scope="col"|Latest Version
 +
! scope="col"|[[libretro|Libretro Core]]
 +
! scope="col"|Naomi
 +
! scope="col"|Atomiswave
 +
! scope="col"|Windows CE
 +
! scope="col"|<abbr title="Free/Libre and Open-Source Software">FLOSS</abbr>
 
! scope="col"|Active
 
! scope="col"|Active
 
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]
 
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]
 
|-
 
|-
! colspan="5"|PC / x86
+
!colspan="10"|PC / x86
 
|-
 
|-
|[[yuzu]]
+
|[[DEmul]]
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux}}
+
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
|[https://yuzu-emu.org/downloads/ Nightly]
+
|[http://demul.emulation64.com/downloads/ {{DEmulVer}}]
|{{✓}}
+
|{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{}}
|{{~}}
 
 
|-
 
|-
|[[Ryujinx]]
+
|[[redream]]
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS}}
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS}}
|[https://ryujinx.org/#/Build Nightly]
+
|[https://redream.io/download {{RedreamVer}}]
|{{✓}}
+
|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}}
|{{~}}
+
|-
 +
|[[Flycast|Flycast]]
 +
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|Android}}
 +
|[https://flyinghead.github.io/flycast-builds/ Builds]
 +
|{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}}
 +
|-
 +
|[[reicast]]
 +
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux}}
 +
|[http://builds.reicast.com/ Dev Builds]
 +
|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
|NSEmu
+
|[[nullDC]]
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
|[https://github.com/RKX1209/nsemu Git]
+
|[http://www.emucr.com/2013/03/nulldc-svn-r150.html 1.0.4 r150]
|{{✗}}
+
|{{✗}} ||{{~}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
 
 
|-
 
|-
|[https://gbatemp.net/threads/sphinx-nintendo-switch-emulator.517276/ SphiNX]
+
|[[Makaron]]
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
|{{✗}} (WIP)
+
|[https://www.zophar.net/dreamcast/makaron.html T12/5]
|{{✗}}
+
|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{~}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
+
|-
 +
|[http://washemu.org/ WashingtonDC]
 +
|align=left|{{Icon|Linux}}
 +
|[https://github.com/washingtondc-emu/washingtondc git]
 +
|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
|Mephisto
+
|[http://www.lxdream.org Lxdream]
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Linux|macOS}}
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Linux|macOS}}
|[https://github.com/reswitched/Mephisto/releases v1.2.1], [https://github.com/reswitched/Mephisto Git]
+
|[http://www.lxdream.org/download.php 0.9.1]
|{{✗}}
+
|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
 
 
|-
 
|-
|CageTheUnicorn
+
|[https://segaretro.org/Chankast Chankast]
 +
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
 +
|[http://chanka.emulatronia.com/FrameSetDC_Down.htm 0.25]
 +
|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}
 +
|-
 +
|[[MAME]]
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|FreeBSD}}
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|FreeBSD}}
|[https://github.com/reswitched/CageTheUnicorn Git]
+
|[http://www.mamedev.org/release.html {{MAMEVer}}]
|{{✗}}
+
|{{✓}} ||{{~}} ||{{~}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
 
 
|-
 
|-
 
!colspan="10"|Mobile / ARM
 
!colspan="10"|Mobile / ARM
 
|-
 
|-
|[https://eggns.wordpress.com Egg NS]
+
|[[redream]]
|align=left|{{Icon|Android}}
+
|align=left|{{Icon|Android|LinuxARM}}
|[https://drive.google.com/u/0/uc?id=15jYpgxZZKcstAqxZYg5_znDiXS41Shep&export=download 1.0.3]
+
|[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.recompiled.redream 1.1.98]<small> (Android)</small><br/>[https://redream.io/download Dev]<small> (Raspberry Pi)</small>
|{{✓}}
+
|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}}
|{{}}
+
|-
 +
|[[Flycast]]
 +
|align=left|{{Icon|Android|iOS|Linux|Pandora}}
 +
|[https://flyinghead.github.io/flycast-builds CI Builds]
 +
|{{✓}} ||{{~}} ||{{~}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}}
 +
|-
 +
|[[reicast]]
 +
|align=left|{{Icon|Android|Pyra}}
 +
|[http://builds.reicast.com Builds][https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.reicast.emulator r20.04]</br>[https://pyra-handheld.com/repo/apps/122 Pyra Build]
 +
|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{~}} ||{{}}
 
|-
 
|-
|[https://github.com/skyline-emu/skyline Skyline]
+
!colspan="10"|Console
|align=left|{{Icon|Android}}
+
|-
|[https://github.com/skyline-emu/skyline/releases 0.3]
+
|[[nullDC PSP]]
|{{✓}}
+
|align=left|{{Icon|PSP}}
|{{✗}}
+
|[https://github.com/PSP-Archive/nulldce-psp git][https://archive.org/details/nullDC-PSP 1.2.1]
 +
|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{~}}
 +
|-
 +
|nulldc-360
 +
|align=left|{{Icon|Xbox360}}
 +
|[https://github.com/gligli/nulldc-360 git]
 +
|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}} ||{{~}}
 
|}
 
|}
  
;[[yuzu]] <small class="plainlinks" style="font-weight:normal;">([https://yuzu-emu.org/game compatibility])</small>
+
===Comparisons===
:An open-source emulator made by many of [[Citra]]'s developers. As it is a hard fork of Citra it shares many of its traits, namely cross-platform support and the use of OpenGL (though unlike Citra it also supports Vulkan). Many 2D games now render graphics properly and at good speeds; many 3D games are playable. This emulator currently offers early access builds to $5/month [[Emulators on Patreon|Patreon]] subscribers which allows them to utilize new features prior to their release on the mainline build. One of yuzu's most notable features is its disk-based shader cache for OpenGL, negating the need to compile shaders on the fly.
+
;[[DEmul]]: Has the highest compatibility and accuracy, but it' Windows-only and closed-source. It supports Windows CE games, but in general, they run worse than standard Dreamcast titles. It's also more resource-intensive than other emulators.
 +
;[[redream]]: Multi-platform and easy to use, but it's closed-source. Compatible with [https://redream.io/compatibility 90+% of the Dreamcast library] (Windows CE now supported), has a good user interface, is easy to set up, and can run without a BIOS. Runs on [https://youtu.be/rywLHa1i9yk?t=529 low-end machines] provided that they support OpenGL 3.1. There's a payware premium version that provides high-definition rendering.
  
;[[Ryujinx]] <small class="plainlinks" style="font-weight:normal;">([https://github.com/Ryujinx/Ryujinx-Games-List/issues compatibility])</small>
+
;[[nullDC]]:  Can run a lot of games at great speed on mid-end PC and it's open-source, however, it's no longer developed and the more recent forks have improved upon it.
:An open-source emulator that's programmed in C#. Most 2D games are now booting and running at comfortable speeds and many 3D games are playable. It also supports resolution upscaling to 4K and beyond; custom upscaling/downscaling ratios are supported. Unlike yuzu, Ryujinx does not yet have a disk-based shader cache, making the first few moments of gameplay suffer from stutters in certain games. Ryujinx does not offer early access builds; however work-in-progress features can still be tested by using pre-built Appveyor packages or building locally from unmerged pull requests. Separately, Ryujinx has released a closed source LDN-enabled preview build supporting local wireless multiplayer across the internet.
+
:;[[reicast]]: Eventually, nullDC's author forked his own project into reicast, with the main objective to widen platform availability to smartphones and tablets. While wider availability is generally a good thing, this resulted in cutting accuracy corners from the nullDC codebase to achieve the speed goals necessary to run on these platforms. Advancements in mobile hardware should have led to the removal of such "hacks"; however lack of developer resources and interest led to long delays in Reicast development, and the codebase remained virtually untouched for years before the RetroArch team began working with it as part of a "Reicast core", later named Flycast.
 +
:;[[reicast#Libretro_core|Flycast]]: Fork of reicast available as a standalone emulator and as a [[libretro]] core. Libretro collaborators, primarily [https://github.com/flyinghead/reicast-emulator flyinghead], dramatically improved Reicast in areas such as graphics, input, system clock, and Dreamcast VMU. Atomiswave and NAOMI SH-4-based arcade systems have also been added to great fanfare<ref name="flycastnaomi">https://github.com/libretro/flycast/issues/136</ref>, along with support for MAME's popular CHD format. Even full MMU support, which is needed to run WinCE-based games such as "Armada", "Half-Life" and "SEGA Rally Championship 2", has recently been tackled through an experimental branch (anyone following Dreamcast emulation over the years understands what a tough nut this is to crack). Aside from some audio stuttering issues in games such as "Looney Toons Space Race" and "Resident Evil: Code Veronica", this is a highly compatible and accurate emulator.  
  
;SphiNX
+
;[[Makaron]]: One of the only two closed-source Dreamcast emulators that can properly play Windows CE games.
:A closed-source emulator that's been in the works since late July/August 2018. It can boot some homebrews as well as the title screen of one commercial game. The project appears to be dead at this time, with no known updates in over two years.
 
  
;Skyline
+
==Emulation issues==
:An open-source [[Compatibility layers|compatibility layer]] for ARMv8 [[Android]] devices. For the sake of convenience, the team bills the app as an emulator, but it functionally works like [[Wine]], running almost all of the original code on bare metal except for what interfaces with the rest of the system. At the moment, Skyline does not have any graphical output, but some games do boot with audio.
+
For the emulators that are either mature or maturing, a very large percentage of games work well, but some games still have problems and glitches.
  
;Egg NS
+
==VMU emulators==
:Claimed the first spot in getting games running on Android. 81 titles are purported to work, and the rest are either not working or assumed to fail. There is significant controversy surrounding this emulator for the following reasons: the current version lacks any onscreen buttons and instead requires users to purchase a specific controller; it expects to run on a high-end device within the ballpark of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855/855+/865/865+; it was discovered to have violated GPLv2 licensing requirements by using code from yuzu in a disallowed manner.
+
While some Dreamcast emulators can leverage the screen of the VMU while the game is running, none of them allow you to play the minigames developed for it. See the main page on VMU emulation [[Sega VMU emulators|here]].
 +
 
 +
==Downloads==
 +
* [[Emulator_Files#Dreamcast|BIOS]]
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
 
<references />
 
<references />
+
 
{{Nintendo}}
+
{{Sega}}
  
 
[[Category:Consoles]]
 
[[Category:Consoles]]
[[Category:Eighth-generation video game consoles]]
+
[[Category:Home consoles]]
[[Category:Very early emulation]]
+
[[Category:Sega consoles]]
[[Category:Nintendo consoles]]
+
[[Category:Sega Dreamcast emulators|*]]
[[Category:Nintendo Switch emulators]]
+
[[Category:Sixth-generation video game consoles]]

Revision as of 04:52, 6 September 2021

Sega Dreamcast
DreamcastConsole.png
Developer Sega
Type Home video game console
Generation Sixth generation
Release date 1998
Discontinued 2001
Predecessor Sega Saturn
Emulated

The Dreamcast is a sixth-generation console released by Sega on November 27, 1998 in Japan and later on September 9, 1999 in NA. It retailed for $199.99. It had a Hitachi SH-4 RISC CPU at 200 MHz with 16 MB of RAM and 8 MB of VRAM. It had a PowerVR2 GPU at 100 MHz, which theoretically was capable of pushing 3 million polygons/second on-screen. There is a 2 MB audio RAM, which complemented a powerful 67 MHz Yamaha AICA sound processor, with a 32-bit ARM7 RISC CPU core. The audio chip could generate 64 voices with PCM or ADPCM codec and provided ten times the performance of the Saturn's sound system.. Sega also released the Naomi, an arcade system board with similar components to the Dreamcast. Sammy's Atomiswave arcade board was also based on the Dreamcast and Naomi.

Sega collaborated with Microsoft on the Dreamcast's development, and this partnership would continue later with the Xbox. What came out of this was the possibility for games to be developed for an optimized version of Windows CE (with DirectX) on each disc. However, Windows CE wasn't mandatory to use and most developers opted for Sega's development tools instead out of convenience. Even in major emulators, this aspect isn't implemented (or implemented well).

Emulators

Name Platform(s) Latest Version Libretro Core Naomi Atomiswave Windows CE FLOSS Active Recommended
PC / x86
DEmul Windows 0.7 Build 280418
redream Windows Linux macOS 1.5.0 (Windows, macOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi)
1.2.07 (Android)
Flycast Windows Linux macOS Android Builds
reicast Windows Linux Dev Builds
nullDC Windows 1.0.4 r150 ~
Makaron Windows T12/5 ~
WashingtonDC Linux git
Lxdream Linux macOS 0.9.1
Chankast Windows 0.25
MAME Windows Linux macOS FreeBSD 0.264 ~ ~
Mobile / ARM
redream Android Linux ARM 1.1.98 (Android)
Dev (Raspberry Pi)
Flycast Android iOS Linux Pandora CI Builds ~ ~
reicast Android Dragonbox Pyra Buildsr20.04
Pyra Build
~
Console
nullDC PSP PSP git1.2.1 ~
nulldc-360 Xbox 360 git ~

Comparisons

DEmul
Has the highest compatibility and accuracy, but it' Windows-only and closed-source. It supports Windows CE games, but in general, they run worse than standard Dreamcast titles. It's also more resource-intensive than other emulators.
redream
Multi-platform and easy to use, but it's closed-source. Compatible with 90+% of the Dreamcast library (Windows CE now supported), has a good user interface, is easy to set up, and can run without a BIOS. Runs on low-end machines provided that they support OpenGL 3.1. There's a payware premium version that provides high-definition rendering.
nullDC
Can run a lot of games at great speed on mid-end PC and it's open-source, however, it's no longer developed and the more recent forks have improved upon it.
reicast
Eventually, nullDC's author forked his own project into reicast, with the main objective to widen platform availability to smartphones and tablets. While wider availability is generally a good thing, this resulted in cutting accuracy corners from the nullDC codebase to achieve the speed goals necessary to run on these platforms. Advancements in mobile hardware should have led to the removal of such "hacks"; however lack of developer resources and interest led to long delays in Reicast development, and the codebase remained virtually untouched for years before the RetroArch team began working with it as part of a "Reicast core", later named Flycast.
Flycast
Fork of reicast available as a standalone emulator and as a libretro core. Libretro collaborators, primarily flyinghead, dramatically improved Reicast in areas such as graphics, input, system clock, and Dreamcast VMU. Atomiswave and NAOMI SH-4-based arcade systems have also been added to great fanfare[1], along with support for MAME's popular CHD format. Even full MMU support, which is needed to run WinCE-based games such as "Armada", "Half-Life" and "SEGA Rally Championship 2", has recently been tackled through an experimental branch (anyone following Dreamcast emulation over the years understands what a tough nut this is to crack). Aside from some audio stuttering issues in games such as "Looney Toons Space Race" and "Resident Evil: Code Veronica", this is a highly compatible and accurate emulator.
Makaron
One of the only two closed-source Dreamcast emulators that can properly play Windows CE games.

Emulation issues

For the emulators that are either mature or maturing, a very large percentage of games work well, but some games still have problems and glitches.

VMU emulators

While some Dreamcast emulators can leverage the screen of the VMU while the game is running, none of them allow you to play the minigames developed for it. See the main page on VMU emulation here.

Downloads

References

Dreamcast logo.png
Consoles: SG-1000Master SystemGenesis / Mega DriveCD32XPicoSaturnDreamcast
Handhelds: Game GearVMU / VMS
Arcade: System seriesModel 1Model 2Model 3NAOMI