Sega Dreamcast emulators

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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 Operating System(s) Latest Version Naomi Atomiswave Windows CE Active Recommended
PC
DEmul Windows 0.7 Build 180428
redream Windows, Linux, macOS 1.5.0 (Windows, macOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi)
1.2.07 (Android)
Flycast (libretro) Multi-platform Git ~ ~
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 Multi-platform 0.264 ~ ~
Mobile
redream Android 1.0.49
Flycast (libretro) Android, mobile Git ~ ~
reicast Android Dev Builds ~

Comparisons

DEmul
Has the highest compatibility and accuracy, but is 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
Runs on Windows, MacOS, Linux and Android. Compatible with 80+% of the Dreamcast library (no Windows CE support), 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. Is closed-source and has a payware premium version with high-definition rendering.
nullDC
Can run a lot of games at great speed on mid-end PC but is no longer developed. Open-source project that paved the way for reicast and Flycast.
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
libretro fork of reicast. 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.

Windows CE games emulation is still poor and slow.

Poor VMU emulation

While current 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 so playing those minigames would require another emulator. The problem is there aren't any complete lists of VMU emulators, and the emulators that can be found are poorly documented.

Downloads

VMU emulators

Emulating the Dreamcast VMU is possible via use of this emulator: Dropbox link of ElysianVMU

Link to the forum thread about it

References


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