NullDC released, runs many dreamcast games at full speed!!!!!

[notaburger]

If this was already posted, i apologize, but nullDC was released yesterday
it's a new dreamcast emulator that apparently runs most games at full speed

check it out over at www.ngemu.com

i have yet to try it since my gaming computer is in my arcade right now (which is being stored for my move)

if you're too lazy to click...some notable 60fps games include
street fighter 3:  3rd strike
project justice
power stone
crazy taxi

...maybe you'll click now 

just to clarify, this is not an april fool's day joke

[boykster]

very cool, thanks for the heads up.  I'll have to check it out....

[KenToad]

Thanks for the link.  I'm glad progress is being made.  Chankast never worked very well on my computer.  Definitely gonna be excited when they get some joypad support.

[HaRuMaN]

Thanks for the link.  I'm glad progress is being made.  Chankast never worked very well on my computer.  Definitely gonna be excited when they get some joypad support.

just use joy 2 key.

[Loki]

Thanks! going to try it out

[tommy]

Don't forget to rename your dc_bios.bin to dc_boot.bin.

[Loki]

I don't even see a dc_bios or boot 

[ChadTower]

It probably doesn't come with one.  The BIOS images are copyrighted material and often not distributed with emulators.  Just like the games.

[Loki]

Yeah, you are right... also had the same problem with the Neo Geo bios... oh well.. I just found it

[KenToad]

Thanks for the link.  I'm glad progress is being made.  Chankast never worked very well on my computer.  Definitely gonna be excited when they get some joypad support.

just use joy 2 key.

I never owned a Dreamcast and only played with one once or twice, so I don't know if it used the analog sticks for many of the great games.  SF III will be fine with Joy 2 Key and probably most shooters, but can anyone tell me how many or what general ratio of the good games used digital controls exclusively?

Some that I would like to try:

Jet Grind Radio
Shenmue
Rez
Ikaruga

[Banacek]

Has anyone tested this out yet? Is it command-line friendly, and are the controls customizable? Thanks!

[Loki]

I have tested it... it works pretty good.
Played Ikaruga at pretty much full speed... sound was ok.
Not sure about the command-line but controls can be changed.

Anyway, I think I'll buy a Dreamcast!

[odysseyroc]

I have tested it... it works pretty good.
Played Ikaruga at pretty much full speed... sound was ok.
Not sure about the command-line but controls can be changed.

Anyway, I think I'll buy a Dreamcast!

With as cheap as they can be had, I don't know why anybody wouldn't just buy a Dreamcast rather than monkey around with an emulator.

[ChadTower]

I get them nearly free or free regularly.  They are awesome, best value in gaming ever right now, a NAOMI clone with an easy VGA adapter.

[HaRuMaN]

I get them nearly free or free regularly.  They are awesome, best value in gaming ever right now, a NAOMI clone with an easy VGA adapter.

Would you be interested in selling me one, in that case?

[ChadTower]

I'll check what I have on hand right now.  With shipping costs, though, you can probably find one locally for not much more if you peek around enough.  Hang out on your local Freecycle list.  I've gotten a couple already this year that way.

[HaRuMaN]

I'll check what I have on hand right now.  With shipping costs, though, you can probably find one locally for not much more if you peek around enough.  Hang out on your local Freecycle list.  I've gotten a couple already this year that way.

I'm waiting to be approved on the freecycle thing.  In the meantime, if you find you have a 1st rev Dreamcast laying around, shoot me a message!

[ChadTower]

Is there a substantial difference between revisions?

[HaRuMaN]

Is there a substantial difference between revisions?

If I recall correctly, the last revision can't/won't run backup/homebrew discs.  I've got some custom music mixes of MvC2 that I'd like to run.   

[ChadTower]

Hrm.  I've gone through probably 10-15 units and haven't run into one that didn't boot from a CDR.  I use CDRs to test them before passing them on since everyone's first question is "can I run burned games on it".

[HaRuMaN]

Hrm.  I've gone through probably 10-15 units and haven't run into one that didn't boot from a CDR.  I use CDRs to test them before passing them on since everyone's first question is "can I run burned games on it".

Hmm, my info could be bad, never had the chance to test it myself.

[ChadTower]

Wikipedia seems to imply that it was an issue but has been solved. 

[horseboy]

With as cheap as they can be had, I don't know why anybody wouldn't just buy a Dreamcast rather than monkey around with an emulator.

Well some people want to put them in thier cabs with thier other emulators. It is a lot easier to choose a game from the front end rather than to monkey around with switching discs and inputs.

[odysseyroc]

With as cheap as they can be had, I don't know why anybody wouldn't just buy a Dreamcast rather than monkey around with an emulator.

Well some people want to put them in thier cabs with thier other emulators. It is a lot easier to choose a game from the front end rather than to monkey around with switching discs and inputs.

Very true. I guess my thought was more in line of if it doesn't work perfectly why not just get the real thing for $20-$30.

[Banacek]

Well some people want to put them in thier cabs with thier other emulators. It is a lot easier to choose a game from the front end rather than to monkey around with switching discs and inputs.

Exactly. I have two Dreamcasts sitting in my closet, it just be a lot easier for me to use this in my cabinet then the actual Dreamcast.

[Loki]

With as cheap as they can be had, I don't know why anybody wouldn't just buy a Dreamcast rather than monkey around with an emulator.

Well some people want to put them in thier cabs with thier other emulators. It is a lot easier to choose a game from the front end rather than to monkey around with switching discs and inputs.

Shouldn't be to hard right? .. when you have a TV in your cab I mean.
Then it's just switching channel on your tv and when you want to play some other game just put the DC behind your coin door for easy access.
Not sure about an arcade monitor though, Is it possible to connect more then one device to it?

[notaburger]

think about having to change discs though
i'm waaaaaaay lazy...and i wouldn't have to hack apart another dreamcast controller

i hope to get the u360s soon, has anyone tried using them with nullDC yet?

[versapak]

I have tested it... it works pretty good.
Played Ikaruga at pretty much full speed... sound was ok.
Not sure about the command-line but controls can be changed.

Anyway, I think I'll buy a Dreamcast!

Hmmmmm...

I played Ikaruga as well, and though the gameplay was definitely decent, the sound was pretty crappy.   

[horseboy]

I have tested it... it works pretty good.
Played Ikaruga at pretty much full speed... sound was ok.
Not sure about the command-line but controls can be changed.

Anyway, I think I'll buy a Dreamcast!

Hmmmmm...

I played Ikaruga as well, and though the gameplay was definitely decent, the sound was pretty crappy.   

What kind of specs were you running it on?

[versapak]

What kind of specs were you running it on?

I was running it on my laptop (Turion64 2Ghz with 1GB ram, which unfortunately has the Nvidia Go 6100 video card taking 128MB).

I'm guessing that is my problem, but unfortunately it is more powerful than my desktop, so I didn't have any way to know this from my own experience.

I figured the gameplay would have taken a hit if it was a power issue, so I just assumed that it was crappy audio for everyone.

[horseboy]

That sucks. I would love for this thing to work well. Anyone else try it yet?

[boykster]

I'll give it a shot tomorrow.....

AMD 64 X2 Dual 4200+
2ghz DDR2
PCI-e Geforce 7600GT

[KenToad]

I'll give it a shot tomorrow.....

AMD 64 X2 Dual 4200+
2ghz DDR2
PCI-e Geforce 7600GT

   Umm ... I guess my computer won't get the same results.  Your computer is a little bit more powerful. 

[boykster]

I'll give it a shot tomorrow.....

AMD 64 X2 Dual 4200+
2ghz DDR2
PCI-e Geforce 7600GT

   Umm ... I guess my computer won't get the same results.  Your computer is a little bit more powerful. 

and the sad thing is this computer is now considered kind of "slow" 

Well, I don't have an image of Ikaruga, but I just played a quick game of crazy taxi, and without fiddling with any settings at all, just defaults, it ran very smoothly.  There were a couple of slowdowns, but frankly IIRC even on the dreamcast there were some slowdowns at times.  The game "felt" just a bit different, but overall was very similar to the DC experience,and the sound was solid with no funkiness at all.

I have 1 or 2 other games that I can try later,but my DC collection is pretty weak lately as I gave my DC away a couple years ago.


Oh, and this is in the readme.txt

nullAICA syncs audio to match the speed of the rest emulator parts. If a game runs below 100% its real speed, sound will be choppy and will have occasional "clicks". It would be better to use Chankast's AICA on that case.

[Organic Jerk]

Hmmmmm...

I played Ikaruga as well, and though the gameplay was definitely decent, the sound was pretty crappy.   

Try switching the sound plugin in the emu to the Chankast one.  Although the chankast video plugin decreased performance for me, the sound plgin cleaned things up...

[whatzcrackn]

Is there a substantial difference between revisions?

I have three two 1999 versions and 1 apr 2000.  I was told after Sept 2000 DC included a protection chip (??) or something to that nature so back-ups could not be played.  Well my 2000 is a 50/50 shot it does not play everything, but my other two are golden.

Anyone want to buy my 2000 

[ark_ader]

DC Null gives me 100% frame rate on crazy taxi 2 sound is a bit choppy but you have to run it in full screen.  Waiting on Soul Calibre, but it definately gives me ideas for my cabinet.

I have a DC in there now with X Arcade, but it will play my games I have bought, but the emulator works with the online images of my games so its a plus.

Miles better than Chankast, but I have problems loading normal CDs with DC Null - probably nothing yet out for a cd plug in....

Give it a go!

[notaburger]

i tried out ikaruga on a 4 year old pc
not too shabby for a new emulator
i couldn't get sound to disable
i have a feeling that it would run at full speed if i could figure out how

not nullDC's fault but, i tried to switch the in game options to vertical monitor, and my flatscreen doesn't rotate the direction that it requires

it seems like the author is already plugging away at a new release

i didn't even think of it before, but isn't the naomi hardware nearly identical to the dreamcast?
maybe this will mean that we'll have incredibly slow, and unplayable versions of some newer arcade games in mame soon

....probably not

[tommy]

When i ran it with the chankast sound plugin it was fine.

[saint]

I'd love to put Dreamcast games on my emu-cab for the kids. They have scratched the holy living heck out of the discs we have, I've already had to re-purchase Gauntlet Legends (didn't want to go through the hassle of finding and burning it). I own pretty much every Dreamcast game that is on my approval list for my young kids -- putting them all on the cabinet so they don't have to touch the media would be excellent. If it pans out (didn't see the kid games we own on the list of working games) I'll be giving this a whirl. Ooga Booga anyone?

[WTB]

I'll have to check out this new emulator. I love chankast, and if this works better I can't wait to fiddle with it.

I have 10 Dreamcasts now and plan on purchasing more. For single-game cabinets they are awesome! I also made a NES-only machine using NesterDC SE. I used the layout from the original Nintendo CP's and added extra buttons for control. Absolutely amazing! A cab that plays nothing but original NES games with a great frontend. DC's are so adaptable I can't believe more people don't have them. I wish I could afford a bba right now...

[ChadTower]

I tried REALLY HARD to find a dead on NES emu for the DC, including the one you mentioned.  The games that require pure hardware speed timing, like Mike Tyson's Punch Out, just don't work well enough to beat.  I can beat Mike Tyson on an NES.  I could never come get to him on an NES emu for the DC.

[horseboy]

I've only beat Mike Tyson once. It is just one of those games for me I guess.


Anyhow, anybody else give it a go yet?

[ChadTower]

Once you get the pattern down he's not too hard to beat.  It does require a perfectly functional controller and just about perfect timing, though.  Ninja Gaiden is that way too.

[DarkBubble]

I tried REALLY HARD to find a dead on NES emu for the DC, including the one you mentioned.  The games that require pure hardware speed timing, like Mike Tyson's Punch Out, just don't work well enough to beat.  I can beat Mike Tyson on an NES.  I could never come get to him on an NES emu for the DC.

I ran into that with the main versions of Nester DC that came before Nester DC SE, but I don't seem to have the same issues with SE.  The earlier versions were fine, until you played something like City Connection.  I don't seem to have the same issues with SE.

[Howard_Casto]

I'm impressed with it, and since I hate everything it must be really good!   


I tired the few games I had on hand just to test compatability:


Daytona USA 2k1:   .... played at fullspeed.... seemed to have some control issues ... no grpahical glitches save some menu issues

DOA2 LE:  Played Flawlessly

Gauntlet Legends:  Ran at about 95%, otherwise perfect.


MVC2:  Flawless

SFIII:  Flawless

MK4 G:  Flawless

Soul Caliber:  Some Minor Texture issues and the menus look awful, but otherwise fine

Space Channel 5:  Too slow to be playable (still at around 95% but where iit's a rythm game, that isn't good enough)

I had some images that it didn't seem to like, namely Cannon Spike and Samba de Amigo.... but I think it was more the disc format they were saved in rather than the emu itself.  I'll convert them later this week and get back to you. 

Pretty much all the "good games" on the DC seem to work, so everyone should download it and enjoy!

[ChadTower]

Heh, that "good games" list is totally relative, of course, since I am a big DC proponent and never play any of the fighters.

[horseboy]

Heh, that "good games" list is totally relative, of course, since I am a big DC proponent and never play any of the fighters.

Same here. Powerstone is pretty cool, though.

[Howard_Casto]

I didn't mean just my list guys.... it's official compatability list... all the major titles are covered.

[shmokes]

Are people interfacing Dreamcast controllers with this?  If so, does it support specialty controllers like my fishing rod?  I'm guessing the answer to that question is, "No, for christ's sake, shmokes, don't be ridiculous." 

[Howard_Casto]

Nah it doesn't even have proper analog support yet.  They are using hooks for some odd reason too instead of a DX interface, which pretty much gives you support for everything.  I figure somebody will make a plugin soon though.

[HaRuMaN]

I'll check what I have on hand right now.  With shipping costs, though, you can probably find one locally for not much more if you peek around enough.  Hang out on your local Freecycle list.  I've gotten a couple already this year that way.

...update...

Freecycle rocks...  I just got a Dreamcast, 2 controllers, steering wheel, vmu, about 15 games, and the web-browser cd all for free.  The lady that gave 'em to me was just happy that it was going to be ressurected.  Thanks for the tip, Chadtower!   

[ChadTower]

Wow.  I totally forgot to check for you, so I'm happy you found one.  That's a sweet lot, too.  I've given a lot of stuff away on Freecycle but received more than I could have ever expected (27" RGB monitor, a pinball machine, many consoles, a whole test bench worth of expensive electronics repair equipment...).

[clockwork]

Just found NullDC today. It looks awesome. I love my DreamCast. I preferred it to PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. I was really ticked when Sega dropped support for it.

I can't believe it can play these games at full/near full speed. Why hasn't anyone been able to get a MAME (or another arcade emulator) to do that? Are the arcade ROMs harder to emulate accurately?

[4Aaron GE]

I think it's because MAME emulates the hardware comepletely.  IE, it runs a full VM of the arcade hardware.  This thing looks like it makes "better" use the PC's hardware, e.g. GPU on the video card is used instead of emulating that part in the VM etc.

[ChadTower]

Plus the DC has Windows CE under the hood.

[shmokes]

Can this run the Dreamcast discs?  I'm guessing no, since they're on non-standard GD-ROMS.  I have quite a few Dreamcast games, but I'm planning on someday gutting a non-working NES and filling it with the innards of my Dreamcast as a gift to a friend who is a huge NES fan.  Once I do that, I'll still have a bunch of Dreamcast games, with pretty much nothing to do with them.

[Banacek]

Can this run the Dreamcast discs?  I'm guessing know, since they're on non-standard GD-ROMS.  I have quite a few Dreamcast games, but I'm planning on someday gutting a non-working NES and filling it with the innards of my Dreamcast as a gift to a friend who is a huge NES fan.  Once I do that, I'll still have a bunch of Dreamcast games, with pretty much nothing to do with them.

I didn't think normal drives in PCs could read the GD-ROM format, so I don't think so. But it's been a long time since I looked into it, so I could be wrong. I really need this semester to end

[HaRuMaN]

It could probably run dreamcast bacukps that are burned to a normal CDR...

[Zeosstud]

I noticed that San Francisco Rush 2049 is one of the games on the good list!!  Its one of 2 games that I own for my dreamcast (others were aquired) anyway, the image I have of Rush 2049 does not work with nullDC.  Anyone out there have an image of this game that works??

Zeosstud

[HaRuMaN]

I noticed that San Francisco Rush 2049 is one of the games on the good list!!  Its one of 2 games that I own for my dreamcast (others were aquired) anyway, the image I have of Rush 2049 does not work with nullDC.  Anyone out there have an image of this game that works??

Zeosstud

Asking for rom/game images is not allowed. 

[Zeosstud]

I actually own that game, and would happily attach a picture of me holding it in my hot little hand while clutching a USA today paper to prove I am not pulling anyones chain.  Besides, I actually just asked if anyone had a working image of the game, you know, if it actually does exist :-)  I would NEVER ask for an image or a rom in an open forum, isnt that why god invented pm's?

Zeosstud

[shmokes]

pm's are clearly the product of evolution.