THE END ALL BE ALL DC BURNING GUIDE

[Shibathedog]

I feel like I see this question every time I get online, here, in my email, PMs, whatever. So here it is *drumroll*

 

HOW TO BURN ANY DREAMCAST GAME, SELFBOOT OR NON. THIS GUIDE WILL ALWAYS WORK, EVERY TIME. IF IT STILL DOESN'T WORK, YOU ARE USING POOR QUALITY MEDIA, HAVE A CORRUPT/FAKE IMAGE, OR YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT FORMAT THE IMAGE IS.

 

THIS IS HOW YOU BURN EVERY DREAMCAST GAME THAT IS IN IMAGE FORMAT

 

What you need:

Latest Version of Alcohol 120% possible (Don't use Nero or anything else, There is nothing wrong with Nero, But I have burned EVERY SINGLE Dreamcast game in the ENTIRE LIBRARY using this method, and this program, and never had a single problem. Why not use something you know will work?)

Good Quality Media (Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden, Ritek, TDK, etc) (NOT MAXELL, MEMOREX, WAL-MART CRAP)

Good Optical Drive (Samsung, NEC, Plextor, etc) (Hacked Firmware helps too, but if you don't already know what that is I would suggest staying away from it)

An Image of a game

 

Basically make sure you have a CD burner that works, some blank discs, and a game to burn/the required software.

 

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STEP ONE:

 

Open Alcohol 120% and click "IMAGE BURNING WIZARD" on the left side

 

STEP TWO:

 

A window will pop up, Click "BROWSE" and open your image file, Then click "NEXT" (Make sure Delete Image File After Recording on the bottom is unchecked unless you want that)

 

STEP THREE:

 

Select your write speed. Everyone will tell you to pick the lowest setting, thats stupid as hell and takes forever. Anyone who knows anything about burning optical media is going to agree when I say PICK THE SPEED THAT IS EXACTLY ONE HALF THE SPEED WRITTEN ON THE DISC, IF IT IS NOT AVAILABLE PICK THE FASTEST OPTION THAT IS LESS THAN HALF THE RATED SPEED. I can burn them at max speed without any problems but try it this way first.

 

STEP FOUR:

 

Select your "WRITE METHOD" Always always ALWAYS pick "RAW/DAO", if that isn't available to you as an option pick "DAO/SAO"

 

STEP FIVE:

 

Make sure the "ENABLE BUFFER UNDERRUN TECHNOLOGY" box is CHECKED, the "DON'T CLOSE THE LAST SESSION OF CURRENT DISC" is UNCHECKED, "WRITE" is CHECKED, and "SIMULATION" is UNCHECKED

 

STEP SIX:

 

Press start, wait for the disc to burn, and play your game, If it was a self-boot game, it will self boot, if it was not self-boot, use a boot-disc.

 

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It looks like a lot of steps, but its really not, most of the options are already set correctly. Your going to be slamming your head on your desk once you realize how easy it is. Everyone has to learn the first time from somewhere though.

 

If you followed ALL the steps above and your POSITIVE you didn't skip anything. Post here with the following information and your sure to get some help from someone if not me:

 

Your Burner Brand/Model Number

The type of optical media you are using

The game/image name/any info you have regarding the image including its SIZE/FORMAT.

Your version of alcohol

[Threepwood Mark]

Hi man, I found your guide by searching on google but my dreamcast games still don't work.

I followed it step by step, i also tried using discjuggler without success.

I've tried using 3 different burners (1 Sony, 1 Samsung, the other one I can't remember) on 2 different Pc, with 5 different cd types (Tdk, Verbatim, Fujifilm...) and 3 different games (SonicAdventure1 .cdi, SonicAdventure2.mds and Shenmue 1.cdi)

The only result is my dc getting stacked at the spiral screen and eventually going to the main menu

The strange thing is that all my old games (burned 5 years ago) work perfectly, this is nonsense!!

i used both the raw dao and the dao sao mode but nothing worked, i really don't know what to do! I've wasted dozen cds...

Any ideas?

 

PS: sorry for my horrible english, i'm italian

 

PPS: i've used alcohol v1.95 but now i'm using the latest version without changes..

Edited February 4, 2008 by Threepwood Mark

[BlackKnight]

Are the ISOs you are using Self-Boot images?

[Threepwood Mark]

yes, i think so... anyway i've also tried to use the utopia boot disk to boot them but it freezes when i swap the disk..

[Devia Eleven]

It could most likely just be your Dreamcast.

[Threepwood Mark]

I don't think: why would my dc play old backup games immediately but don't play any new backup? It sounds very strange..

[BlackKnight]

It could in theory be due to physical factors like the drive's laser alignment, the old brand of media you were using compared to what you are using now... but without a bit of trial and error on your part to diagnose that they are just guesses.

[Threepwood Mark]

well, tell me what to do and i'll try

anyway, i used one of those cd cleaners to clean the lense but there were no changes..

[Threepwood Mark]

so, any idea?

[gavin19]

Did you try these games in Chankast or nullDC to verify that they even work?

[Threepwood Mark]

my pc sucks, i tried with chankast but even the games working on the dc don't work: they repeatly show the spiral screen, the clock settings and then restart..