So... you want to burn dreamcast games

[Battousai11]

Well this is my first attempt of helping you people out....Let me say i once was a lost stupid newbie like many of you and I finally came to the point where at least i can help out a bit, having burned many many games in many different ways. So good news for you stupid newbies: there's hope for you! But if you really want to be good at burning games you have to have the right attitude to start with, and the main thing to have is PATIENCE! You cant just hope to post a question and see if people will tell you what to do step by step. YOU GOTTA START READING!!! I've spent many hours reading different posts and different FAQ's, and even more time messing around with settings in the burning programs. I've wasted a lot of cd's (hey, but I learned how to re-use coasters produced by the DAMN Disc fVcking Juggler!), but at the end, its all worth it...the feeling of burning a 50$ game into a 40 cent cd. First, I'll say what many have told you already: READ BIG PAPA's HELP POST! it helps a lot, and Igottashit666 has some out there for you guys too.The other place you MUST visit: xeal.cjb.net. Hey...the faqs in that page are awesome!(Theres some hacking like techniques where you edit the coding of the game, that may be the long way to solve the problem, but its still freaking cool.) In other words... people have gone through the trouble of writing down what they have learned for all of you guys, all you have to do is sit down and look around.

[Battousai11]

Ok, now i gotta clear some stuff out: Dont ask me about DiscJuggler. Yes, many people think its the best thing out there but the big problem is that stupid software doesnt support many types of burners. The burning programs I recommend for you to have: Nero ( i use 5.0), CDRWIN and CloneCD. The utilities you'll need: Cdirip, ISO LBA Fixer, ISO Header Extracter you can find them at cdirip.freeyellow.com), WINRAR and also cdi2nero. If you find Isobuster download it too...it might come handy sometime.
BOOT DISC
Ok, the Utopia guys outdid themselves when they put out the boot disc. At first it seemed that we would need it for all games, but now, it is rare to find a game CDI out there that needs it. In any case, you need it. You can download it's different versions (CDRWIN, NERO and DJ) at http://dc-gamez.sentrak.com/help/utopia/. I recommend the Nero version, faster loading than the CDRWIN. Just follow the help steps posted in that page and you should get your reindeer on your screen.

DOWNLOADING

Im not going to tell you where to download games, but when you find a place (in my case usually an ftp), PATIENCE is what you gotta keep in mind. You'll usually find taht the game folder contains many different files, all around 19,532 kb. They are named something like game.001 to game.00X, you must download all of them. You usually know if you are downloading the very last one because its not as big as the others.
Once you have all the files in a folder, its burning time.

BURNING FROM .RAR (or CDI's)
I usually use CDRWIN and follow the following method, I believe Xeal (xeal.cjb.net) came out with this method and nobody complaints about it (as far as I know).
What follows is quoted from Xeal:
--
What this method is for:
Any DC game with two tracks that gives you a buffer under-run (300 sector audio track in the first session and a data track in the second session)
This will even work on games with that pesky Sega of Europe protection (Metropolis Street Racer)
What this method is not for:
Any game with multiple audio tracks in the first session
Any game that is greater than roughly 77 minutes (this technique eats up 26 megs on the disc). Also, just because a game needs an 80 min disc does not mean it is more than 77 minutes in size.
Procedure:
1. Extract the CDI file from the rars (using WINRAR)
2. Use Cdirip on the CDI file to produce a TData02.iso file
3. Use the ISO LBA fixer on the TData02.iso (this will usually create a file called tmp.iso unless otherwise specified. when it asks for lba, use the one cdirip told you, usually 11700)
4. Use the ISO Header Extracter on the TData02.iso (this will usually create a file called header.iso unless otherwise specified.)
5. At this point the original TData02.iso is not needed, you may delete it if you wish.
6. Burn the iso that was produced by the ISO LBA fixer as a Mode 2 XA track in the first session. (CdrWin example: use "File and Backup Tools". Select "Record an ISO file". Choose the tmp.iso or whatever you named it. Select Cdrom-XA and Mode 2, check the box for Open New Session and Finalize/Close Session, and uncheck the Write Postgap Box)
7. Now burn the header.iso as the track in the second session (CdrWin: exact same procedure as the last track, except select header.iso)
8. Believe it or not, that's it. Go play your game.
--
If you really want to know how it works, go to Xeal's pages and read around...if you have any questions about the utilities, make sure you read te README file that comes with them before asking me please.

[Battousai11]

BACKUPS

So a friend of yours has a burned game, and you want to copy it. No problem! I use CloneCD for backups, but you can pretty much do it with any other burning software. If you use CloneCD, it usually reads the source disc, writes a temp file on your hardrive and then puts it on your cdr :

-Go to copy CD

- On the Read tab, select the source drive. Leave all boxes unchecked.

-On the Image tab, this is where you select your temporary image destination, you can just leave it default if you want. I usually check Delete after succesful Write to get rid of unnecesary garbage
- On the Write tab, select your speed, (to avoid problems, I never set it on high...but hey, thats just me), select your destination (your cdr), leave the RAW DAO crap like it is, and check Always Close Last Session. Everything else leave blank.
Thats it! press the pretty button on the bottom and you should be all right.

[Lord Jester]

:dTop:d

[musky72]

Thanks for your guide of how to use the Clone CD program. I follow all the points you stated in your mail, I get to the stage where the disc I am backing up is soat out, it then starts to write to the blank 80 min CD, it sort of freezes half way through the writing process ? Any Ideas ? I have a Hewlett Packard CD writer Plus 7200 series, do you know if this program is compatible ? please mail me on musky72********com with any suggestions !

Thanks

Musky