Reicast is a Dreamcast emulator for Android

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 24, 2013
Google Android
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5

dreamcast-emulator-android

Ah, the Sega Dreamcast. Sega's last console which was in many ways ahead of its time. I did buy a Dreamcast on launch day and while the games that shipped on that day where anything but great, the console itself saw some great releases over its short life span.

I'm not talking about the yearly iteration of EA's sport series, or the latest blockbuster Call of Duty or Battlefield games, but original games that were only released for that system or released for it first, or in the best available version of them all.

To name a few: Shenmue, Seaman, Typing of the Dead, Mars Matrix, Chu Chu Rocket, Power Stone 2, Samba de Amigo, Jet Set Radio, Rez, Ikaruga, Soul Calibur or Skies of Arcadia.

If you want to replay some of those games, or start to play them anew, you may buy a Dreamcast on a marketplace like eBay. If you do not have enough storage, or want something for on the go, you may want to try an emulator instead.

Reicast Dreamcast emulator

Reicast is a Dreamcast emulator for Android. The developers consider it alpha in its current stage, which means that bugs, performance and stability issues, and other issues are to be expected at this stage in development.

That does not mean that it won't work, as you can already play games on your Android device.

As far as hardware specs are concerned, the devs suggest at least a Cortex A9 dualcore processor with 1 Ghz or more.

Before you can start to play any games, you need to add the original Dreamcast Bios file to a location that the emulator can load it from.

You get it by dumping it if you have access to an original Dreamcast console at home. Here is a video with instructions on how to do so.

Once you got the Bios files, you need to place the dc_boot.bin and dc_flash.bin files in the folder dc/data that you create on your phone. The emulator will display an error message if the files are not present and quit afterwards.

What you also need are game roms that you can also dump from the Dreamcast. A thread on Neogaf confirms that several games are working, albeit with glitches. Among them are Soul Calibur and Daytone 2001 or Sonic Adventures.

Nvidia's Shield seems to be a solid device for the emulator, and a version for the Ouya is also available for users who want to play Dreamcast games on that device.

Here are a couple of videos demonstrating the current state of the emulator. First, the Oyua version

Then Sonic Adventure demo by the developers.

Verdict

Yes, the emulator has glitches and depending on what hardware you use, you may experience crashes and other issues. It is still a great thing, and well done for a first release.

If the developers keep on optimizing the emulator, it may one day run most games without any of the issues that are currently experienced.

The costs of getting involved -- legally -- may be quite high for some, as you need a Dreamcast console to dump the BIOS and the game Roms that you need to dump from the original game discs. Still, it may be worth it if you want to play Dreamcast games on your Android device.

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Comments

  1. Albert said on August 18, 2023 at 1:49 pm
    Reply

    Thanks for the tip Martin.

    It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.

    1. Mike Williams said on August 26, 2023 at 8:55 pm
      Reply

      What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?

  2. Tachy said on August 18, 2023 at 3:23 pm
    Reply

    2G?

    Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.

    1. arbuz said on August 20, 2023 at 5:02 pm
      Reply

      Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.

    2. Doc Fuddled said on August 31, 2023 at 5:55 pm
      Reply

      Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??

  3. Tachy said on August 18, 2023 at 3:27 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    Your website has gone insane.

    When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.

    1. Martin P. said on August 31, 2023 at 4:39 pm
      Reply

      @Tachy @Martin Brinkmann

      ” Your website has gone insane. ”

      Same here. Has happened several times.

      1. owl said on September 1, 2023 at 3:42 am
        Reply

        @Tachy,
        @Martin P.,

        For over two weeks now,
        I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
        https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
        https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
        For the time being,
        it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.

  4. Anonymous said on August 18, 2023 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    @tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
    Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
    3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.

    Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).

    But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.

  5. Andy Prough said on August 19, 2023 at 3:04 am
    Reply

    >”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”

    The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.

    I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.

  6. owl said on August 21, 2023 at 3:40 am
    Reply

    I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
    But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402

    It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
    What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.

  7. Anonymous said on August 26, 2023 at 9:27 pm
    Reply

    Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?

  8. Anonymous said on August 27, 2023 at 2:30 am
    Reply

    Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?

    I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]

  9. Tachy said on August 27, 2023 at 5:15 am
    Reply

    @Martin

    You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.

  10. John G. said on August 28, 2023 at 2:46 pm
    Reply

    @Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[

  11. ECJ said on August 28, 2023 at 5:37 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.

    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/

    And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.

  12. Naimless said on August 29, 2023 at 12:57 am
    Reply

    What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL

  13. Paul Knight said on August 31, 2023 at 3:35 am
    Reply

    The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)

  14. Anonymous said on August 31, 2023 at 9:57 pm
    Reply

    How about other things that matter:
    Drop survival?
    Screen toughness?
    Degree of water and dust protection?

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