Getting Dreamcast emulator discs to work?

[DpadDanny 27]

I collect, so I don't normally mess with anything emulation based. However- I recently purchased a MAME disc for the Dreamcast that includes about 30 arcade games or so. When I received it, it wouldnt boot- the system goes to the home menu and if I choose the game option, it fusses at me to insert a disc. Now, when I got my DC, it came with a NES roms disc- it never worked, which was whatever because again, I don't really emulate. I assumed it was an issue with the disc or something and that was that. But now I'm wondering if it's something with  my console, since the new disc wont work either. The seller said the game works with no boot disc or modding required, I believe that he tested the disc and it does, in fact work fine- just not on my console for some reason. In searching online, I found that models made after October 2000 won't play burnt discs without a boot disc or mod. I checked my system and it seems to be one of the earlier models (has the '1' in the circle on the information label) but still won't play the disc.... I figured I would ask here to see if anyone has some insight. What am I doing wrong?

[LastCat 240]

There are certain Dreamcasts that wont boot MIL-CDs, if I'm not mistaken those would be the very late Dreamcast consoles.

[DpadDanny 27]

4 minutes ago, LastCat said:

There are certain Dreamcasts that wont boot MIL-CDs, if I'm not mistaken those would be the very late Dreamcast consoles.

Right, like I said I looked it up and mine is one of the ones that SHOULD play them, but for some reason... yeah- idk

[LastCat 240]

There could be many possibilities... a bad burn or lens issue as well. have you tried burning a Utopia disc and using that to boot the other disc?

[DpadDanny 27]

1 minute ago, LastCat said:

There could be many possibilities... a bad burn or lens issue as well. have you tried burning a Utopia disc and using that to boot the other disc?

No, I don't have a disc burner currently. I don't think it's a lens issue since it loads everything else just fine. The NES emulator disc i got came with a boot disc and a ROM disc, but I have never been able to get those to work either, like I said I just assumed the disc was bad, but this experience makes me question that.

[LastCat 240]

Then most likely you got bad burned CDs. I tried a Utopia boot disc with a friend's dreamcast and it works fine with his, I could try and replicating booting up the ISOs you are having problems with. Where did you get the CDs?

[DpadDanny 27]

1 minute ago, LastCat said:

Then most likely you got bad burned CDs. I tried a Utopia boot disc with a friend's dreamcast and it works fine with his, I could try and replicating booting up the ISOs you are having problems with. Where did you get the CDs?

I got it on etsy- here's a link to the item. It lists the games included and the emulators used.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/736774322/mame-emulator-custom-sega-dreamcast-game?ref=yr_purchases

[LastCat 240]

I'll look in to this further and see If I can help you out.

[DpadDanny 27]

29 minutes ago, LastCat said:

I'll look in to this further and see If I can help you out.

Hey I appreciate it... this is outside of my area of expertise. 

[CT 17]

From my experience with Dreamcast and burned games, it takes a lot of trial and error to get them to work. 

Sometimes discs work flawlessly, other times just occasionally and other times not at all.

I burned some myself and some burned games came with my system.

But my Dreamcast was modded to play burned games when I bought it.

Maybe try the burned games on a different Dreamcast?

I also use an Action Replay to play imports, which is awesome.

Long story short, try some troubleshooting.  It can be a pain in the ass to get these burned discs to work but it feels so good when they do work.

 

[DpadDanny 27]

1 minute ago, CT said:

From my experience with Dreamcast and burned games, it takes a lot of trial and error to get them to work. 

Sometimes discs work flawlessly, other times just occasionally and other times not at all.

I burned some myself and some burned games came with my system.

But my Dreamcast was modded to play burned games when I bought it.

Maybe try the burned games on a different Dreamcast?

I also use an Action Replay to play imports, which is awesome.

Long story short, try some troubleshooting.  It can be a pain in the ass to get these burned discs to work but it feels so good when they do work.

 

Yeah, I'd totally try on another console if I had a backup, but sadly I don't... I use an Action Replay for Saturn and I love it.

But yeah- I've tried loading it from power off, loading it after powered on from menu, I tried spinning the disc before closing the tray to kinda 'kickstart' it, nothing has worked yet.

[KrystalsOfZongWater 5]

If you’re right about the production #, I bet those discs just don’t work anymore or maybe for different regions. The best/only way to tell was said, burn some good isos on new discs and try them. Try the Volgar Viking iso, and also the unreleased Ecco game are fun to be able to play on dc.

[LastCat 240]

I tried the bootable discs and it works, you might have a bad CD.

[DpadDanny 27]

Thanks for looking into it and I appreciate all the responses- looks like I'm going to have to sort this out with the seller.

[LastCat 240]

On 11/28/2019 at 2:36 AM, DpadDanny said:

Thanks for looking into it and I appreciate all the responses- looks like I'm going to have to sort this out with the seller.

I wanted to let you know that sometimes a Dreamcast will have trouble booting up certain CDs as well, I recently tried to use a Utopia CD and a SDRip boot CD to make rips of games and after many attempts the CDs finally booted.