You’ll find on this page all downloads for your Sega Dreamcast video game console. All downloads are compressed in .7z format and can be opened with the free 7-zip archiver. Programs offered on this page can be used directly without any kind of installation, which mean you just need to unzip and run them. Most of them are targeted to Microsoft Windows, because it’s my main computer OS.
AFS2WAV
AFS2WAV is a Windows program used to extract the contents of AFS files used in most Dreamcast games and to convert the content from .ADX format (proprietary audio codec developed by CRI Middleware) to Waveform files (.WAV). This utility is based on the command-line tool ADXUtil, which’s included in the package.
Binary Checker
Binary Checker (or BinCheck) is a tool made to check if your Dreamcast homebrew binary in .BIN format is in scrambled or unscrambled state.
A .BIN file is a compiled program for your Sega Dreamcast, it’s those that you can get most of time in packages labelled “plain files”. Scrambled state files are used when the binary is meant to be booted from a CD-ROM, i.e. when the homebrew program is started from the bootstrap, often called IP.BIN. Such bootable programs are commonly named 1ST_READ.BIN. The unscrambled state for binaries, meanwhile, is used in all other cases (e.g. a binary executable started from another binary). Please note the scrambled/unscrambled state notion is ONLY used for homebrews programs, i.e. programs compiled with homemade toolchains.
DC-TOOL
DC-TOOL is a set of programs made to send and receive data from your Sega Dreamcast system. The classic use of this tool is to send programs to the Dreamcast in order to run and debug them. To be used, you must have a way to connect your Dreamcast console to your computer, it can be one of the following:
- A Coders Cable (a serial cable, the historical way to do that)
- A Broadband Adapter, often shortened as “BBA” (a 10/100Mbits network Ethernet card).
This program, originally developed by ADK/Napalm and now full part of the KallistiOS library (used in the homebrew developments targeted to the Sega Dreamcast) is split in two packages:
- DC-LOAD, the server part, started from the Dreamcast
- DC-TOOL, the client part, started from the computer (can be GNU/Linux or Windows).
Depending on the method chosen (Coders Cable or BBA) you must use the right version of the program:
- DC-LOAD or DC-LOAD-SERIAL for the Coders Cable version
- DC-LOAD-IP for the BBA version
This applies on the client part as well, which is called DC-TOOL. Initially, DC-TOOL is a program usable only within the command line, so I developed a series of GUI for this great tool under Windows.
DC-LOAD
Like already said, DC-LOAD is the server program meant to be run in the Sega Dreamcast. You’ll find below CD images to burn containing the program:
For burning these CD images, you can use either Padus DiscJuggler or Alcohol 120%. Please burn them at the slowest speed as possible.
DC-TOOL
When you have downloaded the right version of the server part (DC-LOAD), now you need to download the client part to run in your computer (DC-TOOL). As DC-LOAD, you need to use either DC-TOOL-SERIAL or DC-TOOL-IP.
- DC-TOOL 2013-03-02 MinGW: It’s the Serial and IP binaries in the same package, compiled with the latest source code from the KallistiOS SVN. It’s the original programs without any form of GUI.
- TURBO DC-TOOL GUI: This program is a simple GUI for DC-TOOL (Serial or IP), with a high shell integration for the Windows Explorer.
- DC-TOOL GUI 2.0: It’s a GUI for DC-TOOL, very easy and nice to use.
- DC-TOOL GUI 3.0 beta 1: It’s the bêta 1 of the 3.0, which has never been finished.
ELF2BIN
This program is mainly dedicated to programmers who want to convert .ELF programs to the .BIN format, necessary to allow the Dreamcast program to be bootable from a CD-ROM via the scrambled state. This’s a standalone version of the “sh-elf-objcopy” utility. This program works with or without GUI.
IMG4DC
This package allows you to generate bootable CD images for your Sega Dreamcast. It’s split in two separate programs, usable in command-line mode:
- CDI4DC : for generating Padus DiscJuggler CD images
- MDS4DC : for generating Alcohol 120% CD images.
These programs have become since 2007 a reference in the Sega Dreamcast homebrew world, and they are used in other third-party tools such BootDreams. For these reasons I gave the source code to the community.
BootMake
BootMake is a very simple GUI program for CDI4DC only.
BurnDC CDI For Linux
It’s a shell script for Linux designed to burn CDI files. Indeed CDI files are Padus DiscJuggler images which is a Windows-program only. This script makes possible to burn CDI under GNU/Linux systems.
Disc-related Various Tools
These tools weren’t made by me, but it may be useful to you:
- CDIrip: Extracts CDI images into several track files.
- CDI2Nero: Converts CDI images into Nero Burning ROM images. A modified version by me is also available, changes are listed in the archive.
- gditools: This Python program/library made by FamilyGuy is designed to handle GD-ROM image (GDI) files. I’ve just made the multiplatform GUI.
IP.BIN Creator
This tool was made to generate “bootstrap” IP.BIN (Initial Program) files for your Sega Dreamcast console. This tool is mainly for developers but can be used for the end-user to generate customized bootstraps (e.g. with custom logos). The bootstrap is the license screen shown at startup when you run any Dreamcast program (e.g. Shenmue or whatever).
IPCreate
This program is the console version of the tool above, originally made for LyingWake and his BootDreams tool.
MR-TOOL
This utility was initially written by _kRYPT and was made for convert various pictures format (such as .JPG, .PNG or .BMP) in the special .MR format, used with the boostrap file (“IP.BIN“). Please note that algorithm used in this tool is now deprecated, a new version of this library was written for Selfboot Inducer that you can just download below.
Selfboot Inducer
This tool was made for creating homebrews compilations on the same CD-ROM for your Sega Dreamcast. In clear, you may put several proggies in the same CD-ROM and Selfboot Inducer will create you a CD-ROM embedding a menu for selecting what program you want to run when putting this disc in your Sega Dreamcast console. It was very popular before the SD Card module release. To use this tool you need to download homebrews programs in the special .SBI format (see below). It’s the latest program I wrote for my favorite video console system. The complete source code is included in the package, written in Delphi XE2. You’ll find in that source code a new implementation of the encoding/decoding algorithm for .MR files (used in bootstraps).
SBI Builder
This utility is the ideal companion for Selfboot Inducer because it can create the famous .SBI packages necessary to build your own compilations. The user-interface of the tool is available in english, french and spanish. It was historically the first program I wrote for the Dreamcast, that’s why I used its name for my differents websites until today. A dozen of versions was released.
Shenmue Translation Pack
The Shenmue Translation Pack is a big package containing tools used to modify the in-game subtitles and every game data in order to localize in your own language Shenmue, What’s Shenmue and Shenmue II, on both Sega Dreamcast and Microsoft Xbox. I’m working on that project since 2008.
Download Shenmue Translation Pack
VMU TOOL PC
This nice utility was made in collaboration with another french developer, speud, author of the nice DreamExplorer tool, formerly known as VMU TOOL. It’s a Sega Dreamcast saves files manager for your computer. It can handle .VMS/.VMI and .DCI files.
Thank you so much for this website. Starting to use Dremcast only now, after 15 years of it’s release, and find some of this tools extremly useful.
Does Bootmake work in Windows 8 64-bit? It keeps saying “System can’t find path”.
This is a good question. I’ll test this and update the program if necessary. Thanks for reporting! 🙂
Any thoughts on having the dc tools gui work on modern linux?
It would save having to map a network drive from my vm to windows for testing.
Sorry, DC-TOOL GUI was made with Delphi so it’s only compatible on Windows.
I’m planning to remake this tool in Lazarus which is a Pascal Object IDE producing cross-platform binaries, but I don’t know when…
Under Linux, you have to stick with the console binary for now, sorry.
Hi Sizious!
I’m a big fan of DC scene, ans Sega in general. I gave my DC a new life with the awsome GDemu.
I really appreciate your work and your tools. They gave our comunity another sense.
I would like to ask if you could in the future create a common GUI for your excelent applications (CDI4DC and MDS4DC), where we could select input files, output files, some personal options just like (audio tracks, audio/data or data/data format, ISO header name, etc) and the output format, CDI of MDS.
I specially don’t use MDS, but there are peope who does.
Thanks for all.
Olá!
Thank you very much for your kindly message!
I started a refactoring project on SourceForge for CDI4DC/MDS4DC (but I never finished it… yet!) in order to prepare everything to accomplish this goal.
So yeah, this is a project I have in mind for almost 2 years. So please don’t lose hope! 🙂
Our goodness, I’m starting this week to explore dreamcast hobbyst development, I’m very happy to have found your site, I’m not really an advanced user of the linux environment but anyway I would like to develop some homebrew applications, thank you my good friend ^^ Sorry for my very, very bad english, because i’m brazilian.
Nao faz mal! Voce é bem-vindo 🙂 Desculpa o meu portugues nao presta eu sei 🙂
Thank You!!!
Sizious I just wanted to say THANKS for all you have given to the DC scene! Also wanted to ask a pair of questions: dream inducer can be used for multiple apps/emuz on one cd, but can be used for multiple commercial games? If so, I guess they should be data/data format right? Just like when using xdp/dream passport 3d menu, etc?
Again! Thanks and much respect!
Sorry for the big delay I completely forgot to answer you! I’m sorry but DreamInducer can’t boot commercial games, this is a issue caused by the loading method embedded in KallistiOS (which is the library used in DreamInducer to use the Dreamcast hardware). 🙁
Your best bet here is to use Ginsu, used in XDP or DreamOn compilations.
Thanks for all these tools. Are there any step by step instructions for putting Neo4All with games on a USB GD-Rom? I’m assuming I may be able to do it using some old method, but I can’t seem to get it to work so far (I’m new to the dreamcast emulator scene).
Thanks!
Hey!
First of all, thanks for the message!
For Neo4All, you basically just need to make a selfboot disc with the binary, I’ve just prepared a package to show you the way. This package contains the Neo4All RC-4 Normal version which requires to change the disc (i.e. boot with the Neo4All disc then change to the game disc), but in your case (use of USB GD-Rom), I think your best bet should be the standalone release: in that case you need to put all your game data on the same session where the Neo4All binary is located. Don’t hesitate if you need futher help!
im new to this after all these years and am trying to play games from old systems on dreamcast but all information and help seems outdated. please help!!!!
hi Sizious
perfect works thanks for your effort.
i have sega naomi disc.
i ripped it from dreamshell after that i got 4 files
track1.iso
track2.raw
track3.iso
gamename.gdi
i need to make a backup and try it on naomi
can you guide me ?
Can you change the image method to Data/Data in BootMake? Because my Dreamcast was made in 2001 and doesn’t support MIL-CD(Audio/Data format)
i want to make cd-r backup disc for naomi game.
i have naomi gdrom driver. and one of original game with sec. chip.
how can i burn as cdi ?
EXTRA BG MAKER?
Hi Sizious
How do I add TOC to IP.BIN with IP create?
Is there some sort of guide out anywhere online for how to use selfboot inducer and sbi builder to create an emu compilation?