Nifty thing I found for Dreamcast users.

[2600Lives]

http://bswirl.kitsunet.org/

 

This is a COOL little program you can download from this site. It's basically a set of VMU utilities, but MAN, are they some great utilities! You can unlock 40 some odd extra blocks on each of your VMUs, it has a built in emulator for playing the VMU games (like the Chao one from the Sonic Adventure games) on the tv itself (and comes pre-loaded with the games, too, and a bunch of homebrewed and other ones), has tons of stuff like icons and wallpapers, AND comes loaded with thousands of game saves! Don't want to go to all the freakin' trouble of unlocking those VERY difficult characters in Marvel Vs. Capcom? Bugger it! Just download a save file to your VMU and you're set!

 

The site also has the trial verison of Discjuggler, and you'll need it to burn the .cdi file that the program comes in, but just burn it to a standard cd and pop it in. Works great, and I had tons of fun playing around with it last night!

[nonner242]

OOOOOOh gotta try this..sound great!

Thanks!

[Chickybaby]

Yeah that is definitely really cool. Thanks for sharing!

[darthkur]

I can find the page that describes it but not any sort of download link. How about a direct link to the DL?

[Artlover]

Yeah, this is kool.

 

I was starting to get worried at first because alot of what I was reading was talking about having your DC internet connected and uploading VMU saves through a DC browser, but after some poking around I found they have information on using the Coders-Cable for doing it. I have a Coders-Cable, I don't have dial-up access.

 

Speaking of internet, in lieu of not having a BBA on any of my DC's, I've got to research using a PC modem as a bridge to said PC's ethernet card. I'm sure it's possible.

[warmachine]

Yeah, this is kool.

 

I was starting to get worried at first because alot of what I was reading was talking about having your DC internet connected and uploading VMU saves through a DC browser, but after some poking around I found they have information on using the Coders-Cable for doing it. I have a Coders-Cable, I don't have dial-up access.

 

Speaking of internet, in lieu of not having a BBA on any of my DC's, I've got to research using a PC modem as a bridge to said PC's ethernet card. I'm sure it's possible.

 

Here you go.

 

http://www.maturion.de/dreamcast/mterlouw/

[shadow460]

I use a program called Dream Explorer for managing my VMUs. All of them have the extra 40 blocks open already.

[2600Lives]

Yeah, Dream Explorer is the meat of the disc image, but it has other things on there as well.

[Artlover]

Here you go.

 

http://www.maturion.de/dreamcast/mterlouw/

Sweet. That saved me a lot of time.

 

Thank you sir.

 

Now to find my modem and reinstall it.

Edited March 27, 2009 by Artlover

[16-bit]

WOW, nice find!

 

Will definitely be checking this out.

[shadow460]

Yeah, Dream Explorer is the meat of the disc image, but it has other things on there as well.

 

I think mine has the other stuff on it, too. I think it's got game saves and it's got some really cheesy redbook audio on it. My wife noticed one of the background images and asked about it. Too bad, that happened to be the default one, and I ususally delete the Dream Explorer config file when I am done with it. I wind up using the DC's own file manager for working with the VMU's, though, since at some point I got some files that I could not work with somehow. I dunno if Dream Explorer had anything to do with it or not.

 

Still, it's good to have the 40 something extra blocks open, however, there are a very few games that will not recognize your VMU that way.

[Shannon]

Wow.. looks real handy. I've been meaning to drag out my dreamcast sometime and go thru my games again.

[STICH666]

Yeah, this is kool.

 

I was starting to get worried at first because alot of what I was reading was talking about having your DC internet connected and uploading VMU saves through a DC browser, but after some poking around I found they have information on using the Coders-Cable for doing it. I have a Coders-Cable, I don't have dial-up access.

 

Speaking of internet, in lieu of not having a BBA on any of my DC's, I've got to research using a PC modem as a bridge to said PC's ethernet card. I'm sure it's possible.

Yes it's possible, but it's a pain in the ass.

[Artlover]

Yeah, this is kool.

 

Speaking of internet, in lieu of not having a BBA on any of my DC's, I've got to research using a PC modem as a bridge to said PC's ethernet card. I'm sure it's possible.

Yes it's possible, but it's a pain in the ass.

I dunno. Seems like it's a snap.

 

It's even easier for me because I have a 2 port phone line simulator. So I can forego several pages of those instructions related to doing it.

 

So far the biggest pain in the ass has been trying to find my telephone patch cables and modem. Found my cables, but still can't find my 56k internal. I did find two of my external 28.8k tho, so I guess I'll be using one of them.

 

Soon I'll be browsing Xbox-Scene on the DC @ 28.8!

Edited March 27, 2009 by Artlover

[Artlover]

Weeeee!!!!!!

 

I'm on my Dreamcast at a blazing 28.8k.

 

Damn good thing I have a DC keyboard!

 

Boy, this site is not set up well towards being compatable with a DC broswer!

 

I wonder what the browser reports as in Al's logs?

 

Oh well, enough of this. 28.8k reeks!

[jboypacman]

pretty neat thanks for posting this.

[vrocko]

Wow! That's really cool. I've been getting back into my DC and this is really a great program!

[Video]

I've used the DC internet to get on AA a lot, and trust me,Atari Age is one of the few sites that is friendly enough with a low res out dated browser to actually get on.

 

Of course, there was some other DC explorer thing, but I've honestly never used it, and yeah, the keybaord is a must if your oging to get on at all.

 

Awesomesoftware thing, BTW, but Id be a bit weary of useing it as it's got to be doing something to the memory format or something, I rarely play the thing, but I do like haveing all my old files soＩ　can jump in wherever I want to. That just sounds like a problem waiting to happen.

[Artlover]

Awesomesoftware thing, BTW, but Id be a bit weary of useing it as it's got to be doing something to the memory format or something, I rarely play the thing, but I do like haveing all my old files soＩ　can jump in wherever I want to. That just sounds like a problem waiting to happen.

I dunno.

 

It's nice being able to unlock an extra 44 blocks. And maybe it will help those people who claim to have problems with HalfLife running out of VMU memory.

 

Only thing that kinda freaked me out was the defrag. It almost seems to be moving the files off to the DC and back again. I could see that going wrong. Doesn't seem to make any difference either, which is no surprise.

 

Yeah the extra 44 blocks is about the only thing I ended up caring about out of it all. The VMU emulator is kinda kool too, but it's rather buggy. But when you don't have batteries in the things, it's the only way to play them.

 

Speaking of the extra 44 blocks. Does anyone know of a chart that lists which games are not compatable with that VMU layout?

[2600Lives]

One cool thing you can also do is change the background picture of the actual DC bios! I have a biohazard symbol for mine, now.

[Cynn]

Weeeee!!!!!!

 

I'm on my Dreamcast at a blazing 28.8k.

 

Damn good thing I have a DC keyboard!

 

Boy, this site is not set up well towards being compatable with a DC broswer!

 

I wonder what the browser reports as in Al's logs?

 

Oh well, enough of this. 28.8k reeks!

 

Why only 28.8? The Dreamcast was 56.6 unless you were lucky enough to have the BBA.

[Artlover]

Why only 28.8?

As explained in previous messages in this thread: I don't have dial-up access, I have broadband, and am dialing into my PC to use as a bridge, which only has a 28.8 modem because I can't find my 56k.

[Artlover]

Ok, let me ask this...

 

How the heck can you extract working files off a DC CDI file or burned CD?

 

I'm trying to pull the VMU games off this to copy over to the xbox for it's VMU emulator.

 

PC reads everything as being 7.8k and is reading the same 7.8k worth of data from somewhere else on the disc/image that is unassociated with the fies. Pain in the butt. Wasted several hours today working on it. Don't seem to recall having problems doing this kind of crap 10 years ago when I used to rip the music & movies out of images.

 

Grrrrrr.

[warmachine]

Have you tried isobuster?

[Artlover]

Have you tried isobuster?

Yes. It doesn't directly read the contents of .cdi files however and only shows an empty track 01.

 

Anywho, never mind. It ended up just being a tag-team of using several apps at once. Namely, Alcohol to mount the image, then IsoBuster on the virtual drive to extract the contents.