GDEMU Help for a complete N00b! (Please)!

[peaman]

Hello Fellow Dreamcast fans,

I am really hoping that you can help me understand where I am going wrong with my new GDEMU. I have next to know technical understanding of computers or programming or anything of that nature and when I've tried searching for help, a lot of the others posts may as well be in another language! I'm not a technical person, just a guy who loves the nostalgia of playing Dreamcast!

If you are able to help me, I would very much appreciate it.

I have recently purchased a GDEMU modded dreamcast off eBay. This came with an already formatted SD card with 29 games loaded. I have tested a few of these and they work just fine.

I am now trying to load my own games onto the SD card but I am encountering a number of problems/confusions.

Firstly, the website I have found to download files from is cdromance.org who seem to have a good library. They have options to download in cdi and gdi format (beyond these being slightly different endings to file names, I have little understanding of what that means!).

In their 'FAQ' section on 'What format of Dreamcast game should i download? The CDI or GDI?' they specifically state to download 'GDI' if 'you own a Dreamcast that was modded with an ODE (Optical Disc Emulator) such as GDEMU.'. That seems like the option I should choose but, when I look at the files already listed on my SD card they are all in a cdi format!?

First question - which one do I therefore download? CDI or GDI?

I have already tried to download both and attempted to add them to the SD card. I have done this by adding a new folder with the next number (30 in my case) and then adding the .cdi and .gdi file to that folder (one at a time, not both together). I have then ejected the SD, put it back into my Dreamcast and....nothing...there are no additional games on the GDEMU menu disk.

What am I doing wrong here?

One final piece of information that may be relevant, because one of my other interests is music, I am on a Mac and not on a windows PC although, I can get access to one if that is a problem.

If anyone has read this wall of text and is willing to help, I would be really appreciative. Please do explain to me like I'm 5!

Thank you in advance

[redjeff76]

the GDEMU can use either .cdi files or .gdi files without issue. Your best bet is .gdi files because they are higher quality in every which way and meant for the GDEMU. But some games like Independently released games and homebrew games only come in .cdi. I personally only use .cdi if I have no other choice. .cdi files were meant to be burnt to CD-R discs. But OEM Dreamcast games are naturally larger than a cd. So the people who made the rom's usually needed to remove things that are sometimes very pertinent to the gameplay or story or playability ultimately to make the game fit on a CD-R disc. That is another reason .GDI's are ideal, because for sure nothing has been removed. They are exact 1 for 1 duplicate's of original Dreamcast games (barring Indy and homebrew games as mentioned above)

As far as adding and removing games from your GDEMU sd card you should be using a program called CARD MANAGER made by user named SONIK. But in your case you need a MAC version of it and I don't know where to find that version. I would DM Sonik on this forum and he can likely hook you up. Card Manager makes adding and removing games super easy and makes the way you are currently doing it obsolete. The standard is Card Manager and you need and want that program. If you can't reach Sonik try maybe RazorX, he may know how to acquire a MAC version of the program. Working on a MAC is very likely why you have thus far failed to add or remove games as well as your SD card was likely originally created on a Windows PC.

[ESSOMENIC]

This is the tutorial I used, but is PC not Mac

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjUgXkdiVq4

Hope it helps!

[peaman]

the GDEMU can use either .cdi files or .gdi files without issue. Your best bet is .gdi files because they are higher quality in every which way and meant for the GDEMU. But some games like Independently released games and homebrew games only come in .cdi. I personally only use .cdi if I have no other choice. .cdi files were meant to be burnt to CD-R discs. But OEM Dreamcast games are naturally larger than a cd. So the people who made the rom's usually needed to remove things that are sometimes very pertinent to the gameplay or story or playability ultimately to make the game fit on a CD-R disc. That is another reason .GDI's are ideal, because for sure nothing has been removed. They are exact 1 for 1 duplicate's of original Dreamcast games (barring Indy and homebrew games as mentioned above)

As far as adding and removing games from your GDEMU sd card you should be using a program called CARD MANAGER made by user named SONIK. But in your case you need a MAC version of it and I don't know where to find that version. I would DM Sonik on this forum and he can likely hook you up. Card Manager makes adding and removing games super easy and makes the way you are currently doing it obsolete. The standard is Card Manager and you need and want that program. If you can't reach Sonik try maybe RazorX, he may know how to acquire a MAC version of the program. Working on a MAC is very likely why you have thus far failed to add or remove games as well as your SD card was likely originally created on a Windows PC.

Thanks for your help!

Does the SD card need to be formatted a certain way to accept GDI or CDI or can the SD card accept both at the same time?

I will look for the card manager program and do what you suggest, although I imagine I will need to go via Windows for it.

Thanks very much for your help

[redjeff76]

The sd card just needs to be formatted as a Fat32 card and it can use .cdi and .gdi files (at the same time)

CARD MANAGER [not theme manager]. Note the program is called CARD MANAGER it is in one of the folders in this suite of programs ---> https://mega.nz/file/EH0TWRKD#DUYfXzeZi ... MWM3XmCDc8

**This is the Windows version**

[peaman]

This is the tutorial I used, but is PC not Mac

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjUgXkdiVq4

Hope it helps!

Thank you, with a combined effort I've made it work. thanks for your help

[peaman]

The sd card just needs to be formatted as a Fat32 card and it can use .cdi and .gdi files (at the same time)

CARD MANAGER [not theme manager]. Note the program is called CARD MANAGER it is in one of the folders in this suite of programs ---> https://mega.nz/file/EH0TWRKD#DUYfXzeZi ... MWM3XmCDc8

**This is the Windows version**

Thank you. I found the Mac version (there is one). Used the card manager instead and it has worked first time. Thank you very much for your help!