Questions Regarding VGA games on GDEMU

[Infomaniac95]

Hey folks!

Was wanting to get a GDEMU, and get it all setup, however, I am uncertain about something, and was wondering if anyone could give me some advice, regarding my situation.

I intend on getting a VGA cable, down the line, so I can have cleaner visuals, however, I am uncertain how to deal with games that can be forced to load into VGA.

For context, on this video here, in its description, there is a list of games that can be forced into working with VGA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zosZPMW ... e=youtu.be

Normally, one would load Code Breaker for these games, then the game they want to force into working with VGA. However, I am not exactly sure how to do this, on the GDEMU. I think I need to somehow make those select games act as two disc games, but I don't quite know how to do that.

Also of concern is where to find a good copy of Code Breaker. The copies I can find online weigh around 700mb, which is far from ideal, as having multiple copies of Code Breaker on the SD Card, just for those games, would quickly fill up my space, so having a version that only has the data needed, would be nice.

That is all I have to ask, for now. I hope my words aren't too incoherent, and that what im asking about isnt too out of the ordinary.

[streeker]

As you are actually going to use ISOs instead of original discs with your GDEMU, you can simply alter all the games that can be forced into working with VGA. There's no need for using a loader disc.

A simple way would be to extract a GDI image, set the VGA flag in the IP.BIN with IPBIN4WIN and recompile the GDI afterwards.

I'm not 100% sure that this will work on GDEMU. I use a USB-GDROM instead. But I don't see any reason, why it shouldn't work. So just give it a try. Be aware, that not ALL games can forced into VGA though. The ones, that don't work with Code Breaker won't work with this method either.

[hawkzer0]

Just use madsheep's gdemusd tool to add games to your sd card. Check the box that says vga to patch all the games for vga compatibility. Done. Also will make it so you can select games from a menu, and you would only need one image of codebreaker. Select it, then select a game to load with it. Really is a must have for gdemus!

[megavolt85]

no need to change the game image, GDMENU patches the console BIOS, the VGA flag is not checked

[Infomaniac95]

Thank you all for the responses! So from what I am gathering, just using the GDEMU itself should be fine enough, and patching the games shouldn't be needed? If so, awesome!

Two other questions, if that is fine.

What would be the best manager to use for getting games onto the SD Card? I know of three programs. SD Card Maker, Ugly GDEmu Games Manager, and then madsheep's gdemusd tool, which streeker mentioned. Which one should I use? Ugly GDEmu Games Manager seems nice, since it can shrink games, but im not 100% certain on if it is the best.

Following up the subject of shrinking games, is there a list of games where you should not shrink them? I have read somewhere that around 90% of the Dreamcast library works with shrinking. It would be a nice to know which ones don't work with the process, so I can leave those, as is.

[megavolt85]

I have read somewhere that around 90% of the Dreamcast library works with shrinking. It would be a nice to know which ones don't work with the process, so I can leave those, as is.

you do not need to compress anything, we have a wonderful selection of ready-made images, everything that GDI Shrink cannot handle was compressed by hand, also each game has a cover
https://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewto ... 22&t=13313

[Infomaniac95]

Perfect! I think this is all I need to know, then. Thank you all for the help!

[sonik]

From what i've seen, UGGM is a great tool if you want to sync your collection and the sd card.
Card Manager is handy for managing (add/remove/rename/reorder) the contents. It can also directly uncompress (zip/rar/7z) files directly to the sd card.
I personally had too many problems using madsheep's tool that I created the Card Manager app.

[Infomaniac95]

These GDEMU ready versions of these games have been perfect, thank you megavolt for pointing me in the right direction, regarding those!

Card Manager has also been the best tool i've used for putting games on the SD card, so big thanks goes to you, sonik, for creating this tool!