Dreamcast ripping guide

@Dreamcast

Published in

Dreamcast

· 29 May 2021

Release date: February 19th, 2001
Platform: Sega Dreamcast
Filename: dcis-tut.001
Format: RAR/1 File

Introduction :

Waz up folkz? Well after spending some time, to figure out how to boot up your own ripped games, and after some people asked me how to do that, I ve decided to write a short tutorial.Well i don t belong to any of those groups you can find in the dc scene.The reason doing this, is that I only want to show that it s not all to difficult to do that. I ve tried this method only on few games, and this method works also for some people. By this way special greetings to sveny and ^ErAzOr^. Thanx guys being testers. Before i start a very special thanx is going out to murphy. He is the one that brought me to this way. THANX A LOT!!! I hope you re gonna code that nice tool ;)

Well okay, lets begin. First of all you need some stuff. Here is a small checklist:

you need a hexeditor
you need the ECHELON selfbooting tutorial (check out to get the version with audio.raw, binhack.exe and ipins.exe)
you need GD Rippng Toolkit
serial upload slave disc
a original GDRom

Now you got all the things you need. First of all, we have to rip the GDRom. To do this, you need a DC<->PC cable.It s not all to hard to find some shops selling them.You can also build one by yourself. Look for plans on several DCDev sites.

Now you have hooked up your DC to your PC. The next step, is that the DC communicates with your PC. For this you have to use the serial upload slave, and Terra Terminal. You can find a Disc Juggler image of it in the rar file. Terra Terminal is in the directory "Pc-Software" after you install GD Toolkit.

Ripping the data :

Connect your DC on com 1 or 2 with the cable
Start TerraTerm, select the right com port and put the serial upload disc inside the DC
Turn on your DC and wait, until the borders around the Sega logo turn into red. When you see the red border serial upload is active
Then go to SETUP--->TERMINAL, and change Transmit from CR to CR+LF
Then go to SETUP--->SERIAL PORT and set baud rate to 57600 and flow control to hardware. Now hit enter and you should see a >
Select FILE--->SEND FILE and choose the dreamrip.srec file from the Dreamrip directory. Now the file is being transferred and you should see a lot of >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>. When it stops, you see "please set 115k and hit o k" Replace the serial upload disc with the original GDRom.
Select CONTROL--->MACRO and choose the dcrip.ttl file from the DreamRip directory.Then select SETUP--->SERIAL PORT and set the baud rate to 115200. Then hit the letter o then k on your keyboard.Now a window pops up and you see the data being transferred into your TerraTerm directory.Checkout to have enough free space on your HD. The process takes up to 24 hours, so go and play with your girlfriend :)

Make the games run :

Now you have ripped the whole data from the GDRom. As you see, some games are very big, and don t fit on normal cd or even a 80 minutes blank.To fit the data you have to downsample some files. You can find some tutorials on different DC sites. Keep your eyes open. Now you have fit the data, and you want to burn it. Ok, now we need Cdrecord. Now you have to burn the first session of the game. To do this take a look at the Echelon selfboot tutorial.
Now you have burned the first session with the LBA 0,11702. Note down this number.
Now it s time for the part to hack the 1st_read.bin.
You have to do this, because Binhack doesn't modifies the 1st_read complete.This is the reason that the people can t get their games to work.

Open the 1st_read.bin with the hexeditor. You know that the original GDRom starts from the LBA 45000. But some people forget that. You need space for the ip.bin in the 1st_read.bin. Because of this we have now the LBA 45150.
You got now the correct LBA. Transform the value into a hex value. The right value is B05E. (45150=B05E) But be careful. The value is byte-swapped, and you have to read it 5EB0.
Ok now lets search for that hex value in the 1st_read.bin.

Note down all offsets you find. There are always 2 offsets.
One offset for 5E, the other B0. Write both down, and continue your search with F3. Maybe you will have over 50 hits or even more, maybe you have only 4 or 5 hits.
It s from game to game different.

To find the right one, isn t all too difficult.You always have to change two offsets. That means, when you have 5 hits, you have to modify 2 of them. The right ones are always near to each other. Here is a example I do with the 1st_read.bin of DY.A.I.E C.P:

234fe
234ff

9a11c
9a11d

b3744 <---
b3745 <---

b3b14 <---
b3b15 <---

c28o8
c2809

Now you see those 4 offsets: b3744+b3745 and b3b14+b3b15. Remember 2 offsets are one value (b3744=5E) (b3745=B0) (5E+B0). Okay now you only have to change these 4 offsets into 5E=96, B0=00.Right then save the file. Now you have the modified 1st_read.bin. Now run Bihack on the 1st_read.bin. After that put ip.bin + 1st_read.bin into the folder where your game data is stored, and make a iso. Take a look at the Echelon tutorial how to do that. You got now a fixed data.iso. Run Ipins and patch the iso with the ip.bin file from the data folder. Then burn the last session. You know....take a look at the Echelon tutorial :)
Well when you do it correctly, your game must boot up now. This works very well with and without CDDA.

Note :

Ok, I ve tried only few games with this method, and i got them all to work.Some people told me that it works for them well too.Feel free to add things to this tutorial, if i forget something, or if you outhere got a better method.

IMPORTANT :
don't distribute ripped data. follow copyright law in your coun "personal use" only. "personal use" means yourself, your family,

I know "mei english is not very good, my german is better". LODDAR i luv ya. So thats all from my side.
Cu folkz.

vETi^dC for dcisos.de

Greetingz :

-drastic- -dc shadow- -boob- -utopia- -dracula- -einstein- -jules- -marcus- -dcdev- -kamka- -bero- -mondkalb- -darkjoker- -sickboy- -and all the others-

special greetingz going to my mate -murphy-
thanx for the help