Breaking Out Sega Arcade Platforms With Demul

[demosthenes2010]

I'm trying to break out my Naomi, Naomi2, Hikaru, Atomiswave, etc... platforms not with Playlists but with Actual Arcade Platforms.

I started off using Flycast in Retroarch for Dreamcast, Naomi, and Atomiswave but when I realized that only Demul can emulate some of the other arcade hardware, I went out and retrieved that.  

Now I'm using various websites to figure out which titles were for which arcade board and I am segregating the ROMs out that way.  

My thought is that I add Demul as an emulator in Launchbox, add each arcade board as a platform, and then import each set of roms from their respective folders separately.  

Does this sound like the correct approach?

Also, a little off topic, but does anyone know if Virtual-On Force was ever even dumped for the Hikaru board?  In every "complete set" I find, that one is missing.  I'm not asking for the ROM as I know that is against the rules.  Rather, I'm curious if anyone has ever even dumped it before?  Might be my little contribution to the community who has given me so much if I can find a copy and learn how to dump it myself.  I'm up to over 12,000 games now in my collection and would like to make a small mark of my own if I can.

[Retro808]

I have them broken into unique platforms in one cabinet. Just keep in mind when using Demul you need to have 2 Launchbox emulators set up. You can point to the same Demul.exe for each one, but you need 2 different set-ups inside LB as the Arcade boards require different check boxes than Dreamcast. So you can create one called "Demul Arcade" and check the appropriates boxes and add all the platforms to the Associated Platforms tab. Then have just "Demul" and set that one up to run your Dreamcast platform. Both of these can point to the same singular demul.exe.

 

[demosthenes2010]

@Retro808 Thanks!  I'm probably just going to keep using Flycast for Dreamcast, Atomiswave, and Naomi for now.  If I run into a game I want to play that has graphical or audio issues then I guess I'll switch but for now I'm following the old, "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mindset.  I'm not a stickler for accuracy or anything so long as I can have fun with it and have technically added it to my collection.  Demul will just be used for those arcade boards I have not yet configured.

[DOS76]

@Retro808 just a heads up I believe now days if your DC games are in CHD format you don't need to do that any longer.

[Retro808]

2 hours ago, DOS76 said:

@Retro808 just a heads up I believe now days if your DC games are in CHD format you don't need to do that any longer.

Good to know. Do not think I have touched dreamcast roms in 2 years. One of those set it and forget it systems for me when it comes to the actual roms. 

[xevious1974]

I dont know if it helps, but this afternoon I was searching some informations on a game that seems not to work and  I have found this page that contain only info, I hope these are useful:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~lantra9jp1_nbn/gurudumps/naomi/index.html

the game seems dumped but I am not able to understand if it is in good condition or not.

 

[DeadVoivod]

Just checked and can see that my DC ROMs are in .chd format. I run most of the games in ReDream, and those not supported I run in Demul. For Naomi & Co. I use Flycast. Did not yet get Hikaru running in Flycast, games just won't launch. 

Virtual-On Force is in the MAME set, von.zip and it runs in MAME 220 in RetroArch, as runs Virtual-On 2, but in my case quite slow with sound issues.

Does Hikaru need some special setting in Flycast to run, or do you run them in MAME? 

You can always check ROMs in the Arcade Database: http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/default.php. 

 

Edited October 16, 2020 by DeadVoivod

[DOS76]

I don't think all the stuff that works in Demul works in Flycast I've never seen it mentioned that it even does Hikaru emulation.

@xevious1974 looking at that list some of those games marked as wanted are in Demul already so I'm going to assume it is outdated at this point.

[DeadVoivod]

Ok, Hikaru and Gaelco run fine through Demul.

[xevious1974]

3 hours ago, DeadVoivod said:

Ok, Hikaru and Gaelco run fine through Demul.

Also Atomiswave works great!
Only for some games, naomi too, I dont know how to control them...but maybe they needs some special one

[DeadVoivod]

I run Atomiswave and Naomi in Flycast. Works fine.