Mac/OSX Info Hub: Start Here

This forum is for discussion pertaining to homebrew and indie software for the Dreamcast, such as homebrew games, emulators/interpreters, and other homebrew software/applications. Porting requests and developmental ideas are not to be made here; you can make those here. If you need any help burning discs for homebrew software, this is the place to ask as well.
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Mac/OSX Info Hub: Start Here

Post by I.M. Weasel »

Here are a few links to tutorials and programs for burning Dreamcast discs via your Mac.

Programs & Tutorials
http://dcemulation.org/?title=Mac_Tools


Burning ISOs/CDIs created by Isofix or Mac Dream Tool
Instructions for Burning CD's using Toast Titanium 5.1.x wrote:To find the Multi-Track CD-ROM XA option do this:

Hold down Options , Click on "Multitrac CDROM XA".
Instructions for Burning CD's using Toast 6 wrote:To find the Multi-Track CD-ROM XA option do this:

Click on "Copy" which is located at the top (It lists Data, Audio, Video, and then Copy), and then "Advanced" on the left, and then just click the bubble next to Multi-Track CD-ROM XA.

Go up into the "Recorder" menu, then choose "Recorder Settings...", then choose "Advanced", and make sure to UN-CHECK "Close Disc"
Instructions for Burning CD's using Toast Titanium 7.x wrote:To find the Multi-Track CD-ROM XA option do this:

Enable "Show legacy formats and settings" in the preferences.
Instructions for Burning CD's using Toast 9/10 wrote: To find the Multi-Track CD-ROM XA option do this:

Enable "Show legacy formats and settings" in the preferences.
Click on "Copy" which is located at the top left.

Other Tutorials

All the previously linked tutorials were unreachable, post any good tutorials links you have to this thread or PM me!

Last Update: 11/14/13
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by DaMadFiddler »

Just thought I'd give a quick Mac update, since this is now many, many years out of date:

1. THE GOOD: For the most part, the easiest way to burn games on a Mac appears to be using LiquidCD. The latest version of LiquidCD burns perfectly good, playable discs from DiscJuggler images (.CDI), with one notable exception: the "filled" images (ones packed with dummy data to "fill" the disc and thus push the data to the outer parts of the disc) don't work. But any Dreamcast .CDI image that is its natural size, and not in excess of 700MB, seems to burn just fine. No more CDI conversions for Mac users!

2. THE BAD: Pretty much every Mac-specific Dreamcast tool is now not only out of date, but non-functional. I was quite disappointed to load up Mac Dream Tool (for the first time in several years) just to get the following message:

Image

Back in the heyday of DC homebrew, Macs were PowerPC-based. They started switching to x86 in 2006, but maintained software compatibility through a wrapper built into the OS. However, that was removed in the move from Leopard to Snow Leopard, and now with Lion, support for PowerPC apps is long gone.

Cumulatively, what this means is: it is now just as easy for Mac users to burn pre-existing .cdi images as it is for Windows users. On the other hand, Mac users are completely screwed if they want to burn something that is *not* available in .cdi format, as all the old image building and conversion tools are not compatible with modern OSX.

I don't suppose there's any chance of an update to Mac Dream Tool...?
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by Christuserloeser »

I.M. Weasel has been online just a few days ago - maybe you could PM him and see if he's interested in updating his tools?
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by |darc| »

DaMadFiddler wrote:Cumulatively, what this means is: it is now just as easy for Mac users to burn pre-existing .cdi images as it is for Windows users. On the other hand, Mac users are completely screwed if they want to burn something that is *not* available in .cdi format, as all the old image building and conversion tools are not compatible with modern OSX.
That's not really true, all you need is cdrecord, mkisofs, scramble and ipins.

cdrecord and mkisofs are part of dvdrtools and are originally designed for *nix, that's completely open source. You can download the code and build it manually, or just install MacPorts and type "port install dvdrtools" and it will automatically install it.

Source code for scramble is here and it can be easily built on *nix.

ipins isn't necessary on OS X as you can use a simple command with dd to inject the bootsector into the first 32K of the ISO file (dd if=IP.BIN of=track.iso bs=512 count=64 should do the trick).


That having been said, it would be really nice if Weasel could recompile his tools for Intel. I have also given some consideration to programming some OS X tools for DC myself, but I am still a pretty elementary level programmer.
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by DaMadFiddler »

Well, I sent him a PM, and cross-posted my above post to the Mac/Linux/BSD forum. Hopefully one or the other of those will catch his attention. I was a beta tester for the last couple of versions, so I may even still have his email address somewhere... but I'll have to go digging for it.
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by pixel »

|darc| wrote:
DaMadFiddler wrote:Cumulatively, what this means is: it is now just as easy for Mac users to burn pre-existing .cdi images as it is for Windows users. On the other hand, Mac users are completely screwed if they want to burn something that is *not* available in .cdi format, as all the old image building and conversion tools are not compatible with modern OSX.
That's not really true, all you need is cdrecord, mkisofs, scramble and ipins.

cdrecord and mkisofs are part of dvdrtools and are originally designed for *nix, that's completely open source. You can download the code and build it manually, or just install MacPorts and type "port install dvdrtools" and it will automatically install it.
That's all I ever did when I used OS X for DC discs. Back in the day, I didn't need MacPorts either, all of the binaries were available natively. This might some horribly ignorant for a Mac mod to say, but has this changed? There aren't binaries that we could host for Intel-based Macs?

I would hope there would be some method of porting the old Cocoa applications to something Intel-friendly.
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by |darc| »

pixel wrote:That's all I ever did when I used OS X for DC discs. Back in the day, I didn't need MacPorts either, all of the binaries were available natively. This might some horribly ignorant for a Mac mod to say, but has this changed? There aren't binaries that we could host for Intel-based Macs?

I would hope there would be some method of porting the old Cocoa applications to something Intel-friendly.
MacPorts does download binaries, you could just copy them and zip them up and host them and anyone could download them and run them. But MacPorts is really good to have and is pretty effortless anyway.

As far as porting the old Cocoa applications like Mac Dream Tool, it should be just a matter of recompiling the applications for Intel instead of PowerPC. It shouldn't take much effort at all. We just need the source code, if I.M. Weasel still has it.
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by DaMadFiddler »

Okay, slight update.

Discs burned with Liquid CD that have 2 data tracks work fine. Audio/data disc images aren't booting... though I'm not yet sure whether that's the program or this Dreamcast. I don't have any known-good burned discs to test with.
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by shdwghst457 »

I'm so glad that this thread is alive! It's about time for a DC revival.
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by I.M. Weasel »

I swear I posted in this thread too... anyway, check the mac forum for my response.
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by roadking02 »

Just tried burning Utopia Boot CD with Liquid CD and haven't had any good results... Could be the type of CD-R I'm using which is made by imation... however if that's not the case, maybe this could help narrow it down...

My Dreamcast...
Model #: HKT-3020
Manufactured: April, 2000
Number 1 in a circle
670-14081G
SD - Made in Japan
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by I.M. Weasel »

Imation cds will work just fine. Only certain model #'s of dreamcasts will play burnt cds, youll have to search the net to see which models will. I cant remember off the top of my head and I cant find the page we used to have on here.
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by |darc| »

That DC should work just fine, have you been able to play anything off of CD-Rs at all?
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by roadking02 »

As far as playing anything from a CD-R disc, I did play a burned music cd and it loaded. Also did get a disc to load that was a .csi but it wasn't playable meaning... The bootscreen completed, audio from game disc begins but faintly and stayed at the dreamcast logo...

Update: I now have quite a few coasters due to LiquidCD claiming the disc is non-writable right after it apparently completed the burn. There is date on it which is simply a text file. End result is me moving to attempts with CDIRip and Toast. Hopefully something works... If not then I will be installing Windows on my mac mini.

Update 2: Was not able to get any burned game disc to work via CDIRip and Toast. Will try installing Windows and using DiscJuggler...
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by |darc| »

roadking02 wrote:As far as playing anything from a CD-R disc, I did play a burned music cd and it loaded. Also did get a disc to load that was a .csi but it wasn't playable meaning... The bootscreen completed, audio from game disc begins but faintly and stayed at the dreamcast logo...

Update: I now have quite a few coasters due to LiquidCD claiming the disc is non-writable right after it apparently completed the burn. There is date on it which is simply a text file. End result is me moving to attempts with CDIRip and Toast. Hopefully something works... If not then I will be installing Windows on my mac mini.

Update 2: Was not able to get any burned game disc to work via CDIRip and Toast. Will try installing Windows and using DiscJuggler...

Utopia should appear as just a text file, though (UTOPIA.TXT if i remember correctly). They used a trick to make it look like nothing was on the disc.
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Re: Mac Info Hub: Start Here

Post by roadking02 »

My dreamcast is indeed capable of playing burned .cdi images. I managed to get a version of LiquidCD that will burn cdi files correctly. The most updated version will not burn cdi files which is why I though my dreamcast was unable to play or run anything from the homebrew community. After a little bit of research I can confirm that if you're using a mac and want to burn dreamcast discs, use LiquidCD 2.04. I've successfully burned a backup version of Tony Hawks Pro Skater and have successfully burned CounterStrike DC on 80 minute CD-R's.
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