My nesterdc won't go past first screen, can anyone help!?

misterdark · Post by **misterdark** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 5:40 am

Hello. Just last night I was able to burn my first emulator for the DC ever, which was the dreamsnes. I was only able to do this after spending a lot of time specifically following the tutorial about installing it on one disc with the selfboot inducer, etc. I don't know what I even did, but following the instructions worked, and I was giddy with happiness.

But now I'm trying the same thing. There's a tutorial there as well that talks about a self-booting nesterdc, and in it, the instructions are basically things like making Nesterdc and Selfboot directories in my C drive, extracting the bin files, and stuff like that.

Again, I followed as much as I could, and my DC does start with the game, but it will not go past (or is frozen on) the first screen that says "Selected controllers" and tells me to press various buttons to mess with the "virtual index". I don't know what this means or what's wrong.

I think I burned the disc stuck this way, and I made 3 other coasters. I'm running low, can anyone help? You'll have to be kind of patient and guide me a little since I only got this far from specific instructions, but I'll try to tell you what I did as best as I can. One thing I do wanna mention is that the tut offered me some downloads, but they were links to moved sites and whatnot so maybe my downloads weren't exactly right? Also, I created a discjuggler image and burned it using Alcohol 120.

Please, if anyone can help me with this I'd love to listen and appreciate any advice. Thank you!!

Smurph · Post by **Smurph** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:10 am

I tend to just use DCFactory for emulators. It works perfectly most of the time. Even though I know how to selfboot manually, I find it much easier to use it. When an emulator isn't supported by it, the scripts are really easy to write, as they're in VB. If you want any of the ones I've modded/wrote (mostly modded for other emulators), I'll link you when I get home from school. So far these are the ones I've written/modded.
- Modded NesterDC script to support v7.1
- Modded DreamMSX script for fMSX-DC with added features (or did I write that one? don't remember.)
- Modded DCGen script for a certain Genesis emulator which will remain nameless (games don't work, though.

)

I'll get around to others eventually.

misterdark · Post by **misterdark** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:36 pm

But isn't Nesterdc an emulator? I mean, just like dreamsnes, it should boot up in my system along with all the roms that I put in it before the burn, right? I'm not sure that I understood your reply. But as I said, I'm new to some of this stuff, so I'm sure what to do next. Still need help!

Smurph · Post by **Smurph** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 5:16 am

What version of NesterDC are you using?

Sir Savant · Post by **Sir Savant** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 9:20 am

Misterdark, perhaps you should just try burning it like a regular data cd. Just get all the files and put the on a cd. Then burn a copy of dchakker or Demomenu and load up the 1st_read.bin on the nester cd you just burnt. If it wont load, maybe its cause the 1st_read is scrambled. Then you have to retry, but this time click config in dchakker or y/x? in demomenu. It might be the other way around.

You can try sbi's. It would be a lot easier to do that.

Hope I helped.

soogazzi · Post by **soogazzi** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:11 am

I got a great liknk in the other thread for a nesterdc emulator package. The link is http://dcemulation.org/files/emulators/NesterDC.exe (I don't know how to actually make it a link). Christuserloeser was the kind fellow who informed me of this little gem. It worked great, I was playing NES in 10 minutes. It has a REALLY easy to follow tutorial. I made the discjuggler image and burned it with alchohol 120%. Hope this helps!

soogazzi · Post by **soogazzi** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:12 am

Oh, I guess it makes the link for you, the things you can learn on this forum...

misterdark · Post by **misterdark** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 3:00 am

ARRGH! I wanna rip my hair out in frustration!!!!

Thanks, I do appreciate the link. But that's the problem: This is the same tutorial I followed that gave me the unusable frozen Nesterdc in the first place!! In fact, just to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong, I followed this same tut today, following a different link, and the exact same thing happened!!! WTF????

Sorry, I know you're trying to help. But that's what's driving me nuts! Surely this worked for you, it's very frustrating to sit here and not know what went wrong with my own burn. I too am using alcohol 120, I burn it at 4X speed with underrun enabled, and DAO/SAO. I can't think of any other details that would keep screwing me up. It's so frustrating to know that it's possible to get this thing to work but I can't!! (weeps).

I don't know now what I should do. Do I burn several versions of Nesterdc on the disc, PLUS my Roms, or what? I can't seem to even find a version 6 of Nesterdc so I don't know what to do. Thanks for the help guys, but does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Please ask specific questions if you can, and then maybe you'll know more than I do about what I'm doing.

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 3:06 am

Try Selfboot Inducer. It's the easiest way to burn just about anything. Read the tutorial at DCHelp. NES Roms go in C:\Sbinducr\Inducer\Nes. Everything else should be covered in the tutorial.

misterdark · Post by **misterdark** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:07 am

I'm actually reading it now, another good helper pointed me to it. I guess I'm having trouble understanding some stuff. Is Nesterdc (version 6 I'm trying for) in itsself, an SBI? Because if it is, I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing here. I mean, there's so much conflicting info, like when I saw a super-short tutorial on this site by Dr Zoidberg, it linked to stuff that wasn't working.

I'm so overwhelmed. I hate being a whiner that just asks for someone to tell me specifically what to do, but it's getting to that point. These tutorials help, but it's like I hear the words and follow the instructions but I don't understand the language. I tried the tutorial you pointed me to , one thirty, but I get sort of lost. I mean, what do I unzip? When do I close a program? Will this be easier if I use a Utopia Boot disc and if so, where do I get one? etc.

Thanks for the help guys, don't think I don't appreciate it (I GREATLY do). But I just don't understand why I'm having these problems. I got the dreamsnes to work, but apparently without a working game list so my DC grinds around on the menu. So I figured I'd try nesterdc in the meantime, which so many people say is easy, and I trust that it is. But I think I just don't understand some of this stuff and get hung up on lots of little specific questions. I'm not sure what to do next (but again, thank you all).

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:24 am

With Selfboot Inducer, think along the lines of "I don't have to unzip anything." That's not true, but just think that way for now.

Download Sbindv4.exe from http://www.sbiffy.com and install it to your computer. It's a simple install program, so double-clicking and clicking "OK" a couple of times should do it.

Now, go back to http://www.sbiffy.com and download the NesterDC sbi file. Save it to C:\Sbinducr\Sbi. Make sure that the file name ends with .sbi and not .zip, because Internet Explorer likes to do that for some reason. If it says something.zip, just change it to something.sbi.

Now, run the program. Select your SBI in the menu on the right, and select a menu type on the bottom left, and then click the barcode icon. Watch the DOS window until it says "Completed" or words to that effect.

Now, here's the part where you'll realize I lied to you. You actually do need to unzip your ROMS for most emulators, including NesterDC. Unzip them, and for NesterDC you will want to copy+paste them to C:\Sbinducr\Inducer\Nes.

Now, just click on of the 'image creation' buttons. I personally use the very last one, which looks like a CD case. That one takes a little bit of explaining, which if covered in the DCHelp tutorial. The other image types (cdi or nrg) are fairly self-explanatory. Burn the cdi image with DiscJuggler or Alcohol 120%, or burn the nrg image with Nero.

I hope that helps some. I've been up for too many hours, so I'm probably not describing things as well as I normally do but that should give you a basic idea of what to do.

misterdark · Post by **misterdark** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:31 am

I will immediately attempt this, and thank you for bothering to help. If you can, please stick around a little longer because I'm desperate to try to "get" this stuff and am definitely going to try right now.

Thank you.

misterdark · Post by **misterdark** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:35 am

In fact, lemme tell you exactly what I'm working with as we speak:

sbinducer 4 on my C: drive, which contains inducer, sbi, tools, and sbinducerexe. From sbiffy.

Inside sbi folder is Inducer folder, sbi.reg, nester dc zelda bo (theme? Got from sbiffy) and lastly the Nesterdc 6.0 NTSC.sbi. It's only sbi because this file, also from sbiffy, came zipped and I just renamed it sbi after downloading it to this folder. Am I totally correct so far?

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:55 am

That looks right. Open up your C:\Sbinducr folder and run sbinducr.exe. If NesterDC shows up in the menu on the right, you should be in good shape.

misterdark · Post by **misterdark** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:00 am

Okay yes, it said that it would eliminate the directory or something, but I went with it, said okay, and now have the extraction complete dos message. Now, I have all my nes roms saved on a RW disc (for PC use) so in order to retrieve them I've been putting in the disc and dragging the files into the sbinducer. Is this correct, and is there anything I should know or a different place for them? Also, should I do a check with you to make sure that all other necessary files are here?

Thanks again!

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:08 am

The sbi file from sbiffy should have put all of the other files you need into the Inducer folder, so you should be OK there. I would put the nes roms in C:\Sbinducr\Inducer\Nes, but NesterDC will let you look for them anywhere on the disc so you can organize them into different folders if you want to. Just make sure that it's somewhere inside the C:\Sbinducr\Inducer folder, because that folder will become your CD.

misterdark · Post by **misterdark** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:12 am

Okay, then my Inducer folder contains Images (one shot), Nes, pics (about half a dozen Nesterdc images) and a 1st read bin and IP bin. See, this is what kind of stuff I meant earlier: In tutorials, they tell me where to put these and stuff like that, but I don't know what they even are or if I ever have the right version!

Anyway, I will now drag the nes roms from my CDr and place them in the Nes folder. It sounds rudimentary, which it is, but since I did this like three times and made coasters, I'm trying to find the misstep.

Let me know what's next, if you can. Thanks!

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:26 am

All of that stuff sounds right. IP.BIN is basically going to be the bootsector of your CD. 1ST_READ.BIN is the program pointed to by the IP.BIN, and as the name implies it is the first program that will load up. If you selected the "Sbi2boot" option in SBInducr, then it's NesterDC. If you selected "Single Menu" or "Multi-Menu," then it is DreamInducer. 'Images' should contain screenshots for DreamInducer, and 'pics' should be the menus for NesterDC. (That's a basic rundown of what's what.)

Once your ROM files are in the Nes folder, you'll need to create a disc image. If you have DiscJuggler or Alcohol 120%, then click the green 'snake' button. If you have Nero 5.x and a reasonably new burner, then click the first 'fire' button. If you have Nero 6 or a burner that won't burn in DAO mode (that means basically the first Nero button results in a coaster), then click the second 'fire' button. Those buttons are the easiest. Once the DOS window says "Completed" or words to that effect, then you should be able to double-click on the image file to open your burning program and burn your disc.

If you don't have any of the programs I mentioned above and don't feel like downloading them, the you can try the built-in CDRecord functionality. It's not that hard, but if you don't have a valid ASPI layer, then you'll need to install one.

misterdark · Post by **misterdark** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:34 am

Okay, thanks again, especially for that description of that bin stuff. I'll have to find out more later.

First though, I DID tell the inducer menu to do all this in that sbi2boot fashion. before I go on, is that wrong? Because you mentioned dream inducer giving a menu of some kind, and that MAY be my problem (remember, my previous attempts gave me a coaster that had NO menu, just a controller setup screen).

If all is well, and I will be using Alcohol, then just click the green snake and then when DOS says finished, DO NOT open Alcohol seperately but instead set it up by double clicking something here in my inducer file?

OneThirty8 · Post by **OneThirty8** » Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:42 am

No, you'll be fine. DreamInducer is a menu so that you can put a whole bunch of stuff on one disc - you could put a bunch of emulators, and a bunch of homebrew games, and a bunch of multimedia programs all on the same disc if you wanted to. NesterDC will have its own menus so you can select your ROMS and stuff. You didn't do anything wrong.

With Alcohol 120%, you probably have to open that program seperately and then open your image file. I wish I had more experience with that program, but it didn't work right with my old CD burner. That's about the only part where I can't offer a lot of one-on-one help. Here's the DCHelp tutorial for Alcohol 120%. It looks easy. Basically, it says there's an Image Burning Wizard, and you just use the default settings.