Testing Homebrew on a Real Dreamcast

[BongDC]

Thank you, but i rather go "serial". Can i use any pc serial cable or is the coders cable the only one that works?

Sincerely,

BongDC

[anothrguitarist]

AFAIK, a pc serial cable, by itself, won't work.

[OneThirty8]

Just the coder's cable. I'm not sure where to buy one since lik-sang closed up shop, but there are instructions to build your own at http://mc.pp.se/dc/serifc.html if you're inclined to go that route. You can also use a BBA, but they tend to be pretty pricey on eBay.

[emptythought]

I use BootDreams to create the CD Image and burn it. As far as i know CD-R's are "closed" once they are written to and once "closed" they can't be written to again. CD-RW's can be reopened to write on them again, but the Dreamcast can't read CD-RW's. Am i missing something?

Sincerely,

BongDC

Use BootDreams to create a DemoMenu CD and burn it. This CD will be closed like you said, and no further data can be written to it.

When you have a program that you are working on and want to test it, don't use BootDreams. Open up a regular CD burning program such as Nero or some other general-purpose CD-burning software. In Nero, there is a checkbox in the Write CD dialog that says something along the lines of "Start Multisession CD." There's also a way to continue a multisession CD. Other programs should have some similar options. This works just fine with CD-R, and this is what you want to use in order to save CDs. Every time you burn a new session with a newer version of a file, your Dreamcast should recognize the new file. The old version will take up space on the disc, so you will eventually need to throw that CD away and start a new one, but you should be able to use the same CD for many, many tests.

BootDreams burns multisessions discs too; CDRecord GUI then Multisession should be selected in the drop-down menu.