@SingingCoyote13 said in Is it possible to read Dreamcast/Ps2/Gamecube discs into an emulator directly via the DVD drive on Retropie/PC or need they all be dumped to a .cue/.bin/.chd/.cdi etc, and how do i dump these discs anyway ?:

i was wondering if dreamcast ps2 and gamecube discs need to be dumped to a file for use with retropie pc version, or if they can be read via the dvd/br drives in pcs directly in some of the emulators ?

As far as I know, pcsx2 can read the DVD drive directly, for reicast/dolphin, you'll need a disc image

if they need to be dumped,. i believe dreamcast discs have a different layout than normal cds, can those be dumped with a regular dvd drive ? Or is it so that if someone wants to play these in an emulator he/she has to download official dumps of these discs ? with what program and drive do i need to dump any of dreamcast/ps2/gamecube discs anyway ?

Look around for instructions on how to backup your discs, there are no 'official dumps' provided by the vendor/publisher (though they're plenty 'unofficial' ones). Here are some pointers:

Wii/Gamecube - https://dolphin-emu.org/docs/guides/ripping-games/ Dreamcast - http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=GD-Rom_Dumping_Guide

@sexbeer It only works on lr-beetle-psxwhich only works on an overclocked pi4 and pc's right now. In the future, it might be fast enough to work on a pi3b+.

@ohmycommodore From what I've tried out, systems where the resolution is the same as ES (probably 320x240) are fine, it's only when the resolution needs to switch that the problem occurs. You can definitely try it out and just send that command to clear out the frame buffer if you get stuck at any point. The one or two N64 games I tried worked really well, as well as psx games with enhanced resolution and the older systems with one or two frames of runahead.

I'd be interested in seeing how RT works with Pi4 and Lakka though. I haven't used it much as I have all my PSX games in chd and didn't really want to change them all over.

@mitu So, the universe has been enriched by one more mystery. But as far as I'm concerned, this thread is solved. 😊

@quicksilver Worked!Thanks for the help

@suikodentir Care to share how exactly? It may help others in the future.

@Thorr69 It depends on how they did it. If you use the Retropie script, you can update the Retropie portion up to 4.4 on Jessie Raspbian. Version 4.5 dropped Jessie support and you had to start fresh to upgrade to 4.5. If you attempt to upgrade the distro underneath, that is where the problems quickly come into play.

@BuZz is there anyplace one can find somewhat simple instructions to do this?

@IanDaemon I think the „playing“ part is much too big in this diagram. 😉

There's no GUI configuration at the moment, but you can use the scripting features in Emulationstation and run a script on sleep/wake to turn off/on the display - https://retropie.org.uk/docs/EmulationStation/#scripting.

Out of curiosity, I tested a dkong.zip from an unofficial "MAME 2016 Reference Set" which didn't come with any samples for dkong in an extra file. Seems like the 2016 version (aka MAME 0.174) of the dkong rom has its samples included, since – as far as I can tell – it sounds exactly as the MAME 2003-Plus version with an external samples file in my Retropie.

So, if you don't have sampled sound, are you sure you have the right dkong rom file for MAME 2016 / 0.174?

@bfollowell It's possible that the data you had already scraped was cached on your computer and that was why previously successful scrapes still appeared to scrape correctly and new scrapes did not.

@DARKMATTER No, it's not supported by RetroPie. You may want to check if Lakka supports it if you intend to use it for playing games. Or maybe install RetroArch (Android) directly on it.

@KN4THX

Thank you for that help. I never had a Genesis either, but that is what I know the machine as. I would definitely prefer to have the menu title say Genesis.

@quicksilver

That's good advice. I have two cards that I alternate between when it's time to upgrade. It's intended as insurance to protect my time, but I've never actually had to go back to a previous card. As far as the difficulty of upgrading is concerned, I run 33 systems in RetroPie that are highly customized, as well as dual boot into an equally customized OSMC and it only ever takes about 30-40 minutes to upgrade and restore my settings back to where they were. Granted, even that amount of time can be hard to come by during a hectic week, but that's why God invented Sundays... well, you know, that and all the praising, but I doubt he's ever smited anyone for catching up on a little computer maintenance all the same.

@otello

Any suggestions?

You can check out the Keyboard Configuration File at /etc/default/keyboard.

Not sure if this will help but try this...

When you're remoted in, run the RPi Software Configuration Tool with sudo raspi-config and go to Localisation Options then Change Keyboard Layout and run through that to reset those settings.

@Thorr69 thanks. Banned both accounts and removed link.

@BuZz I think this can be the problem. What's the best way to convert these games in a compatible format for lr-puae?