Dreamcast - Reicast - Time and Date

barbudreadmon

I know 2 ways to get around this issue :

the first is to use a custom bios for dreamcast, i don't know if it's a legal ressource (it wasn't created by sega afaik), so i won't link it, however it shouldn't be hard to find it if you google "bootROM v1.032 Retail", that bios just won't ask, it's one of its features.
the second one, which i only confirmed with lr-reicast, is to enable "boot to BIOS" (that's a core option in lr-reicast allowing direct access to bios), set time and date, disable "boot to BIOS" and quit. After that the emulator won't ask again.

tipoto

My code is for the standalone version of reicast only. It has to be executed every-time a game is launched.
The time and date are asked when there is a too big difference between the date of your linux system and the date written in the emu.cfg file.
So basically my code update the time in the emu.cfg just before a game is launched. The little advantage of doing this, it's that the time and date in the emulator are correct while you're playing a game or when you launch the system manager.

barbudreadmon

@tipoto said in Dreamcast - Reicast - Time and Date:

The little advantage of doing this, it's that the time and date in the emulator are correct while you're playing a game or when you launch the system manager.

That's also true with my 2 methods, as long as you set the time/date properly in system manager.
None of those tips to get the date updated might work on rpi tough, because rpi doesn't have rtc, so it's not keeping its time updated except if you sync it from internet.
I think the custom bios method is somehow easier, since you only need to replace the bios, no script editing.

spud11

@barbudreadmon Hi. Thanks for your input on this. I tested jc-bootROM-retail-v1.032.bin on the rpi, but it doesn't work. Runcommand.log comes up with this:

Parameters: 
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/reicast/bin/reicast.sh oss "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/dreamcast/NBA Showtime.cdi"
evdev: open: No such file or directory
joystick open: No such file or directory
/opt/retropie/emulators/reicast/bin/reicast.sh: line 88:  4512 Trace/breakpoint trap   aoss "$rootdir/emulators/reicast/bin/reicast" "${params[@]}" > /dev/null

So unfortunately the easiest way doesn't seem to be operative on the rpi.

tipoto

Yes, you are right, you need to have a constant connection to internet or to have an RTC battery.
From what I noticed with my system, but it can be different on a RPI with retropie , reicast only updates the date in the emu.cfg when you exit a game, and then starts from this date the next time you play a game. Because of that, as time passes without playing a game, the clock inside reicast losses time, and at some point, when the difference is too big with the system, it asks again to update the clock manually. But like I say, it is maybe specific to my system.

That being said, you're also right when you say that it's easier to just download a custom bios that gets rid of this issue directly. I haven't tried this bios, but if it works and if you don't have your clock constantly updated, it's perfect I guess.

spud11

@tipoto Hi. Thanks again for looking at this. Do you think this will last forever or will it be like the other fix and after about a month it will need to be redone?

tipoto

@spud11 Oh! We just replied at the same time. :)
The problem can be easily fixed in reicast (I think), when you start reicast, it has to update the date in the emu.cfg before doing anything else, it has to be the first task it does. Because currently, it just reads the date in the emu.cfg and starts from it while you're playing, then when you exit the game, it saves the date into emu.cfg. But the clock in reicast is never updated with your system and is only "alive" when you play a game. So for instance, if it was 1:30 pm on January 10th the last time you exit a game, and if you don't play for 3 months, the next time you will launch a game, the date will be 3 months late. And if you play for 30 minutes, when you will exit the game, the clock will be 2 pm on January 10th (3 months late). And it seems that when the offset is bigger than about a month, it asks you to update the date.

It's why I wrote this little script to do this task automatically. Some people maybe tried the script that I provided months ago in this thread, but this one wasn't working anymore because of a technical issue with every 32 bit system (too complicated to explain here), but this new script is smaller and doesn't have this issue.

Edit: I want to add that if you don't have an RTC battery or an internet connection, it doesn't matter, the time won't be right with the real time of course, but at least the time between your system and reicast will be perfectly in-sync and so it shouldn't ask to update the date and time anymore.

Gwyllion

@barbudreadmon said in Dreamcast - Reicast - Time and Date:

bootROM v1.032 Retail

Did you get work bootROM v.1.32? if I rename to dc_boot.bin Reicast dont start. Could you please confirm? thanks.

BJRetro

@Gwyllion this is an old thread. The newest versions of standalone reicast and Lr-reicast don’t have the date/time issue anymore and there is no need for hacked files as a fix.

Gwyllion

@BJRetro thanks for your answer but really need this for other options.

Thanks