You can now emulate Dreamcast WinCE games via RetroArch(Flycast WinCE)

[NovumVeritas]

Hi ERA,

not sure if this is thread worthy, but I thought I give it a shot.

RetroArch has Flycast WInCE, so you can emulate WinCE games not, which was only possible with DeMul,
it is also possible to increase internal resultion to get a clearer picture.

I tried it yesterday with Resident Evil 2. And it works pretty well, the only thing which have problems are the FMVs, the rest is fine.
I am not sure if its old news, but I thought I share.

Here is the link for further information:

https://www.libretro.com/index.php/beetledc-wince-libretro-experimental-core-released/

https://www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-1-7-8-v3-released-big-core-updates/

They also improved sound playback for non WinCE games.

 

[Platy]

Can someone explains me what is different from regular dreamcast emulation?

 

[Tailzo]

Sega Rally2?

 

[NovumVeritas]

Can someone explains me what is different from regular dreamcast emulation?

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WinCE games were harder to emulate or for a time being they could not be emulated, WinCE was used to make it easier for developers to port their PC games to Dreamcast. DeMul is also closed source, Flycast is open source, so it easier to develop and contribute to it.

 

[Syriel]

Can someone explains me what is different from regular dreamcast emulation?

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Dreamcast games ran on one of two OSes. One of those was WinCE.

 

[Platy]

Dreamcast games ran on one of two OSes. One of those was WinCE.

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So like half of the library that was previously impossible to emulate is nw possible?

 

[Biggersmaller]

Source

Dreamcast games utilising Windows CE

• 4x4 Evolution
• Armada
• Atari Anniversary Edition
• Bang! Gunship Elite
• Bust-A-Move 4
• Caesars Palace 2000: Millennium Gold Edition
• Championship Surfer
• Cherry Blossom
• Densha de Go! 2
• Ducati World Racing Challenge
• Eisei Meijin III: Game Creator Yoshimura Nobuhiro no Zunou
• For Symphony: With All One's Heart
• Fragrance Tale
• Get!! Colonies
• Giant Killers
• Happy Lesson
• Hello Kitty no Garden Panic
• Hello Kitty no Lovely Fruit Park
• Hello Kitty no Magical Block
• Hello Kitty no Waku Waku Cookies
• Hidden & Dangerous
• Hoyle Casino
• Hundred Swords
• Jimmy White's 2: Cueball
• Kaitou Apricot
• KISS: Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child
• Kita e. White Illumination
• Kitahei Gold
• Marionette Company
• Marionette Company 2
• Maximum Pool
• Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Volume 1
• Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Volume 2
• Miss Moonlight
• Morita no Saikyou Reversi
• Morita no Saikyou Shogi
• The Next Tetris
• Net de Para: Nekosogi Paradise
• NFL QB Club 2001
• NFL Quarterback Club 2000
• Nightmare Creatures II
• Nishikaze no Rhapsody
• Plus Plum
• Princess Maker Collection
• Q*bert
• Railroad Tycoon II
• Resident Evil 2
• Rune Jade
• Sega Rally 2
• Sekai Fushigi Hakken! Troy
• Shinseiki Evangelion: Typing E-Keikaku
• Shinseiki Evangelion: Typing Hokan Keikaku
• Sno-Cross Championship Racing
• Soukou no Kihei: Space Griffon
• South Park: Chef's Luv Shack
• Spirit of Speed 1937
• Starlancer
• Super Producers
• Super Robot Taisen Alpha for Dreamcast
• Super Runabout
• Super Runabout: San Francisco Edition
• Sweet Season
• Taxi 2
• Tomb Raider Chronicles
• Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
• Tsuushin Taisen Logic Battle Daisessen
• UnderCover AD2025 Kei
• Urban Chaos
• Virtua Cop 2
• WebTV for Dreamcast
• Who Wants to Beat Up a Millionaire
• Wild Metal
• World Neverland Plus: Orurudo Oukoku Monogatari
• Worms Armageddon
• Worms World Party
• Yoshia no Oka de Nekoronde...
• Yuki Gatari

 

[NovumVeritas]

So like half of the library that was previously impossible to emulate is nw possible?

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Basically yes.
As Biggersmaller posted, there were some games which relied on it.
The progress is amazing, especially that before it mostly impossible to do it.

 

[sir_crocodile]

Does it emulate any of them better then Demul?

 

[NovumVeritas]

Does it emulate any of them better the Demul?

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I cannot say, I only tested RE 2 with Flycast.
Not sure if Demul is better performance wise.

 

[AmirMoosavi]

I tried Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation now on my Android phone with RetroArch + Flycast. FMV was audio only, audio in both FMV and game was scratchy, game crashed a minute into opening real-time cutscene.

Still, impressive progress made, looking forward to finally being able to emulate these games in future.

 

[Krathoon]

I tried Nightmare Creatures II in Flycast today. The fmvs are still scratchy. You would think they would have fixed that by now.

 

[NovumVeritas]

I tried Nightmare Creatures II in Flycast today. The fmvs are still scratchy. You would think they would have fixed that by now.

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Dream cast emulation seems to be pretty complicated. Are there issues on original hardware ? Regarding videos ?

 

[Krathoon]

Dream cast emulation seems to be pretty complicated. Are there issues on original hardware ? Regarding videos ?

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I don't think it has issues on the Dreamcast. I will have to try playing my disc in it. I just used my Dreamcast to dump the disc.

 

[NovumVeritas]

I don't think it has issues on the Dreamcast. I will have to try playing my disc in it. I just used my Dreamcast to dump the disc.

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Nice. Keep us updated. I know that nightmare creatures 2 is special regarding bugs.

 

[Krathoon]

I haven't tried Demul on Nightmare Creatures II.

 

[AmirMoosavi]

I haven't tried Demul on Nightmare Creatures II.

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You tried Redream? Latest dev versions support WinCE.

 

[Krathoon]

You tried Redream? Latest dev versions support WinCE.

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Ah. I did not know about that. Are the dev versions on their website?
Edit: Yes they are. I will try it tomorrow.

 

[Krathoon]

I had a wierd thing with Redream where it initially would not detect my chd files.

 

[Krathoon]

I still haven't tried out Redream yet.

 

[AmirMoosavi]

I still haven't tried out Redream yet.

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What issue are you having?

 

[Tailzo]

redream has been my choice for a couple of years, but I really missed Sega Rally 2. now that Redream has winCe support, I am satisfied.

 

[Krathoon]

I tried out Nightmare Creatures II on Redream. The FMVs are crackling and it seems like the music is not working in game. I am getting beeps.

 

[Krathoon]

I just tried it with Demul and it plays it with no problems. Demul does this weird interlacing thing that looks like it can't be switched off.
Did the Dreamcast have rumble? Demul rumbles a little bit. It seemed like the rumble worked better in Redream.

 

[Saoshyant]

Did the Dreamcast have rumble?

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It did as an optional accessory. There was a patent for rumble built-in on controllers, if I recall right.

 

[Krathoon]

Demul has graphic issues if you start it in fullscreen. If you toggle to fullscreen, it is fine. I also had it lock on me when I stopped a game. It would not let me run another one. I had to restart it.

So, it is not the best just yet. Still, it runs WinCE games the best.

 

[Krathoon]

It looks like Demul development stopped in 2018. So, Flycast and Redream need to catch up. Really, it just seems like they need to fix the audio on the WinCE games FMVs.