Sega Dreamcast - How to use GDI roms

[djdaveoc]

I have a GDI rom set for Dreamcast. Inside the folder for each game is a GDI file along with several bin and raw files. I'm not sure how to structure them for use in HyperSpin. For my other disc image-based systems I just have the bin/cue or iso files all in the one "roms" folder for that system. I had to manually name the files to match the xml for that system of course. I don't use compression on anything because I don't want to have to wait for the games to decompress before playing each one in HyperSpin. So inside my "roms" folder for Dreamcast should I have a folder for each game? And inside that folder put all the files for the game (GDI, bins, and raws)?

Or do I simply unzip all the files for all the games and put them in that "roms" folder for Dreamcast and just make sure all the file names match the Dreamcast XML?

Thank you in advance

[leostrife]

There is a file with the name of the game with .GDI extension.

The emulator will call this file, you should leave all the game files within a folder with the same name .GDI file, which should be the name of the game.

Let compressed into 7z, so you take up less disk space, the cost of an initial loading to unpack the game.

If you want to leave uncompressed, just let the game files in question within a folder with the same name as the GDI file, and you should call the .GDI file, not BIN or RAW.

[djdaveoc]

So are you saying to put all the files for all the games into the one "roms" folder for Dreamcast? Or are you saying to make a folder for each game inside of that "roms" folder for Dreamcast?

And if you are saying to have a folder for each game, is there a way in a Dreamcast emulator to set it so that it can find the GDI file for each game in each folder? If I remember correctly, for other systems and emulators, you just set a master roms folder and it looks for the game files there. So I'm wondering exactly how this would work. Thanks for your reply.

[guyverjay]

Each game will have its own folder, put those folders inside an overall ISO/rom folder and point hyperlaunch to it, hyperlaunch searches subfolders

[djdaveoc]

Ah thank you. I've never had to do that for other systems but if it works for Dreamcast that's all that matters. I appreciate the help. I'll try to set this up soon. What is the best DC emulator in your opinion? I don't need anything fancy. I just want as many games to work in HS as possible.

[guyverjay]

I think null.dc probably plays the most games, however for the best compatibility, I would suggest using more than one emulator, I use 3

[djdaveoc]

So I thought my rom set was HS ready. It's not. So what will I need to rename to match the DC XML? Just the folder and the GDI file inside it? Just the folder itself and nothing else?

Thanks in advance.

[guyverjay]

The folder and the gdi file have to match the xml. If your ISO's are zipped you don't have to bother with subfolders

[djdaveoc]

I don't want to leave anything compressed. So it's all unzipped.

So I need to name each game folder based on the XML and do the same for each GDI file which is in each game folder.

Can you please (someone) answer the question about the other files in each folder. Do they need to be named after the XML also? If not then you're saying only their folder and the GDI file in the same folder have to be named after the XML? Thanks

[guyverjay]

I don't want to leave anything compressed. So it's all unzipped.

So I need to name each game folder based on the XML and do the same for each GDI file which is in each game folder.

Can you please (someone) answer the question about the other files in each folder. Do they need to be named after the XML also? If not then you're saying only their folder and the GDI file in the same folder have to be named after the XML? Thanks

Yes only the folder and gdi file have to match the xml, the other files do not need to be touched

[djdaveoc]

Thank you. Appreciate the help.