The Dreamcast Emulator

[3RA1N1AC]

yeah... so, the DC emulator thread that i started got deleted, along with the pics i posted.

anyway. in case you've been living under a rock, a Dreamcast emulator called Chankast came out a few weeks ago. for a first release, it was amazing: compatibility with many commercial games, nearly complete graphics and sound in a lot of games, etc.

http://www.chanka.org/

the second release came out today. check it out:

12/06/2004: Chankast alpha 0.2a released.

Bugs fixed:

- vga/ntsc bug fixed
- control pad fixed
- fixed a bug in the video renderer that was causing some game to crash

12/06/2004: Chankast alpha 0.2 released.

About the news in this release:

- Improved stability, no more random crashes during gameplay 
- Fixes to the GFX core for games such as Shenmue 1&2 and Soul Calibur 
- Better compatibility, for example Dead or Alive 2, Virtual On and many, many more 
- Optimized code for even more speed 
- Option to over- and underclock the SH4 CPU 
- Completly re-done PAD configuration screen 
- Added support for PAD plugins 
- Added an option for cable selection 
- Integrated Capcom hack into the other versions 
- Re-worked menu and help file 
- ... and many more fixes we don't really remember

before you even think about trying to use the emu, make sure your computer has these, or you won't get much joy out of the program:
2ghz or faster CPU with SSE
GeForce or Radeon graphics card
Windows XP

if you meet or exceed those specifications, you'll get playable frame rates out of quite a few games (self-booting backups, or i guess you can use the Utopia boot disc and then do a disc swap for the really early DC rips). you also need to get the Dreamcast BIOS separately and put it in the same folder as the emulator.

version 0.1 slowed down a lot when accessing the CD-Rom, and the problem might still exist in the new release. you can improve it a bit by using an ISO image, mounting it with a program like Daemon Tools, then choosing the virtual CD-Rom in the emulator options.

[Guyver]

well the good thing is that iv been playing shenmue all mornin, looks gr8!

[3RA1N1AC]

Shenmue displays a few graphics glitches, like Ryu's head being partially transparent from certain angles. but overall, it does look really good.

now that the emulator has game controller support, games like Jet Set Radio are fully playable with an analogue joystick (required to do graffiti accurately).

look at those textures... not too shabby for a 5 year old game:
Image Resized
[img]http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/1457/CHANKAST_SHENMUE.jpg' width='200' height='120' border='0' alt='click for full size view'>