How to create and/or burn a Dreamcast CD in 5 minutes !

This tutorial has three sections:
1 - General Info you should know.
2 - Burning a .CDI with BootDreams
3 - How to create and burn your own DC image with BootDreams


1General Info:

-Media-
You'll need CDRs. Best are 80min/700Mbyte. CDRWs and other media are -NOT- supported.

You do -NOT- need a modded DC. About any Dreamcast will work with CDRs. Very, very few won't.


-Format-
Standard in Dreamcast software is the DiscJuggler .CDI format. Nero's .NRG format would not work on MAC and LINUX, also any Nero version newer than 5.5 had its problems with the DC format.

Most downloads for Dreamcast come as .ZIP or .RAR files. WinRAR should help you with unzipping/unraring:
http://www.winrar-rog.com/eindex.html



2 Burning a .CDI file with BootDreams:

To burn a *.CDI file, it's recommend to use BootDreams' CDI-burner. BootDreams is VERY easy to use and it's for free:

Download: http://consolevision.com/members/dchelp/index.php?download=bootdreams_061.exe
Website: http://consolevision.com/members/dchelp/?My_Projects:BootDreams


1. Download BootDreams and install it to e.g. C:/BootDreams/

2. Download the image you'd like to burn and unzip/unrar it somewhere, e.g. to C:/

3. Start BootDreams and choose "CDI Burner". Now click on "Browse" and point BootDreams to the CDI you would like to burn.

4. Click on "Burn CDI Image". That's it.


If BootDreams doesn't recognize your CD drive, download WNASPI32.ZIP and unzip it in your C:/BootDreams/Tools/ folder:
http://consolevision.com/members/dchelp/index.php?download=wnaspi32.zip


Other:
Nero Burning ROM isn't recommend for Dreamcast software but Alcohol120% (in TAO mode) works good too.  Download the free trial version here:
http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/download_120.php



3 How to create and burn your own DC image with BootDreams:

1. Download BootDreams and install it to e.g. C:/BootDreams/

2. Download the emulator/game/app you would like to burn and put it in a dedicated folder, e.g. C:/BootDreams/OpenBoR/. The most recent version of OpenBoR can be found here: http://openbor.net/downloads.shtml

3. Now unzip/unrar your emulator/game/app into that same folder. The 1ST_READ.BIN contains the actual DC programme.

-> Don't forget to add your BOR.PAK! Before wasting a CDR, give it a quick test with OpenBoR for DOS or Windows so you know it works.

4. Start BootDreams and point it to C:/BootDreams/OpenBoR. It will then guide you trough the process. I recommend the 'CDRecord' method.


Once again: if BootDreams doesn't recognize your CD drive, download WNASPI32.ZIP and unzip it in your C:/BootDreams/Tools/ folder:
http://consolevision.com/members/dchelp/index.php?download=wnaspi32.zip

Now that's useful. Perhaps I should set up a tutorial section?

Thanks. That's not a bad idea. Would have my vote. 

A good plan if you ask me.

Alright, but first I'd like to know if anyone else feels like contributing any tutorials. It would be silly to add a section for only a single thread.

Well, there's at least enuff demand for tutorials. I mean I remember reading the same questions over and over again all the time + everwhere

I fixed the links to DCHelp (URL change).