- Joined
- Aug 24, 2014
- Messages
- 4,839
- Trophies
- 0
- Age
- 27
- Location
- Fort Gay, West Virginia
- XP
- 2,300
- Country
Reicast for Android Review
The Dreamcast was Sega's last console and was home to many notable games which went from Sonic Adventure to Shenmue to Ecco the Dolphin. There were rumors a while back of a nulldc port to android os that ultimately never happen but now you can finally play Dreamcast on android thanks to an app called Reicast.
(My specs are
System chip - Motorola X8
Processor: Dual core, 1700 MHz
Graphics processor: 400 MHz, quad-core
System memory: 2048 MB RAM)
Set up
Set up is relatively easy as the process is to first download the app off the play store and then download the BIOS (don't ask how or where to get it).
For Reicast to work, the BIOS need to be titled "dc_boot.bin". Many of the ones available online, however, are named "dc_bios.bin".
The flash file is usually found wherever BIOS files are available. You'll know it by the name "dc_flash.bin".
After that you will need to make a folder called " DC" and then create another folder within DC called "Data" which is where you will have your flash files and BIOS.
Finally you need to clear the "virtual" VMU, select the 'Boot BIOS' option from the main Reicast menu.
Quick note if game files are in .ZIP format they need to be extract and will end in .cdi
Game play
I decided to put reicast to 3 game tests using Sonic Adventure 1, tony hawk pro skater 2 and Shenmue.
In SA1as far as I have played it works really well on my phone although I do believe there are some graphic issues although they are very minor and don't affect the gameplay.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 loaded perfectly and the menus also worked but I when I went to play the game it crashed while loading making the game unplayable.
Shenmue worked OK but there were a good amount of graphic issues but it played pretty well so far although it may make the latter parts of the game harder or unplayable.
Drawbacks
Reicast is a great emulator but has some issues. For one it only works on ARM processors and will not work on Intel x86 processors.
Second is that when I tried to use the emulator on a different phone I could not get Reicast to play games from my microsd card although it may just me not setting it up correctly.
Finally the emulator does not have instant save states which can be an issue considering that normally when I left the app it closed before I got to save my game.
Conclusion
8.5/10
Ultimately this is a great emulator that really works great on the ever growing list of games and it is sure to add many great games to play to your android library.
The Dreamcast was Sega's last console and was home to many notable games which went from Sonic Adventure to Shenmue to Ecco the Dolphin. There were rumors a while back of a nulldc port to android os that ultimately never happen but now you can finally play Dreamcast on android thanks to an app called Reicast.
(My specs are
System chip - Motorola X8
Processor: Dual core, 1700 MHz
Graphics processor: 400 MHz, quad-core
System memory: 2048 MB RAM)
Set up
Set up is relatively easy as the process is to first download the app off the play store and then download the BIOS (don't ask how or where to get it).
For Reicast to work, the BIOS need to be titled "dc_boot.bin". Many of the ones available online, however, are named "dc_bios.bin".
The flash file is usually found wherever BIOS files are available. You'll know it by the name "dc_flash.bin".
After that you will need to make a folder called " DC" and then create another folder within DC called "Data" which is where you will have your flash files and BIOS.
Finally you need to clear the "virtual" VMU, select the 'Boot BIOS' option from the main Reicast menu.
Quick note if game files are in .ZIP format they need to be extract and will end in .cdi
Game play
I decided to put reicast to 3 game tests using Sonic Adventure 1, tony hawk pro skater 2 and Shenmue.
In SA1as far as I have played it works really well on my phone although I do believe there are some graphic issues although they are very minor and don't affect the gameplay.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 loaded perfectly and the menus also worked but I when I went to play the game it crashed while loading making the game unplayable.
Shenmue worked OK but there were a good amount of graphic issues but it played pretty well so far although it may make the latter parts of the game harder or unplayable.
Drawbacks
Reicast is a great emulator but has some issues. For one it only works on ARM processors and will not work on Intel x86 processors.
Second is that when I tried to use the emulator on a different phone I could not get Reicast to play games from my microsd card although it may just me not setting it up correctly.
Finally the emulator does not have instant save states which can be an issue considering that normally when I left the app it closed before I got to save my game.
Conclusion
8.5/10
Ultimately this is a great emulator that really works great on the ever growing list of games and it is sure to add many great games to play to your android library.