Dreamcast GDEMU

Notes on setting up a GDEMU with OpenMenu in late 2025

GDI Shrunk Games Fail To Launch

If:

• you shrank games to SD with GDMenuCardManager v2.0.1
• you are using latest openMenu (which is, uh, vTODO)
• unshrunk games work (cdi/gdi)
• shrunk GDI games show a static Dreamcast logo then return to system menu
• using GDEMU or clone running 5.20

then:

• add this line to GDEMU.ini: image_tests = 0

OpenMenuDatTool

OpenMenuDatTool is used to customize the boxart shown in OpenMenu.

Game Serials

For some reason, most but not all all game serials containing a dash - don't want to pull artwork correctly. Games auto-detected with dashes tend to work, but custom games don't. So, if you are adding a custom serial for an undetected game or homebrew, DO NOT include a - in the serial!

Download

Despite being a member of the dreamcast-talk forum (admittedly freshly joined), the "typical" link for OpenMenuDatTool (mirrored here) does not allow me permission to view the forum. So, I tracked down the file in a Youtube description and mirrored it here (well, there, back where it says "mirrored here").

Notes

• The Archive.org / Myrient "TOSEC" GDI archives are the way to go for GDEMU devices. GDMenuCardManager can import the ZIP files directly
• There's lots of outdated guides around. ConsoleModsWiki seems to be the best at keeping their main pages up to date.
• The Myrient BIN/CUE images seem to be mostly worthless for use on original hardware. I had no luck with any of the advertised converters (well, not totally true, I did eventually get a self-booting ISO out of one, but not worth the trouble for GDEMU). Just find GDIs.
• Yes, you really do need to use GDMenuCardManager, I don't know why.