Dreamshell 4.0 Step-by-step guide 

So what size storage cards work on this dreamshell? 8gb standard SD (not SDHC) or what.

The only micro SD card I had to test was a Toshiba 4GB class 4. I formatted it FAT with allocation size 64kbs but it's not working. After the system boots it checks the card and says "no card found'. I'd appreciate some help.

I got a SD reader from DC-SD - dont get one from there, tried half a dozen different SD cards, versions of dreamshell, seems to be the SD card reader & DC-SD wont even reply. dreamshell boots only when the SD card reader is removed, otherwise it freezes, or freezes saying checking SD card.

Ahh the iso zone.... I miss that site

The myth of the dreamcast burning out quicker due to playing pirated games stems from actually the saturns disc drive, the saturns disc drive was not tuned correctly and burns itself out very quickly, they use the laser in early day cd players found in boomboxes and even some car sterios. Finding the replacement part for me was actually easy, my saturn in a once in a while use disc drive died twice due to a failure in the saturns disc drive burning it self out due to overvolting the laser. Now reading GD discs vs CD rom discs does actaully have a difference, far less than that of putting a cd in a dvd player keep in mind. At the end of the day the dreamcast disc drive actually had usages out side of the dreamcast and was used in other systems such as karako machines that had video going with them. These discs were made to store video and play back video and sound prior to dvd, it was a odd ball one but it wasn't at the same time. The laser had to be able to read both CD And GD discs there were actually many manufactors for the disc drives in saturns with multiple itterations in its short life span just for the states models alone never mind UK and japanese models which lasted much longer in production. The dreamcast does still have a failure point in the disc drive, many failure points, the most common one I see is the ribbon cable ware issue where the ribbon cable has a split in it from bending ever so slightly from heavy use. The cables are so thin and easily tear that even opening up the unit to change out the battery if done wrong can tear the cable, and it is easy to do it wrong enough to do this. IF you don't open the lid first before opening this can cause the plastic of the housing unit in some cases to hang onto the floating part of the disc drive and cause the top of the drive to pop out and tear the cable. Yes this has happen to me, yes it is a pain to find the right cabling for it, luckly it is somewhat common and somewhat cheap pre-covid prices, now people want $8.00 for some screws that they frankin sold dreamcasts piece by piece to make more money. The myth is somewhat true that the drive will burn it self out quicker, but the question then becomes how much quicker, and the answer I always found was not that much quicker, it actually depends on the drive model on how quickly it dies. Some were made like crap while others were gold good. Most are samsung drives, samsung products in general I have misfortune with.

Does dreamshell 4.0 and boot disk 2.4 except 512 GB micro SD cards? Also am I able to do .GDI files, in other words the full whole Dreamcast game not the choppy CDI portion?

what about the save game files? are stored in VMU or in the SD?... And what about 2 or 4 disc games like Shenmue or Grandia?.. :S

man I've burned like 5 cds an none work, and isos are fine cause they work in null dc, can you tell me what i can do? I read somewhere that you can put a dummy file to improve chances of booting...

is there a way to load it with a broken gd-rom?

Will dreamshell load any iso from any region?

whats the difference between the bootloader and the normal cdi one? anything?

10/10 porn music. Video upvoted.

Yes I'm glad I found this video again!

you sound like DYNAMO Bro any magic included

Ok can anyone tell me where I can buy a Dreamcast SD card adapter besides eBay? I always read eBay...sure. But there are a rare number of offers (only 1 right now on ebay US, none on ebay Germany). Also they're relativley expensive in my opinion (40$). I'm willing to pay that but c'mon it's just a SD card adapter. +TheBackStabbedSniper where did you get yours from?

@TheBackStabbedSniper Think i am 6 Years too late, but firstable, Great Video and secondly, IMGburn and ISO Zone seems both to be Dead. You have any other Options where to get the Burn Software and the Games?

How do you add games to the menu as shortcuts. I bought 2 rare games I am going to backup and would like easy access to them. On a side note how do you get emulators working on it? such as megadrive and other consoles

I'm having that problem with the SD card ever SD card that I tried is that'll work for a while then it'll kick itself out it won't come back on until after 5 minutes like it's getting hot any solution?

I accidently flashed my bios to be "bootloader". Now whenever I start the dreamcast its a black screen saying dreamshell bootloader v2.3 press start to enter bootloader. However, no matter what I do it wont load. Any ideas? www.dropbox.com/s/irr1a5cdt4wacad/IMG_0941.JPG?dl=0

Is there a way to do a permanent install of Dreamshell?

Hey is Dreamshell slow if you use it on usb? Someone is telling me its better to do the hard drive mod, cause improves speed in games... Is this true?

My machine loads the Dreamshell CD as an audio disc.

thx man very helpful guide in 2023 :3

hi thanks for the video. how dose it work with 2 discs games? will it switch automatically or need to be manually set?

Can you still boot Dreamcast games from GD's if you install this?

What file format does the SD card need to be?

do you need to put the DS files on the sd card or do you need to just have a boot disc? games just go right on the root of the sd card? you dont need to make a folder for them or anything? thanks

i would need a bit help becuz idk if dreamshell burned correctly

Hello? Are you out there???

Is that Dean Tavalouris?

It seems you are having the same issue that I am having. The little bar on the bottom of the home screen is going off the bottom of your screen as well. I wonder what causes that.

good

programa para grabar .cdi www.mediafire.com/file/vcu0j66e45q28ly/IMGBurn+Pack.7z

When I go to download dreamshell boot loader on the dc swat website its just a file not a folder. Doesn't contain all the other files that you moved into the SD card

How can I create desktop shortcuts?

dweamcast dweamshell. looks cool. :)

play dreamcast is0s fr0m external hard drive?

So what's the highest gb sd card should you use?????

Sd card should be format in fat32?

the dreamshell reds only .iso files? or they can read cdi files too???

fake links

any idea on how to flash a dreamcast bios so dreamshell loads instead of standard bios?

IT SUCKS

Man, I wish there was a way to put Dreamshell on the Dreamcast without a CD. I have a Dreambast with a busted ass laser....

what format do the game downloads need to be?

Great guide. Im curious what the DSinstall option does? Is it possible to boot dreamshell without the dreamshell disc while still being able to play GD's

I apologize for the late reply- the games save onto VMU's just like they're suppose too. And games with multiple disks come with multiple ISO's. SO once ISO one had been completed, hit reset and load ISO two, just like you would swap a disk.

what is that adapter where you put the sd card on the serial port?

imposible you can not even burn dreamshall cd

you got a chinese accent lol thanks for the video

ahhhh the iso zone :(

seems time consuming to switch out games on sd card

Do you still have to use SCART in this version?

I love u guy!(no Home! lol) u just had solved my problem with boot load from sd card! i just download DreamShell_4.0.0_RC4_and_Boot_Loader wich u talk on your video and unpacked all files in DS folder and Dreamshell_Boot_Loader_v2.4 BIN file for SD root and Voila!!! Everything Working!! Note: My dreamcast dont need CD for boot cause i had changed my original Bios file from Modified BIOS!

i am intrested if you have this mod console i will pay you for this if it works

Gracias

Gracias

THE ISO ZONE CLOSED :(

Should've called it Dreamshell in a Nutshell.

I don't understand, on my dreamcast it only appears 2 options, Boot from ram and Boot from CD, I can't select neither of them, Can anyone help me?