BeetleDC Libretro NAOMI and MAME ROM support!

Libretro Team

Flyinghead is adding MAME ROM support to the arcade side of BeetleDC Libretro.

Here is what has currently been implemented:

  • NAOMI M1 cartridge support
  • NAOMI M2 cartridge support
  • NAOMI M4 cartridge support

Things you need to know

  • Right now, only non-merged romsets work. A merged rom is a ROM without parent, it contains all the files needed.
  • NAOMI M4 cartridges require a special BIOS file to be put inside your System directory. The M4 bios should be in a “naomi.zip” file in the BIOS folder (/dc ). The file in specific which hsould be inside that zip file is called ‘epr-21576h.ic27’.

Other important additions/changes

  • in the past, NAOMI games would only work with BeetleDC Libretro if you loaded .lst files. .lst files are no longer necessary now. You should be able to run an arcade game with BeetleDC Libretro using the plain .bin/.dat file instead now. So theoretically it should now be capable of just loading Demul-compatible ROMs instead.
  • Ring Out 4×4 now allows for up to 4 player support due to adding dual I/O board support for this game.

What are the list of MAME ROMs that are compatible?

You can check the entries inside this file here –

https://github.com/libretro/beetle-dc/blob/master/core/hw/naomi/naomi_roms.h

Out of these games, nearly all should work except for Samba De Amigo right now.

What’s planned/next?

  • Sammy Atomiswave MAME ROM support
  • Sega NAOMI GD-ROM MAME ROM support

BeetleDC Libretro Progress Report

Libretro Team

Display VMU screens ingame!

NOTE: This feature currently works properly in BeetleDC Libretro non-OIT. BeetleDC Libretro OIT will require some more work before this feature will start rendering properly.

Thanks to RetroSven, here is another major new feature!

It is now possible to display the VMU screen ingame! You can also specify the exact positioning of each VMU, whether it should be positioned at the top left, top right, bottom left, or bottom right corner of the screen. You can also specify the opacity of each screen and the exact size of the screen. You can display all 4 attached VMU screens at the same time onscreen!

For those that don’t know, the VMU was the Dreamcast’s memory card which also could be used as a standalone device. It was powered by a ring battery, had a D-pad and some face buttons, and it was even possible to play some minigames on the VMU.Games could download VMU minigames onto the system and you could then play these minigames when used as a standalone device.

Samurai Shodown VI (NAOMI) renders properly now with Extra Depth Scaling option!

Reicast Libretro now has a new feature – Extra Depth Scaling. By enabling this, the graphics in Samurai Shodown VI (Naomi arcade game) will render properly.

Note that even with this enabled, BeetleDC OIT Libretro will currently have some display bugs that the non-OIT core won’t have. Hopefully the two can become just as good later on.