Dreamcast-Talk.com

I got a GDEMU clone V 5.20.5 from AliExpress together with the base memory card to get you going. It contained the standard GDEMU.ini file:
open_time = 150
detect_time = 150
reset_goto = 1
It played all the complete GDI images well without any issues.

When I wanted to shrink the GDI images to fit more games in, I ran into series of troubles. I went through many programs / GDItools etc only to get about 20 to 30% of the games to work with GDEMU as shrunken images. All will work with Demul as shrunken GDI images.

It wasn't until I started to see if the ini file has something to do with it and it did. I got the ini info from this forum
open_time = 500
detect_time = 250
reset_goto = 1
image_tests = 0
read_limit = 0

and then all of the shrunken games work normally on the Dreamcast hardware. I wish I did that earlier and had saved loads of wasted efforts.
If you get the initial ini values, it will be good for full GDI images but if you shrink them, you will need to play with the values.
I hope this will help someone in the future.

don't shrink...ever. Buy an appropriate size SD card. Shrinking always causes compatability issues with a variety of games. You only complicate your life by shrinking.

redjeff76 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 13, 2025 1:20 pm Shrinking always causes compatability issues with a variety of games.

this is complete nonsense, removing the emptiness in the image does not affect its performance in any way

megavolt85 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 13, 2025 2:10 pm

redjeff76 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 13, 2025 1:20 pm Shrinking always causes compatability issues with a variety of games.

this is complete nonsense, removing the emptiness in the image does not affect its performance in any way

It's been a few years since I did it, so I can't tell if the current tools used to shrink/truncate images cause any problems, but the tool I used to shrink images caused issues to me too, with one of the Worms games and Resident Evil 2 if I recall correctly. The game would freeze during booting with the shrunk image, while had no issue with the untouched one.

Tarnish wrote: ↑Sun Apr 13, 2025 2:21 pm The game would freeze during booting with the shrunk image, while had no issue with the untouched one.

For this purpose, there is a special topic on the forum, in which ready-made images are posted; all images that cannot be truncated automatically were truncated manually.

anyway, the advice to use a larger card to store unnecessary gigabytes of zero data not used by the game is stupid.
it sounds as stupid as the advice to buy a truck, load it with sand and drive to work every day.

megavolt85 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 13, 2025 3:20 pm anyway, the advice to use a larger card to store unnecessary gigabytes of zero data not used by the game is stupid.
it sounds as stupid as the advice to buy a truck, load it with sand and drive to work every day.

Eh, with cards getting bigger and cheaper every year, it's not that hard to get a big enough card to fit every game one wants to play without having to shoehorn them on it. As long as the card works on the GDemu and gives peace of mind that it won't cause any issues, I don't see what the big deal is.

I personally use a 512 GB card without any problems.

Do you buy groceries in the store using the same principle?
You rake everything into a cart, bring it home, put it in the refrigerator, and then throw what you don’t need in the trash?