Getting Started (Mac OS X)

This tutorial is based on a french article which can be found here or here.

lxdream is currently in active development. Even if the current version (0.9) doesn't allow you to play games in good condition, you may want to try the emulator and follow the evolution of this project. Here is a short tutorial to help you to start with lxdream on Mac OS X.

First, get the latest compiled version of the emulator on the download page. It's also possible to compile the application by yourself from the sources.

Source(s): Mac OS X solutions

Compiling from source (optional)
(This is one way to compile lxdream, the way I did. There are many many other solutions.)

In order to build the application by yourself, you must be an administrator of your Mac, you may also need some tools. You have to install the free Developer Tools available with Mac OS X. You can download the last version of this package in the Apple Developer Connection website.

Next, get Fink and install it. Fink is a project based on Unix tools to help Mac users install linux software on their computer.

Sources are released with a subversion (SVN) server, so you have to install a svn client into your Mac. Some other libraries are requiered. For that we'll use fink. Open a Terminal (available in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder), write:


 * fink install svn; fink install pkgconfig ; fink install libpng3 ; fink install glib2

and press enter. The installation software will ask you for your password, then ask you for additional software installation. Let your Mac install the packages.

You may find many graphical applications that control the subversion system. You could find most of them here.

Now, we will download the lxdream sources. Create a folder which will be used to store the lxdream sources folder. In the Terminal window (open it again if necessary), write "cd" followed by a space. Then drag and drop the folder you've just created into the Terminal window. Press Enter. Then write:


 * svn co http://www.lxdream.org/svn/lxdream/trunk lxdream

The subversion client will start to download the sources into a lxdream folder into your directory.

We will start to compile the emulator. Write:


 * cd lxdream

then Enter. Write:


 * ./configure && make

And Enter. Let your Mac compute for a while. When finished, open the lxdream folder and move the lxdream.app application into your applications folder. lxdream is now ready to be used.

Source(s): Mac OS X solutions

Configuration
Even if you've built or downloaded the emulator, open the lxdream application. The GUI (Graphical User Interface) is really easy to use. There are some buttons at the top of the window to execute all the functionalities of lxdream.

To configure lxdream, click on the single upper right button.

Click on the first field, then drag and drop your Dreamcast bios (named dcboot.rom, dc_bios.bin, ...).

Click on the second field, then drag and drop your Dreamcast flash rom (named dcflash.rom, dc_flash.bin, ...).

Click on another field to validate them.

On the second tab of this interface, you can manage your controller settings.

If you have problems with the settings, you can access to the preferences with the Terminal application:


 * open -a TextEdit ~/.lxdreamrc

This action will open the lxdream settings file with TextEdit.

Source(s): Mac OS X solutions

Running games
When clicking on the CDRom icon of the GUI, lxdream lets you choose the game you want to run. lxdream accepts GDI or CDI disk images. The emulator normally also supports NRG disk images but I've never had a working one. MDF/MDS or ISO files are not supported.

Next you can start the game using the green arrow button.

Problems & solutions

 * If lxdream sends you an alert while choosing your image, it's because your file is not compatible with this version of the emulator.


 * If lxdream shows you the animated dreamcast logo, your bios and flash rom are correctly set.


 * If lxdream shows you the internal Dreamcast interface after the Dreamcast boot, no image is chosen. The other possible reason is that your image is not bootable or is not compatible with your current bios version (NTSC-U, NTSC-J, PAL). This happens with GDI formatted disk images.


 * While running games you may have some unexpected errors. Sometimes, you can start the game again (with the green arrow button) and continue playing.


 * If the game starts then crashes or stops without error, it is certainly not compatible with the current version of lxdream. A compatibility list is available on the Lxdream_Compatibility page, another is available here. On both lists, you can contribute with your own reports.

Source(s): Mac OS X solutions