It’s been so many yeas but people are still looking out for the Best dreamcast emulator on Windows PC. Back in 1998 when Sega started making these consoles, Dreamcast was quite popular among everyone. Using a handheld device to play games was such a new experience that everyone wanted to be on them all day long. But with technology every piece of tech has a life and in the early 2000s, they stopped making the dreamcast console.
However, that did not stop people from stop playing the games that these consoles had. If you are someone who still loves them and is looking for emulators that can let you play those old games then you are going to love this list of top 10 sega dreamcast emulators for pc.
What is an emulator?
An emulator is a piece of software that essentially duplicates something original. So a dreamcast emulator is an application which will give you the feeling of using an original dreamcast console in terms of the user interface. This way you can enjoy going back in time. Though there are certain some pros and cons to it. Similarly, you can also check out the best gba emulator for pc.
Specifications of Dreamcast Emulator
- High Resolution of 640* 448
- 16MB RAM, 2MB sound RAM, and 8MB video RAM
- Screen with 16.7 Million active colors
- Flexible control pad having analog and digital directional controls
- Virtual memory system data save unit and analog triggers
10 Best Sega Dreamcast Emulators for windows 10/8/7
1. Chankast
Chankast is one of the most popular emulators for the Dreamcast video gaming console. The first Dreamcast emulator to run commercial games was Chankast.
This game was developed by ElSemi, baktery, una-i, and garrofi. The playing schemes and the graphics made it one of the best Dreamcast emulators. It is an advanced SEGA emulator, designed for x86 platforms. If you have a 2 GHz CPU, you can play this game at a reasonable speed.
Specifications:
- Publisher: Chankast
- Date of release: April 18, 2017
- Version: 0.25 alpha
- Category: Video game
- Operating System: Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows 98
- File Size: 722.6 kb
- RAM: 256 MB
- Processor: Minimum 1.6 GHz Pentium 4, DC BIOS
- Price: Free
Some issues can occur if you play this game on Windows 2000 because it was mainly developed for Windows XP. If you want a decent graphics, you could use a basic Graphics card of Nvidia. It was very disappointing that the development of this game only lasted for about 3 months before it became outdated.
Download Link: http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/dreamcast/chankast.html
2. DEmul
DEmul is another well-received emulator for Dreamcast gaming console. This emulator was developed by DreamZzz, ajax16384, Wind, CaH4e3.
This game was created for emulating Dreamcast SEGA gaming console. Now, this emulator also runs a gaming machine, based on Dreamcast SEGA: Atomiswave, Naomi, and Naomi 2. It is now regarded as one of the finest Dreamcast Emulators that can be run on PC.
Specifications:
- Publisher: SEGA
- Date of release: 2006
- Category: Video game
- Operating System: Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Mac
- File Size: 2898 kb
- RAM: 512 MB or more
- Processor: Dual-core processor of 3.0 GHz or above
- Price: Free
It is very compatible and it runs almost all the games on PC. You will get a very smooth experience. A lot of customization options are there for you. It has very high accuracy and easy plugins make the game easier. But the audio customization needs slight improvement.
You can save games and stats and you will also be able to avail the Multiplayer options. With the disappearance of Chankast, DEmul stood with great potential to grab the market.
Click on the link and download the emulator here: http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/dreamcast/demul.html
3.Redream
Redream is also another Dreamcast emulator that will let you play video games with a great experience. This emulator will give you the experience of Dreamcast with high-definition quality.
This emulator is developed by Inolen and declared it as an open-source project. This emulator is new and this has a lot of bug problems that need to be fixed. But, the interesting thing is that it has an active community. So, though the game doesn’t provide you with numerous features, this game has the potential to improve shortly.
Specification:
- Publisher: Anthony Pesch
- Licensed under: GPLv3
- Operating System: Windows 7, Mac OS, Linux
- Processor: x86- 64 compatible with AVX2 or SSE2 support
- RAM: 512 MB or more
- Graphics: OpenGL 3.1 support
- Android: Android 5.0
- Subcategory: Recreation
As stated earlier that Redream is a new emulator, so it does not have more features. But the User interface of Redream is very easy to use. You can adjust the aspect ratio of the screen size. There are many features under development. Some of them are names, save files, multiple controllers, shading support, etc.
Download it here: https://redream.io/
4.NullDC
NullDC is another Dreamcast emulator which grabs the popularity for its compatibility for a wide range of Dreamcast games and also for its speed.
This is an open-source project and it can emulate both Dreamcast and Naomi platforms. It was first announced in 2006. This emulator had the aim to match its compatibility feature more than its speed and the 2007 version proved itself in that compatibility area.
Specifications:
- Publisher: drkIIRaziel, skmp
- Date of Release: February 19, 2007
- Operating System: Windows 8.1 and 10 (both 32 and 64 bit)
- Graphics: DirectX 9.0C, Visual C++ runtime libraries
- Platform: Windows and Android
- RAM: 512 MB or more
- Licensed under: MIT
NullDC is not active now. The developer made it an open-source emulator and the development was stopped. As it is not updated for a long time there are many bugs to be fixed.
Here is the download link for the aforementioned emulator: https://www.emuparadise.me/Sega_Dreamcast_Emulators/Windows/nullDC/19
5.Reicast
Reicast is a Dreamcast emulator, designed for android devices. It is the updated version of NullDC. But, you can play it on your Computer also.
In 2011, the NullDC emulator was stopped and the same developers, with the same codes, created Reicast, especially for Android. Reicast emerged to be steadier than Reicast. If you are searching for a flawless gaming experience on your Android device, Reicast would a useful choice. Installing this and playing games similar to the games like corruption of champions on an emulator will make my day anytime.
Specifications:
- Developer: drkIIRaziel, skmp
- Operating System: Windows 8.1 and 10 (both 32 and 64 bit; Android 2.2 and up; iOS 5.x – 7.x
- Processor: AMD Athlon XP/64/Turion at 2 GHz or Intel Pentium D at 2.1 GHz or equivalent
- RAM: Minimum 1GB
- Graphics Card ( For PC): Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti or ATi Radeon 8500
Android requirements:
- CPU : Cortex A-9, Dualcore, 1.2 GHz
- GPU: Adreno or Mali 400 gpus
- RAM: Minimum 512 mb
The gaming experience with this emulator is great. Some features come automatically with Reicast. The graphic and audio customizations are good, the storage customization option is there.
Apart from this, the screen size customization, saving features, controller support, easy user interface, FPS customization, and cloud VMU would boost up your expectations. It has very good graphics and the audio system, which slightly lacks in NullDC, will make you amazed. You can play almost all the Dreamcast games in this emulator.
Reicast is the latest version. So, it undergoes through the regular update and the bugs are regularly fixed by developers. Though this emulator belongs to the alpha stage, it has a very vivid potential to improve.
Download Link: https://reicast.com/
6.Lxdream
Lxdream is another Dreamcast emulator, specially designed for Mac and Linux users. So, if you are searching for a Dreamcast emulator for Mac or Ubuntu, then you can go for Lxdream.
Specifications:
- Operating System: Mac OS X; Ubuntu 9.10
- Processor: 3.0 GHz Pentium 4
- Graphics card: GeForce FX5 series or something better.
Lxdream is not available for the windows system, but there is a chance that it might be available shortly. But, the work has been stopped by developers. Though it is not announced whether the developers stopped working on the updates but it has been a long time since the last update was announced. This emulator does not have the compatibility to play all the games of Dreamcast, but, a decent amount of good games can be played.
Download Link: https://segaretro.org/Lxdream
7.Icarus
The name of another Dreamcast emulator is Icarus. It will give you great gaming experience. You need to have a quite good processor to run this game. Icarus runs a good number of commercial games of the Dreamcast video game console.
This game is developed by ZeZu, Ector, and Felix. This game is still active and the developers are constantly giving their efforts to improve the emulator. Since Icarus is going through a major change, no version of this emulator is available for download. But, when the game will be available, it will bring a major revolution in the world of emulators. And remember that you need to have a quite fast PC to run this.
Here is the link to the game. Download the game on your PC by clicking this link: http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/dreamcast/icarus.html
8.Makaron
Makaron is another emulator for Dreamcast gaming console. Apart from the Dreamcast, it emulates the Naomi platform on windows. This game is developed by dknute.
This game has a good compatibility rate. Any commercial game, supported by Dreamcast, runs on this emulator. This Makaron emulator was released in the year 2009 and the last update came in the year 2010. Since then, the developers had stopped working on it. So, many bugs need to be fixed by the developers. But it runs very well.
Download Link: https://segaretro.org/Makaron
9.Dreamspec
Dreamspec is a spectrum emulator for Xbox PlayStation 2. This emulator is developed by BigBoy developers. This game comes with near 200 preloaded games. You can distribute it also because it was using OpenXSDK and it is legal. So, it is very user-friendly. There are similar games on Android platform and you can check some of them here.
Additional features
- Good sound
- New skinnable GUI
- Bright screen
- Superior speed
- PAL/NTSC
Developers are not working on it currently but the built-in features make this emulator very well-favored.
Click on the link to download the emulator: http://www.emulation64.com/files/info/325/dreamspec.html/
10.NesterDC
NesterDC is an astonishing, fully-featured Nintendo entertainment emulator for Dreamcast SEGA. It has great compatibility. It operates mainly on Windows 10.
Additional features:
- 100% speed without skipping the frame on most of the games
- Almost perfect compatibility
- Very easy user interface
- 4 players game
- Sound emulation
- Optimized CPU emulation
Download the emulator by clicking on this link: http://nesterdc.emulation64.com/download.html
Conclusion
You are going to love the list of our 10 Best Dreamcast Emulator To Play Sega Games for both windows users and also users who are on Android devices. These emulators can easily run on your windows pc which can have either Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10. Some of these emulators are constantly being updated so just in case you face some issue. Feel free to use an alternative.