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Emulator Flycast

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digdat0 edited this page Jul 23, 2026 · 1 revision

Systems: Dreamcast (dc), NAOMI (naomi), Atomiswave (atomiswave) · Runs as: homebrew NRO · Get it: Homebrew App Store · flyinghead/flycast

Best effort: this guide is community-maintained and may lag behind new releases. The emulator's own project (linked above) is the authoritative source — if anything here doesn't match what you see, trust their instructions.

Flycast is the standalone Sega-arcade-and-Dreamcast emulator, and it's the single best pick for three HaulNX folders at once: dc, naomi, and atomiswave. It's the same emulator RetroArch uses as its Flycast core, but running as its own app it's easier to point at your library and manage BIOS. Performance on Switch is genuinely good for Dreamcast — an overclock smooths out the heavier games.

Install

  1. Download the Switch build and extract it so you end up with sd:/switch/flycast/flycast.nro and a sd:/flycast/ support folder.
  2. Launch it once from the homebrew menu so it writes its config, then quit — that creates the folders the next steps need.

BIOS files

Dreamcast games can boot with Flycast's built-in HLE BIOS, but a real BIOS is more compatible (and required for the boot animation and some games). NAOMI and Atomiswave always need their BIOS. Put these in sd:/flycast/data/:

File For Notes
dc_boot.bin Dreamcast Console boot ROM
dc_flash.bin Dreamcast Flash/settings; holds region + date
naomi.zip NAOMI BIOS romset (keep zipped)
awbios.zip Atomiswave BIOS romset (keep zipped)

See the consolidated BIOS Files page if you're setting up several emulators at once.

Point it at your HaulNX library

Flycast has a built-in content browser and remembers folders you add:

  1. Download games with HaulNX — they land in sd:/roms/dc, sd:/roms/naomi, sd:/roms/atomiswave.
  2. In Flycast: Settings › Content › Add and browse to /roms (add each of the three folders, or just /roms and let it list everything).
  3. Back out to the game list and pick a title.

File formats

  • Dreamcast wants disc images: .gdi, .cdi, or .chd. .chd is the friendliest — one compressed file per disc, no loose .bin tracks. See Disc Images & Multi-Disc Games for converting and for multi-disc titles.
  • NAOMI / Atomiswave want the arcade romset .zip (plus the matching BIOS zip above). As with any arcade emulator, the romset version has to match the emulator — mismatched sets throw checksum errors.
  • Unzip Dreamcast archives if HaulNX brought a game down as a plain .zip wrapping a .gdi/.chd — Flycast reads disc images, not zipped ones. Arcade .zip romsets stay zipped.

Tips

  • Overclock for the hard cases. Base clocks handle most 2D and lighter 3D Dreamcast games; an overclock helps with the demanding ones and with NAOMI.
  • VMU saves live under sd:/flycast/ — back them up before clearing games out of the library.
  • If a NAOMI/Atomiswave game refuses to boot, it's almost always a BIOS or romset-version mismatch, not a Flycast bug.

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