Flycast (Windows)
Flycast is a multi-platform Sega Dreamcast, NAOMI, and Atomiswave emulator.
Unlike Demul, Flycast supports RAW Input to handle multiple mice and works without background tools like DemulShooter, Reshade and No Mousey. Therefore it is far easier to setup for two players and has superior rendering options as well.
Flycast Standalone emulator setup guide
by :Bratwurstmensch
NOTE: This guide was created using Flycast v1.3
General Setup
Your BIOS files need to go into the emulator subfolder "data“.
Ensure your guns are connected, and the Sinden software is running before booting up Flycast.
Edit the settings tabs by running the emulator and clicking "Settings“.
Choose your preferred language and region settings as preferred. Set Cable to "VGA“ and add as many folders to locate your ROM-files as you need.
Uncheck "Hide Legacy Naomi Roms“. You can set these here if you want to use automatic load/save states.
Controls
Check "Use Raw Input".
At "Dreamcast Devices“, set Device A and B to "Light Gun“. Choose "Sega VMU“ next to those entries – your game saves are stored there. You can check/uncheck crosshairs here.
All connected physical devices, including your Sinden gun (mouse & keyboard), should show up under "Physical Devices“ with their device ID. To find out about your right device ID, you can look that up in the DemulShooter UI for example. If you haven´t set that up yet, follow Titch's DemulShooter tutorial.
- NOTE: The latest version of Flycast v2.0 no longer displays the device ID's. You can use v1.3 to find the device ID's which will list the connected devices in the same order.
Set your first gun to Port A and your second gun to Port B. Make sure to set up both Sinden Mouse and Sinden Keyboard, as you will need both to bind buttons.
Your Tab should look like this (with different Devices / IDs listed):
Click "Map" per gun and bind your buttons. While having a DPAD, the Dreamcast Gun only had a B and Start buttons. The A Button was used for the Trigger. Therefore there are luckily not many buttons to bind.
To switch between Dreamcast and Arcade, use the Dropdown menu to the right.
Mouse VID_(…):
Both Dreamcast & Arcade Controls
Start: Middle Button (recommended: Front left side button of Sinden gun)
A (Dreamcast) / Button 1 (Arcade): Left Button (Trigger onscreen)
Reload: Right Button (Trigger offscreen)
Keyboard VID_(…):
Dreamcast Controls
DPAD buttons should already be mapped to Up, Down, Left, Right.
B: Rear left side button of Sinden gun, Space, for example
Arcade Controls
DPAD buttons should already be mapped to Up, Down, Left, Right.
Button 2: Rear left side button of Sinden gun, Space, for example
Start: 1 (2 for player 2)
Coin: 5 (6 for player 2)
It´s also important to bind the Service and Test buttons for calibration. You can bind these buttons to your keyboard or a connected regular controller (shoulder buttons are mapped as default) as you please.
Video
You can leave most of these settings at the default values.
Check "Widescreen“ if you want to make use of widescreen rendering. It doesn´t affect your alignment, but consider that you cannot shoot outside of the 4:3 rendering area which can be distractive for some players.
For newer graphics cards, check "Vulkan“ for better performance.
Increase internal resolution; 4K works very well for example.
If you want to use HD texture packs (there is one for Confidential Mission, The House of the Dead 2 and Demolition Racer: No Exit) you can check that box as well and create a subfolder "textures“ to put them there.
You can skip the other tabs as you don´t need to change anything there.
That´s it. Choose your game in the "Games“ view of Flycast.
Full Screen
Press Alt + Enter on your keyboard to switch from windowed to full screen.
AHK Scripts
If you want to use AHKs to combine Flycast with your lightgun software for frontends, for example, use this script to bootup Flycast with the rom file:
Run, YOUR_PATH\flycast.exe "ROMPATH\House of the Dead 2 (US).chd"
Non-working games in Flycast
Make sure you do NOT use Dreamcast-converted arcade games; these conversions will not work.
These lightgun games do currently not work in Flycast yet; use Demul for these:
- Brave Firefighters
- Extreme Hunting 2
- Manic Panic Ghosts! / Pokasuka Ghost!
Game Notes
Big Car Hunter
There is an unlockable mini-game called "Big Car Hunter" in the Dreamcast game "Demolition Racer: No Exit", which can be played with a lightgun.
To take a shortcut and unlock it right away, just inject a 100% save game and inject it to your VMU with a tool like vmuexplorer.
In order to play this, go into your control settings, choose a gamepad in Port A, and your lightgun in Port D. You find the game in the Extras menu.
Extreme Hunting 2
This Atomiswave game has been "fixed" and is now confirmed working in flycast versions after 15th Feb 2023
House of the Dead 2
In the Dreamcast version, blood is green by default. To change the blood colour to red, you must beat the game in the original mode. After you beat it, go back to the options menu, and there should be an option to change blood colour.
Mazan: Flash of the Blade
A very interesting title that is also supported by Flycast.
This is no "real" gun game because you´re supposed to swing a sword. But the gun can be calibrated to control the sword onscreen very accurately.
The sword will only show up after calibration in the service menu. You need to follow the instructions on the calibration screen and keep the pointer in the corners for a few seconds.
After succeeding, a small point will show up. The sword should show up in-game now, and you can slice over the screen to play the game.
There is a small calibration video tutorial near the end of this video on YouTube.
Ninja Assault Calibration
- Map the following buttons under Arcade Controls: Service, Test, Up, Down, Button 3
- Launch the game and wait until it fully loads to the Add Credit screen.
- Press the Test button and use the up & down buttons to scroll down to I/O Test.
- Press Button 3 to select/enter.
- Select Gun Initialize for calibration.
Sports Shooting USA Calibration
- This game requires calibration for both P1 and P2 guns, even if you are only using 1 Sinden lightgun.
- You can try assigning your mouse as gun 2 (Port B) or try mapping your Sinden lightgun to both Ports A & B in order to get passed the calibration screen.