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Demul

Demul is currently disabled in Batocera. This page may be removed in the future, as it currently holds no relevancy.

Nothing witten beyond this point is implemented n Batocera. Most arcade systems can be emulated by MAME. The nonMAME page can also recommend alternative emulators for certain games.

From their FAQ:

Demul is Sega's multi-system game console and automaton emulator, originally intended solely to emulate the Sega Dreamcast game console. Currently, the emulator also supports emulation of Sega Dreamcast-based slot machines: Naomi, Naomi 2 and Atomiswave . Support for Sega Model 3, Sega Hikaru, Sega Saturn is under development .

Demul is an emulator that focuses on emulating Sega Dreamcast and arcade games, as well as experimental support for a few from other manufacturers such as Cave and Sammy. They generally perform better than their equivalents in MAME (if the games are compatible with MAME at all, most Dreamcast based ones aren't yet).

Demul is run in Batocera under Wine, so any limitations that apply to Wine also applies to Demul (such as requiring ext4 or more advanced filesystems, flaky controller compatibility and only working on x86_64). Demul also requires graphics cards with Vulkan support.

Flash files (the saves for various arcade and home consoles emulatable by Demul) are created and managed by Demul, no need to provide them.

Standardized features available to all cores of this emulator: global.videomode, global.videomode, global.bezel, global.bezel_stretch, global.hud, global.bezel.tattoo, global.bezel.tattoo_corner, global.bezel.tattoo_file, global.bezel.resize_tattoo

ES setting name batocera.conf_key Description ⇒ ES option key_value
GAME ASPECT RATIO global.demulRatio
⇒ Stretch 0, 4:3 (Default) 1, 16:9 2.
VSYNC global.demulVSync Fix screen tearing.
⇒ Off 0, On 1.

When loading a ROM using Demul for the first time, Batocera will download and install the appropriate files. This process takes a few minutes up to (a long time) depending on your internet speed. There is no progress bar.

Redo this section, add images, explain what it's actually for, etc.

A keyboard required to access this menu.

While running a game, press [F4] to access the service menu for that title. This menu contains different options for each game, and saves their configuration independently.

Repeatedly press [F2] to navigate the menu, and press [F4] to confirm.

Atomiswave, Dreamcast, NAOMI each have their own pages.


Gaelco is a Spanish developer which published several arcade games between 1990 and 2005, later moving on to creating electronic dart machines. Batocera refers to “Gaelco” as the collection of arcade games produced between 1998 and 2005.

A list of these games can be found on System 16's hardware page.

This system scrapes metadata for the “gaelco, arcade” group(s) and loads the gaelco set from the currently selected theme, if available.

Quick reference

  • Emulator: Demul
  • Folder: /userdata/roms/gaelco
  • Accepted ROM formats: .zip, .7z

No Gaelco emulator in Batocera needs a BIOS file to run.

Place your Gaelco ROMs in /userdata/roms/gaelco.


The Hikaru is a arcade developed by Sega. It was released in 1999.

A list of known games can be found on System16's hardware page.

This system scrapes metadata for the “hikaru, arcade” group(s) and loads the hikaru set from the currently selected theme, if available.

Quick reference

  • Emulator: Demul
  • Folder: /userdata/roms/hikaru
  • Accepted ROM formats: .zip, .7z
MD5 checksum Share file path Description
aac601811a25d7b31a3d5f3f1f82f338 bios/hikaru.zip
e95415b161121bef35ade12367138c63 bios/mie.zip

Place your Hikaru ROMs in /userdata/roms/hikaru.


The Naomi 2 is a arcade developed by Sega. It was released in 2000.

A list of all the games made for it and their provided media format can be found at the Arcade Otaku Wiki page.

This system scrapes metadata for the “naomi2, arcade” group(s) and loads the naomi2 set from the currently selected theme, if available.

Quick reference

  • Emulator: Demul
  • Folder: /userdata/roms/naomi2
  • Accepted ROM formats: .zip, .7z
MD5 checksum Share file path Description
fc7c2b9363a1e21b9ad42003e165598c bios/naomi2.zip

Place your Naomi 2 ROMs in /userdata/roms/naomi2.


The Cave CV1000 is the series of arcade boards Cave released all its arcade games on between 2004 to 2012.

First the CV1000-B was produced, featuring a Hitachi SH-3 CPU (hence why it may sometimes to be referred to as the “Cave SH-3”); its first title being Mushihimesama. In 2008, the CV1000-D was produced which featured additional RAM; its first title being DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu.

A list of its games can be found on System 16's hardware pages for CAVE CV1000-B and CAVE CV1000-D.

This system scrapes metadata for the “cave3rd, arcade” group(s) and loads the cave3rd set from the currently selected theme, if available.

Quick reference

  • Emulator: Demul
  • Folder: /userdata/roms/cave3rd
  • Accepted ROM formats: .zip, .7z

No Cave CV1000 emulator in Batocera needs a BIOS file to run.

Place your Cave CV1000 ROMs in /userdata/roms/cave3rd.


Currently controllers cannot be configured using the desktop app. This is a limitation of the Demul app under Wine. As of writing, only Player 1 is mapped with the default layout.

This part needs to be rewritten. It contains important information so it will remain here for now.

Demul uses decimal for pad configuration in the padDemul.ini To determine the decimal we have to convert the hexadecimal to decimal. You can edit arcade controls they're under the [JAMMAx_x] headings depending on the number of controllers.

Controller 1 = 0x100 & 0x200 for the buttons & the 2x analog sticks. Controller 2 = 0x101 & 0x201 etc.

Device input hex codes are listed in the appropriate linux kernel input.h depending on the controller type. i.e. A gamepad's 'start' button is 0x13b Therefore controller 1's start button is 0100013b in hex or 16777531 in decimal. Controller 2 would be 0101013b / 16843067 accordingly.

Here are the default Gaelco's controls shown on a Batocera RetroPad:

Controller shortcuts?

Command Keyboard shortcut
Toggle fullscreen mode [Alt] + [Enter]
Toggle windowed mode [F3]
Rotate screen [F5]
Change aspect ratio [F6]
Screenshot [F9]
Toggle crosshair [F11]
Pause emulation [Pause]

Needs to be rewritten to be relevant to Batocera. For instance, some “BIOS system menu” may refer to the service menu.

Most questions about Demul itself can be answered in their FAQ. To summarize some of the game-specific error codes:

The game requires changing the number of players in the system configuration of the arcade machine. You can do this in the Naomi BIOS system menu. Demul provides automatic adjustment of system parameters to games from the current emulator romset. At the same time, if the settings file with the name of the specified game already exists in the “nvram\” folder, the automatic adjustment will be skipped. To activate it, you need to erase the previously saved settings file.

The game requires switching the video signal output mode with a jumper on the rear panel of the system unit. You can select the required mode in the “Configure→Naomi” menu.

The game requires changing the monitor orientation from portrait to landscape or vice versa. You can do this in the Naomi BIOS system menu. Demul provides automatic adjustment of system parameters for games from the current emulator romset. At the same time, if the settings file with the name of the specified game already exists in the “nvram\” folder, which was saved earlier, automatic adjustment will be skipped. To activate it, you need to erase the previously saved settings file.

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.

  • emulators/demul.txt
  • Last modified: 15 months ago
  • by atari