Flycast vs WashingtonDC

Flycast is a free emulator for Sega Dreamcast, Naomi, Naomi 2, and Atomiswave, derived from reicast. It runs on Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows, with releases available as stable tagged versions, master builds, and experimental nightly builds. Android users are directed to Google Play; Linux instructions cover Flatpak and Flathub, while macOS instructions use Homebrew. Windows documentation provides a bootstrap script for building from source. Xbox One and Series users can install a build through Xbox Device Portal. Flycast supports online play, with release notes describing modem-emulation improvements and fixes for online features in several games. Its DCNet service is a free dedicated VPN for Dreamcast games; 30 game servers were available when it was released. Physical Dreamcast controllers work with DreamConn+ and DreamPicoPort adapters. On Android, Google Auto Backup can back up VMU saves and non-volatile memory. The project lists GPL-2.0 as its license and says iOS support has been dropped.

washDC, formerly known as WashingtonDC, is a free, open-source SEGA Dreamcast emulator for Linux and Microsoft Windows. It is intended for playing classic Dreamcast games on a modern x86 PC and was built from scratch rather than based on another emulator. The README lists GDI, CHD, CDI, ELF, and raw BIN game image formats, and says BIOS and flash images are required to run the emulator. Controls include keyboard input and support for up to four gamepads. Remote GDB and the WashDbg debugger are listed as TCP debugging options. Wash Emulation describes itself as a one-person team and washDC as its only product to date. The project also publishes homebrew programs for examining Dreamcast behavior, including tests of PowerVR2 backface culling and memory mirroring. Its separate gdisofs tool mounts Dreamcast game images as read-only filesystems on Linux PCs. The emulator is licensed under GNU GPL version 3. The maker links to project updates, Discord, and an email contact.