Table of Contents
Sega Hikaru
The Sega Hikaru is an arcade system board released by Sega in 1999. It was an evolution of the NAOMI hardware with superior graphics capabilities, featuring two Hitachi SH-4 CPUs and the first arcade platform capable of Phong Shading. Due to its high production cost, Sega abandoned the platform in favor of NAOMI and NAOMI 2 development, resulting in a very small library of dedicated-cabinet games.
This system is only available on x86_64 builds.
Quick reference
- Folder:
/userdata/roms/hikaru - Accepted ROM formats:
.zip,.7z
BIOS
No BIOS files are required for MAME or lr-mame.
For Demul, BIOS files are managed internally by the emulator.
ROMs
Place your Sega Hikaru ROMs in /userdata/roms/hikaru.
ROMs should be in zipped format compatible with MAME 0.284 or later.
The emulators are still work in progress for Hikaru games, so mileage will vary. Performance depends on your x86_64 system hardware. If you get audio stuttering and slow music, your system is not powerful enough to run this system.
Emulators
Demul
Demul is a Sega Dreamcast and arcade emulator running under WINE. It is the default emulator for Hikaru in Batocera.
Your graphics card requires Vulkan drivers for Demul to work.
Demul: First start
You need to run a ROM at least once and be connected to the internet. This creates the directory structure and installs the associated Windows libraries for WINE.
It may take some minutes before the game starts on first use — this is normal. Please be patient as it can take up to 2 minutes depending on your internet connection speed.
Demul: Controllers
Currently controllers cannot be configured using the desktop app. This is a limitation of the Demul app under WINE but also a known buggy pad plugin, even under Windows. Currently 2 players are mapped using the emulator's default keyboard configuration via evmapy.
Demul: Service Menu
A keyboard is required. You can access the Service Menu using F4 and then use F2 to navigate with F4 to select.
Demul configuration
ES setting name batocera.conf key | Description » ES option key value |
|---|---|
GAME ASPECT RATIO hikaru.demulRatio | Set the game aspect ratio. » Stretch 0, 4:3 (Default) 1, 16:9 2. |
VSYNC hikaru.demulVSync | Fix screen tearing. » Off 0, On 1. |
Demul: Compatible ROMs
Demul has a specific list of currently compatible ROMs:
| ROM name | Game title |
|---|---|
airtrix | Air Trix (Rev. A) |
airtrixo | Air Trix (original) |
braveff | Brave Firefighters |
hikcheck | Hikaru Check ROM BD |
pharrier | Planet Harriers (Rev. A) |
swracer | Star Wars: Racer Arcade |
sgnascar | NASCAR Arcade (Rev. A) |
sgnascaro | NASCAR Arcade (original) |
von4 | Cyber Troopers Virtual-On 4: Force (Rev. E) |
MAME
MAME (standalone) can be used as an alternative emulator for Hikaru games. It supports the full Hikaru ROM set, though emulation accuracy and performance vary per game.
RetroArch
RetroArch with the libretro: MAME core is also available.
RetroArch configuration
RetroArch offers a Quick Menu accessed by pressing [HOTKEY] + 
which can be used to alter various things like RetroArch and core options, and controller mapping.
Troubleshooting
For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.