Gaelco 3D

The Gaelco 3D is an arcade system board created by the Spanish company Gaelco. The PowerVR 2-based variant used similar technology to Sega's NAOMI hardware, featuring two Hitachi SH-4 CPUs and a dedicated NEC PowerVR Series2 GPU. The system produced a small library of driving and sports games between 1999 and 2003.

This system is only available on x86_64 builds.

Quick reference

BIOS

No BIOS files are required.

ROMs

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

ROMs should be in zipped format compatible with MAME 0.284 or later.

The emulators are still work in progress for Gaelco 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

RetroArch

RetroArch with the libretro: MAME core is the default emulator for Gaelco in Batocera.

RetroArch configuration

RetroArch offers a Quick Menu accessed by pressing [HOTKEY] + South button (B SNES) which can be used to alter various things like RetroArch and core options, and controller mapping.

MAME

MAME (standalone) can be used as an alternative emulator for Gaelco games. It supports the full Gaelco ROM set.

Demul

Demul is a Sega Dreamcast and arcade emulator running under WINE.

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 gaelco.demulRatio Set the game aspect ratio.
» Stretch 0, 4:3 (Default) 1, 16:9 2.
VSYNC gaelco.demulVSync Fix screen tearing.
» Off 0, On 1.
SET GAELCO SCALING AMOUNT gaelco.demulScaling Set the amount of scaling from Gaelco's original resolution.
» 1x 1, 2x 2, 3x 3, 4x 4, 5x 5, 6x 6.

Demul: Compatible ROMs

Demul has a specific list of currently compatible ROMs:

ROM name Game title
atvtrack ATV Track (set 1)
atvtracka ATV Track (set 2)
gfootbal Gaelco Football
smashdrv Smashing Drive (World)
smashdrvb Smashing Drive (UK)
smashdrvs Smashing Drive (Spain, Portugal)

With both MAME and Demul you should be able to play the full collection of games.

Troubleshooting

For further troubleshooting, refer to the generic support pages.

  • systems/gaelco.txt
  • Last modified: 2 months ago
  • by wizzard