DiscJuggler
Padus DiscJuggler is a professional CD/DVD recording software program. Its native .CDI image format is by far the most common format used to image self-booting Dreamcast CDs. The final version is DiscJuggler 6.00.1400, released on April 18, 2006, and it was sold up until around April 2011.
DiscJuggler is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, and 11. It also works very well with the Wine compatibility layer on Linux when the wineprefix is set to Windows XP 32-bit mode.
Additionally, Padus provided a .CDI file mounting library which developers can use to integrate .CDI file handling in their Windows programs. This can be used as a plugin for the ImgBurn software to allow burning DiscJuggler .CDI files. ImgBurn is only available for Windows, but like DiscJuggler, it works very well with the Wine compatibility layer on Linux, just make sure to use a Windows XP wineprefix. You may also need to set the I/O Interface option in Settings to "SPTI - Microsoft" for optical drives to be detected properly while using Wine.
- Download DiscJuggler v6.00.1400
- Download Padus .CDI File Mounting Library, aka CDI plugin for ImgBurn
- cdi2nero -- Convert CDI files to Nero .NRG format
- cdirip -- For advanced users: rip CDI files into individual tracks for manual burning
Dreamcast image standard
Because the Dreamcast MIL-CD self-bootable disc format requires multiple sessions be recorded to disc, a Dreamcast CD cannot be represented using an ISO file, which only represents a single CD data track. The most common format in the early 2000s for game discs was CDRWIN's bin/cue format, but while this format supports multiple tracks, it does not support multiple sessions without 3rd party extensions that didn't come until much later. Therefore, when the first Dreamcast CD images began to be distributed, the DiscJuggler image format was chosen and soon became the timeless standard for Dreamcast discs. Later, Nero .NRG and Alcohol 120% .MDF/.MDS files were used as secondary standard formats by some users.