Play Flycast with the VMU in your Pulsar controller: the game's screen on the VMU, and your saves on it too. Pulsar Link runs in the background on your computer, and a page in your browser backs up, restores, adds and exports the saves on that VMU.
Install once, pair the controller as usual, play.
Where to get Pulsar Link. The only official source is this repository's Releases page. Copies of Pulsar repos on other GitHub accounts that offer a "download" have been found carrying malware. Don't run them.
- The game's VMU screen on the VMU docked in your Pulsar, while you play in Flycast
- Saves go to the VMU, to your computer, or both; Flycast's own save files are never erased
- Saves reach the VMU in the background, so Flycast never waits; a save survives a dropped link or a quit, and is finished next time
- A save manager page: back up the whole card, restore it, add and remove saves (
.vms/.vmi,.dci, or picked from a card image), download any save - Starts at login and stays out of the way; open it again to get to the page
- Copies into Flycast's per-game VMU files, telling the game from its disc (GDI, cue/bin, CDI, CHD)
- Flycast (v2.7 and later) can hand a controller port's VMU to a program on the same machine over a local TCP port. Pulsar Link listens there.
- It talks to the Pulsar over Bluetooth LE through the controller's host service, on the connection the computer already holds for the gamepad. No second pairing.
- Flycast expects a reply within 100 ms, and the controller reads its VMU far slower than that. So Pulsar Link keeps a copy of the card on disk, answers Flycast from it, and writes changes to the VMU in the background, keeping them in a journal until they are on it.
- A Pulsar controller with current firmware (update here), paired with your computer, and a VMU docked in it
- Flycast v2.7 or later (standalone)
- macOS 11 or later, or Windows 10 or 11 (x86_64). Linux (BlueZ) builds and runs but is less tested. Batocera 44 or later: see Running on Batocera.
- Download
pulsar-link-macos.dmgfrom Releases and drag Pulsar Link into Applications. - Open it from Applications, and allow Bluetooth when asked.
- The page opens in your browser. With Flycast closed, choose Set up Flycast under Setup. That's it: Pulsar Link now starts when you log in.
It needs BlueZ and the D-Bus library, which any Linux desktop with Bluetooth already has
(libdbus-1-3 on Debian and Ubuntu, dbus-libs on Fedora).
- Download
pulsar-link-linux-x86_64.tar.gz(or-aarch64) from Releases and unpack it where it will stay, such as~/.local/opt, which gives apulsar-linkfolder. Not~/.local/share/pulsar-link: that is where it keeps your cards and backups. - Run
./pulsar-linkin that folder. It sets itself to start at login (a systemd user service) and opens the page; choose Set up Flycast there.
The Windows build is not code-signed yet, so Windows warns before the first run.
- Download
pulsar-link-windows-x86_64.zipfrom Releases. Before unzipping, open the zip's Properties and tick Unblock, so Windows does not stop the program that starts it at login. Then extract it where it will stay, such as%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs, which gives apulsar-linkfolder. Keep its files together:pulsar-link-background.exeis what starts it at login without a window. - Run
pulsar-link.exe. If Windows says it protected your PC, choose More info, then Run anyway. It sets itself to start at login and opens the page. - Flycast on Windows keeps its settings beside
flycast.exe, which Pulsar Link cannot find yet, so set Flycast by hand, with Flycast's VMU in port A's first slot: Settings → Controls → that slot → DreamPotato, and tick Use Physical VMU Storage for saves on the VMU. On the page, choose VMU only under where saves go: copying saves into Flycast's own files is not supported on Windows yet.
Open the new version: it takes over from the one running, unless a game is using it (quit the game first). The page shows which version is running, at the bottom.
- macOS: open the new disk image and open Pulsar Link from it; choose Replace to move it into Applications. Dragging it into Applications and choosing Replace works too.
- Linux: unpack it over the old folder, then open it.
- Windows: Windows cannot replace a program that is running, so either extract the new zip
into a new folder, open
pulsar-link.exethere and delete the old folder afterwards; or stop Pulsar Link first (Stop pulsar-link on its page from 0.1.2, orpulsar-link.exe uninstallbefore that), then extract it over the old folder and open it.
The page lives at http://127.0.0.1:37380; open Pulsar Link again to get back to it. Start a game once the page says Ready: Flycast decides when a game starts whether to use the VMU.
Where saves go is set on the page:
| Setting | Saves go to |
|---|---|
| VMU and this computer (default) | the VMU, and each one is copied into Flycast's own file |
| VMU only | the VMU; Flycast's files are left as they are |
| This computer only | Flycast's own files, as without a Pulsar; the VMU still shows the screen |
Saves go on the VMU while the controller is left alone: the Pulsar writes to its VMU only once the pad has been still for about a second, so a save made mid-game waits for the next pause. Until then it is kept on this computer, through a quit or a crash, and the page counts it as on the way.
A save made before the VMU was ready lands in Flycast's own file; the page lists it and puts it
on the VMU in one click. pulsar-link --help lists the command-line tools.
- Stop it now: on the page, Stop pulsar-link. It starts again the next time you log in, or when you open Pulsar Link.
- Stop it, and not at login: untick Start when I log in on the page, then Stop pulsar-link. Open Pulsar Link again any time to start it.
- Not at login, but running for now: untick Start when I log in and leave it running until you log out.
- Without the page: run
uninstall, which stops it and keeps it from starting at login.- macOS, in Terminal:
"/Applications/Pulsar Link.app/Contents/MacOS/pulsar-link" uninstall - Windows, in Command Prompt:
"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\pulsar-link\pulsar-link.exe" uninstall(or wherever you extracted it) - Linux, in its folder:
./pulsar-link uninstall
- macOS, in Terminal:
- Remove it entirely: run
uninstallfirst, then delete the program: on macOS, drag Pulsar Link from Applications to the Trash; on Windows and Linux, delete the files you extracted (pulsar-linkorpulsar-link.exeandpulsar-link-background.exe,README.md,LICENSE,THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt). Your cards, backups and settings are kept apart, in~/Library/Application Support/pulsar-link(macOS),%APPDATA%\pulsar-link(Windows) or~/.local/share/pulsar-link(Linux). If you extracted the program into that same folder, delete only its files there, notcards,backupsorsettings.cfg; delete the whole folder only if you want your saves gone too.
cargo build --release -p pulsar-link # Linux needs libdbus-1-dev and pkg-config
./scripts/bundle-macos.sh # macOS: target/bundle/Pulsar Link.app./scripts/gate.sh # formatting, clippy, tests, the build: what CI runs
./scripts/page_checks.sh # the page at every width, 200% text, contrast (needs Chrome)crates/vmu-card/— the VMU card image, its filesystem and the save formats. No I/O and no async; tested on the host.crates/pulsar-link/— the program: the Bluetooth link to the Pulsar, the server Flycast connects to, the write-behind journal, the page, and starting at login on each OS.
Each release is built by GitHub Actions from its tag:
pulsar-link-macos.dmg— the app for macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), signed and notarizedpulsar-link-linux-x86_64.tar.gz,pulsar-link-linux-aarch64.tar.gz— Linuxpulsar-link-windows-x86_64.zip— Windows, not yet code-signed
- Pulsar — the controller's firmware: your Dreamcast controller as a Bluetooth gamepad, which also lends its VMU to Pulsar Link.
- Pulsar Maple Bridge — the other way round: the Pulsar on a real Dreamcast, through a Pico2Maple dongle, with the same VMU screen and memory card.
Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md.
This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later.