Sega Dreamcast Katana Development Kit Hardware

Edit on Github | Updated: 5th January 2023

Official Sega Development hardware

GD-X Duplicator (HKT-01)

Hardware unit to duplicate GD-ROMs, not used for development but useful for duplicating discs for testers.

You can see a video of the GD-X Duplicator by Adam Koralik here 1:


GD-Writer (HKT-04)

The GD-Writer is used by developers to burn GD-R discs which are a writable version of the Dreamcast GD-ROMs.

You can see the GD-Writer in action in this video by Adam Koralik 2:

In order to use the GD-Writer hardware you would need to run a program called GD Workshop on your dreamcast DEV.BOX.


System Disk 2

In order to help prevent alpha and beta games being leaked to the public, Sega made sure that an additional disc was required to run developer burned GD-Rs 3.

This additional disc was known as the Sega Dreamcast System Disc 2.

In order to run any developer-burned games you would need to insert the disc into either a standard dreamcast or development kit which would then ask for the burned disc to be inserted.

This additional layer of security helped game development studios put their mind at ease when sending prototypes or final review candidates to third parties such as games magazine publishers for review.

The GD-R discs are writeable versions of GD-ROMs and are burned by developers using their Dreamcast development kits DEV.BOX using a program called the GD Workshop.

GD Workshop (GD-R Burner/Virtualiser)

You can find out about the GD Workshop in this post.


Set 4 Development hardware


Set 5 Katana Development Hardware (HKT-0120)


References