Setups for a netplay tournament are very simple: just use the netplay pack. In person setups are a bit more complex, depending on what you have available to you, and what trade offs you're willing to make.

The quick and short of it: Just grab a laptop and download the netplay pack on it.

Pros

• Just about any computer out of the last 15 or so years will work fine
• Fast & easy setup, gameshark codes included
• Easy recording / streaming

Cons

• Might not be able to hotswap controllers without a game restart
• Controller remapping might slow things down
• Question to yourself if using a good low lag PC LCD monitor, or a VGA CRT + a HDMI/DVI → VGA transcoder results in lower display lag if you're not using an ancient machine with native VGA output

If you got a laptop, you've got a setup. It could be just that simple. If you're not too concerned with striving for the absolute best setup with the lowest possible lag/latency, and/or aren't running a big bracket requiring Bring Your Own Controller / have the time to waste on controller swapping & mapping slowdowns, this is a simple and easy setup thats cheap and easy to get, multiple of even. Works best when the person providing the setup also provides a couple controllers to stay with the setup that everyone will use.

Hunker your way on down to the netplay pack setup guide page, and download our netplay pack. Congratulations, you've got a setup.

BizHawk doesn't support D0 codes (= gamesharks are a no go), ePSXe/PCSX is ancient shit, and god help you if you understand Retroarch enough to want to use it. That only really leaves mednafen and Duckstation as reasonable and good emulators to use.

If you don't like or can't use mednafen (found in the netplay pack) for whatever reason, Duckstation is your next best bet then. You can leave your Duckstation settings to whatever you already have them at (or defaults if you don't care). All you have to do is open the cheats tab, and copy paste the tournament standard gameshark codes in, and find your way over to 2P VS. A complete save file isn't necessary, the gameshark cheats will unlock everything for you.

Where are the gameshark cheats? stares at Yuri

For our purposes, only PS1s and PS2s count as real hardware.

Pros

• Authentic low lag experience when played on CRT

Cons

• Authentic graphical slowdown :D
• Prepare to spend a while entering gameshark codes
• Unlocking everything for yourself, if you don't use gameshark cheats

The game suffers from slowdowns during intense graphical situations on real hardware, such as Sakuyamon daring to use ever. Because of it, real hardware actually isn't ideal for DRA, but if you've got it on hand and you're willing to deal with the slowdown, its an otherwise fine setup. Gameshark codes are also available to be used, if you own a gameshark disc or cartridge, but unless you want to track down ancient software and ancient serial cables and things no reasonable human would do anymore, have fun entering all the tournament standard gameshark codes into your gameshark, line by line, character by character. Oh, and the gameshark discs tend to have shoddy implementations of some code types or not support some code types, so some codes might not be usable or require modification to work on that particular disc (codes utilizing only D0 and 80 code types are usually safe). Not a problem if you choose to play the original game, but remember that means playing with items and stage hazards!

Can't be bothered to write this one out atm

Pros

• Native CRT TV output of real hardware, and fixed graphical slowdown of emulation. Best of both worlds! Ncea claims PS3 still has graphical slowdown. I suppose this requires more investigation.
• …or native HDMI output for your modern capture card, if you'll be using a LCD monitor anyways

Cons

• Using gameshark codes is impractical

Since PS3s use software emulation for PS1 backward compatibility, the graphical slowdowns of real hardware are gone on PS3. The downside, is that gameshark cheats are basically impossible to use without hacking your system (unless you have a PAL PS3, can track down that one disc that does work on PS3, and intend to play PAL DRA: ha!), because gameshark discs near universally don't work on PS3 for some reason or another. Thankfully, finding a complete save file online and copying to your system over USB is rather easy, so unlocking everything doesn't take much time at all. If you've got a PS3 on hand already, and are willing to play with items and hazards, a PS3 is probably the most ideal setup you can have. It is the tried and true setup of Japanese tournaments after all! Unfortunately though, if you don't have a PS3 it'd be better, easier, and maybe cheaper all around to just get a PC and play on an emulator, and PS3 isn't viable for no items/hazards tournaments outright, so it will probably forever remain in use only by Japanese tournaments.

Find some save files online, and link or upload them here so people don't have to go digging around themselves. Other than that, there isn't really anything to say about setup.

…sorry, I don't own a Mister, and neither does anyone else in the DRA Discord, so no one has been able to test how ideal the Mister is, how easy setup is, etc. I (Yuri) plan to buy a Mister, eventually, but for the time being, sorry. If you have a mister already or are willing to shell the money for it to run your bracket, you'll be on your own for now!