Illbleed being a game that has only sold roughly 50k copies internationally, it will be a hard game to come by for cheap.

And though with minimal regional differences that will matter to your runs, burned copies have been used for runs of this game since the early days of speedrunning and will have minor differences that will matter long term for your speedrun.

But first to know if your USA dreamcast can run a burned copy, you should identify the model it is as only versions 0 and 1 can play burned copies without modifications. You can identify this by flipping your dreamcast over and checking the sticker. However you need a strong lazer to read the game, otherwise it will not run or read the CD rom you have the reproduction on, and will be much harsher to your Dreamcast as well. Causing it to heat more and make its lazer's life die faster unless you modify it to read specifically CD Roms.

However, with that said:

It is always reccomended to run this game on official hardware as burned copy load times are not as consistent as authentic copy load times. With the in game timer Illbleed provides, authentic copies have only a 1 to 2 second inaccuracy whereas burned/backup/reproduction copies can have a 3 to 5 second inaccuracy. And though better than running on an emulator eith a bad pc which can have issues of a minutr kong inaccuracy, it has and will always be reccomended to run this game with an authentic copy on official hardware.

Here is a comparison of an authentic versus a backup disc in case you're buying online and need to know the difference.

Authentic discs have a certain glint and shine to them that is not apparent on a reproduction/backup disc. As printing isn't as good.

Repro/backups will also normally have white for where transparency is from the paper it is printed on as well.

Shiny parts don't shine either. They just have a strange printing effect to somewhat emulate the look in a certain kind of lighting.

I do own a real copy (prized possession of my collection) but would I be able to run it off GDEMU or would I have to use a real disc for runs?

Very fair question

We're allowed to use EMU for runs however they're considered separate from official console runs. We do allow authentic copies and backup copies along with emus as Illbleed is at minimum $100 to get a copy of and considering the price of your average dreamcast, you're at least spending $150 if you're lucky and not considering the use of a capturecard that works well with a PC and a stable internet connection along with a PC viable enough for hosting streams. Which would or could easily build up to an extra $600 to $1.4k.

Just note that depending on your emulator (which I reccomend the dev version of Redream) you could or should expect some smaller issues. Personally in my experience using a .CHD rom with Redream has done me the best and has gotten me the current WR for EMU.

Personally I have not used GDEMU, but as long as it doesn't give an unfair advantage within your run and as long as you personally feel comfortable with it I do not see any reason at least in my experience for why a run would be denied.

Hope this answered your question!

Though I should also mention as a person who ran via emu on my HP Laptop, it had a time issue of about a minute where I would lose a minute of time every run I would do. So if you're using an emulator you better be damn sure that your PC can run it well. Sure I may of gotten a 1:19, I just simply forgot to cut out some extra footage and so the current time is a tad off and I'm just too lazy to resubmit the run again. It's not impossible to use an emu for a good run.

I should note that I'm not a moderator or a run authenticator. But maybe with enough time I could become one. If anyone would be qualified to answer it would be: Punchy, oniryu123, or crisdoile2.

Oh I would be using a SD card replacement for the disc drive but it is a real Dreamcast system I'd run on. I would be able to run on real disc if nessecary though.

Pretty sure that is allowed but it would just count as an emulated run. Just make sure that you label the platform accordingly. I know that most of the runners including myself aren't super acutely aware of all the different emulation options.

As doubtful as I am of it happening I'm sure that a moderator can correct me if I'm wrong on that being allowed. But I'm pretty sure it is.