Genesis Emulation

Lupin[lvl] · Post by **Lupin[lvl]** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 7:43 am

can anyone explain the details surrounding the genesis emulating?

im aware that there was some offical emulator released in japan, is that commercially available in u.s or europe? or even though japan still?

and wasnt there some conflict about making genesis emulators because of this?

thanks

Hawq1 · Post by **Hawq1** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 8:34 am

At the moment there is DCGen which is a legit emu, theres Segas Smash Pack which is the commercial one and then theres a hack of the Smash Pack that we dont talk about as its illegal.

Van_Lardo · Post by **Van_Lardo** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 10:37 am

I reccomend caution when you buy the "Sega Smash Pack vol. 1" game... you WILL be disappointed with the sound quality if you're expecting a "perfect" version of the Genesis titles.

By the way, does anyone know how Sega did the emulation for Sonic Jam on the Saturn? The play quality of those titles were flawless!

They even managed to put the spin-dash move from Sonic 2/3/&Knuckles into the first Sonic game!... Special stage modes... and even modified versions of the levels themselves!

I'm sure that it's done by emulation and hacking the original code, but why isn't this level of "perfect" emulation possible from the Sega Smash Pack on the Dreamcast, a vastly superior console than the Saturn?

Just something to think about.

DeGamer1 · Post by **DeGamer1** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 12:05 pm

Van_Lardo wrote: By the way, does anyone know how Sega did the emulation for Sonic Jam on the Saturn? The play quality of those titles were flawless! They even managed to put the spin-dash move from Sonic 2/3/&Knuckles into the first Sonic game!... Special stage modes... and even modified versions of the levels themselves!

I'm pretty sure those games are emulated on the Saturn. Sega is not the only company to make an emulator for the Saturn. Look at Konami's MSX Antique Collection, I remember reading an article that Konami themselves stated that the games were emulated. Also Capcom's Rockman X3 for the Saturn is an emulated SNES version, except the actual music which was redone and not emulated. These were very good, I wish they made more

aberf · Post by **aberf** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 12:08 pm

As DcGen is controlled by a one-man team and in a beta stage, it isn't very good. It suffers from a lot of bugs, and at the present moment, is not very playable. Future releases will hopefully be better. The Sega Smash Pack isn't perfect, but it's the best. The games are playable and that's important. Thus far there hasn't been a half decent 16 bit emu for the DC that was truly playable. If you want genesis emulation, you get the sega smach pack. If you want to expand your library beyond 8 roms, then you need the hack of the sega smash pack.

Holly Hasney · Post by **Holly Hasney** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 2:00 pm

..... Smash Pack Blows!!!!

* goes back to his REAL Genesis

IUG-13 · Post by **IUG-13** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 2:33 pm

aberf wrote: As DcGen is controlled by a one-man team...

Well, Lilmuckers has joined the group I thought... Or at least he gave Atani his work as a good steping stone for him to work on.

pavelbure · Post by **pavelbure** » Sun Feb 10, 2002 2:34 pm

smash pack is pretty good. doesent play all the games i have though, just the important ones.

JustinVisible · Post by **JustinVisible** » Mon Feb 11, 2002 2:48 pm

I think Smash Pack volume 1 was really pretty good and considering since I got it brand new for $9.99 it was a great deal, it was worth it for the ability to play Shining Force over again

Schnapple · Post by **Schnapple** » Mon Feb 11, 2002 4:15 pm

does anyone know how Sega did the emulation for Sonic Jam on the Saturn

Well according to the Saturn FAQ, the Saturn's sound chip was the main Genesis chip:

An interesting anecdote Raymond illustrates is that up until the
Dreamcast, the main processor in the previous Sega machine was the
audio processor in its direct replacement:

SMS - Z80 CPU, ? Sound CPU
Genesis/MD - 68000 CPU, Z80 Sound CPU
Saturn - SH2 CPUs, 68000 Sound CPU

Because of this, it may be possible to run 68000 based games on
the Saturn in the same vein that Master System/Mark III games could
run on the Genesis/Megadrive thanks to Sega's decision to use a
Z80 as the Megadrive's audio processor.

The Saturn also shares the same family of CPU used in the 32X/Mars
(the Hitachi SH2). There is a very loose connection between the two
(see section 1.9).

The bottom line is that emulation of older systems using the Saturn
hardware MAY be possible, but it is unknown if this was ever
officially explored.

Van_Lardo · Post by **Van_Lardo** » Mon Feb 11, 2002 4:28 pm

Oooooohhhh...... iiiiinnnnnttteerrrreeessstttiiinngggg........

Is that why the music on Sonic Jam games didn't fade away like the original Genesis versions? When you completed a level in Sonic 3 &Knuckles the music would fade away at the end of the level nicely... This didn't happen in the SJ version.

Holly Hasney · Post by **Holly Hasney** » Mon Feb 11, 2002 4:38 pm

I was reading on a post once on some techie forum and they were on about XBox... apparently, x86 functions would STILL have to be emulated inside an x86 enviroment... thats what I heard

Heliophobe_ · Post by **Heliophobe_** » Mon Feb 11, 2002 6:03 pm

Van_Lardo wrote: Oooooohhhh...... iiiiinnnnnttteerrrreeessstttiiinngggg........

Is that why the music on Sonic Jam games didn't fade away like the original Genesis versions? When you completed a level in Sonic 3 &Knuckles the music would fade away at the end of the level nicely... This didn't happen in the SJ version.

The SJ version probably used CD Audio to play music.

Katana_ · Post by **Katana_** » Mon Feb 11, 2002 10:52 pm

Also a factor that could have made the differance is sonic jam was made by the all powerful sonic team... smash pack was a port of a PC emu...