don't click here

Does a decent SMS/GG emulator for Windows still exist?

Discussion in 'General Sega Discussion' started by MarzSyndrome, Oct 26, 2009.

  1. MarzSyndrome

    MarzSyndrome

    Everything is going to the beat. Member
    To summarise, my favourite SMS/GG emulator in the past - Meka - has in recent years become unbearably crap, mainly in the sound department (crackly, glitchy sound which still has yet to be fixed). Of course back in my Win95/98 years I could just run the DOS version without a problem. In today's XP world however, attempting to run it under DOSBox results in an annoyingly slow emulator, a file selector which crashes the program very easily, and still pretty dodgy sound in parts. The Windows version I never seemed to greatly get along with, particularly with its (initial?) insistence on using an 8-bit display, which meant having to refresh the screen in 256-colour mode and making all my open windows reset, causing me to lose ground of any files or folders I was working on at the time.


    So I thought for a long while that Kega Fusion would be the best at it, but trying an SMS game out lately (using v3.63), I couldn't help but notice how - well - slow everything moved, particularly in comparison to, say, SMSAdvance and S8DS. It also appears to display SMS graphics in the same resolution as a Mega Drive, making everything look a bit dodgy in the edges and not as nice-looking as usual. Seems like 16-bit emulation is its obvious strong point.


    So can anyone recommend another emulator out there if possible? I don't know which ones still get regularly updated nowadays.
     
  2. DosBOX: CTRL + F12 helps.
     
  3. MarzSyndrome

    MarzSyndrome

    Everything is going to the beat. Member
    It already runs Meka in max cycles by default, so that makes no difference.
     
  4. Afti

    Afti

    ORIGINAL MACHINE Member
    3,521
    0
    0
    Kega Fusion emulates the Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, SMS, GG, SG-1000, and SG-2000. Just use it.
     
  5. MarzSyndrome

    MarzSyndrome

    Everything is going to the beat. Member
    I don't believe I've heard of the SG-2000 before. Is it an obscure Sega console? :P ;)


    And I did mention Fusion in my post and cited its notable weakness in SMS/GG emulation. Are we sure nothing else emulates it better?
     
  6. FlashTHD

    FlashTHD

    Oldbie
    231
    0
    0
    Kega is slow? Never heard that one about its' 8-bit emulation, you sure you didn't set the hardware region to EUR by accident?

    As for the resolution, it's supposed to be like that on the original hardware. To get 1:1 pixel resolution, open Kega.ini and set ForceCompatibleGraphics to 1 (which it tells you the first time you start up the thing). You'll lose some display options in the exchange since the mode isn't supported anymore.
     
  7. ICEknight

    ICEknight

    Researcher Researcher
    Indeed. You'll see ovals instead of circles, otherwise.
     
  8. GerbilSoft

    GerbilSoft

    RickRotate'd. Administrator
    2,971
    76
    28
    USA
    rom-properties
    Regen supports SMS/GG and other Sega 8-bit systems, so try that out.

    Gens/GS will hopefully support SMS/GG sometime in the future. (I'm not implementing the hackish method that Gens+ uses, which is essentially a totally separate emulator contained within the same program.)
     
  9. The Game Collector

    The Game Collector

    Member
    939
    19
    18
    Washington State, USA
    Being Ted Narcotic's bass player; working on Kelly Kristjanson's tape archive; collecting video games
    I like DEGA for SMS and Game Gear emulation better as you can run Game Gear games at full screen with no border, and you can enhance the audio of every game instead of just the ones that Kega does that to by default. Makes the 8-bit music that much more bearable.
     
  10. nineko

    nineko

    I am the Holy Cat Tech Member
    6,298
    475
    63
    italy
    I shouldn't say this because I am a proud Dega user too (and I don't feel like changing), but it's one of the most inaccurate emulators nowadays.
    Now, to actually help you with your question, I think you'd have better luck asking that on the Smspower forums, you don't even need an account to post there so you can just ask as a guest. I can also point you to a thread in particular: http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11927. That is the thread where PoorAussie released the latest beta version of RetroCopy, which is supposedly the most accurate SMS emulator out there right now. However you must be warned that apparently it has ridiculous system requirements because of poor programming choices which make it as bad as Vista in that department. I never tried it though so I can't know if it's true. I'll just stick with Dega.
     
  11. MarzSyndrome

    MarzSyndrome

    Everything is going to the beat. Member
    Hmmm. While it emulates it okay, it can't seem to handle more than one SMS rom per session without crashing immediately.
     
  12. MarzSyndrome

    MarzSyndrome

    Everything is going to the beat. Member
    Re: Kega Fusion - curiously, in ForceGFXCompatibility mode, the SMS screen is stretched in Double (default) or Scanlines mode, but in Normal or plugin mode (hq2x here), the screen isn't stretched, and indeed looks like a more appropriate resolution. It's a shame I can't achieve this effect outside of ForceGFXCompatibility (which refreshes my monitor on both startup and exit, which is pretty annoying), really.

    As for slowness, well I don't know if it's the games I tested at the time (Sonic Chaos and R-Type), but R-Type seems to run and look better under SMSAdvance and S8DS for one thing (no sprite flickering for instance, plus it feels a bit faster than under Fusion. And is Sonic Chaos really that much slower than Sonic 1? I always thought it was a bit faster than at on my Game Gear.
     
  13. FlashTHD

    FlashTHD

    Oldbie
    231
    0
    0
    Tiny handheld resolution tends to have that effect. It's more playable on SMS, or should I say tolerable, since you can see most of the cheap hits coming.
     
  14. MainMemory

    MainMemory

    Kate the Wolf Tech Member
    4,735
    334
    63
    SonLVL
    SADX uses an emulator. I was able to decompress one of the prs files and run it in Gens+, but the colors were all messed up...
    Edit: Okay, that was probably just Gens+, which couldn't run Sonic 1 properly. I tried it in Meka and it worked fine.
     
  15. muteKi

    muteKi

    Fuck it Member
    7,850
    131
    43
    I still use eSMS sometimes because I like to sometimes play Game Gear games in SMS resolution.
     
  16. GerbilSoft

    GerbilSoft

    RickRotate'd. Administrator
    2,971
    76
    28
    USA
    rom-properties
    The stretched version is more accurate, since on a TV, the image fills the entire screen. (It's still 256px wide, but the pixel clock is slower, so each pixel takes more space on the screen.)

    Probably the reason why it's disabled in Normal or Plugin mode is due to DirectDraw weirdness. (Kega uses DirectDraw in Compatible graphics mode and Direct3D in regular mode.) Gens/GS had similar weirdness, but I think it's (mostly) fixed for Release 7. If not, it'll be fixed in Release 7.1 (after I completely rewrite the DirectDraw renderer).
     
  17. Vangar

    Vangar

    Member
    3,654
    62
    28
    Meka was pretty damn sweet for DOS. Extremely fun times on a 486. But I don't see a problem with Kega personally... even older pcs run Kega SMS/GG fine..
     
  18. AamirM

    AamirM

    Tech Member
    You're probably using an older version. Try the 0.972 version. It won't crash :) . Also, enable SuperHQ and SMS NTSC plugin with 12% scanlines for added realism ;).

    Also, if it helps, Regen's SMS/GG emulation passes all of the VDP tests by FluBBa (RetroCopy is the only other emulator that does this but has very high requirements as nineko said) which require very strict and accurate timings so Regen should be VERY accurate in the SMS/GG department :) .