Copyright: GENS 2000/2001/2002 Magic Guild Junkie 2002


Disclaimer
GENS © 1999/2000/2001/2002 Stéphane Dallongeville.

SEGA/Genesis/MegaDrive/SEGA-CD/Mega-CD/32X are trademarks of

Sega Enterprises Ltd.

Gens is free for your own personal use and can be distributed freely as long

as it is not modified. This text file must be included in any distribution

and you must not include any game roms. The author is not responsible for any

loss or damage resulting from the use, or misuse of Gens, you use it at your

own risk. If you do not agree with these terms you should delete Gens now.

Usual mail :

Stéphane DALLONGEVILLE

7 rue Danton

80090 AMIENS (FRANCE)

Email:

Mysticales@litespeedcomputers.com

Homepage:

http://gens.consolemul.com

It can be distributed freely as long as it is not modified.

When you use it you do so at your own risk.

The author is not responsible for any loss or damage resulting from the use

or misuse of GENS.

If you do not agree with these terms delete GENS now.

The author and team of GENS or the Genesis project do not condone software piracy, you should only have copies of the games you own! For more information check your local states law on copyright protection laws and backup copies of programs.


Comments and Tips

 GENS Help file version - 1.0 for GENS 2.10

Note: This file was designed for 1024x768 resolutions on a LCD Flat screens (but should be ok on all others, if you notice a major problem reading this please let me know)

Help file designed by Mysticales

Comments? Questions? Feel something needs to be explained better or added email me! -Mystic

Partial credit goes to Red5 for his outstanding work in the Gens manual and the Game Genie Collection found at the Genesis Project. Be sure to check these out as well as they contain info that this one may not.

Tips:

Advanced users can associate Gens files by double clicking on the supported file, (In normal windows explorer) If the file isn't associated with another program Windows will ask you "Open file with...." make sure "always open with program" is checked and add the path to Gens.exe. After that you will notice all supported files can now be directly opened without having to load Gens first.


Introduction

Gens is a Win9x based emulator for the SEGA Genesis/Mega-Drive/Sega-CD/

Mega-CD/32X systems, it allows you to play games developed for these classic

SEGA 16bit game consoles on your x86 compatible PC.

Gens is developed by Stéphane Dallongeville and has been coded 35% in C/C++

and 65% in Assembler. It runs under Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP and requires

DirectX 7.0 or above to be installed on your system.

* Main & Sub 68000 CPU :

        - Starscream 680x0 emulation library

          by Neill Corlett (corlett@elwha.nrrc.ncsu.edu)

          modified for Gens

* Master & slave SH2 CPU :

        - Custom ASM core

* VDP 32X :

        - Direct color mode with priorities

        - Packed pixel color mode with priorities

        - Run lenght mode

        - Fill function

* VDP Genesis :

        - DMA transfers (all modes and timing respected)

        - Scroll A and B planes with vertical scrolling (overall, 2 cells)

          and horizontal scrolling (overall, cell, dot)

        - Window plane

        - Sprite plane

        - Vertical and Horizontal Interrupts

        - All raster effects

        - Highlight/Shadow effects

        - Interlaced mode

        - Sprite collision & sprite overflow flags

* GFX coprocessor :

        - Rotation/enlargement supported in all modes

        - Font color/data conversion

        - GFX dots/cells conversion supported in all modes

* IO ports supported (controller 1 and controller 2) with Partial Multi-Tap

  (4 Player) joystick adapter support

* CD interface :

        - CDD and CDC emulation

        - ASPI used for low-level CD access

        - ISO/MP3, BIN, RAW file support

* Z80 CPU emulation :

        - Custom ASM core

* Custom YM2612 chip emulation :

        - Special mode channel 3 supported

        - AMS & FMS LFO supported

        - High Quality emulation mode (sound calculation at the correct rate)

* PCM chip emulation

* PWM chip emulation

* PSG 76489 emulation

* SRAM fully supported (no custom Sram support yet)

* BRAM and virtual ram carts supported.

* Frame Skip (Auto, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4)

* Save/Load State. (Genecyst save state format)

* Window/Fullscreen Render modes

* Game Genie Support

* Netplay (Kaillera) support

The following features are missing from Gens:

---------------------------------------------

* SVP chip support. (Virtua Racing)

* Complete Multi-Tap support

* Menacer Light Gun support

* Mouse support

* Custom SRAM chip support

* Full Sega-CD/Mega-CD Support (Subcode stuff).

* Full 32X support (PWM DMA, packed 32X VDP mode mixed with genesis VDP...).

Compatibility :

---------------

The genesis compatibility of Gens is very high :

    * about 93% of games work perfectly or with no noticeable problems.

    * a further 5~6% of games are playable with minor problems.

    * 1~2% of games are unplayable.

(figures quoted are for Genesis/Mega-Drive only from tests conducted by the

 Genesis Project and are approximate.)

The compatibility for Sega-CD/Mega-CD emulation has been estimated as being

about 90% or higher and the 32X system compatibility turn around 75%.


History

(09/10/2002) Changes Gens 2.11 <- Gens 2.10 :

---------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* Fixed a CDD bug added in Gens 2.10

[General]

* Fixed the command line loading

(08/10/2002) Changes Gens 2.10 <- Gens 2.00 :

---------------------------------------------

[32X]

* Save state support added (still buggy).

* SH-2 signed division overflow fixed.

* SH-2 core tweaked up a bit.

* Netplay is now working with 32X games.

* Some other minors fix.

[Sega CD]

* CD swap is now supported.

 (read the "Multi CD game" section for more infos).

[Genesis]

* New Z80 core written from scratch (faster than old core).

* Synchronisation between 68000 and Z80 is now almost perfect

  (it wasn't possible with the old Z80 core).

* YM2612 timers fixed, i finally found the correct way :)

* Fixed a minor bug in the VDP render engine (added in Gens 2.00)

* Fixed a minor bug in the PSG (added in Gens 2.00)

[General]

* Fixed the weird "restart Gens after 32X bios configuration" bug.

* Complete debugger available, can be usefull for developers.

* ...

(11/07/2002) Changes Gens 2.00 <- Gens 1.91 :

---------------------------------------------

Major change : 32X emulation added.

[32X]

* SH2 CPU emulation (custom ASM core) :

  - 100% instruction set implemented.

  - Full support of DMAC/DREQ.

  - Full support of external division unit.

  - Full support of watchdog timer.

* Full support of FIFO registers and DMA.

* 32X VDP emulation :

  - Support of fill function.

  - Full support of direct color mode.

  - Full support of packed pixel mode.

  - Support of run lenght mode without Genesis VDP and priority stuff.

* PWM sound emulation (DREQ1 DMA not yet supported).

[Sega CD]

* Minors bugs fixed.

[Genesis]

* IPS patch support added.

* Save state compatibility (Kega, Genecyst ...) improved.

* Fixed a minor bug with Z80.

* YM2612 :

  - Fixed a bug with frequency modulation LFO.

  - Fixed independent slot frequency calculation in special mode (channel 3).

* PSG :

  - Noise channel fixed.

* VDP rendering engine improved :

  - Better colors rendering.

  - Faster.

* Fixed a minor bug in country detection code.

[General]

* Added some color adjustments feature :

  - Brightness adjustement.

  - Contrast adjustement.

  - Greyscale mode.

  - Invert mode.

  Note that contrast and brightness are not calculated correctly yet.

* Rewritten Gens.txt by Red5 of the Genesis Project. This is

  intended to be an updated/improved version of the old Gens.txt, it is not

  a "Gens Manual Lite" however and you will still need to download that for

  instructions on some of the more advanced features like Game Genie support.

* Debug removed.

* Screens saver is disable when Gens is running.

* Modified the tiny application icon, the guy which sent me it will probably

  recognize it ;)

(23/04/2002) Changes Gens 1.91 <- Gens 1.90 :

---------------------------------------------

Changes concern only the sound emulation :

* YM2612 :

  - Fixed a stupid bug with decay rate calculation.

  - Fixed the enveloppe recalculation.

  - Fixed the LFO in High Quality mode.

  - Improved the interpolation calculation in HQ mode (slower).

  - Fixed a bug in the reset processus.

* PSG :

  - Fixed a bug with very high frequencies.

  - Fixed a bug in the reset processus.

  - Volume ajusted.

(05/04/2002) Changes Gens 1.90 <- Gens 1.80 :

---------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* GFX conversion fixed (all conversions possibilities are emulated now).

* Severals bugs added in Gens 1.80 have been fixed.

[Genesis]

* New YM2612 core :

  - More accurate.

  - We can activate a "High Quality" emulation mode.

  - A bit faster.

* New PSG core :

  - We can activate "PSG improvement" mode (see the shortcut section).

  - Faster.

* Save state support fixed a bit (some stuff were broken in Gens 1.80)

* Minors others changes or bugfixs...

[General]

* Removed the 8 bits sound option (useless).

* Fixed the infamous "closing during initialisation" bug.

* Fixed a minor bug with the software x2 blit MMX.

(22/02/2002) Changes Gens 1.80 <- Gens 1.70 :

---------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* CDD and CDC emulation improved.

* Fixed the bug with mono MP3 (broken accidently in Gens 1.70)

* Perfect Synchro fixed (can't break a game which work in normal mode).

* PCM timing fixed.

* Minor bugs fixed.

[Genesis]

* Sprite limit fixed (thanks Steve Snake).

* VDP rendering engine tweaked a bit.

* Save state modified :

  - Better compatibility with Genecyst.

  - Old saves states (with Gens version < 0.76) are probably not correctly supported anymore.

[General]

* News render modes : 50% and 25% scanline interpolated.

* Game Genie feature easier to use.

* More complete language support added.

* Kaillera client updated to version 0.9

* Some shortcuts added or modified.

* Minor other changes.

(01/02/2002) Changes Gens 1.70 <- Gens 1.60b :

----------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* Bug with memory fixed.

* PCM sound fixed (but still a bit buggy sometimes).

* SCSI CD/DVD ROM drives are now correctly supported.

* Memory mode register fixed.

[Genesis]

* Bug in 2 Cells V-Scroll fixed.

* Bug with dword 68000 predec EA mode fixed.

* DBtr instruction fixed in Starscream 68000 core.

* Minor fix in V counter (added in Gens 1.56)

* Z80 initial state fixed.

* Hilight / Shadow effect fixed.

[General]

* Gens manual support added :

  You can now have a context help, you need to download the Gens

  manual (made by Red5) then configure the path in the Gens options.

(20/01/2002) Changes Gens 1.60b <- Gens 1.60 :

----------------------------------------------

Fast update to fix the CDC DMA to Word RAM (accidentally broken in Gens 1.60).

(19/01/2002) Changes Gens 1.60 <- Gens 1.56 :

---------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* Vector GFX engine fixed.

* CELL conversion fixed.

* Minor fix in CDD emulation.

* BRAM emulation fixed.

* Some minors fix.

[Genesis]

* Minor fix in Z80 timing.

[General]

* Game genie codes list no more sorted.

* Added an option to remove SCD LED.

(15/01/2002) Changes Gens 1.56 <- Gens 1.52 :

---------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* CDD timing emulation fixed.

* CD read improved (better CDDA playback from real CD).

* Perfect Synchro optimized.

[Genesis]

* Fixed VDP write.

* Fixed the infamous TAS bug.

[General]

* Minor bug with auto detection fixed.

Game fixed :

[SEGA CD]

All Wolfteam games (ISO support).

[Genesis]

- Gargoyles

- X Pert

- Cliffhanger

(15/01/2002) Changes Gens 1.56 <- Gens 1.52 :

---------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* CDD timing emulation fixed.

* CD read improved (better CDDA playback from real CD).

* Perfect Synchro optimized.

[Genesis]

* Fixed VDP write.

* Fixed the infamous TAS bug.

[General]

* Minor bug with auto detection fixed.

Game fixed :

[SEGA CD]

All Wolfteam games (ISO support).

[Genesis]

- Gargoyles

- X Pert

- Cliffhanger

(11/01/2002) Changes Gens 1.52 <- Gens 1.50 :

---------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* PCM sound fixed (Popful Mail voices).

* Fixed the memory management bug added in Gens 1.50

[Genesis]

* Minor change in Z80 reset stuff.

[General]

* Bug with Vsync really fixed this time (i hope).

(09/01/2002) Changes Gens 1.50 <- Gens 1.42b :

----------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* Fixed a bug in CDD (bug was added in Gens 1.40)

* Hard reset improved.

* SRAM Cartridge support added.

* Communication register fixed (thanks Steve Snake).

* Minor fix in memory management.

[Genesis]

* Minor change in Z80 timing.

* Fixed the CHK instruction in 68000 Starscream core.

[General]

* Bug with Vsync in Fullscreen with NVidia video card fixed.

* The refresh rate problem with Win XP and Win 2000 is fixed.

* others minors changes.

(04/01/2002) Changes Gens 1.42b <- Gens 1.42 :

----------------------------------------------

* Z80 reset fixed (fix sound bug added in Gens 1.42).

(04/01/2002) Changes Gens 1.42 <- Gens 1.40b :

----------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* Bug with win 2000/ win XP fixed.

* Cell GFX conversion fixed.

[Genesis]

* Z80 BUS flag really fixed this time :

  All genesis games broken accidentally in Gens 1.40 are (normally) fixed.

* YM2612 modified a bit.

[General]

* You can now force the 555 or 565 video mode (see the FAQ section).

* Minors changes.

(22/12/2001) Changes Gens 1.40b <- Gens 1.40 :

----------------------------------------------

* Bug in render mode menu access fixed.

That's all, but have to be fixed.

(21/12/2001) Changes Gens 1.40 <- Gens 1.30b :

----------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* CDD/CDC emulation improved (thanks Steve Snake for the fast forward/reverse command).

* Direct CD read for play audio track, for the moment the synchrony isn't yet

  perfect and we can heard noises sometimes.

* CDC DMA fixed.

* It's possible now to disable/enable CDDA playback.

* Minor change in the memory mode register emulation.

[Genesis]

* YM2612 emulation improved :

  - Envelope phase fixed (right after a "key on" occurs).

  - Timers fixed.

  - Updated more often (slower but more accurate).

* Z80 BUS flag fixed.

* Z80 interrupt timing back to normal.

[General]

* Added the "interpolated" render mode.

* Some little optimizations with "not MMX" renders modes.

* Bugs with relative path fixed.

* FAQ section updated, don't forget to check it before send any mails !

* Minors changes...

(12/11/2001) Changes Gens 1.30b <- Gens 1.30 :

----------------------------------------------

* Fixed the "Save State as ..." and "Load State..." menu functions.

  (they were only working with shortcuts).

* Fixed the bug with "Quick Save" feature.

(09/11/2001) Changes Gens 1.30 <- Gens 1.20 :

---------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* Added the possibility to choose a perfect synchronization emulation mode.

  This means that main CPU and sub CPU execute instruction by instruction then

  emulation is more accurate but a lot slower.

  This option is deactivated by default, you can enable it when you're playing

  Sega CD games but it's highly recommend to use it only if the game doesn't work

  in normal emulation mode and if your CPU is fast (>= 500 Mhz).

* Fixed a (stupid) bug in the GFX rotation/scaling engine.

* Fixed Word RAM decoded format (dot GFX conversion).

* Added cell GFX conversion.

* CDC -> PCM RAM DMA fixed.

* CDD and CDC emulation improved.

* Fixed the memory control register (not yet perfect).

* Fixed a bug in the "Font Data" calculation.

* Fixed a bug with PCM sound.

* Fixed several bugs in the MP3 decoder and streaming code.

* Some others minors bugs fixed...

[Genesis]

* YM2612 emulator upgraded to the last version, FM sound is a bit better.

* CGOffline support added.

[General]

* All specials renders modes (Scanlines, 2xSAI ...) are now as fast in windowed

  mode than in fullscreen mode.

* Better sound volume adjustment between all different sound chips.

* VSync added for windows modes.

* Can save or load custom named states.

* States are marked EMPTY or OCCUPIED.

* Others minors changes...

(19/10/2001) Changes Gens 1.20 <- Gens 1.10 :

---------------------------------------------

[Sega CD]

* ISO support added.

  - ISO, BIN, RAW format supported.

  - MP3 playing supported (decoder is a bit buggy)

* CD drives detection fixed.

* 32x32 dots stamp support added in rotation/enlargement engine.

* Graphics dots conversion added.

* CDC/CDD emulation improved.

* Some bugs in PCM sound has been fixed (not yet perfect).

* CDC -> Prg RAM DMA fixed.

* CDC -> Word RAM DMA fixed.

* Word RAM (1 MB) -> VDP DMA fixed.

* Fixed a bug in the memory control register (emulation still not perfect though).

* Fixed the BRAM erased bug (occurred after a reset of the SUB 68000 CPU).

* Country autodetection added.

* Lot of others bugs fixed...

[Genesis]

* SRAM support modified, so roms with bad headers can work correctly.

* Rom memory access tweaked, little speed improvements.

[General]

* Sound volume increased, now all sound chip uses 32 bits buffer for a better final 16 bits mixing.

* Shortkeys modified.

Game fixed :

- Some games which had SRAM problems :

  - Might & Magic 2

  - Might & Magic 3 (SRAM)

  - Tonki

  - NHL 98

  - ...

(21/09/2001) Changes Gens 1.10 <- Gens 1.00 :

---------------------------------------------

* Preliminary SEGA CD emulation added :

  - Sub 68000 (100%)

  - Prg Ram and Word Ram implemented (95%)

  - PCM chip (100% but still buggy)

  - GFX rotation and enlargement (60%)

  - Font color/data (100%)

  - CDD (70%)

  - CDC (60%)

  - BRAM saves supported.

  - No graphics conversion, no ISO support, no save state support yet.

* Added an option to improve the DAC sound (voices) or not.

  This option can be enabled/disabled only by key-shortcut (see in the shortcuts section)

  because i don't recommend you to always use it since this can cause sound bugs with some games.

* Added the possibility to force software blit for Fullscreen "Normal" and "Double" render mode.

  This option can be enabled/disabled only by key-shortcut (see in the shortcuts section) because almost

  people don't need to use it, try it only for speed issue.

* We can now choose the order of country detection.

* Undocumented scroll mode implemented.

* Undocumented plan size mode implemented.

* Rewrite the VDP IO control part, little speed increase.

* Fixed VDP sprite table register (bug added in Gens 1.00)

* Fixed a bug in VDP control decoding (Gens v0.8 was right about it).

* Fast-blur fixed for no MMX processor.

* A minor bug in DAC recovering sound has been fixed.

Game Fixed:

- All games broken in Gens 1.00 (missing sprites)

- European Club Soccer (pause screen)

- Populous / unofficial release (EA logo intro)

(10/08/2001) Changes Gens 1.00 <- Gens 0.99a :

----------------------------------------------

* Stretch option added (not available with all rendering mode).

* PAT files automatically saved.

* Kaillera client version updated to 0.84a

* 16/15 bits mode now auto-detected (no more choice in menu).

* 25% scanline render has been modified (equal to a 75% scanline in the old way).

* Sprite masking fixed (thanks Charles Mc Donald).

* Sprite table update fixed (thanks Charles Mc Donald).

* Sprite limit fixed.

* Fixed a bug in the 68000 Starscream core (bit-shift instructions).

* 68000 interruption processing entirely rewritten.

* H counter calculation modified.

* V counter fixed.

* VDP status flag fixed.

* Z80 interrupt timing modified (fix some sound problem).

* Window bug added in Gens 0.99 fixed.

* Screen shot respect the game resolution (no more unnecessary blank line).

* Triple buffer option in "graphic" menu removed (VSync always uses triple buffering).

* A minor bug in DAC sound fixed.

* A minor bug in country detection fixed.

* Others minors bugs fixed.

Game Fixed:

- All games accidentally broken in Gens v0.99a

- NCAA College Football

- XPert

- Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge

- Dashin' Desperadoes

- Columns (score correctly displayed)

- Street Racer (intro graphics bugs fixed)

- Castlevania Bloodlines (level 2 reflection and last level)

- Galaxi Force (level selection screen)

- Pirate Gold (problem with sprite sometimes)

- Micro machine 2 (game mode selection screen)

- Warlock (status top bar displaying)

- Another World (intro bug in PAL version)

- Barkley Shut Up and Jam 2 (graphic bug during game added in gens v0.99)

- Rings of Power (minor intro bug added in gens v0.99)

- J League Pro Striker 2 (minor graphic bug during pause).

- Sonic Spinball (sound during sega logo).

- Puyo Puyo 2 (music)

- ...

(13/06/2001) Changes Gens 0.99a <- Gens 0.99 :

----------------------------------------------

* Fixed a stupid bug (i've deactivated some lines of my code for testing... i've forgot to reactive them later) with Netplay.

  Netplay is just ok now.

(01/06/2001) Changes Gens 0.99 <- Gens 0.98 :

---------------------------------------------

* Kaillera client version updated to 0.83

* Kaillera implementation is different, Gens can now start even if the kailleraclient DLL

  is not present.

* Window split fixed.

* Z80 cycles timing modified.

* Load/save state improved.

* Vietnamese menu translation added.

* minors bugs fixed.

Game Fixed:

- Dragon Ball Z (window split)

- Tecmo Cup Football (team name displaying)

- Olympic Gold Barcelona 92 (broken in gens v0.95)

(11/04/2001) Changes Gens 0.98 <- Gens 0.95a :

----------------------------------------------

* Netplay support (Kaillera).

  The games aren't synchronized on DirectSound buffer during Netplay

  (du to some low frame rate problems) so the sound have some bad noises :(

  Note that Netplay is surely a bit buggy, sorry for it...

* GYM loggin added.

* VDP debug information added.

* VDP RAM write fixed (broken in Gens 0.8).

* Bug with highlight/shadow effect over sprite fixed (broken in Gens 0.8).

* Because of some incompatibilities with Visual C++ 5.0 and Kaillera, Gens is now compiled with Visual C++ 6.0

* Polish, Catalan and Hungarian menu translation added.

  German, Dutch, Greek and some others updated.

* Add a FAQ section to the gens.txt file.

* A special italian version of Gens.txt in this release but not updated for Gens v0.98.

Game Fixed:

- Street Racer (highlight effect during intro, broken in v0.8)

- Dino dini's soccer (graphics bugs in font fixed)

- Some games broken in Gens v0.95

Game Broken:

I don't find anyone...

(04/03/2001) Changes Gens 0.95a <- Gens 0.95 :

----------------------------------------------

* The infamous VDP control decoding bug is really fixed this time, so Fido Dido is ok.

(02/03/2001) Changes Gens 0.95 <- Gens 0.92b :

----------------------------------------------

* Partial 4 player support (only Yuyu Hakusho Battle and Street Racer are currently supported)

* You now have a choice of 3 or 6 Button Genesis pad emulation.

* Rom format (SMD/BIN) detection modified.

* Fixed the (accidentally) broken PAL bit in VDP status flag.

* SPACE is now accepted as a Code/Comment separator in .PAT files (stupid bug, sorry).

* Z80 V-INT timing modified.

* V-Counter modified.

* PSG sound fixed in some games like After Burner 2 (thanks Dave ;)

* DMA timings modified again.

* 68000 cycles timing modified (68000 is now overclocked of 1,3 Khz instead of underclocked

  of 14,3 Khz in NTSC mode).

* Once again, i've modified Z80 cycles timing, now voices are like the original genesis (crappy)

  but sound in some game are fixed (voices in Zombies).

* Fixed a bug in VDP control decoding (added accidentally in version 0.8).

* Country detection fixed for (F) region (these games are NTSC and not PAL).

* Added a sub-menu for rom history.

Game Fixed:

- All roms which the PAL error message (broken accidentally in Gens v0.88)

- Puggsy (intro bugs, broken in Gens v0.92b)

- Donald Duck in Maui Mallard (graphics bugs at top of screen)

- Fido Dido (black color, broken in Gens 0.8)

- Eliminate Down (randomize lock fixed)

- Double Dragon 2 (lock fixed).

- Sound of Kid Cameleon, Chaos Engine ...

- DAC sound (voices, sfx) in Zombie.

Game Broken:

- Sound of Puyo Puyo 2 is now crappy :(

- Pause screen glitches in European Soccer.

(21/12/2000) Changes Gens 0.92 <- Gens 0.92b :

----------------------------------------------

* I've added a stupid bug in DMA with Gens v0.92, it's now fixed.

* DMA timing modified a bit...

* Korean language added in LANGUAGE.DAT

* That's all ...

Game Fixed:

Game that was broken in Gens v0.92

Game Broken:

Nope

(20/12/2000) Changes Gens 0.92 <- Gens 0.88 :

---------------------------------------------

* new rendering mode : 25% scanlines

* Scanlines, 25% scanlines, 50% scanlines, Interpolated scanlines and fast-blur has been

  rewritten for MMX CPU.

  - 25% scanlines and 50% scanlines are available only for MMX CPU.

* Z80 timing modified once again... voices are better (same as gens 0.78b) and compatibility

  is ok.

* Game genie improved and .PAT files supported.

* DMA timing are now emulated.

* Roms history (9 last roms).

* New options for message displaying, FPS and others...

* Some languages added or fixed in language.dat

* Minors bugs fixed.

* Can choose triple buffer separately of V-Sync (not really useful).

* New icon ;)

* others minors things.

Game Fixed:

- Dragon Slayer (graphics fixed)

- Dragon Slayer 2 (graphics fixed)

- Joe & Mac (sound)

- Super skidmark (intro fixed)

- Barkley Shut Up and Jam (graphics fixed)

- Barkley Shut Up and Jam 2 (graphics fixed)

- Legend of Galahad (bottom screen fixed)

- Kawasaki Superbike Challenge (bottom screen fixed)

- European Club soccer (scrolling fixed)

- ....

Game Broken:

After some testing, a couple of games was broken accidentally:

- Mortal Kombat

- Combat Cars

- ....

(23/10/2000) Changes Gens 0.88 <- Gens 0.8 :

--------------------------------------------

* Country select feature added.

* Menu language support improved :

  Menu is dynamically rebuild from language.dat file so it's very easy to add or change

  a menu language.

* English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Hebrew menu language are actually supported.

* Screen-Shot feature added.

* Direct Draw code modified :

  - 'Normal' and 'Double' render mode uses hardware blit in Fullscreen.

  - Screen Size x1, x2 removed in windowed mode because not useful.

  - Screen refresh improved when emulation is paused.

* My 68000 core and MZ80 core are removed because RAZE and custom Starscream are accurate.

* Debugger rewritten for Starscream.

* Message drawing code rewritten.

* GENS becomes cardware.

* I figured that Gens played Genesis voices (especially in SSFII) better than the

  real genesis, the bug is now fixed so voices are now more crap with almost game :(

* others fix or improvements ...

Known game broken :

Double Dragon 2 (this game is very sensitive to CPU timing :( )

Known game fixed :

Frogger.

(04/09/2000) Changes Gens 0.81 <- Gens 0.8 :

--------------------------------------------

Very few changes :

* KNUX support is fixed.

  - KNUX is a window based application which allow you to change

    many parameters of almost all Sonic Games.

  - For more information about KNUX, you can contact the author at

    danil@ort.spb.ru

* Spanish menu added.

* Window position is saved when you quit gens.

(02/09/2000) Changes Gens 0.8 <- Gens 0.78b :

---------------------------------------------

* New VDP-Render engine :

  - BG highlight/Shadow effects fixed.

  - Complexes sprite priorities fixed.

  - faster with 80% of games.

* New Direct Draw code :

  - Triple buffering added.

  - You can now use all render type (2xSAI ...) in windowed mode.

* Auto fix checksum option added.

* Game Genie support :

  - both game genie code or patch code are supported.

  - you can add or remove code.

  (don't forget to 'apply' the changes)

* KNUX supported.

* Auto Switch to 16 BPP when Gens starting

  (settings are recovered when Gens exiting)

* Possibility to change menu language (only french & english actually)

* 68000 Vertical Interrupt changed a bit.<br>

* Some shortkeys modified (see them in 'How to play' section).

* Others little fix or add ...

Game Fixed:

SeaQuest DSV (only [f][x] version)

Fatal Rewind

(27/07/2000) Changes Gens 0.78b <- Gens 0.76 :

----------------------------------------------

* Rom banking support added.

  Super Street Fighter 2 works !

* YM2612 (FM) emulation improved:

  - LFO support.

  - Better sound (depending of the game).

  - A little bug fixed (looping sound).

  - DAC stereo sound (you can't enable DAC without enable YM2612 anymore).

* Some PSG bugs fixed.

* You can now disable/enable stereo sound and choose the sound quality (8/16 bits).

* Sound dump (WAV format) feature added.

* Some tweaks in RAZE Z80 core.

* Some changes in Controller/IO code.

* Collision flag fixed again.

* Sprite limit is now perfectly respected.

Games fixed :

Super Street Fighter 2

Pirate Gold

Sonic Compilation

Action 52 in 1

Barbie Super Model

Megagames

Flink (little glitches in world map screen when sprite limit is activated are fixed)

Sonic 1,2,3 (PSG sounds bugs fixed)

Tailspin (FM sound bug fixed)

Marsupilami (FM sounds bug fixed)

Bio Hazard (Keys are fixed)

(27/06/2000) Changes Gens 0.76 <- Gens 0.73 :

---------------------------------------------

* DMA FILL finally correct (i hope).

* Little bug in windows/scrollA interaction fixed.

* STOP instruction fixed for "mine" 68000 engine.

  Thunder Force IV and Todd's adventure fixed with "mine" core.

* 68000 interrupts fixed once again :)

* Load / Save State improved :

  - File is smaller

  - Sound is correctly recovered

  - better stability

* RAZE interrupt fixed, RAZE is now the default Z80 engine.

* Z80 Memory write/read fixed again.

* Z80 Interrupt timing modified.

* MMX detection rewritten again (please, let's me know if Cyrix CPU still crashing).

* You don't need anymore to reload a rom after changing the sample rate.

* others little fix.

Games broken :

Fatal Rewind

Game fixed :

Panorama cotton

Burning Force

American Gladiators

Barkley Shut Up & Jam (1 & 2 are now playables but some graphics glitches still exist)

Out Runners (Graphics glitches fixed)

Street Racer (Graphics glitches fixed)

Thunder Force IV (Intro graphics glitches fixed)

Bram Stocker's Dracula

Road Rash 2 & 3 (2 players split mode fixed)

Beavis & Butthead (Sound)

Sonic 2 (Sound)

Puyo Puyo 2 (Sound)

some others i think ....

(15/06/2000) Changes Gens 0.73 <- Gens 0.72 :

---------------------------------------------

* Menu selection fixed (2xSAI & Scanline)

* Write/Read Z80 Ram fixed. (Grand Slam music is ok)

* You can now pause emulation with ESC key.

  (automatically paused when the Gens window is deactivated)

* High-resolution fullscreen finally completely fixed for all videos cards.

* MMX detection code rewritten (no crashes anymore)

(13/06/2000) Changes Gens 0.72 <- Gens 0.7 :

--------------------------------------------

* High-resolution fullscreen fixed for voodoo3 & savage4.

* Repaint fixed for tnt2 in windowed mode.

* 50% scanline added.

* Interpolated scanline added.

(09/06/2000) Changes Gens 0.7 <- Gens 0.6 :

-------------------------------------------

Good new features :

* 640x480 Full Screen resolution added.

* 2xSAI Kreed's engine added (the same as zsnes or snes9x) !

* Scanline added.

* AutoFrame-Skip synchronized on DirectSound (when available).

  Sound is better.

* Correct screen ratio in windowed mode.

* Little change in H-Blank flag.

* Interrupts fixed for both 68k core (Starscream and mine)

* Correct 'reset' instruction.

* Z80 BUS request fixed.

* Vertical-Counter fixed.

* Shortcuts changed. (see the 'How to play' section)

* Save and sram files name of zipped roms are now correct.

* "Free-Rom" mode changed.

  If you can't see it, you aren't in 15/16 BPP mode (Gens needs 15/16 BPP).

* "Top Most" window when exiting the fullscreen mode is fixed.

* Bad config files in "\windows" directory fixed.

* Minors tweaks in blits routines.

* Minors bugs fixed.

List of new games that work properly:

Double Dragon 1, Double Dragon 2, Fatal Rewind, Super OffRoad, Tecmo NBA, Lemmings 2,

Combat Cars (2 players split is ok), Todd adventures ... and surely others.

(26/05/2000) Changes Gens 0.6 <- Gens 0.54 :

--------------------------------------------

* ZIP support added !

* We can define the directories for saves files.

* Full-Screen is fixed for both voodoo3 and savage4 videos cards.

* FM timers fixed (voices are now played at good pitch for comix zone, aladdin, cool spot ...)

* H-Int finally fixed : Top Gear 2 and Lotus 2 looks good !

* Z80 interrupt fixed (bubsy works and censor smiley demo has music)

* Controllers code fixed again (American gladiators and Forgotten worlds are playable)

* I've removed the hack for double dragon, super off road ... because it causes problems with

  a few rom (like road rash 3) then they doesn't work any more :(

* Some others little changes ...

(18/05/2000) Changes Gens 0.54 <- Gens 0.5 :

--------------------------------------------

Just a great compatibility increased :

* PAL roms are now works at good speed (50 FPS) !

  (Tintin, Spirou ... doesn't lock with country message any more)

* Another bug in Starscream 68000 core fixed:

  Sonic2, terminator 2 (judgement day), lemmings, royal blood ... works perfectly with Starscream.

* Little bug in collision flag fixed (interaction with enemies in strider2).

  (Thanks to Bart Trzynadlowski from Genital)

* I've fixed some things in vertical and horizontal interrupts & flags, more games works :

  Super skidmarks, megalomania, gauntlet 4 ...

* Some bugs fixed in window plan and VDP reg write.

  Tale spin, rolling thunder 2 (not sure for this rom), Abrams Battle tank, Rings of power ... are ok.

* Read/Write to CRAM, VSRAM fixed (taiwan tycoon V-Scroll, xennon 2 are ok)

* Z80 BUS request fixed (double dragon, fatal rewind and super offroad works)

* little fix in DMA copy (taiga drama taiheiki looks good, european club soccer looks better ...)

* Very little bug in sram fixed (tonki comes back working)

(26/04/2000) Changes Gens 0.5 <- Gens 0.4 :

-------------------------------------------

* I've entirely rewrite the VDP IO code:

  - DMA transfers appears near perfect and a lot of games works now correctly !

    (Warsong, Batman and Robin, Contra4, Shining force 2 ...)

  - Improvement of Control Decoding.

    (Electronic Arts Intro finally fixed !)

  - Reads and Writes more accurate ...

  - Save state files (.gs*) has changed du to new VDP code and could have

    problems to load old save files.

* I've fixed a bug in Starscream 68000 core :

  - Greendog, Samurais Showdown, Eternal Champions ... works correctly with Starscream.

  - little speed improvement.

* SRAM finally fixed (file saved when change rom).

* I've entirely rewrite controllers code (fix some mistakes).

* Stupid bug in window plan fixed (miss a pixel on the right).

* Little change in timing :

  Landstaker blank line fixed, Outrun back working with my 68000 core, ...

* Messages info added.

* Show FPS added.

* I've finally add an icon for Gens (Thanks to all people that send me an icon :)

* Shortcuts has changed (readme.txt).

* Some others things added or fixed .....

I think the compatibly rate's above 85% !

(06/04/2000) Changes Gens 0.4 <- Gens 0.39 :

--------------------------------------------

A lot of changes for this new release :

- Gens configuration saved in file ! (finally)

  (You can specify your own file name for special configuration)

- SRAM fixed and entirely implemented (saved in file).

- Mouse cursor now hidden in Full-Screen then you must use

  the right mouse button to access at popup menu  !

- Perfect recovering of sound after 'load state' (only with MZ80 core).

  Saves files are now bigger, but there are compatible with old format.

- DAC (few) noises fixed.

- Some little bugs with VDP DMA fixed.

- Others bugs fixed .....

About 80% (little more) of roms work correctly !

No error messages anymore (like "Starscream core error ...").

If an error occurs, emulation attempt to continue even if can crash.

(01/04/2000) Changes Gens 0.39 <- Gens 0.36 :

---------------------------------------------

- Joystick support added ! (directx 5.0 needed)

- Interlaced VDP mode added ! (can play at sonic in split mode but only with my 68000 core)

- Fixed (again) auto-detection for some others country ...

- Fixed H-Blank status in VDP

- Some others few bugs fixed (Alt-Tab key, ...)

SRAM not yet saved in file

Config not yet saved in file

(27/03/2000) Changes Gens 0.36 <- Gens 0.34 :

---------------------------------------------

- Gens now uses the new MZ80 core of Neil Bradley (v3.4)

  and it corrects some sound bugs !

- Fixed special version auto-detection (Toy Story ...)

- SRAM implemented (Landstaker, Light Crusader ... now work correctly !)

  but not yet saved in a file.

- Choice of the game speed added : NTSC (60 FPS) or PAL (50 FPS).

  If a game runs too fast, just switch to PAL version.

- Sound timing for some games (vector man ...) fixed.

- Fixed switch state shortcut.

- Fixed the stupid bug which exits after setting keys !

- Fixed load state crashes with starscream.

- ...

Joystick support not yet available :(

(21/03/2000) Changes Gens 0.34 <- Gens 0.3 :

--------------------------------------------

- Starscream 68000 is available, changes :

  - More roms work fine (about 75% :)

  - Faster than mine !

  - Debugger doesn't work with Starscream !

- RAZE Z80 core added, but there are some problems with certain roms aladdin, sonic ...)

  but it works better than MZ80 in other cases (animaniacs, contra4 ...).

- Shortcuts added (Save / Load state, frame skip ... see below)

- Sound is now stopped when clicking on menu or resizing the window ...

- Current directory stored (but not yet in a file, just when you keep gens running)

- Some optimizations -> some more FPS :)

- Bug fixes (DirectSound init, key settings ...)

- Others I can't remember ....

(14/03/2000) Changes Gens 0.3 <- Gens 0.24 :

--------------------------------------------

- Starscream 68000 core (faster and more accurate than mine) is now

  implemented but deactivated, it'll be active in the next version !

- DAC works now perfectly (can hear 'SEGA' chord in sonic games :)

- Many many fixes in sound and CPU timings:

  - All chips (68000, Z80, YM2612, PSG ...) are synchronized depending on the

    game type (PAL 50Hz / SECAM 60Hz) and PAL games work at 50 FPS in

    auto-frameskip mode.

  - Fix YM2612 timers.

  - Fix PSG rate.

- Can choose sound sample rate (you must reload the rom for that to take effect !)

- Some little others...

There are some glitches with the DAC speed with some games (just hear the voices in

aladdin, cool-spot, lemmings ...)

(08/03/2000) Changes Gens 0.24 <- Gens 0.2 :

--------------------------------------------

- I returned to MZ80 (Neil Bradley neil@synthcom.com) z80 emulator, it now works correctly !

- Preliminary sound emulation :

  - YM2612 works correctly :)

  - PSG works strangely :o

  - DAC doesn't work and only does some noises :(

  - Sound sync is not yet perfect !

  - Sound is played slowly with certain roms

- Fixed a bug in the window plane (Zombie doesn't crash any more ...)

- Others ...

(24/02/2000) Changes Gens 0.2 <- Gens 0.141 :

---------------------------------------------

- I've entirely rewritten the VDP rendering :

  - More optimized and so faster ;)

  - Fixed Scroll A / Window conflict.

  - Added masks sprite features.

  - Added sprite limit feature (can see it on sonic 1 main screen)

    You can enable or disable it by 'Sprite Over' option in the 'graphics' menu.

  - Added 15 bits mode.

    No more bad colors on some video cards :)

- Fixed the VSRam read and write (vertical scrolling are now okay)

- I'm using RAZE (Richard Mitton richard.mitton@bigfoot.com) z80 emulator instead of MZ80

 (Neil Bradley neil@synthcom.com) due to un working games with MZ80 (I may not use it correctly).

- Some changes in DMA transfers. (sprites of mario (no commercial) rom are okay).

- Full-Screen now works correctly.

  Full-Screen is faster than Windowed mode, just use it !

- Some others ...

Sorry, once again, the sound is not implemented, may be in the next release !

(08/02/2000) Changes Gens 0.141 <- Gens 0.12 Beta :

----------------------------------------------------------------

- Auto-FrameSkip added !

- Corrected some bugs on DMA (demo roms like super mario don't crash any more ... )

- Key settings for Player 1 & Player 2 added !

- I have changed DirectDraw method to get faster transparencies effects.

- HalfBlur effect added for smooth graphics !

(03/02/2000) Changes Gens 0.12 Beta (Win9X) <- Gens 0.15b (DOS):

----------------------------------------------------------------

First important change: Gens works now under win9X and using DirectX !

Then some bugs appeared and some roms that worked on Gens 0.15b don't work anymore :(

- Screen size * 1; * 2; * 3; * 4.

- No V-Sync possibility for now.

- Debugger is missing because a lot of work is needed to make it work !

- Save/Load state added !

  I'm using Genecyst format, there are some bugs due to lack of info.

- The transparencies effects due to palette changes during H-Blanking work !

No sound yet !


System Requirements

All the system requirements below assume you are using the Normal (320x240)

video mode.

* Minimum Machine for Genesis emulation

- Pentium 200 (MMX is required for 2xSaI Kreed's engine) or K6 200.

- 32 Mb Ram

- Video card 2 Mo (4Mo for triple buffer) with DirectDraw support and 15/16 bpp mode.

- Win9X / Win2000

- DirectX 7.0

* Minimum Machine for SEGA CD emulation

- P2 233 or K6 300.

- 16 Mb de Ram

- Video card 2 Mo (4Mo for triple buffer) with DirectDraw support and 15/16 bpp mode.

- CDROM drive x1

- Win9X / Win2000

- DirectX 7.0

- last ASPI drivers.

[+ Gens will run on a Pentium 133 or above, but a Pentium 200Mhz is needed

   to achieve a reasonable frame rate!]

* Minimum Machine for 32x emulation

- 800 Mhz CPU.

- 128 Mb Ram

- All previous mentioned items.

* Recommended Machine for Genesis emulation (60 FPS in fullscreen 320x240)

- P2 300 Mhz or K6-2 333

- A good video card like TNT ...

- 32 Mb Ram

- Win9X / Win2000

- DirectX 7.0

* Recommended Machine for SEGA CD emulation (60 FPS in fullscreen 320x240)

- P2 333 Mhz or K6-2 450

- A good video card like TNT ...

- CDROM drive x4

- 32 Mb Ram

- Win9X / Win2000

- DirectX 7.0

- last ASPI drivers.

* Recommended Machine for 32x emulation

- 1 Ghz CPU

- 256 Mb Ram

- All previous mentioned items.

On my machine (Duron at 1Ghz) all 32X games runs at 60/50 FPs in fullscreen

320x240 and sound set to 44100 Hz.

I guess you can play some 32X games on slower CPU (550-700 Mhz) but you will

need to downclock manually the SH2 CPU clock (see section 32X).

Use the normal render mode (in 'graphics' menu) to get the best performance.


Troubleshooting/FAQ
Q : I got the following message : "Error with Query Interface", how fix it ?

A : Upgrade your DirectX version to 7.0 or above.

Q : I can't set my joypad because keys are automatically pressed (quickly), what's the problem ?

A : Reinstall your joypad in the window joystick/joypad panel then reinstall DirectX, if still not fixed...

    No luck !

Q : 2xSAI doesn't work in fullscreen !

A : 2xSAI works perfectly in fullscreen, use F11/F12 to switch the current render mode.

    Gens has a separate render mode for fullscreen and windows mode.

Q : Game Genie doesn't work !!!

A : Download the Gens manual at http://www.genesisproject.co.uk which explain how use it.

Q : Where i can find roms ?

A : It's easy to find roms with search engine, don't forget that is illegal to have roms if you don't have

    the original game.

    I can't be responsible for your acts.

Q : How exiting Netplay ?

A : First, you have to close the rom (Ctrl+C) then close the Kaillera client windows.

Q : Colors are completely wrong !

A : Try to force the 555 or 565 mode by adding some line in the gens.cfg file section [graphics].

    - To force the 555 mode, add :

      Force 555=1

    - To force the 565 mode, add :

      Force 565=1

Q : When i should use "force software blit" feature ?

A : This feature only affect the fullscreen "normal" and "double" render mode.

    You should try it if you have some problem to get these render mode working, or just to improve speed

    (can be slower, depend of the video card) on slow machine.

Q : Funny day isn't it ?

A : Intro Style=1 ...


Greetings

* Neill Corlett for his very fast 68000 Starscream emulator.

* Michel Gerrie, Steve Snake, Jagboy, Trzy, Atani, Quinneston, Charles Mac

  Donald, Christian Chriller.. for SEGA system information and general help.

* Red5 from The Genesis Project for testing Gens and writing the official

  Gens Manual.

* Mysticales for all the help she gives me.

* Christophe Thibault for making Kaillera.

* Kreed (Derek Liauw Kie Fa) for his excellent 2xSaI engine.

* David González Flores for help with SEGA CD stuff.

* Nicolas BRAY, NiNjA LEMoN, Arzeno Fabrice, DaGee, Thierry Caland,

  Mickagame, Nik 166, Belgarion, Darkfalz, Herakles, Biohazard ... (I'm

  surely going to forget someone, sorry) for being Gens beta testers.

* Thierry Caland for making the Gens beta testers site.

* Combacker for designing the Official Gens Site.

* Durrenberger David - dines (http://www.koubis.com) for the Gens logo/icon.

* Consolemul staff (and specially Sir Jaguar) for hosting it.

* Emuforce staff (and specially D[J]) & Emusphere staff for report bugs,

  feedback and for hosting the site in past.

* UPX by Markus Oberhumer & Laszlo Molnar (http://upx.tsx.org).

* All people who sent me translations packs (Wisesage for korean, Markus for

  Finnish, Suay for German, NIX for Italiano, Klaas-Wim van Diermen for

  Dutch, Biohazard for Russian, U4 TONE for Japanese ... ).

* Everyone which report bugs, which give support for Gens by replying

  questions on the forum...

* Anyone else I forgot !


Genesis Collective

 Click to view the Genesis Collective (Note must have the GCOffline.chm in your directory!)


Genesis Project
The Genesis Project is designed by Red5. He has made a extensive page about Sega and so on. He was also the first to build the official Gens help file as well as the first largest collection of Game Genie codes in one easy to have help file. The Game Genie Collection also includes the .pat files for easier importing. Click here to visit the page.


Contact Us
There are 2 ways to contact us.

•	The Gens Forum

•	Email Us.

The forum is the fastest way to have your problems solved. Just a click and type your question. Soon you will have a reply that should help you out.

Emailing Us is another way.

Stéphane (Stef) - Author of GENS
Gens@consolemul.com

Mysticales - Technical Support
Mysticales@yahoo.com

Also note, depending on new issues the Ts/Faq on the home page may be more current, also check the bug report page first to see if your bug is listed. Note: No game bugs will be posted, only Gens and emulation bugs will be listed.


Keys

Default keys :

(QWERTY keyboard)

Player 1	Player 2

Up	UP	Up	Y

Down	DOWN	Down	H

Left	LEFT	Left	G

right	RIGHT	Right	J

A	A	A	K

B	S	B	L

C	D	C	?

X	Z	X	I

Y	X	X	O

Z	C	Z	P

Start	Return	Start	U

Mode	RShift	Mode	T

You can redefine them in menu "options -> Joypad..."

Shortcuts :

-----------

Open Rom                                Ctrl + O

Close Rom                               Ctrl + C

Rom 1 (history)                         Ctrl + 1

Rom 2 (history)                         Ctrl + 2

Rom 3 (history)                         Ctrl + 3

Rom 4 (history)                         Ctrl + 4

Rom 5 (history)                         Ctrl + 5

Rom 6 (history)                         Ctrl + 6

Rom 7 (history)                         Ctrl + 7

Rom 8 (history)                         Ctrl + 8

Rom 9 (history)                         Ctrl + 9

Save Slot 0	Shift + 0

Save Slot 1	Shift + 1

Save Slot 2	Shift + 2

Save Slot 3	Shift + 3

Save Slot 4	Shift + 4

Save Slot 5	Shift + 5

Save Slot 6	Shift + 6

Save Slot 7	Shift + 7

Save Slot 8	Shift + 8

Save Slot 9	Shift + 9

CGOffline                               F1

Auto FrameSkip                          F2

FrameSkip - 1                           F3

FrameSkip + 1                           F4

Save State                              F5

Previous state                          F6

Next State                              F7

Load State                              F8

Fast Blur                               F9

Show FPS                                F10

Previous Render Mode                    F11

Next Render Mode                        F12

Full-Screen / Window Mode               Alt + Return

Stretch image                            Shift + F2

VSync                                   Shift + F3

Force software blit                     Shift + F9

DAC sound (voices) improvement          Shift + F10

Screen shot                             Backspace

Hard Reset                              TAB

Pause                                   ESC


Multi-Tap

  Gens supports 2 players simultaneously. However with a multi-tap and a compatible game you can have up to 5 players. You will have to configure the ports and controllers for each player tho. 2 peripherals were made with Genesis/Mega-Drive one by EA the other by Sega, however both were incompatible with each other as the Sega one needed to be on port 2 while EA was on port 1. Later Gamester came out that worked with both. It is highly recommended to leave Player 1 and 2 on PAD setting during normal use. Having it on Teamplayer can cause the game not to work correctly, Use Multi-Tap only when you are playing a compatible game. remember you can use the save config to save multiple joystick configurations!

Here is a list of NON working multi-tap games (Yet):

·	ATP Tour Championship Tennis

·	Collage Football's National Championship

·	Collage Football's National Championship 2

·	Columns 3 : Revenge of Columns

·	Davis Cup World Tour Tennis 2

·	Head-On Soccer/Fever Pitch

Other then the games listed above multi-tap will most likely work on your game with the setting of Teamplayer on Port 1. (If your game doesn't work try reversing it to Port 2, if it still doesn't work and its not on the list above email us) Remember you have to set the keys or joysticks for multi-tap (1 B-D) controllers before they work!


Netplay

First, be sure you have the kailleraclient.dll file in your Gens directory (anyway, the emu doesn't start if

isn't the case).

Well, go to 'file->Netplay' menu, then the kaillera server selection dialog appear ...

Don't forget to specify a user name.

if you want to play on the NET, be sure that you're connected ^-^, if you want to play on local network, just

specify the IP of the machine where kaillera server running (you can download the server at http://www.kaillera.com).

Choose the server where you want to play, then an other dialog appears and you can see others players connected

to this server and theirs status (idle, playing ...), also you can see the current created games rooms, if you wish to

play one of them (and the status is waiting) just 'join' the game ...

YOU MUST HAVE THE EXACT SAME NAME OF THE ROM (so you should use goodgen to rename your roms).

You can create your own game room by clicking on the 'Create new game' button, then a list of game should appear

(it's the list of all the roms you have in your last rom loaded directory).

Then you can wait for others players and start the game alone ;)

When you want to stop the game, YOU HAVE TO CLOSE THE ROM (Menu 'File->close rom' or Ctrl+C) then you can start

an other netplay party.

If you want to exit Gens, you have to close all the kaillera dialog (the little before to avoid crashes ... a bug

of kaillera), then you can close Gens.

Sorry for all these inconveniences, but Kaillera has be made for MAME first and Gens works in a completely different way...

If you want more information about how use Kaillera, check the homepage at http://www.kaillera.com

For others emulator authors who want to be compatible with Gens for NETPLAY, here's the format of the data

sent with kailleraModifyPlayValues function for one player (2 bytes of length) :

F E D C B A 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

1 1 1 1 M X Y Z S A B C U D L R

        o       t       p o e i

        d       a         w f g

        e       r         n t h

                t             t

Value : 0 if the button is pressed and 1 in other case.


File Menu

The File Menu helps you manage files within Gens, with important functions like Opening (Loading) games, managing your Save States, Netplay, and Game Genie management.

•	Open Rom (Ctrl - O) - When opening a rom a standard file selection window will come up. Select a supported Gens file to get started.
Supported Gens files are:
I. Genesis/Megadrive - .smd, .bin, .gen, and game files in a .zip form. (Note only ONE game can be zipped in a .zip file otherwise the game can not be loaded)
II. Sega/Mega-Cd - .iso, .bin, and .raw files. Note these files must have the correct Mp3 files with them to run properly! (For more information see the Sega Cd help area)

•	Close Rom (Ctrl - C) - Close the current rom from memory. You will need to use this when using netplay. (See netplay help for more info) Also it is a good idea to close the rom when playing sega cd games before you close Gens, This way the .brm save files will be saved as you close them.

•	Boot Cd - Boots the Sega/Mega Cd in the current Cd-Rom drive. (Note not a .iso, .bin, .raw cd, ONLY a true Sega/Mega image cd.)

•	Netplay - Gens supports Tcp/Ip or Internet play with the supported service by Kaillera Networks or computers running a Kaillera server. Please read the netplay section for more info.

•	Game Genie - Opens the Game Genie manager. Game Genie is a cheat device made by Galoob which allows you to use cheats in most games. See the Game Genie section for details how to use this.

•	Save, Load, Change States - The state feature of most emulators is by far the most unique function. Unlike a real console Gens can save your game anywhere you like and load it at a later time. This is good for hard games or if you care just to take a tea break. (I use it more for RPGs or games that use passwords to continue - Mystic) The states are saved in the "Save State" directory found in the "Option Menu". Gens also supports Genecyst states and other emulators which support this format.

I. Quick Save (F5) - Quick save slots are up to 10 (0-9) states. These are the most common type you probably save with as they are faster.
II. Quick Load (F8) - Same as above except you load one of the 10 saved states.
III. Change State (F6-F7) - This function changes the current slot of the 10 states. In the lower left you will see wether or not a slot is occupied or empty. This is used only with the 10 slots used for quick saving.
IV. Save State as (Shift - F8) - Gens supports infinite states using this option. Here you can name your states to be more personal or to help you remember a certain spot.
V. Load State (Shift - F5) - Loads a state in the folder you specify.

•	Rom History (Ctrl - 1-9) - This has the history for the last 9 roms played. Using the Ctrl - # key you can quick load a rom without having to hunt for the file again.


Graphic Menu

 The Graphics menu gives you control over the way Gens displays your games on the screen including support for Windowed and Full Screen graphics modes, various graphics rendering Options to enhance the display, Frame skipping (For slower computers or players who wish to increase game speed), and taking Screen Shots of your favorite games in action.

•	Window/Full Screen Mode (Alt - Enter) - Gens default setting is Windowed mode. This is the standard window on a desktop. Switching to full screen will make Gens play on the full screen of your monitor. (Note might cause problems with people using multiple monitors) Also the menu bar in full screen mode can be accessed by right clicking the mouse. (Note will sometimes be easier to hit "ESC" to pause Gens then right click as sometimes the menu can fade out when in reality it is not)

•	VSync (Shift - F3) - The VSync option waits for a Vertical refresh signal before updating your screen and is generally not necessary for most systems. Triple buffering is automatically turned on when VSync is enabled, this allows you to use the VSync option without suffering from a loss of performance, provided that your video card supports asynchronous page flipping. VSync is supported in Full and Windowed modes.

•	Stretch (Shift - F2) - The Genesis/Mega-Drive has two native graphics modes, 320x224 and 256x224. Some people find it annoying to have a black bar down either side of the screen with games using the 256x224 mode, enabling Stretch will stretch these games to full screen of the window. Note this option is a matter of personal taste and may cause slowdowns on slower machines. Stretch is not available in all Render Modes.

•	Color Adjust - Basic adjustment to make it greyscale, or adjust the brightness or contrast.

•	Render Modes (F11-F12) - Gens supports several different Render modes for improved graphics display. You may not be able to use all Render modes depending on your graphics card and the speed of your computer. MMX is required for all grahpics modes except Normal and Double.
Render modes: (F11 to render down, F12 to render up)
320x240 (Normal)
640x480 (Double)
640x480 (Full Scanline)
640x480 (50% Scanline MMX only)
640x480 (25% Scanline MMX only)
640x480 (Interpolated - Scanline)
640x480 (2xSai MMX only)

Also please note that the Windowed and Full Screen modes use different graphic engines and you will not always be in the same Render Mode when changing between the two. For example if you want to use the 2xSai Render Mode in Full Screen mode you will need to select that option while you are in Full Screen mode.

One additional "mode" is only available through a keyboard shortcut, pressing Shift - F9 while in Full Screen "Normal" and "Double" render modes will activate "Force software blit". This isn't necessary for most computers but you can try it if you are experiencing low frame rates in Full Screen modes.

•	Sprite Limit (Ctrl - S) - A real Genesis/Mega-Drive is capable of displaying 128 sprites on a screen, sprites can be found from 8x8 pixels to 24x32 pixels each. One limitation of the hardware is that it is only capable of displaying 256 or 320 sprite pixels per line (Depending on the graphics mode used), if more then this number is sprite pixels are present on the same line some wont be displayed. Gens (and other emulators) have no such limitation which can occasionally cause some strange effects in games. A famous example is on the title screen of Sonic the Hedgehog 1. When Sprite Limiting is turned ON, Sonic is drawn behind the title, This is how it would appear on a real Genesis/Mega-Drive. When it is turned OFF, Sonic is drawn over the top of the Sonic title (Showing his stomach). The default setting is ON. A few games will need this to be turned OFF, Gunstar Heroes for Example.

•	Frame Skip (F4) - This allows you to select the number of frames drawn a second, particularly useful with slower machines. The default setting is Auto, and Gens should be able to correct the frame rate in real time. You may manually change the setting if you have problems on slower machines. Also this feature is also VERY useful for speeding games up. (Personally I used setting 8 when playing RPGs or games that I don't want to wait a minute for something to happen, also good for speeding up load times on Sega/Mega Cd games - Mystic)

•	Screen Shot (Backspace) - You can take a screen shot of a game at any time by pressing Backspace on your keyboard. A Windows .bmp graphics file will be created in your Screen Shot directory. (See Options menu) You may want to later open the picture up and save it as a Jpeg (.jpg) to save space as .bmp are bigger in size (Though they do have better quality) and it mostly frowned at to try to send a .bmp file by email or so as it is so big. (Unless they want it)


CPU Menu

 The CPU menu controls the main Genesis/Mega-Drive core emulation and region-locking. When running Sega/Mega-Cd games several new options become available, see the Sega/Mega-Cd section for more information.

•	Debug - This activates Gens internal debugging software and presents you with a debug screen. This will probably not be of any use to the vast majority of Gens users, but it helps the author find and fix problems in Gens. Its also useful to users who are trying to make there own emulation program.

•	Country Select - A real Genesis/Mega-Drive has region-locking built into it, this means some games will only run on machines from the same region. This is used as a form of copy protection and as a means for SEGA to control the distribution of games. The default setting is Auto Detect. If the auto detection fails and you get a screen saying that the game or cd can only be played on a certain system, select the right country and hit TAB to reset. It should now run correctly. If it doesn't, contact the author of Gens and report it.

•	Auto Detection Order - This option is used to change the detection order of Gens. Normally a game should run in all 3 regions. By default it will start with USA first. If you wish to change the order move your mouse over to the country and press and hold the left mouse button and drag it to the desired position.

•	Hard Reset (TAB) / Reset 68k / Reset Z80 - These options allow you to reset various parts of the Genesis/Mega-Drive emulation.
I. Hard Reset - Resets all aspects of the emulation, its the same as pressing the Reset button on a real Genesis/Mega-Drive. You can also perform a Hard Reset by pressing the TAB key on your keyboard.
II. Reset 68k - Resets the Motorola 68000 (main CPU) emulation, it has much the same effect as performing a Hard Reset. Gens 68000 emulation is provided by a modified version of Neill Corlett's Starscream engine.
III. Reset Z80 - Resets the Z80 (sound timing/control) emulation, using this may cause sound to stop working! It may also fix sound if it stops working but you will probably never need to use it. ( only one example springs to mind...The Chaos Engine) Gens Z80 emulation is provided by RAZE Z80 core by Richard Mitton.

•	Perfect Sych Mode - For Sega Cd only, Designed for original emulation for some games that need it, if your game isnt working at some stages, use this. Ex: Popful mail needs it to "boot" and Dark Wizard will need this to get past the 1st level.


Sound Menu

This controls the sound emulation within Gens. It includes options to change the quality of sound playback, control over individual components of sound emulation, and options to dump (copy) sound from a game into a Windows .wav or Genecyst .gym file. Sound emulation in Gens has a "bug"......It sounds BETTER then the real thing!

•	Enable - This turns sound playback ON and OFF, the default setting is ON. When you disable sound Z80 emulation will still be active, and disabling Z80 emulation is not recommended as many games require it to be present to work. You may wish to turn sound OFF if you have a slower computer.

•	Rate - This controls the sound playback rate. There are three options available:
I. 11025 (AM Radio quality)
II. 22050 (Vinyl/Record quality)
III. 44100 (Cd quality)
The default setting is 22050 which is the same as a real Genesis/Mega-Drive. If you have a slower computer you may want to reduce the sound rate to 11025 to speed emulation up a little. If you has a fast computer and a good sound card you can set it up to 44100 and has the best sound rate possible.

•	Quality - Gens is capable of reproducing the sound with either 8 Bit or 16 Bit sound samples, the default setting is 16 Bit but you may want to change this if you have a slower computer.

•	Z80 / YM2612 / PSG / DAC / PCM / CDDA
These options control various aspects of the sound emulation in Gens, they are all turned ON by default.
I. Z80 - Sound on a Genesis/Mega-Drive is controlled by a secondary Z80 processor running at 4Mhz, however the Motorola 68000 CPU can also control the sound hardware directly. Turning Z80 emulation OFF will generally mean that there will be no sound, also lots of games will no longer work as they often wait for a response from the Z80 chip before continuing.
II. YM2612 - The music is provided by a Yamaha YM2612 sound chip which has six FM channels and one digital channel. Disabling this will also turn OFF DAC emulation.
III. PSG - The Texas Instruments PSG 76489 chip produces a few extra music/sound effects.
IV. DAC - The DAC is part of the YM2612 sound chip and uses the 6th FM channel to produce some drum and speech effects.The DAC improvement feature can cause some sound bugs with a few games so don't use it when isn't necessary, actually this feature is interesting with games like Street Fighter 2 but doesn't have any effects with others games like Street Of Rage 2.
V. PCM - The PCM is the sound chip found in the Sega/Mega-Cd and is responsible for the enhanced sound capabilities of the system. This is only active when running Sega/Mega-Cd games.
VI. CDDA - CDDA is a data access mode for reading files from the CD, not all drives support this so if you have problems running Sega/Mega-Cd games trying turning this off.

•	YM2612 High Quality - If you wish to make sound better, then use this option, however it may slow down slower computers.

•	Start/Stop Dump - Gens has the ability to record the sound from your favorite Genesis/Mega-Drive games as Windows .wav or Genecyst .gym files for later playback or editing. Once you have opened/loaded a game click on the Start Wav Dump or Start Gym Dump options to begin recording and press Stop Wav/Gym Dump when you have finished. A .wav or .gym file will be saved in your Sound Dump directory. (See the Options menu for details)


Option Menu

  The Options menu hold various other general settings for Gens including Sega/Mega-Cd settings and the ability to change your joystick/keyboard settings.

•	Misc - This opens the General Option menu, which contains several sections.
I. System Options:
a:) Auto Fix Checksum - Genesis/Mega-Drive cartridges have internal checksum routines which allows a real Genesis/Mega-Drive to check that a cart is working properly. Some of the roms that you find on the internet are badly dumped (copied) and have incorrect checksum values which may prevent them from working correctly, the usual symptom is that when you try to load a game Gens will present you with a red screen, just as a real Genesis/Mega-Drive would, Enabling Auto Fix Checksum will sometimes fix this. (You will need to reload your game first.) However lots of games were released with broken/faulty checksum routines, i.e. the cartridge had a bad checksum value, and fixing the checksum on these games could cause unexpected behavior, or prevent them from working properly. For example Dynamite Headdy (UE [c][!], a good dump where the original game has a faulty checksum routines, works fine with Auto Fix Checksum turned OFF but if you turn it ON then you will get a "red screen" indicating a bad rom, which is exactly the opposite of what you would expect! It is recommended that you leave this setting OFF unless you have a "red screen" problem.
b:) Auto Pause - This option will automatically pause Gens whenever you click on the menus or click outside the main Gens window.
c:) Fast Blur - This option will blur the graphics of Gens to give a similar effect as the TV output though a AV, RF, or Scart cable. It is a matter of personal preferences whether you have it on or off.
d:) Show Sega-Cd LED - This option will turn off the power light and access light emulation on Sega-Cd games. This is a personal preferance and is sometimes nice to see it accessing like it used to.

II. FPS Options:
a:) Enable - Turns the Frames Per Second (FPS) display ON and OFF. This displays a FPS value in the bottom left hand corner of the display, which is useful if you want to see how fast Gens is running on you system. Full speed will give a value of 60fps for NTSC games and 50fps for PAL games.
b:) Transparency - Makes the FPS display partially transparent.
c:) Double Sized - Doubles the size of the FPS display.
d:) Slide Bar - This allows you to change the color of the FPS display.
III. Message Options - Gens sometimes displays messages across the bottom of the graphics window, when using Save States for example. The controls for this section are exactly the same as the FPS display but affect general messages instead.
IV. Misc - This controls the into splash display color. (Displayed when you start Gens.)

•	Joypad - Gens emulates two joystick ports with support for 3 and 6 button Genesis controllers. There is also partial support for the Multi-Tap 4 player joystick adapter. When you click on joypad a screen comes up where you change your keys and settings. Player 1 and 2 have default keyboard settings pre programed. To reconfigure click "Redefine Keys" if you have a joystick you use the joystick to define the keys. 1/2 B-D do not have set keys and they can only work when you change the Connected Controller to "Teamplayer". (Read the Multi-Tap section for more details) Also remember you can save and load configs so you don't always have to redefine items. Joysticks should work if they are a windows compatible joystick. If you have problems installing your joystick read the Windows help file. If your joystick isn't calibrated or not working correctly try reinstalling your drivers and DirectX. (7.0 or higher)

•	Directories and Path Configuration - Gens needs to store several types of files on your hard drive...Save states, SRAM (Battery backups), BRAM (Sega/Mega-Cd battery backup), Sound Dumps (Wav and Gym files), Screen Shots, and Game Genie Patch (.pat) files. Gens saves all these files in it's own directory. (Note it is recommended to manually specify a new path other then the default as Gens can sometimes crash if you try saving something and your running a rom off a cd, as normal cd roms can't write to cd's. (Unless you have a CDRW with a  formatted cd with direct write capability -Mystic) -Red5)  You may change the directory for each type of file using the Directories Config window shown on the right. Either type in the desired location or click on one of the Change buttons to use a standard Windows file browser to set the location. You also set the location of the Sega/Mega-Cd bios files here. (Requirement for Sega/Mega-Cd emulation, see the Sega/Mega-Cd section for more info) The location of the optional GCOffline support is also set here, point Gens to the directory where you installed it and activate it with F1.

•	Current CD Drive - This option sets the CD-Drive which Gens will use for Sega/Mega-Cd emulation. Select the CD/DVD Drive you wish to use. (Get ForceASPI if you do not see your drive here, You can find this on our help pages or faq)

•	Sega CD SRAM Size - Here you can set the size of the External RAM cart used by the Sega/Mega-Cd. You may set from 8, 16, 32, or the default 64. The setting of "None" will mean that no external cart is plugged into the system and will not be used. More detail can be found in the Internal/External RAM section.

•	Load/Save Config - Gens creates a file called Gens.cfg the first time it is run which stores several important settings. The Load/Save Config allows you to save and use several different setups for Gens, which is useful for using different Joypad configurations, etc.


Help Menu

  The Help Menu contains multi-language support for all the menus. Currently Gens has 23 translations so far. The languages available are:

•	English

•	French

•	Spansih

•	Portuguese

•	Portuguese (Brazil)

•	Italian

•	Hebrew

•	Dutch

•	German

•	Russian

•	Swedish

•	Norwegian

•	Chinese

•	Traditional Chinese

•	Japanese

•	Greek

•	Turkish

•	Korean

•	Finnish

•	Polish

•	Catalan

•	Hungarian

•	Vietnamese

Gens stores the multi-language menus in a file called language.dat which you will find in the main Gens directory. If you don't have a language file installed when you first run Gens it will create the default english language file. Other language files are available from the download section of the Gens homepage. To support more then one language you will need to cut and paste additional languages into the language.dat file, It is recommended that you use only a few though because Gens compiles its menus "on the fly" and too many languages at once can cause Gens to slow down.

•	About - Displays the current information about the author and the the version.


What is Sega/Mega-Cd?

The Sega-Cd (American), originally called the Mega-Cd in Europe and Japan, is a CD-Rom add on for the Genesis/Mega-Drive. It was not the first console to use Cd's. However it added new popularity to Sega as people did the math and thought, "Well if the cartridge is 4megs and a cd is 700megs then there must be so MUCH more on it" Well....true, but it would take designers years to make a game with that much data. It improved the graphics and sound capabilities of the Genesis/Mega-Drive but wasn't very successful because of the relatively high cost and poor software support, Was also that people did not want to pay 50-60$ for a "Vhs video game".

Sega undermined the development of "platform" games as people wanted games like Sewer Shark and Night Trap since these had full motion video. It wasn't till later that players learned that it was just a gimmick and that "Next level" of video games didn't mean much. While people were playing games like Mickey Mania, Earthworm Jim, and Pitfall on the Snes and Genesis, little did they know that all of these were released on the Sega Cd which were infinitely superior to the cartridges. That is thanks to the "redbook" audio design. Later JVC made a combo unit as well that added Karaoke options and few other things. This however was called the "X' Eye Multi Entertainment System".

However just because it was unsuccessful does not mean that it did not found some of the newer games or so. Working Design games really expanded with the addition of the CD-Rom unit. Later in 1994 a newer unit called the Sega-CDX combined the Sega unit and the Cd-Rom add on to a small hand held unit (Which to this day still sells for $100), it could also be used as a portable cd player.


Configuring Your Sega/Mega-Cd

Before you can enjoy the Sega/Mega-Cd emulation you have to set some things up so that Gens can emulate properly. The first thing you need to do is to download and configure a BIOS file. You can download the right file at Eidolons Inn. Note you may only use this file if you own a Sega/Mega-Cd console! Gens, Eidolon, or any of our affiliates are not responsible for any illegal or misuse of these files. You will need one Bios per country. The common files are labeled as such:

us_scd1_9210.bin (American)

eu_mcd1_9210.bin (European)

jp_mcd1_9112.bin (Japanese)

However there are variations to these files and there are other versions. It is recommended to use version 1 of the Bios as emulator authors use that as a solid base for emulating. Some of the Bios 2 versions will work if you want to use them for different layouts. Note the Bios will only work with the designed country.

Once you have them downloaded you will have to configure them into Gens. In the Option menu, Select Directories/Files, This will bring up the Directory configuration window. Two thirds of the way down you will see the Configure CD Bios files. Set the path to point to where you put the bios files. Note be sure to put the correct bios for each country that it is designed for, otherwise it will not work correctly.

Once that is setup you may wish to make a folder or path for the battery backup for the Sega/Mega-Cd (aka the hard drive that you save you games to) In the Directories setup, under BRAM, you can change the path that the Sega/Mega-Cd will save to. This is the folder where your Internal and External saves will be saved per game.

Finally after that is set you will need to set the CD-Drive you wish Gens to use. Open the option menu and click on the Current Cd Drive option, this will bring up a list of available CD and DVD drives, select one of the drives from the list.

Gens is now ready for Sega/Mega-Cd emulation!


Booting a Game From CD (OEM Based)

Booting a cd is just like you would have with the real console. A OEM cd is required for this. (OEM meaning a cd that was bought from the store or a cd that was made to be run as OEM, example is a bin/cue file. Explained later in Iso/Bin ology 101)

Place the Cd in the selected drive and in the File menu, select Boot Cd. Gens will now initialize the Sega/Mega-Cd and you will see the Sega/Mega-Cd logo come up. (If this is the first time you run the game Gens will create a .brm file that can be accessed in the Memory Manager) If you press the "Start Button" you game will load. If you press "A, B, or C" the Sega/Mega-Cd menu will come up. In here you can play normal cd's or manage you memory and save files under "Options", You may need to format the External RAM cart if this is the first time playing the game (Only if the game supports it). Other then that it is the same screen you would remember long ago.


Booting a Game From Cd Image/Mp3

Gens also supports CD Images (Backups) in .iso/.bin/.raw format and .mp3 for Sega/Mega-Cd audio emulation. It is recommended that when using CD images that you have both the file and the correct .mp3 file available, You may be able to load a game without these files however most games check for their audio files and might not run if they are not present. (Tip: If by some reason you don't have the .mp3 file you "might" be sometimes able to trick the game to thinking it is there and thus making it work, To do this make a blank .mp3 file with the correct name and then try to run normally -Mystic)

For Gens to correctly identify any .mp3 files that go along with a game you MUST correctly name them. Say you make a image from Lunar, your .iso or so will be called "Lunar.iso" then the 52 tracks Lunar has will have to be converted into .mp3 files, when you have that they will have to be named as such:

Lunar.iso

Lunar 02.mp3

Lunar 03.mp3

and so on. Place them all in the same folder for them to work. Note there is NEVER a track 01 as that file is instead the .iso/.bin/.raw file. Also all tracks MUST be double diget not 2..3...4.

Gens will automatically load all .mp3 files when you load the game you wish to play. Once you have your image file and the correct .mp3 files together you are ready to play. Instead of "Boot Cd" now you will be "Open Rom" open your game like you would normally. Gens will now load all files and may take a second to load. After its loaded you will see the Sega/Mega-Cd logo in where you can start your game or access the Menu.


Advanced CPU Options / Perfect Synchro

When running Sega/Mega-Cd games several new options become available in the CPU menu.

First you will now have the option to reset the main and sub 68000 emulators independently of each other.

The most important option now available is the Perfect Synchro, when this is selected the main CPU and sub CPU execute instructions in step with each other, as they would on a real console, making the emulation more accurate but a lot slower. This option is turned off by default, and is recommended that you only use it if a game doesn't work in normal emulation mode and your CPU is fast. (Over 500 Mhz)

Tip: Some games may require Perfect Syncho "ON" to run, however it is possible to turn this option OFF after the game loads. Example, Popful Mail need Perfect Syncho turn ON to boot, but after the game is loaded and you see the title screen you may safely turn it OFF and enjoy the game in a much smoother play. -Mystic


Internal and External RAM

Although Gens manages your RAM for Sega/Mega-Cd you may wish to manage something yourself or actually do manual transfers to the external ram cart. Load the game you wish to manage and when you see the Sega/Mega-Cd logo press "A, B, or C" to bring you into the Sega/Mega-Cds menu. Once in there select "Option" from the screen. In there you will see a overview of your RAM status and file sizes. (Note the External Ram Cart will only show up if you have it enabled in the Gens Options Menu") Press a key to enter the manager.

In here you will see a few options:

•	Format Sega Cd RAM (Internal Ram) - This will erase all data stored from its memory and reinitialized the Internal RAM for use. Note this erases ALL data and saves from the file loaded. (The game you loaded) This action cannot be reversed!

•	Format RAM Cart (External RAM) - This is the same as above expect it will format the External RAM cart. (If enabled) Note this WILL have to be done first if you intend on using the external ram for saving and storing information of your game!!!

•	Erase Item from Sega Cd (Internal RAM) - Erase a file from the internal memory to clear space or just get rid of a old game. (Used on the original system to delete save files of games not played so other games could be saved on it, not so much needed in Gens as the RAM is all saved per game and not like it was and all games were saved on one.)

•	Erase Item From RAM Cart - Same as above except for the External RAM Cart.

•	Copy Sega Cd RAM to RAM Cart - This will copy files from the Internal RAM to the External RAM. This is good for clearing up space on the Internal RAM for your game and not lose your file totally. Also not every Sega/Mega-Cd game supported the External Ram Cart there is no way for the game to be saved on it, The only way to transfer it would be with this option.

•	Copy RAM Cart to Sega Cd RAM - Same as above except this will copy files from the External RAM to the Internal RAM.

•	Exit - Closes out from the memory manager.

Some side notes about RAM. Sega/Mega-Cd games only allowed 1-4 save games per memory. Meaning if you had filled up all save slots or used the slot the game needed you could not create more. Instead you had to use the External RAM Cart for more. However since some games did not support the RAM cart you were stuck with the internal RAM. However in here you can copy the file over to the External RAM and now use your internal RAM again without having to lose the data saved on the External RAM. Note tho....on BOTH Internal and External the save or info files use the same name.....meaning you CANNOT move a file over without it rewriting the old file. So be careful when you move your file over thinking you can store more on the RAM Cart.


Troubleshooting/FAQ
Troubleshooting

Below are some common issues you may have when it comes to Sega/Mega-Cd emulation:

•	 First of all please remember that Sega/Mega-Cd emulation is at a early stage, many of the advanced Sega/Mega-Cd features may not be supported or are at a buggy stage. That means many games will not work or will have major problems which render them unplayable!

•	Many CD/DVD/CDRW drives may not be compatible with Gens. If this is the case try another Cd-Drive. If that still doesn't work or you don't have another drive, try making a cd image.

•	If when you put a Sega/Mega-Cd game in the drive and boot and you get the menu screen with tracks, this means that the Sega/Mega-Cd doesn't recognize the cd as a game. The CDD/CDC emulation isn't finished and may cause this problem.

•	If you boot a cd and all you see on the screen is "Checking CD" it means that the cd might not be recognized or the Cd is scratched or dirty and can't be read properly. Try cleaning the cd and re boot it or make a cd image of it to see if that fixes the problem.

•	Since the Cd part of emulation is still early most games run much better as a cd image file. If you game doesn't work from cd, make a image file from it with the .mp3s and try again. If that still doesn't work then the game isn't currently supported. Report this and wait for newer versions.

Commonaly Asked Questions:

Q : Gens back to the blank/intro screen after i used Boot CD (or loaded an ISO image), what's mean ?

A : Your sega CD bios aren't correctly configured, report you to the sega CD section for more info. Another reason (when you load an ISO image) can be that you have a corrupted ISO image, Gens can't recognize it as an sega CD file so it cancel the loading process...

Q : I always got the BIOS CD player interface with "NO DISC" message after a "Boot CD", what's the problem ?

A : Be sure to use the good CD Drive, if it's the case, try to use another one or upgrade your ASPI drivers.

Q : The bios keeps saying "CHECKING DISC" !

A : This means that CD isn't recognized, because isn't a sega CD (or it's damaged), or just because your CDROM Drive isn't recognized by Gens, try to upgrade your ASPI drivers.

Q : The bios goes to the CD player and NO DISC message appears.

A : Be sure to have correctly inserted the CD in the tray and check that you correctly defined the current CD drive in 'options' menu, in final mean you can try to upgrade your ASPI drivers.

Q : I don't have sound in my sega CD game, i'm playing it from an image with the MP3 files, how fix it ?

A : Rename correctly your MP3 files...

Q : I don't have sound in my sega CD game but i'm playing from a CD, huh ?

A : With Gens 1.40, it's normally impossible, or it's an emulation related problem (or you disabled CDDA

    playback in sound option) ! Also be SURE that the selected Cd-Rom drive is connected to the sound card AND that the Cd Player in the volume control is turned up.

Q : I got a little CDDA sound bug every minute, what's the problem ?

A : The bug is know, it occurs when sound rate is set to 11 Khz or 22 Khz (with NTSC games only for 22 Khz), just set the sound rate to 44 Khz.

Q : My game wont recognize my External RAM cart and I know it supports it!
A : Although most games will offer to format your RAM cart, some games wont. To format your RAM cart for use read the Internal/External RAM Section.


What is Game Genie?

Game Genie is a game cheat device. Games that did not have codes or special features might have had something better here. With Game Genie from Galoob Toys you can enter cheat codes and play your game which much ease. You can find cheat codes for your game online or if you had the old Game Genie book. Red5 has made a large collection of Game Genie codes for download located at the Genesis Project.

Game Genie codes for Gens can be entered as either Game Genie codes or Pro Action Reply (Hex) codes:
Game Genie codes are in the 8 letter format XXXX-XXXX
Hex codes are in the format XXXXXX:XXXX 24 bit hex address and 16 bit hex data.
Gens has another neat feature. With each game you add codes to, Gens will make a .pat file. The .pat file stores your games Game Genie data for later use. Also Gens allows you to make a short description of what the code does so you wont forget. You can change the stored directory of .pat files in the Options menu.


General Help for Game Genie Codes

Entering codes is easier then it seems. Normal codes will look like this: ABCD-EFGH

However you will sometimes see a code like this:

ABCD-EFGH+IJKL-MNOP

ALL this is showing is that the code REQUIRES both sets of codes to run. However you CANNOT type the code in as shown above. You must type them in separately. In other words when entering the codes make sure you only type in 8 letters with the "-" in the middle, make a note of the code like "Part 1 of so and so code" then add the second 8 letters the same way on a new line. Be sure to add each line when you completed a line. If you get a code that has more then 16 letters then do the same steps as above except you just add more "8 letter liners" till the code is completed. After you have all your codes in and labeled then you must make sure ALL codes of a multi-word code are activated. Once that is done the code will work and you can play your game.

Also note some codes require a "Master Code" to run. Be SURE that the code is entered and activated for the other codes to work.

So the quick run down:

XXXX-XXXX -8 letter code per line (Correct)

XXXX-XXXX+XXXX-XXXX -16 letter code per line (incorrect, break it down to 2 8 letter codes)

That should cover that area. (I hope)


Using Patch (.pat) Files

 Patch files are simple notepad files. You can edit them by hand if you like and know how to do it correctly. Since Gens automatically saves the .pat files when you make them, it may be best just to use the Game Genie Manager to make the files so they work correctly. Just remember if you decide to make the .pat files on your own, be sure that you make any multi-word codes correctly.


Entering and Editing Codes

 In the Game Genie Manager you will see two words of interest. CODE and NAME. In the CODE section you will add your 8 letter code first then you can give it a description if you type something in for NAME. Remember 16 letter or more codes you will have to break down into 8 letter codes. So if its 16 letters, make 2 codes using the steps above.

To remove codes you click on the code and click "Remove code"

Remember Gens saves all the work you do and if you make a mistake it cannot be repaired. SO you may want to make sure you keep your .pat files backed up.


Activating / Deactivating Codes

Any code entered will automatically be started as turned off ( - )

To turn on codes, click on the code and hit "Toggle code" this will turn the code on ( + ) Remember that some games have Master Codes, don't forget to turn these on as well. When you have activated all the codes you need, click the "apply" button so your codes will be in place. Then click close to go back to your game. You can go back here and turn codes off the same way in game if you need to. (Just like the old on/off switch) Just remember to hit apply.


Troubleshooting

Codes will not always work! Here are the most common causes:

•	Remember to Toggle your codes and press apply

•	Make sure ALL lines of a "Multi-Word" code are activated

•	Has the code been entered correctly? Check the .pat file

•	Is the code a fake?

•	Games are sometimes re-released with altered code, or re-coded for different regions...the code may not work with the copy of the game you are using!

•	Make sure the code you have is for the correct version of the game.

•	Make sure there isn't a "master code" that needs to be activated FIRST!


Making a Cd Image Overview
Making a Cd Image

Making a cd image backup from your game is a simple process. However there are many ways to go about this. This section will cover the basics of making a legal copy of your cd to your hard drive in a .iso, .bin, or .raw file.

To start making a image you will need a few programs. The programs I recommend are: (Note if link is dead Ill re link it in new versions)

•	Isobuster (For direct .iso making)

•	CDRWin (For .bin/cue image making)

•	BinChunker (For extracting .bin/cue files)

•	CDMage (Recommended for better .bin corruption scans)

Ok now that you have the programs you can now start learning the basics. First decide on what type of image you wish to make. The difference between Isobuster and CDRWin is that Isobuster will ONLY make the .iso and not the .mp3 or .wav files. CDRWin on the other hand will copy the WHOLE cd image (600-700megs) So if you know the game is small and doesn't have audio tracks then you might want to save time (And hard drive space) and just use isobuster. CDRWin will make a .bin/cue file which can however be used later to make a OEM sega cd again as it copies the cd exactly as it sees it. More will be explained below. (Sorry if this is confusing, but since this is the first real sega cd image help section posted I'm stuck, Ill fix it up in later revisions)

Side note: Since this is 101 of technical support all the details of the programs or how to troubleshoot them is not included. This section is designed for making image files and all works well. Sorry if this is still confusing or you can't figure it out.


CDRWin .bin/cue and .mp3
Making a .bin/cue image: (600-700megs)

Ok so you decided you want to make .bin/cue image. Put the game cd in the Cd-Rom drive and then load CDRWin. Select "Extract Disc/Tracks/Sectors" and the program will load the cd. The option "Disc image/ Cuesheet" should be selected, if it isn't make sure it is now. Next under "Image filename" you need to specify a path for it to make the .bin file. Example C:\Segacd\Bins\<Gamename.bin> once that is set then you should be ready to go. Click "Start" and it will start extracting the cd. If all goes well (Depending on what version you have) it should complete with ease. If not then check the CDRWin help file or you "may" need to try Isobuster (Some games or Cd-rom drives aren't compatible with the program) If all went well though then if you look at the place where you created the .bin you should see <game>.bin and <game>.cue right now all you did was make a cd image to Hard drive. This as it is right now CAN be played with Gens and other emulators supporting image files. Also this .bin/cue combo is what you will need if you want to make a OEM Sega Cd again. The reason is that the .cue file is what tells a burner program how to exactly read the .bin file and how to burn it correctly. Ok now that you have that you will notice that the file is huge, if this isn't for future burning and you want to make the image smaller (And you most likely will unless you have a 40 Gig drive) You will need to use Binchunker to extract the files.

Making .mp3 Files from your .bin/cue:

Ok now your ready for the next step is to make .mp3 files from your .bin/cue file. You can do this easily with Binchunker. If you have downloaded CDMage then it is recommended that you load the cue file in it and scan for corruption on the bin file. (You can do this in Binchunker as well but CDMage has a better scanner/fixer) Ok in Binchunker load your games .cue file into the program, select actions, select all tracks. After they are selected select "Convert" This will extract all data and audio files from your .bin to a place you decide. (Note this can also take 600 MB of space) When it has finished it's job you will notice in the folder that you have made the file you will see a .iso and .wav files (IF the game had audio tracks) Now then since you want .mp3 files instead of the big .wav files you'll need a audio program such as MusicMatch to convert them. You can use any program that converts .wav to .mp3. Once you have the .mp3 files you can delete the .wav files. Now all thats left is the final step.

Putting it all together:

Ok now that you have your .bin and .mp3 files you need to rename them (Recommended) rename them like this:

<game>.iso

<game> 02.mp3

<game> 03.mp3

and so on if the game has audio tracks. After that is all done and said place the files where you want them. Now you can load them in Gens or anything and play your game. Have Fun!

Tip: You can fit many Sega Cd images on one cd if you make a image backup cd instead of just one game per OEM cd.


Making a Direct .iso and Manual .mp3
Making a direct .iso and manual .mp3 saves a lot of time and space. This method is good if you don't have a lot of hard drive space to spare or if for some reason you can't get another method working.

Making a .iso file:

Put your Sega/Mega-Cd into your Cd-Rom drive. Load Isobuster. In here you will see a directory of your cd and anything else. To extract the .iso file right click track 01 and extract it to RAW (.bin, .iso) data. (Some Cd's may be different and you may have to click on Session 1 to do this) After you do that it will ask you where to save it to. Pick you folder and hit OK. It will extract the image from your cd. When it is done you will see it made your file (Wither its .bin or .iso it wont matter) Now all you need to do (If at all) is make your .mp3 files. (Note if your cd does NOT have audio tracks then you can just take the image file and use it to play)

Note: you "may" get a dialogue box saying "Cannot read from sector" just have Isobuster fill it with zeros and that should take care of it.

Making a .mp3 file:

Ok now to make a .mp3 file from your cd is simple. If you already have a program that converts music cd's to .mp3 this will be the same process. Make all tracks from the cd, EXPECT track 1, to .mp3. After that's done you are ready to put it all together. If you don't have a program that makes .mp3 then you can download MusicMatch and it will do it.

Putting it all together:

Ok now that you have your .iso or .bin and .mp3 files you need to rename them (Recommended) rename them like this:

<game>.iso

<game> 02.mp3

<game> 03.mp3

and so on if the game has audio tracks. After that is all done and said place the files where you want them. Now you can load them in Gens or anything and play your game. Have Fun!

Tip: You can fit many Sega Cd images on one cd if you make a image backup cd instead of just one game per OEM cd.


Making .iso and .mp3 to .bin/.cue

To make .bin/.cue files (So you can make a OEM Sega/Mega-Cd):

1- Have your iso and mp3 files together

2- Convert your MP3 Files to WAV (Using Winamp's Diskwriter plugin or any other tool you know)

3- Now, create a file.cue in the same directory as your ISO + MP3 with the Following content:

FILE <yourgame>.iso BINARY

  TRACK 01 MODE1/2048

    INDEX 01 00:00:00

    POSTGAP 00:02:00

FILE <yourgame>02.WAV WAVE

  TRACK 02 AUDIO

    PREGAP 00:02:00

    INDEX 01 00:00:00

FILE <yourgame>03.WAV WAVE

  TRACK 03 AUDIO

   INDEX 01 00:00:00

Make sure you type in the name of your game correctly and not leave it as <yourgame> then add the tracks as necessary. Notice that only the first audio track needs the 2-Second PREGAP, the remaining tracks get the same layout as Track 03.

4- Save this CUE Sheet and burn the CD with CDRWin 4 using this CUE file...

5- Enjoy playing your game on your system!

How to make .bin/.cue files for different regions. (Sega-Cd -> Mega Cd -> Sega Cd):

1- Have your iso and mp3 files together

2- Download SCDConv 2.5 from http://www.litespeedcomputers.com/sx/misc/downloads/scdconv.zip

3- Extract the SCDConv ZIP content to the same directory as your ISO+MP3 Package;

4- Execute in the DOS command promt: scdconv yourgame.iso

5- Convert the game to European Standard (MegaCD instead of SegaCD) if it's American.

  5b- Convert the game to American Standard (Sega Cd instead of Mega Cd) if it's Jap or Europe.

6- After successful Country change, convert your MP3 Files to WAV (Using Winamp's Diskwriter plugin or any other tool you know)

7- Now, create a file.cue in the same directory as your ISO + MP3 with the Following content:

FILE <yourgame>.iso BINARY

  TRACK 01 MODE1/2048

    INDEX 01 00:00:00

    POSTGAP 00:02:00

FILE <yourgame>02.WAV WAVE

  TRACK 02 AUDIO

    PREGAP 00:02:00

    INDEX 01 00:00:00

FILE <yourgame>03.WAV WAVE

  TRACK 03 AUDIO

   INDEX 01 00:00:00

Make sure you type in the name of your game correctly and not leave it as <yourgame> then add the tracks as necessary. Notice that only the first audio track needs the 2-Second PREGAP, the remaining tracks get the same layout as Track 03.

8- Save this CUE Sheet and burn the CD with CDRWin 4 using this CUE file.

9- Enjoy playing your game on your system!


Troubleshooting/FAQ
Note since this is a basic 101 lesson not all programs or methods are listed. This is just a basic idea of what to do so you can try to get started without being totally clue less. I also hope this little lesson will help cut down on questions on the forums and emails.

Q : CDRWin gives me a read error.

A : Depending on your version, CDRWin might not be compatible with your Cd-Rom Drive. Try disabling the error in the options (Ignore errors), if that doesn't work try Isobuster.

Q : I downloaded a .bin but I can't extract it! Help!

A : Well to extract a .bin file you MUST have a .cue file, if you do not have that file then all you will be able to do is play the .bin as is. Unless the provider gives you the .cue file.

Q : I'm Still Confused! Help!

A : Sigh......post on a forum asking for help. Ill update this section as needed.


What is Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive?

The introduction of Sega's 16-Bit Genesis console in 1989 brought home a whole new era of home video games. Sega basically target mature gamers who were ready to "outgrow" the simple Nintendo system. Some people think that at the time Sega tried to distinguish itself from Nintendo in every way, including granting rights to Galoob to make Game Genie Genesis. Nintendo fought that furiously. The Japanese version of Sega called the Mega Drive was the equivalent of the Genesis except they had different words printed on them.

Gens also supports the play of the old 8-Bit Master System which were a card format. Later the addition of the 32x was released which gave taste to the new Saturn system. Only 50 games or really took advantage of the 32x processor. The Sega Cd also supports this addition.


Running your Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive
To run your Genesis/Mega-Drive emulator is simple. You don't have to set anything up, (Other then personal preferences) However you will need to have a rom file to play. Roms files for Sega are: .bin, .smd, and .gen. You can find roms on any search engine, remember however that it is ILLEGAL to own a rom if you do not own the game! Gens cannot be responsible for your actions! Gens also supports the above roms files in a .zip format. However the .zip file can only contain one rom file because if there is more Gens will not recognize the extra games. So keep that in mind when you are trying to save hard drive space.

Loading a ROM: (Ctrl-O)

To load a rom open Gens and click on "File" or Ctrl-O. A explorer window will open up asking you to choose the rom you wish to open. Click on the rom and Gens will load it.

Closing a ROM: (Ctrl-C)

Although not really necessary to do it is safer to close a rom incase the game has a battery backup. This way if you close a rom you will know that your save games are safe and won't be lost. This is more important for Sega Cd games.


What is 32x?

In 1994, Sega 32x was introduced with two 32 bit processors, offering a cheap upgrade into the 32-bit world. No improvements were made on the sound, only visual. Now although it didnt make quite a impression as hoped, It did lay down the path of what is to come with the Sega Saturn in the works. Most people however didnt wish to pay 150$ for the inital release and would have rathered waited for the PSX or Saturn itself. Everyone raved and had high hopes for the "Faster, Better" 32x. Although this never happened. GENS offers you this old classic for all your needs, 32x CD support will be added soon.


Configuring your 32x
Before you can enjoy the Sega 32x emulation you have to set some things up so that Gens can emulate properly. The first thing you need to do is to download and configure a BIOS file. You can download the right file at Eidolons Inn. Note you may only use this file if you own a 32x console! Gens, Eidolon, or any of our affiliates are not responsible for any illegal or misuse of these files. You will need one Bios per cpu. The common files are labeled as such:

32X_G_BIOS.BIN (M68000)

32X_M_BIOS.BIN (Master SH2)

32X_S_BIOS.BIN (Slave SH2)

Once you have them downloaded you will have to configure them into Gens. In the Option menu, Select Directories/Files, This will bring up the Directory configuration window. Two thirds of the way down you will see the Configure Bios files. Set the path to point to where you put the bios files. Note be sure to put the correct bios for each cpu that it is designed for, otherwise it will not work correctly.

Gens is now ready for Sega 32x emulation!


Running your Sega 32x

To run your Sega 32x emulator is simple. You don't have to set anything up, (Other then personal preferences) However you will need to have a rom file to play. Roms files for Sega are: .32x. You can find roms on any search engine, remember however that it is ILLEGAL to own a rom if you do not own the game! Gens cannot be responsible for your actions! Gens also supports the above roms files in a .zip format. However the .zip file can only contain one rom file because if there is more Gens will not recognize the extra games. So keep that in mind when you are trying to save hard drive space.

Loading a ROM: (Ctrl-O)

To load a rom open Gens and click on "File" or Ctrl-O. A explorer window will open up asking you to choose the rom you wish to open. Click on the rom and Gens will load it.

(Note: Select the "32x" option for "File Type" in the drop down menu)

Closing a ROM: (Ctrl-C)

Although not really necessary to do it is safer to close a rom incase the game has a battery backup. This way if you close a rom you will know that your save games are safe and won't be lost. This is more important for Sega Cd games.