Emulator Defaults & Help.

Introduction.

Each game has been checked on a variety of computers in 3 different emulators, KGen98 v0.4b, Genecyst X.XX, and Gens.
The compatibility notes in the guide are only useful if you know which default settings I have used though.

Other emulators are not currently listed because A) It would take far too long! and B) None of the other emulators are as good and generally require a must faster machine to achieve the same result - but several of them do look promising!

NOTE: at this time Gens testing is incomplete, the number shown in brackets after Gens is the last version that particular game was tested with.


Which One should I use?

Each emulator has it's own benefits/drawbacks and you will probably all three for maximum compatibility although one will be used as your main emulator dependent on your system.

If your system is fast enough (approx. PII-266MHz or higher) then I would recommend using Gens as your default. This is a WinDoze based emulator so you should all be familiar with the interface as it uses standard WinDoze components, it's pretty fast for a WinDoze based emulator too. Compatibility is very high, currently running at around 92% of all games working perfectly (or with no noticeable problems) and a further 5% running with just minor problems, that's a staggering 97% of games which must now place Gens as the number 1 emu, you really shouldn't need anything else!

If your system is a little longer in the tooth then you need to use the older Dos emulators KGen98 and Genecyst. Both of them work fine under WinDoze and should work at full speed with a P166 or above. KGen is technically superior to Genecyst with better RasterFx, Shadow/Hi-Lite and 16bit Colour support and slightly higher compatibility, although in the end it probably comes down to which one you prefer or works best on your system. I use Genecyst on my Laptop (a P-150) for instance because I can 'stretch' the image to fit the screen, whereas KGen uses a custom graphics mode so I'm stuck in a tiny little box in the middle of the screen!

With either of the Dos based systems you will need a Vesa2 compliant graphics card, or with an older system you will need to use a utility like Display Doctor to make your card Vesa2 compliant. Also the older Dos based emulators have major problems with modern PCI based sound cards, particularly KGen, so you may not be able get sound on some systems.


Emulator Defaults & Help.

Gens Defaults & Help.

 'Graphic' Menu
 Option  Default Setting 
 Full Screen  ON
 VSync / Triple Buffer  OFF (NOTE: only available in Full Screen mode)
 Render  Double = 640x480 (NOTE: with the current release of Gens
 v0.88 I find the Normal mode slower and the sound goes out of sync!)
 Frameskip  Auto

 Sprite Limit

 ON
 'CPU' Menu
 Option  Default Setting 
 Debug  OFF (Not really useful unless you're a programmer)
 Country  AUTO
 'Sound' Menu
 Option  Default Setting 
 'Enable'  ON
 Rate  22050
 Quality  16bits
 Stereo  ON
 Z80  ON
 YM2612 (FM Music)  ON
 PSG  ON
 DAC  ON (Improved DAC OFF)
 'Option' Menu
 Option  Default Setting
 Fast Blur  OFF (more of a personal preference, gives a blurry effect that you
         apparently got with a real NTSC Genesis using a Scart lead)
 Auto Fix Checksum  OFF (This should ALWAYS be OFF in any Emu, if you need to turn it
           ON you have a bad dump!)

KGen98 Defaults & Help.

 'Version' Menu (Country select)
 Option  Default Setting 
 Auto detect  ON
 'Video' Menu
 Option  Default Setting 
 VSync  OFF

 50hz Mode

 OFF (Turn on to run PAL games at the correct speed.)

 Scanlines

 OFF

 Shadow/Hilite

 ON

 Raster FX

 MOST  

 H-Interrupts

 ON 

 8/16 Bit Mode  

 16bit (NOTE: you can only take screenshots when in 8bit mode.)

 FrameSkip  Frame Skipping is set by keys F1 to F4.
 where F1 is draw every frame (Default),
 and F4 is draw every fourth frame.
 'Fix Rom Checksum'
 Checksum Fixing is ON by default in KGen. However as several games are known to have 'faulty'
 checksum routines I reccommend that you change setting this to OFF. If the Guide says you need to
 turn checksum fixing  ON to  play the game in KGen follow these steps:
 1. Set Checksum Fixing to ON.
 2. Load (or Re-Load) the Rom, simply resetting (Pressing TAB) won't work.
 'Sound'
 Sound is Enabled by default in KGen 98, it can be turned OFF using the COMMAND LINE  (KGen98.exe -D) but the Z80 chip will still be emulated.
 In the default mode it will be 16bit sound at 22050Hz in Mono with a soundblaster16 or above,  again these settings can be changed  via the COMMAND LINE. (-8 for 8 bit sound, -4 for  44100Hz, & -S for Stereo sound.) I use the defaults.
 NOTE: KGen98 is VERY fussy about sound cards, it will only work with 100% Soundblaster  compatible cards. If your soundcard uses any type of software emulation for soundblaster  compatibility IT WILL NOT WORK! Unfortunately this includes any modern PCI sound card,  even Creative Labs Soundblaster cards.
 'Load/Save States' & 'Game Genie' Codes.
 KGen98 sometimes has the annoying habit of refusing to Save/Load save games and game genie  codes (or recently my copy started saving in the root directory!). I have seen this mentioned several  times on various message boards, and it is easy to fix :

 Find the file Kgen98.cfg in the Kgen directory and DELETE it!

 When you run KGen98 again you will now be able to Save/Load games and use game genie codes  again. You will have lost all you default settings though, so you will have to recalibrate your joystick  etc.

Genecyst Defaults & Help.

 'Settings' Menu
 Option  Default Setting 
 Resolution  320x224
 Frameskip  Auto

 VSync

 OFF
 Timings: HBlank
              VBlank
              Virtual FPS
 42
 2150
 60 (set to 50 to run PAL games at the correct speed)
 DMA fix  OFF
 Force Display  OFF

 Raster FX

 OFF (NOTE: Turning RasteRFX ON turns H-Interrupts ON too.)

 H-Interrupts

 OFF
 Auto Version (Country select)  ON
 'Sound' Menu
 Option  Default Setting 
 Rate  22050
 Z80 Enable  ON
 FM Music  ON
 PSG Sound  ON
 DAC Sound  ON
 'Fix Rom Checksum'
 Checksum Fixing is OFF by default in Genecyst. If the Guide says you need to fix the checksum to  play the game in Genecyst follow these steps:
 1. Load the Rom.
 2. Click on 'Fix Rom Checksum' in the 'File' Menu.
 3. Reset the emulator (Press ALT-R).