BENCH TESTING

[ This section is from the v1.04f version of the Genesis Game Guide ]

Initial testing by the Scribe was performed on a homebuilt PC clone running on an Intel Pentium 2 350-MMX, 128MB SGRAM, a Creative Labs 3D Blaster (Voodoo 2) slaved to an ATI All-in-Wonder (Rage II+), a Creative Labs SoundBlaster 64 PnP ISA, and a 12.0 GB Western Digital UDMA EIDE hard drive.

All games were tested with the latest versions of Genecyst X (also known as the Genecyst X.XX beta) and KGen 98 (KGen 98 release 0.4b), with the following option settings:

KGen 98 v0.04: Scanlines OFF, shadows/highlights ON, raster effects FULL, H-interrupts ON, 16-bit video mode ON, vsync ON, auto-version ON, checksums OFF.

The only Genesis emulator that is officially sanctioned by Sega (a Win9x port forms the core of the Sega Smash Pack), this is the brainchild of legendary game coder Steve Snake (NBA Jam). Has features not found in any other G/MD emulator, and only Genecyst X can compete with it in the sound department.

Genecyst X: CPU skip OFF, 320x240 video resolution, DMA fix ON, force display ON, H-interrupts ON, raster effects ON, vertical sync ON, auto-version ON, stereo sound ON, sound rate 44100, Z80/FM/PSG/DAC enabled, fake Z80 OFF, Pentium RDTSC function ON.

Sardu has quietly released an updated version of his popular emulator. It now includes an overhauled sound engine that rivals KGen 98's (some say it's better). Highly recommended to newbies for its ease of use.

Games found unplayable under these emulators were tried with other, less capable programs (listed below) until an emulator was found that worked.

KGen --> KGen v0.34b by Steve Snake - the last release of KGen prior to the KGen 98 build, will handle some games that the newer version won't.

Genecyst --> Genecyst v0.32 and v0.20 by Sardu - earlier releases of Genecyst prior to the X.XX beta, will handle some games that the newer version won't.

Megasis --> Megasis v0.02 by JT and Bori - a Win95/DirectX based Japanese MegaDrive emulator which handles some games that few others will.

VGen --> VGen v0.14 by Jason Meehan - the only "real" attempt to emulate the Sega CD console to date.

St0rm --> St0rm v0.013 by Melody Software - A Spanish effort that plays some games the others won't, but lacks most sound.

Generator --> Generator v0.3 by James Ponder and Jason Nelson - a Win32 beta of the popular Mac/Unix Genesis emulator.

GenEm --> GenEm v0.17 and v0.19 by Markus Gietzen - the very first real Genesis emulator, which has recently been revived by its author for Unix-based systems

MESS --> MESS v0.20 - this multipurpose console emulator, a spinoff of the MAME emulaton project - has a pretty decent Genesis emulation module in its arsenal.

MegaDrive -> MegaDrive DOS v0.5 - a really lame attempt at coding a Genesis emulator from waaaaay back.

In addition, SciTech Display Doctor v6.53a was installed to correct color palette problems with certain titles (i.e. the Road Rash series, etc.).

I have also used these emulators on a variety of PC configurations within the past two years - with processors ranging from an AMD 486DX2-80 to a Intel Pentium 200-MMX, with video cards ranging from the ubiquitous Trident SVGA cards on up to an Creative Labs 3D Exxtreme, and various legacy sound boards - including every variant of the Creative Labs SoundBlaster to date, the Logitech Soundman Wave (my trusty ol' bench sound card), the Reveal SoundFX series, and most recently an Ensoniq SC1000 32-bit wavetable card. I do not recommend using PCI-based sound cards, as their PCI bridge drivers aren't always 100% compatable with non-Windows software.