-----------------------------------------------------------------------------KGen V0.33b BETA TEST Sega Genesis / MegaDrive Emulator.

Written by Steve Snake, Kode and Muzak Ltd, June-August 1997. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is an emulator for the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive, one of my favourite consoles of all time, for a Pentium PC in MSDOS. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------FILE CONTAINS: -------------KGEN README EXE 266606 bytes TXT 22600 bytes

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------HISTORY: -------Version 0.33b : 28th September 1997. Apologies for the lateness of this version, I have been on Holiday ! Added Horizontal Interrupts. These are always ON by default. There should be no need to switch them OFF, unless something doesn't run correctly with them ON, or it slows down too much. Added the most common Raster Effects. Now you can play Outrun ! Horizontal Interrupts need to be ON for these to take effect. Many more Raster Effects are planned, and the ones that are in there have been written in about four hours this evening, and so can be, and will be, heavily optimised at a later date. Again, made an attempt to track down and fix problems reported by some people relating to KGen crashing their machine. Hopefully this is now sorted. Fixed further timing problems with the YM2612. Fixed Counter bug (Streets of Rage). Most games that stopped working in Version 0.32b should now work again. And many, many more games will now run. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Version 0.32b : 14th September 1997. Added Config File, all options and directories are now saved on exit. Added Battery Backup save / load. These are automatically loaded / saved from the same directory as the SnapShot files. Of course, KGen will also load .GSV files from Genecyst, if they are copied to the correct directory. Fixed several small bugs and generally improved reliability. Since KGen always

ran with no problems whatsoever on my machine, I'll have to rely on you lot to tell me if the problems are now fixed ! Fixed problem relating to certain games not initialising the Genesis properly, and thus they only worked if they were the first game loaded (!) Added an option to disable the automatic Checksum fixing, because I noticed a few games appear to have incorrect checksum code in them. (Chester, Cadash to name but two.) You should keep Checksums enabled unless a game does not run. Try switching it off, and reload the rom. Improved KGens compatibility so much that you can throw out your compatibility lists and start producing Non-compatibility lists :-) Most games should now run. Fixed problem with 68000 <-> Z80 communication taking far too long sometimes (Streets of Rage, Dragon Ball Z, AirDiver etc.) Fixed a slight timing error with the YM2612 timers. Further optimisations to the Z80 emulation, but you probably won't notice, since several compatibility issues slowed it down again slightly ! Altered my Sound code in VSYNC ON mode because of all the complaints. Later I will make it an option of some sort. Also, VSYNC defaults to OFF, because a lot of people seem incapable of doing it. I assume people sensible enough to have bought a decent PC will also have the sense to switch it back on, if they want to. NOTE: Please don't ask about deleting / overwriting SnapShots, or that the Microsoft Sidewinder (tm) doesn't work. I'll look into these when I have time. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Version 0.31b : 7th September 1997. Fixed Joypad Config bug, and generally improved Joystick handling. Fixed problem with SnapShot files not working on some machines. Fixed more minor bugs. Improved SnapShot files - you no longer need to load the ROM first. See the info on the GUI for more information. Added the ability to load Genecyst Save State files. Again, see the GUI info for more information. ScreenShot files are now currently saved into the directory you run KGen from. This also applies to SnapShot files, although changing the directory in the LOAD SNAPSHOT menu also sets where SnapShot files are saved to. NOTE: CONFIG FILE WILL BE ADDED ASAP, PLEASE DON'T HASSLE ME FOR IT !! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Version 0.30b : 4th September 1997. Second major release of KGen.

I apologise for the delay with this version, but due to a heavy workload at work, I haven't had any time for KGen recently. The changes in this version were done in about three days. ADDED KGen's GUI Menu System, and many new features. More about this later. Shadow / Hilight mode has been improved, it now works in every situation I can find. Minor optimisations to the 68000 and Z80 emulators, they are now a little bit faster. There is much more work to be done on this. Minor optimisations also to the Sprite and Palette handlers. KGen now runs a large amount of games at full speed on an Intel P133. Previous versions very nearly did already. Altered part of the YM2612 Emulation because some sound drivers were doing unexpected things. The music on 'HellFire' no longer sounds like, well, Hell! Sound now sounds a lot better if the emulator slows down for any reason. Altered the custom video mode slightly for timing reasons, and added full PAL support plus a 50Hz video mode. Added Joypad / Joystick controls, and support for player two. Added Volume control. Re-wrote the command line stuff, because several people wanted me to keep it in. Added VSYNC OFF option for people with machines not quite fast enough to run at full speed. This should put an end to all the complaints / rumours that KGen is not the fastest emulator. It is, and always has been much faster than the rest, even though it is doing SO much more. Also, the frame skip stuff works differently in VSYNC ON and OFF modes - so you can now run 99% of games at TWICE real Genesis speed on a P200 ! See the section on the GUI for more information on this. A few minor bugs were removed, but I can't remember exactly what they were (!) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Version 0.21b : 19th August 1997. I found a strange bug that caused KGen to lock up on some machines if UniVBE wasn't installed. Occasionally it would try to use UniVBE even though it was not available! This was due to a routine returning a byte flag that was then tested as a word.... oops! These things happen when you are constantly being hassled and are rushing to get something done. The fact that my machine worked all the time without this fix also contributed to me not finding it. This is now fixed, hopefully making KGen fully compatible with all machines. The routine to shut down the sound card on exit has been improved. Also, a number of people have complained that they have to reboot their PC after trying to run a game which doesn't yet work. This is NOT the case. KGen has always returned to DOS with an error message - but didn't set the video mode, so you couldn't see it. Typing 'mode co80' would have solved this.

In this version, I have set the video mode back for you in most cases. But there may still be some cases where this happens. 'mode co80' is always worth a try. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Version 0.20b : 18th August 1997. Thanks to everyone who pointed out that KGen V0.10b did not work on Cyrix/IBM processors. This was due to some test code that was left in. (There's a lot of that!) Version 0.20b should now work. Also, the SMD loader has been improved. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------Version 0.10b : 18th August 1997. First Release of KGen. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------INTRO: -----KGen is finally at the stage I wanted it to be before I released it. KGen was written entirely by me, in 100% assembler, in two and a half months. Every single piece of code in this emulator was written specifically for this emulator. Please note, however, that this emulator is FAR from finished. A lot of games may not run, and others may but with severe problems. So, don't complain if something doesn't work properly. It'll be fixed soon! Also, in running this program you accept that I take no responsibility for any damage done to your computer, your hard drive, or you for that matter. While I have tried hard to make sure KGen will not fail, it is unfinished, and hasn't yet been properly tested. I recommend you do NOT run it under Windows - not even a DOS box ! It may work but what IS the point? It'll slow down too much! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------GUI MENU SYSTEM --------------At any point during emulation, you can hit the ESC key to enter the GUI Menu System. The GUI is FULLY Keyboard driven, as this is what I, and many others who have mailed me, prefer. If you don't like it then don't use it, because it ISN'T going to change. However, for those of you who LIKE things that are easy to use, here is some information on it. Up and down cursor keys are used to hilight a specific option, and RETURN to select an option, throughout. During the File Menus you can also use PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN, HOME and END to move through the file list. Most of it should be obvious.

LOAD ROM LOAD SNAPSHOT SAVE SNAPSHOT CONTROLLER MENU VERSION MENU VIDEO SYNC 50Hz MODE CHECHSUMS H-INTS HELP EXIT

: : : : : : : : : : :

Loads an SMD, BIN or .1 file, just as with the command line. Loads a Snapshotted game position previously saved. Saves current game position. Allows enabling / disabling / configuring joypads etc. Allows setting of Hardware Version, or Auto-Detect. Keep enabled on fast machines, Disable on slower machines. ONLY USE THIS MODE IF YOUR CARD / MONITOR CAN HANDLE IT !! Disable checksums if a game won't run with them on. Can normally be left ON, but switching OFF may speed it up. Help Page telling you the extra available Key commands. Returns to DOS.

WARNING: The 50Hz mode may not work on your machine. It becomes active when it is switched ON and KGen is in EUROPEAN mode. This is for the people who want to play PAL games at the correct speed. If it doesn't work, leave it disabled. Any number of game saves are possible, the current filename used will appear on screen after saving. LOAD not, same find load SNAPSHOT will first check if the required ROM file is already loaded. If it will try to load the ROM first. Note that if the ROM is not in the place as it was when the SnapShot was saved, KGen will not be able to it, and will return with a Cannot Load ROM message. In this case you can the ROM yourself before loading the SnapShot.

Note that if the SnapShot file was saved with KGen 0.30b, it will still be neccessary to load the ROM first. Re-saving it will solve this problem. Also, if any Genecyst Save State files are found, they will be listed, and you can load them. In this case, it IS neccessary to load the ROM first. Note that Genecyst does not save out all the information that KGen requires, and as a side effect you may hear strange sounds or see strange things for a while. This should settle down eventually. EXTRA KEY COMMANDS: ------------------F1-F4 TAB F12 +/: : : : Set FrameSkip. Reset Genesis. Save ScreenShot. Alter Volume Level (Keypad)

In VSYNC OFF mode, with FrameSkip 1, KGen will auto-adjust it's speed for your machine. If you do not like it speeding up and slowing down at will, then you can set the FrameSkip higher to lock it to 2 or above, 3 or above, and 4 or above. You may see some screen tearing going on in these modes. This is the downfall of not VSYNCing. KGen will auto-calibrate and adjust as best it can to avoid this, but sometimes it just isn't possible. This is the reason this mode was not in the first release, I was hoping to find a better solution. In VSYNC ON mode, which should be used for faster machines, FrameSkip simply sets the number of frames of Processor Activity KGen attempts to do in each frame of PC processor time. Normally this will act in a similar way to VSYNC OFF mode without the auto-adjusting, and with no screen tearing. But if you have a P200, FrameSkip 2 will allow you to play games at twice the speed ! NOTE: VSYNC ON should only be used if you do NOT have to change FrameSkip. If

your machine will not run a game at full speed with VSYNC ON, FrameSkip 1, then you should use VSYNC OFF instead. Currently the SAVE SCREENSHOT feature will save to the same directory as KGen was loaded from. Any number of screenshots are possible, the current filename used will appear on screen after saving. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------COMMAND LINE. ------------The command line interface has been improved, but essentially isn't much different to previous versions. It is now also unneccessary, so you can type: KGEN This will run the emulator and jump straight into the Main Menu. If you really must use the command line, type: KGEN filename.??? -J -U -E -A -Fn -S where ??? is either SMD, BIN, or .1 (Multi-part SMD files) Any other extension will assume a BINARY file. NOTE: the filename no longer needs to come before any options. Options are: -J -U -E (select Japanese, American (USA) or European Machine) -A -Fn -S (attempt to Auto-Detect the Machine Version) (Frame Skip) (Disable Sound - NOTE: DOES NOT DISABLE THE Z80 !)

FrameSkip is a value from 1 to 4 (default=1) that causes KGen to only draw the 2nd, 3rd or 4th frames, for use on slower PCs. If you have a P166 or above you shouldn't need this. If you have a P200 you should NEVER need this! Read the section on the GUI for more information on Frame Skipping. There is currently no way to disable the Z80. It's fast anyway! :-) Note also that sound can only be disabled from the command line. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------OK - So, what does it do? ------------------------KGen is probably the fastest and most fully featured Genesis Emulator around. This version currently emulates: * * * * * * Motorola 68000 CPU ZiLog Z80A CPU Scroll Screens A,B and Sprites all fully prioritised and masked FULLY Working Window. ALL Scrolling modes (H-Screen, H-Cell, H-Line, V-Screen, V-Cell) DMA

* * * * * * *

V Interrupts H Interrupts Many Raster Effects Shadow / Hilight mode Complete and REAL YM2612 FM Emulation + DAC (No bodgy OPL3 rubbish!) Joypad (both ports, keyboard or joypad) Full Battery Backup Save / Load support

Future versions will emulate: * * * * PSG (Needs to be rewritten because of problems with some games - sorry) Interlace Mode More Raster Effects Sega 6 button Joypads

I originally planned this Emulator to be MMX only, because I didn't think I could get the FM Synthesis quick enough without it. I surprised myself! But an MMX version is still planned, and will be added when everything else is done. I have great plans for this version, so consider yourself lucky if you have MMX ! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------OTHER NOTES: -----------KGen will probably run on a 486 with 8Mb of RAM, but as a Pentium is the only PC that could emulate a Genesis PROPERLY, it has been *highly* optimised for a pentium. (Actually, that's not true - there's still a lot of slow code in there.) So don't expect it to be worth using on a 486. NOTE: Optimising for a 486 would NOT make the Pentium version quicker! It would make it MUCH, MUCH slower. And a 486 specific version would be unusable. KGen uses VESA 2.0 support (320x240x8bit) if it is available. THIS IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - if you don't have a VESA 2.0 extender, visit http://www.scitechsoft.com and download UNIVBE (Scitech Display Doctor). Without the VESA 2.0 mode, KGen resorts to a custom video mode, which can be MUCH slower, depending on your PC / Graphics card. Other than that, KGen runs on any Pentium PC with 8Mb of RAM or greater. P166 or above is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! With a decent graphics card, UNIVBE, and the -F4 option, it will run reasonably on a P75. For Sound Emulation, KGen requires a SoundBlaster Pro (or higher) or 100% HARDWARE compatible (no software driven!) sound card. If your sound card is only SoundBlaster compatible (and not PRO) it won't work, so don't ask me why! You can buy a SoundBlaster 16 compatible for around 10 UK Pounds now, so stop moaning! It currently looks for the BLASTER environment. If you don't have one set up, then you'll have to do so. Later versions will auto-detect. KGen uses the PMODE/W DOS extender by Charles Scheffold and Thomas Pytel. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------CONTROLS:

--------Control is via Keyboard, using: CURSOR KEYS: A B or S C or D RETURN Move Button A Button B Button C Start

or JoyPad, which is reconfigureable. Joypads / Joysticks with less than four buttons should work, you will need to use the keys for the undefined buttons. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------PROBLEMS: --------There are probably a few bugs in my 68000 and Z80A emulators. The 68000 code was written in about 36 hours, and the Z80A in only three hours, so you'd expect there to be something wrong somewhere! I do not know of any specific bugs as yet, but the 68000 is not strictly finished, and probably needs a lot of optimising. The YM2612 emulation is not perfect as yet. However, the YM2612 emulation was written completely by a combination of judgement and trial and error. I have no documentation on the chip except for a simple register list, and could find no information on the technique of FM synthesis at all. So I think I've done pretty well. At least I made the effort!! Note that there is now little point in people sending me FM information. I've worked it out for myself. Can't you tell ? :-) However, if somebody knows EXACTLY how the CSM mode works (on the YM2612 specifically) please tell me. All documentation I've found seems to be incorrect. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------FINALLY: -------I do not condone piracy. I have been a games programmer for the last 12 years myself, and I know we don't get paid enough :-) Do NOT ask me for ROM images. I have a BIG collection of cartridges, which are currently "living with" Andrew 22, but I WILL NOT tell you how to copy them, or give any out. If you can't find any, tough. KGen is "AbsolutelyFreeWare" (tm) - I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of it. Feel free to distribute it wherever you like, AS LONG AS THIS FILE IS WITH IT. Do NOT bug me if something doesn't work. Eventually, 99% of games should work. But until then, just accept what you've got and be glad that it's free. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------THANK YOU: -----------

Thanks to Andrew 22 for telling me to 'get off my arse and do it', after I'd mentioned the idea of doing an emulator of some description about a year ago. Thanks to him for a load of other things that I can't be arsed to mention, including getting my cartridges into my emulator. Now you have a P200 you can appreciate my emulator at it's best :-) Thanks to Belinda / Belinds / BinLiner / Blinder or whatever her name is supposed to be. "Soul Blade - Razor Blade !" Thanks to Christopher 'Canal-Boy' Fuller for being so adept at falling down stairs and into various water-based landmarks, and then dissappearing off the face of the earth. Thanks to Colin Rodgers and Stuart McKenna for supplying me with info on the Z80A and 68000 processors. It's been so long since I did any 68K, and even longer since I did any Z80 - Oh, I forget these things. Thanks to Glen 'Todd' Cook for constantly moaning at me to 'get it sorted' and generally wandering about lost. Thanks to my old friend Warren Mills for allowing me to look at his own Z80 emulator. However, I do not have the time to test it, and am now convinced that there are NO remaining bugs in my Z80 emulation. The problem turned out to be with the YM2612 and is now fixed. Thanks to David Michel, author of Magic Engine, for allowing me to bounce some ideas off him, even though it didn't amount to much in the end. Obviously, great minds think alike! :-> Thanks to Alain Jourgensen / cEvin Key / Nivek Ogre / D.R. Goettel (R.I.P) and Sasha K. for making my life worth living. Thanks to Charles Scheffold and Thomas Pytel for releasing PMODE/W and letting me use it for free. Thanks to Dave W. for allowing me to link to his site when mine was about to die! You can always find the latest version of KGEN at: http://www.davesclassics.com Thanks to all the people who have Emailed me about KGen. I'm sorry if I have not replied to all of you, but although I'm a very fast typer, by the time I reply to one Email, another 14 arrive! But most of all, thanks to my Wife Emma, for not moaning at me too much when I spend half the night on my computer. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------THAT'S ALL FOLKS! ----------------New versions will be available as and when I add something worthwhile. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------snake@toodarkpark.demon.co.uk http://www.toodarkpark.demon.co.uk

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