..why can dreamcast emu neo geo or nes games great but not genesis ones..?

[Vector]

..i have a dreamcast with sd card reader with a nes emu on sd card that has a great presentation covers, pictures of carts, graphics, colors, sounds and music which is damn near 99% as good as an actual nes imo i got a neo geo sd emu too, but my favotite is the master system/game gear emu wow so great..but the genesis emuS have skippy frames and aweful sound, worse than atgames man, why is this? sure its a different soundchip but why does it do great for others but not its grandfather, perhaps the best sega console ever, the genesis ?

[Pulstar]

My DC knowledge is rusty, but iirc the emulator was ripped from the Sega Smash Pack Volume 1, no optimised emulator was ever ported/written. Btw using consoles for emulation is a bit passé now; you can get a cheap Android device with plenty of better emulators, Bluetooth gamepad support and TV output (or any laptop from the past few years with dedicated video memory and HDMI/VGA out can suffice, even emulating the Dreamcast itself)

[Vector]

Btw using consoles for emulation is a bit passé now;

..but dont people do it until this day on wiiu..dont they buy nes classic games or remixes of those games for 99 cents..mine is free..

[Pulstar]

No I meant there are better and potentially cheaper alternatives nowadays.

[tryphon]

(or any laptop from the past few years with dedicated video memory and HDMI/VGA out can suffice, even emulating the Dreamcast itself)

No, not *any* laptop suffices for emulating the dreamcast (nt speaking about Saturn).

For the original question : one of the reasons is that Genesis is not so popular. Even with PC emulators, there are less for Sega systems than, for example, for nintendo, and they have less functionnalities (no FCEUX or BSNES for example, not even a no$md, dreamcast emus are far from PCSX2, and Saturn emu have a long way to go too).

I don't say there are not good emu for MD (or even Saturn and Dreamcast, the efforts made in these are really awesome) but the scene is much smaller, and moves slower than more popular system's.

On RHDN, I'm often ashamed to realize that MD hacks are a ridiculous portion of SNES hacks, and totally neglictable in front of NES' hacks.

[Dr Robotnik]

Around the year 2000 even the genesis emulators for PC were crap. I remember downloading one that had been hyped up and it was still shit.

Many of the files you'll find online for the dreamcast are the same ones from when the was a current system and piracy for the system was at it's peak. It was around the same time as broadband and p2p networks took off and people have been hosting/seeding those same files all this time. I can find sites that have what looks like the same 400 genesis game pack that I had all those years ago.

A quick look on google and I found one called GENS4ALL which appears to be much more recent. I guess that one might be worth a shot.

[retrospiel]

The emulator used in the Smash Pack was initially written for an Online Service where you could download Mega Drive games (MUCH like Nintendo's Virtual Console). The emulator itself was included with Dream Passport 3 in Japan. You could download like 6 games although I think they actually were included on the disc to speed up the downloading process over a 56k connection. On the disc itself are like thirty to fifty games actually so it's possible to tell which games were meant to be featured next.

DP3 was released right when Dreamcast was discontinued so there were no later updates released.

The emulator used was used for the Sega Smash Pack Vol.1 in the US, and in turn was ripped and re-released by a warez group called Echelon, and later Obisidian (with a reworked GUI). This re-release is known as "Segagen" and there are dozens of compilations available on the net, bundling the emulator with hundreds of games.

Still, the emulator itself was never finished. It works with most games but doesn't emulate the sound correctly, much like with the Firecore emulator built into the AtGames consoles.

The reason for the superficially similar issues with sound emulation seems to be that the YM2612 isn't that easy to emulate. The actual issues with both emulators however are of a different nature. Segagen tried to be as resource efficient as possible (and lack of development time) while the issues with the Firecore emulator are based on a mistake that could have been corrected with some minor testing.

[Bibin]

The FireCore emulator has incorrectly tuned PSG as the fatal flaw. The one for Dreamcast, though, only goes as far as to emulate ADSR curves for the carrier operator of the YM2612, and outputs a square wave for it, while the modulators are entirely ignored. The effect is pitch-correct, volume correct, but tonally incorrect. The sound is interesting sometimes, though.

[retrospiel]

The Firecore has the FM wrong as well. It's tuned a full octave down if I remember correctly. The PSG seems roughly correct, although way too loud.

[maxi]

I remember this emulator, the sound is indeed bad but the graphics and speed are correct. The snes one (DreamSnes), released around the same time in 2000, works fine but lacks 20% or so of the total speed of the games if you're playing with sound.
Also, Dream Passport 3 contains a PCEngine emulator. Was this one also ripped?

[midnightrider]

No, not *any* laptop suffices for emulating the dreamcast (nt speaking about Saturn).

For the original question : one of the reasons is that Genesis is not so popular. Even with PC emulators, there are less for Sega systems than, for example, for nintendo, and they have less functionnalities (no FCEUX or BSNES for example, not even a no$md, dreamcast emus are far from PCSX2, and Saturn emu have a long way to go too).

"Nerd friendly" might be the term you're really looking for in place of "popular." Who else can code an emulator? It's ironic that Nintendo's consoles are the ones that are better documented, when developers tell you the Genesis was much easier to program for.

On RHDN, I'm often ashamed to realize that MD hacks are a ridiculous portion of SNES hacks, and totally neglictable in front of NES' hacks.

Sure, but so far, all of the Genesis translations are damn good games(even the pirate RPG). There's always that double edge to quantity.

[tryphon]

"Nerd friendly" might be the term you're really looking for in place of "popular."

No, I really meant "popular"

And I don't think emu coders are nerds, or else define nerds

Sure, but so far, all of the Genesis translations are damn good games(even the pirate RPG). There's always that double edge to quantity.

Quote true!

[Assman]

The sound on that DC Smash Pack was brutal. I remember picking it up when it came out and being completely taken aback. It sounds like a god damn Master System or something.

Craziest of all, not a single review I could find mentioned this obvious flaw. I was starting to think I had a defective copy.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Is the Smash Pack even attempting to emulate the YM2612? It sounds like all that's implemented is PSG and the DAC.

[Bibin]

Is the Smash Pack even attempting to emulate the YM2612? It sounds like all that's implemented is PSG and the DAC.

It got missed because I started by talking about the firecore:

The one for Dreamcast, though, only goes as far as to emulate ADSR curves for the carrier operator of the YM2612, and outputs a square wave for it, while the modulators are entirely ignored. The effect is pitch-correct, volume correct, but tonally incorrect. The sound is interesting sometimes, though.