Difference between revisions of "Kega Fusion"
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==History== | ==History== | ||
| − | === | + | ===KGen (1997)=== |
KGen was Steve Snake's original attempt at a Genesis emulator, written because at the time the only existing emulator, Genem, ran sl | KGen was Steve Snake's original attempt at a Genesis emulator, written because at the time the only existing emulator, Genem, ran sl | ||
Revision as of 00:06, 5 September 2006
Kega Fusion (also known simply as Fusion) is an emulator for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It also emulates the Sega CD, Sega 32X, Sega Game Gear, Sega Master System, SG-1000 and SC-3000. It runs only on Microsoft Windows Systems. Kega Fusion is based on the earlier (and now discontinued) Kega and its successor Kega Lazarus.
Previously, Kega Fusion used version number 0.1 with a letter and beta suffix, with the last 0.1 revision 0.1e. The version change from Kega Fusion 0.1e beta to Kega Fusion 3.0 Beta is not the unimaginable leap this would indicate. The developer, Steve Snake said that the low version number made some people shy away; sub 1.0 version software is known (though often incorrectly) to be incomplete and unstable (most freeware and open source programs are indefinitely in a beta like state since there is no need to go gold). While this was not the case, Steve dropped the 0.1 version numbering in favor of starting at version number 3.0. The logic in this version number is that Kega Fusion is actually the third major revision of the Kega heritage, in the order of Kega, Kega Lazarus and Kega Fusion. The beta moniker was dropped after version 3.2, because yet again, someone complained about not wanting to use "incomplete" software.
Unlike most Sega Genesis Emulators, Kega Fusion puts an extremely high importance on accuracy as opposed to speed or other features (such as netplay, movie recording, or many other features found in emulators like Gens), this does not mean that Kega Fusion is a slow emulator. On a Pentium III class or a similar microprocessor, Kega Fusion runs at 60 frames per second with Sega Genesis ROMs, though with the popular 2xSaI graphics filter plugin the processing power needed to achieve 60 frames per second is much higher (it can also be noted that emulating Sega 32X ROMs at full speed, an 850 MHz or faster microprocessor is strongly recommended). The emphasis on accuracy shows in the Yamaha YM2612 coding, which is reported by Steve Snake to be almost perfect (indeed, there are many games where sound is buggy or wrong in any Megadrive emulator except for Kega Fusion such as the Title Screen Theme for Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic and Knuckles). Compatibility is very high with Kega Fusion, even on the infamous Sega 32X, which has many games that most if not all emulators cannot handle. Since the Sega 32X BIOSs have been more thoroughly reverse engineered than the BIOSs for the Sega CD, as of version 3.3 Kega Fusion does not require a Sega 32X BIOS (though you can still use an external BIOS). Kega Fusion can emulate most (if not all) Sega home video game consoles released before the Sega Saturn (though there is some cryptic indication by Steve Snake that Saturn emulation could be possible in the future).
Along with being able to emulate most Sega home console systems Kega Fusion also supports logging to a WAV file or the successor to GYM format, VGM. VGM is much like GYM in terms of how it's created but widely superior in its accuracy to YM2612 synthesis, compression (in the VGZ format) and looping. As of version 3.5, Kega Fusion supports multiplayer over the internet or LAN. While multiplayer support is still in its preliminary stages, Kega Fusion 3.51 has made multiplayer more stable. One feature popular to other emulators not present in Kega Fusion is movie logging, which has been implemented in emulators like Zsnes.
Even though Kega Fusion is being developed separately from Gens, the development teams are more cooperative than antagonistic towards each other. The differences between Kega Fusion and Gens appeal to different audiences, with Kega Fusion having a more hardcore audience mainly because Kega Fusion is not as well known among new and/or novice emulation fans as Gens even though it is much more accurate.
Contents
History
KGen (1997)
KGen was Steve Snake's original attempt at a Genesis emulator, written because at the time the only existing emulator, Genem, ran sl owly and had poor sound quality. This was the first Genesis emulator to feature true digital YM2612 emulation, rather than "bodgy OPL3 rubbish" (as Steve put it) which attempted to approximate Genesis sound and music via the then popular OPL3 chips of the Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 and Sound Blaster compatible cards. Another quality emulator called Genecyst was released around the same time by Bloodlust Software, and a friendly rivalry began (although mostly amongst emulation fans themselves). This was a DOS based emulator and ran on high end 486 or faster hardware, but required at least a Pentium for full speed.
KGen-X (unreleased)
An aborted rewrite of KGen which was never released to the public.
KGen98 (1998)
A new version of KGen rewritten from scratch, with better compatibility, more features and higher quality stereo sound. Still DOS based, its CPU requirements were about the same as its predecessor but slightly higher for the high quality sound mode and 16 bit video with raster effects and shadow/highlight modes enabled. Afterwards, Steve was commissioned by Sega to create a Windows compatible version which could be marketed with some classic Genesis games in the "Sega Smash Pack".
Kega (2002)
After a long break from the emulation scene, Steve surprised many fans with the sudden release of an all new Windows/DirectX based emulator. It included many new features, such as Sega Master System and Sega CD emulation. To run full speed, it required at least a 500 MHz Celeron based computer. It followed the release of the very popular Gens, another Windows based Genesis emulator with excellent speed and compatibility released by Stef D in 1999.
Kega Lazarus (2003)
Kega Lazarus was so named because it was an attempt to get the emulator up to date (and beyond) after a hard disk crash caused Steve Snake to lose all his Kega sources since 0.02b (0.04b being the final release of Kega). Lazarus is supposed to have risen from the dead. An important feature during the development of Lazarus was the addition of 32x support, although at first compatibility wasn't great.
Kega Fusion (2005)
The final (and current) version of Kega is named "Fusion", because it is in spirit a fusion of Kega and Kega Lazarus with even more features and compatibility. It was the first version to support hardware accelerated blitters via Direct3D, as well as vastly improved 32x support.