Comparison of Sega Mega Drive emulators

The following is a comparison of the most popular Sega Mega Drive emulators:

Emulation Capabilities

Key for 68000:

• S: Speed is (roughly) accurate
• D: Supports all documented instructions.
• F: Supports undocumented flag operations.
• A: Supports Address Error.
• M: Supports undocumented MOVEM read behavior.
• V: Properly emulates DIVS/DIVU cycle timing.

Key for Z80:

• S: Speed is (roughly) accurate
• D: Supports all documented instructions.
• U: Supports all undocumented instructions.
• F: Supports undocumented flag operations.
• R: Properly emulates the 'R' register.
• T: Properly emulates all instruction cycle timing.

Key for VDP (In addition to numeral rating)

• D: DMAs block Z80 68k bus access
• C: CRAM dot emulation
• S: DMA transfers with length=0 are correctly handled as length=65536.
• T: Emulates the Sprite Address Table cache.
• R: Emulates the $C0001C debug register.

Key for YM2612 (In addition to numeral rating):

• S: Supports SSG-EG
• C: Supports YM2612 debug registers $21 and $2C
• V: Supports YM2612 variants(YM2612, discrete/asic YM3438)
• D: Properly emulates low volume distortion
• T: Properly emulates IO timing
• B: Properly emulates busy flag

Key for PSG:

• R: Supports undocumented register behavior.
• L: Has proper Linear Feedback Shift Register emulation.

Emulator	68000	Z80	VDP	YM2612	PSG	Speed	Compatibility	Debugging Capabilities	Mappers Support	Overall
DGen/SDL	Incomplete		0	0	2	1	2	DGen/SDL has a 68k debugger	?	0
Exodus	SDFAMV	SDUFRT	4 DCST	4 S	5	0	5	Yes, sophisticated	?	5
Genecyst			3	1	2	5	3	Partial	?	2
Genesis Plus GX	S	S	4 T	4 S / 5 SCVDTB	5	4	5	None	Full	4
Gens	D	DU	2	2	3	4	4	Limited; replaces emulation screen when debugging. See DebuGens and Gens KMod for better debugging.	?	2
Gens/GS	D	DU	3 S	2			4	Limited; replaces emulation screen when debugging.	?	3
Gens/GS II	D	SDUF	3 ST	2	RL; has aliasing	4	4	None	?	3
Kega Fusion	SD		3 S	4 S *	4	5	5	None	?	4
MESS			1 S	4 S	4	3	3	Yes	Full	2
Regen	S	S	4	4 S	5	3	4	Yes, buggy	?	4

• DAC / YM timers / Z80 speed emulation results in way too smooth playback, manifests as detuned samples in certain games.

Operating Platform

Emulator	DOS	Windows	Mac OS X	GNU/Linux	BSD	BeOS	Dreamcast	Xbox	PlayStation 2	PlayStation Portable	GameCube/ Wii
AGES	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
DebuGens	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
DGen	Yes (v.1.04a and lower)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Genecyst	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
GenEm	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Generator	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Genesis Plus	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	As MEGADRIVE for PSP	Yes
Gens	Yes (v.1.05 and lower)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	As Gens-X, Gens_xport and Xenesis	As PGen	No	No
Gens/GS	No	Yes (r5 and later)	Not officially supported	Yes	Not officially supported	No	No	No	No	No	No
Gens/GS II	No	Yes	Not officially supported	Yes	Not officially supported	No	No	No	No	No	No
Gens Plus!	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Gens Rerecording	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
HazeMD	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Kega Fusion	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Megasis	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
PSPGenesis	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Regen	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
retroDrive	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Triton	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

Emulation Support

Emulator	Mega-CD	Sega 32X	Sega Master System	Sega Game Gear	SG-1000	SC-3000
AGES	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
DebuGens	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
DGen	No	No	No	No	No	No
Genecyst	No	No	No	No	No	No
GenEm	No	No	No	No	No	No
Generator	No	No	No	No	No	No
Genesis Plus	No	No	No	No	No	No
Gens	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Gens/GS	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Gens/GS II	Yes	Yes	No (in progress)	No (in progress)	No (in progress)	No
Gens Plus!	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Gens Rerecording	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
HazeMD	No	No	No	No	No	No
Kega Fusion	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Megasis	No	No	No	No	No	No
PSPGenesis	No	No	No	No	No	No
Regen	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
retroDrive	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Triton	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No