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******* MasterGear *******
The Portable SEGA Mark3/MasterSystem/GameGear Emulator
version 1.1 (08/17/1998)
by Marat Fayzullin
WWW: http://www.komkon.org/fms/
* DICLAIMERS *
* MasterSystem and GameGear are registered trademarks of SEGA.
* The author is in no way affiliated with SEGA.
* The author is in no way affiliated with any pirate group out there.
* The author can not provide you with MasterSystem/GameGear games.
* NEW IN THIS VERSION *
* Windows version is now ready and available for sale. You can
register it online with a credit card.
* VPeriod/HPeriod are counted in the CPU cycles instead of CPU
opcodes.
* Fixed bug preventing RainbowIslands from running.
* Fixed bug which caused trash to appear on display in GalaxyForce.
* Changed VRAM read/write code which fixed glitches in SurfingNinjas
and many other games using inappropriate VRAM access modes.
* Changed -delay option so that AstroWarrior, MahJong, and several
other games run without glitches.
* Changed sound chip base frequency to make it sound correctly.
* Changed keyboard assignments (see documentation).
* Unix version runs in 8bpp, 16bpp, 32bpp, and 24bpp X11 modes
(24bpp not on all servers though).
* Music is saved in the MIDI format. No conversion needed.
* INTRODUCTION *
MasterGear is a portable emulator of two SEGA game consoles: the
MasterSystem (known as Mark3 in Japan) and the portable GameGear which is
basically an improved MasterSystem in a smaller package. The emulator is
written in C and therefore can be ported to any computer platform out
there, given that this platform can run 32-bit applications. You can
always get the latest MasterGear binaries and support files from
http://www.komkon.org/fms/MG/
At this moment, MG is able to run about 95% of the SMS/GG carts I have,
although the emulation is still far from perfection. With the help from
friends I hope to make it as close to original machines as possible.
If you have any information on the MasterSystem/GameGear, or the
ROM-images which can be used for testing, and are willing to help, feel
free to send me email. Any *intelligent* help is greatly appreciated :).
Following games have problems when running on MG:
Dynamite Headdy GG - Screen sometimes blinks. Use higher -vperiod.
Terminator 3 GG - Status line doesn't show up.
GP Rider GG - The road sometimes gets distorted.
Following games have problems when run without -delay:
Mahjong GG - Distorted screen.
Astro Warrior SMS - Remains of blown cannons are distorted.
Aerial Assault GG - SEGA logo misses "TM" sign.
If you find a cause of any bugs mentioned above, or know of any other
game having problems, send me email.
* BUTTONS *
MasterGear is controlled by following buttons:
[SPACE] - FIRE-A button (also: [LALT],A,S,D,F,G,H,J,K,L)
[LCONTROL] - FIRE-B button (also: Z,X,C,V,B,N,M)
[ENTER] - START button (only in GameGear mode)
[TAB] - RESET button (only in MasterSystem mode)
[BACKSPC] - PAUSE button (only in MasterSystem mode)
[ESC] - Quit emulation (also: [F12])
[F11] - Reset SMS or GameGear
[F2] - Turn soundtrack log on/off
[F3] - Toggle FIRE-A autofire on/off
[F4] - Toggle FIRE-B autofire on/off
[SHIFT] and [CAPSLOCK] switch between MasterSystem joypads
When compiled with -DSOUND:
[1]-[4] - Toggle sound channels on/off
[0] - Toggle all sound on/off
[-] - Decrease sound volume
[+] - Increase sound volume
When compiled with -DDEBUG:
[F1] - Go into built-in debugger
When compiled with -DMSDOS:
[F8] - Toggle joystick 1 on/off
[F9] - Toggle joystick 2 on/off
[F10] - Make a screen snapshot (SNAPxxxx.GIF)
* COMMAND LINE OPTIONS *
MasterGear can be started with options described below. Be aware that
not all of these options may be present in your particular version of MG.
Do "mg -help" for the list of options in your version.
-verbose <level> - Select debugging messages [5]
0 - Silent 1 - Startup messages
2 - Illegal accesses 4 - Illegal Z80 ops
8 - Bank switching 16 - Sound
32 - VDP registers 64 - VRAM accesses
-hperiod <period> - Number of CPU cycles per HBlank [215]
-vperiod <period> - Number of CPU cycles per VBlank [65000]
-uperiod <period> - Number of VBlanks per screen update [3]
-help - Print this help page
-sms/-gg - Run in MasterSystem/GameGear mode [-sms]
(overrides .SMS/.GG file extensions)
-engl/-jap - Run in English/Japanese mode [-engl]
(overrides country code in GG carts)
-autoa/-noautoa - Autofire/No autofire for button A [-noautoa]
-autob/-noautob - Autofire/No autofire for button B [-noautob]
-delay/-nodelay - Delay/Don't delay VRAM reads [-nodelay]
-logsnd <filename> - Write soundtrack to a MIDI file [LOG.MID]
-sound [<quality>] - Sound emulation quality [0]
0 - Off 1 - Adlib (MSDOS)
Values >8191 are treated as wave synthesis
frequencies. Default frequency is 22kHz.
-nosound - Don't emulate sound [-nosound]
-back <filename> - Use <filename> as background picture [MG.GIF]
-vsync/-novsync - Sync/Don't sync screen updates [-novsync]
* NOTES *
SEGA MasterSystem and GameGear are both nice little machines, logically
structured and much less weird than Nintendo hardware. The CPU used is
Z80, the original one, with no custom changes. Video controller seems to
be based on a well known TMS9918/9928 (MSX,Coleco,TI99/4), but has only
one screenmode (as far as I know), and is thoroughfully mutated in some
other aspects. There is no BIOS ROM as in MSX or ColecoVision.
MasterGear comes without any ROM images due to copyright reasons.
Please, *do not* send me mail asking for ROM images: I can not give you
any, no matter how strongly you desire to get them.
MasterGear works with "raw" ROM images, and therefore the default file
extension is .ROM. It may be a wise idea to use .SMS and .GG extensions
to distinguish between MasterSystem and GameGear ROMs though. Since
version 0.6, MasterGear checks the file extension and forces emulation
into MasterSystem or GameGear mode if extension is .SMS or .GG. In the
GameGear mode, the country code is also checked. If the cartridge is
either for Japan or for US/Europe only, and there was no localization
option given, the localization switch is forced into an appropriate state.
Some copiers add a 512-byte header to the ROM image files they create.
If you see a ROM image whose size is a multiple of 16384 bytes + 512,
simply cut off the first 512 bytes to et the raw image. Unix users can do
it in a following way:
dd if=<input-file> of=<output-file> skip=1 bs=512
When compiled with ZLIB option, MasterGear will be able to transparently
handle files packed with GZIP and ZIP, which helps to save the disk space.
You will need the ZLib library by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler though.
Its source is freely available on the Net.
The MSDOS version can be compiled with GIFLIB option. Then, it will
allow you to load backdrop pictures from the .GIF files, and save screen
snapshots into .GIF files. You will need the GIFLib library by Gershon
Elber, available from SimTel and other archives.
That's it. Have fun!
* THANKS *
I would like to thank Richard Aplin, Chris Shay, Neil Harding, who
helped with invaluable technical information about MasterSystem and
GameGear. Thanks also go to (alphabetically)
* Gershon Elber, author of GIFLib.
* Marcel de Kogel, who helped me with the MSDOS port.
* Alex Krasivsky, the initial author of Adlib sound driver on
which MG-DOS sound is based.
* Juan Luis Lario for the pictures of GameGear.
* James McKay, author of 'Massage'.
* Authors of ZLib and Markus Oberhumer, who told me about ZLib.
* Charles Scheffold and other authors of PMODE/W.
* Ian Spielman, who wrote the enchanced Unix/X drivers for MG.
* John Stiles, author of the MG port to Macintosh.
* Unknown guy from .BR who showed me how to handle PC joystick.
* Many other people who helped with information, bug reports,
and cart images for testing.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marat Fayzullin (fms@cs.umd.edu)