| | Sega Master System and Game Gear Emulators: | Updated 2/14/99 |
The authors for the Gamegear/SMS emulators have done a great job. If you were reluctant or too cheap to buy a GameGear unit in the past, these emulators will make-up for it. The quality is so great, you'll think you have the real thing on hand!
BrSMSbyRicardo Bittencourt
The Brazillian Master System Emulator! Now it emulates the Game Gear, the Master System, and the SG1000, plus it does a lot of things for the Master System that other emulators don't, with 3D emulation of Space Harrier and other neato things. It also runs on a 486 very quickly, since it is coded in assembly. More tweaks in the last release, and more games and a wierd new system are now playable.
BrSMS mainly lacks a decent GUI, which some people will not like. The other problem I find is that ESC restarts the game, and F10 goes to the menu. I think it is some type of Brazilian thing. Most other emulators have those switched, so if your not thinking, you restart your game. Other than that, it is a very good emulator. It has some good added features, and up to 4 PAR codes. With the addition of Game Gear emulation, this is a good one. Now, with the Parrot engine that blends the colors, somegames look even better than before. And as a note to the Parrot Engine, do not play it on text intensive games, as the blurry text will make your eyes go bonkers. For non-RPG style games, use it if it is as fast as before.
| Last Version: 1.19
Homepage
Screenshot
Download for DOS (95k)
Help Documents |
DarcNESbyNyef/Sephiroth
It is a SMS emulator also, it just has the name of an NES one. It started out as an NES emulator, then started to add SMS and Turbo Grafix 16 support. It mainly for people who use Linux, but there is a DOS version that is maintained by the Emulation Zone's Sephiroth. Download and see what you think.
| Last Version: 990314
Homepage
Screenshot NA
Download for DOS (227k)
Download for Linux (114k)
Help Documents |
GGFan98byMaechiko
Like SMSFAN98, it costs 2000 yen to register and the demo has the directional buttons disabled. I believe it isn't worth it, there is better ones, unless you really like Japanese and Windows.
It looks nice, and loads my test games, Sonic 1 and Phantasy Star Gaiden run very nicely, but since you can't use the direction pad, I can't tell you how good it works other that the Sonic 1 demo part runs nicely. | Last Version: 1.06
Homepage
Screenshot
Download for Win98 (55k)
Help Documents
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MassagebyJames McKay
Massage has mainy useful features, like a gamesave option, screen capture capability, joystick support, Pro Action Replay support, and its own GUI, which is a little tricky to master at first. This has a shareware version 0.9, but he is not accepting anymore payments for it. Strangely, he was supposed to release it to the public, but that was a lon time ago. No news lately.
This is a pretty good emulator, except that it is most likely finished being worked on. The GUI is simple but easier to use than any of the other DOS emulators. There is a front end for the Massage also, MassagePad. It has support for Pro Action Replay codes, which you can find at my P.A.R.chive. Sonic 1 and Phantasy Star Gaiden work and have the right speed, but sometimes some bad music. | Last Version: .80
Homepage
Screenshot
Download for DOS (108k)
Help Documents |
MasterGearbyMarat Fayzullin
Since this is a shareware for Windows, but not for anything else, I can't test this one. But according to the homepage, it has most of the things that BrSMS does, minus a few things but it does have a good interface. For any non-Windows System, this is your best bet.If someone would like to write something so this, I would be glad to write it up and put it on here. | Last Version: 1.2
Homepage
Screenshot
Download for Linux (184k)
Help Documents |
MEKAbyZoop
MEKA, for what I have played on it, is very good, on par with BrSMS in compatibility and has some decent sound when you don't get buffer overflow errors from choosing the wrong sound card. Grr... I'll have a complete review of it up soon. It has a swanky GUI, so if you like them alot, use this one. I like both this one and BrSMS. | Last Version: .11
Homepage
Screenshot
Download for DOS (333k)
Help Documents |
MGXbyBouKiChi
This is a Game Gear emulator made by the team behind DBOY, all documentation and the homepage is in Japanese so I can't tell you much more for he time being. | Last Version: .10a
Homepage
Screenshot
Download for DOS (148k)
Help Documents |
SMSemWbyDavid Gilliland
This emulator is in works. No public release is currently avalible, but according to the webpage, the project is just about complete. It looks like it will be pretty good. I guess it also has very high compatability and it is for Windows.
| Last Version: NA
Homepage
Screenshot
Download NA
Help Documents |
SMSFan98byMaechiko
It is another shareware program by Maechiko, and has the same crippled directional pad. This is also for Windows, and it runs most games.
It is basically the same emulator as the GGFan98, so don't expect too much different from this one. It acts the same as GGFan98. Phantasy Star and Sonic 1 run, and look like they are supposed to. | Last Version: 1.05
Homepage
Screenshot
Download for Win98 (57k)
Help Documents |
SMSPlusbyCharles MacDonald
This emulator has been update to Version .68! I haven't played around with it yet, so I will fill that in soon. Download it and try it out. It has improved compatibility and a speed up for Pentium computers. If you are starting out, choose BrSMS or Massage.
A word to the wise on this emulator, it doesn't seem to have any slowdown processed in, so on my PII-350, game literally fly. The music isn't too great, but it works and has auto-fire buttons, which I think is unique for SMS/GG emulators. Sonic 1 and Phantasy Star works, albeit too fast for my liking. | Last Version: .68
Homepage
Screenshot
Download for DOS (139k)
Help Documents |
SparcadebyDavid Spicer
Very few people know about this, but Sparcade, an arcade emulator, also runs SMS and Gamegear games. Though the quality is not nearly as good as the other emulators, (bad sound quality, slow speed, etc,) it does have a GUI which looks better and acts better then Massage's.
I personally don't like this emulator because it makes your PC do crazy things if you run it under Win95. The author only updates this emulator once in a "blue moon", so don't expect this emulator to improve anytime soon. Just use this one for arcade emulation. The true SMS emulators work better than this.
| Last Version: 2.25
Homepage
Screenshot
Download for DOS(386k)
Help Documents |
There are other ones, like DarcNES for Linux, and a unnamed one by Zoop of EmuCamp, but the DarcNES I will put up when it gets it's new name and Zoop's whenever it comes out.
[Screen shot comparison of all emulators.]
That's all folks! |
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