About AGES

General

• Player 1 and player 2
• 3 button and 6 button controllers (with 6-button timeout)
• Sega mouse
• Sega Teamplayer Multitap
• Electronic Arts 4 Way Play
• Sega Menacer
• Konami Justifier
• Raster effects (palette changes *and* VDP configuration changes)
• BIN/GEN, SMD, MD, 32X, ISO, RAW/BIN, and CUE filetypes
• ZIP support for BIN/GEN, SMD, 32X, ISO, RAW/BIN, and CUE filetypes
• RAR support for BIN/GEN, SMD, 32X, ISO, RAW/BIN, and CUE filetypes
• Menus, dialog boxes, and error messages are fully translatable into other languages
• IPS patch loading
• GoodGen.DLL, Good32X.DLL, GoodSMS.DLL, and GoodGG.DLL support
• Genesis Collective Offline Database support
• Save State files (including Sega CD)
• Wave dumping
• Demo file record and playback
• Command line support
• Full drag and drop support
• Serial EEPROM support
• Game Genie and .PAT file support
• Game specific INI for tweaking
• Automatic IPS patch file load (per-game basis)
• Network play via KailleraClient.DLL
• Fast-Forward button (sticky and press-and-hold methods available)

  Genesis

• M68000 and Z80 (custom)
• Genesis YM2612+DAC sound (sans LFO, RS, DT, SSGEG, FB, stereo control) (custom)
• Genesis PSG sound (custom)
• Genesis VDP Shadow and Highlight effects
• Genesis VDP Sprite Masking, Sprite Collision, and Sprite Limiting
• Genesis VDP Interlace mode (sans window plane) with (both hi-res and alternating-lines methods available)
• Genecyst saved state loading
• Genesis/32X Battery RAM saving and loading

  Sega CD

• M68000 (custom)
• Most CDD and CDC functions
• Direct CD-ROM support for Sega CD via ASPI
• Sega CD music track playback (hardware and software methods available)
• Sega CD PCM sound
• Sega CD Rotate/Scale graphics "layer"
• Sega CD internal backup RAM
• Sega CD RAM cartridges
• Disc swapping support (partial)

  32X

• Master and Slave SH2s (custom)
• most SH2 peripherals
• All three 32X graphics modes
• 32X/Genesis layering (except mode 3)
• Dual frame buffer support

AGES is programmed with the design goal of optimum speed in mind. Portabilty, and/or educational value to others are not even considerations, thus, source code isn't and won't soon be public. This means that trade-offs between speedier solo Genesis emulation and speedier full Genesis/Sega CD/32X emulation have favored the full Genesis/Sega CD/32X. It also, more generally, means that trade-offs between speed and memory usage have favored speed. Trade-offs between execuatble size and start-up time have favored executable size. Trade-offs between accuracy of emulation and speed have favored accuracy.

Purpose:

AGES is a learning project. I chose to emulate the Genesis, Sega CD, and 32X because it was collectively unemulated and it is simple in some ways and yet, complex in others. The Genesis/Sega CD/32X combo has elements from older "low-level-complex" and modern "high-level-complex" hardware design styles. Having memory mapped IO, multiple processors (with various data bus sizes and speeds) some CISC and others RISC, and several custom chips, the system is quite a challenge. My endeavour has already resulted in greatly expanding my knowledge of several areas such as various assembly languages, protected mode programming, Windows programming, and Pentium & Pentium Pro & MMX optimizations. Furthermore, I have migrated to NASM, the best available assembler for the Intel x86 family.

AGES is for preservation. An emulator is a far more tidy package than an old dusty (and probably non-functioning) video game console with a mess of wires (some of which are probably missing) and a box of cartridges.

Many thanks: