Gens4Dreams RC3: Shangri-La, 2/3/2023

[Ian Micheal]

Gens4Dreams
Gens4all v4.2c, salvo RC 1, released 1/18/2022
The original Gens emulator was developed by Stéphane Dallongeville and was a mainstay of the emulation scene for several years until KEGA Fusion dethroned it for ease of use and performance. Before that, however, Daniel Lancha would come along and provide us with a port of the emulator to the Dreamcast. All these years later, TapamN in our community has transformed this emulator dramatically. There's no reason, aside from Virtua Cop, to ever touch Sega's own Smash Pack again. And at version 4.2c, with improvements to Z80 and VDP across the board, plus working raster and zblanks, this is the best yet.

Created and curated using the 2012 GoodGen dump, this release contains over 630 retail games, some Japanese games with translations applied, all tested and expected to work with minimal issues given what the emulator is capable of. It also includes 23 homebrew titles, 24 romhacks for the Sonic series, and 19 quality-of-life romhacks for a number of games. This is currently the best curation of Genesis and Mega Drive games available for the Dreamcast community.

If you'd like to know what games are and are not included, you can check the Google Docs page I have here. It is set to comment mode, so you can also submit your test results as you go along!

Known issues

• Some games may exhibit resolution issues over composite (Phantasy Star IV is known to do this)
• Certain games using raster graphics may show visual defects
• Games may have issues loading if played from a CD-R (this should be fixed with a disabled watchdog, we will see)

TO-DO

• Create a game list file to deal with games that need respective scroll and S/H options set.
• Create a new PVR for GDemu users
• Test multiplayer more thoroughly

All games have been tested and working using Gens4all v4.0, and some were re-tested with 4.2c to deal with bugs. All testing was done using a VA1 NTSC Dreamcast using a GDemu on a 64GB SD card, using VGA for video output. Further testing and confirmation will be necessary, and is requested, to identify issues with games loading using CD-R, or playing over composite or RGB.

Download the pack now!

Once again, I want to give thanks to TapamN for all his work on this. It's possible to play a majority of the best and worst of Sega's 16-bit behemoth on the 128-bit legend of a console that we enjoy all the time, and this release is thanks to him. I also wish to thank Ian Michael, who is the reason I took up the effort to test all these games originally with Gens4Good back in October. I'm excited to see more from everyone in the community, and I hope to improve this package as time goes. This is a community effort, so please, enjoy, and give feedback!

[CrashMidnick]

Looks great on vga I dont like 240p just my IMHO never have.. Any emulator project i do on dc will support vga 480p

I dont use crt's dont like scanlines and i dont have to..

I feel the same, I only play some devices on CRT's where 15khz/50hz is needed without a scandoubler. When I emulate something, I need an enhanced picture without scanlines (I hate them). But I understand that some people do like thos kind of stuff

[Anthony817]

Yeah I am kind of the same way. Crisp clear 480p sprites on VGA trumps 240p for me on CRT. Although that is not to say I don't enjoy how 240p on CRT looks.

[WedgeStratos]

So much strife over how this emulator outputs. As has been mentioned, the Dreamcast is really a 480i/480p machine. The only games which we know use 240p are Capcom and SNK fighters, and for a few of those, it must be toggled on, and only works over composite (3rd Strike is known to force 480p over VGA at all times, no exceptions).

It's also important to realize the Genesis and Mega Drive used a few different resolutions depending on both region and conditions.

• 256x224 (32Hx28V), 320x224 (40Hx28V), 256x240 (32Hx30V, PAL only), 320x240 (40Hx30V, PAL only)
• Interlace mode 1 provides no increase in resolution, but still generates a true interlaced signal
• Interlace mode 2 can provide double the vertical resolution (i.e. 320×448 for NTSC, 320x480 for PAL). Used in Sonic 2 for two-player split screen

Since this emulator also provides a number of PAL games included, 480i/p is basically a requirement to ensure all games scale correctly for your display. So unless you want to sacrifice a handful of those games for that 240p, the option just isn't in the cards. This is up to TapamN if he wants to spend any time on that. As far as I see it, the emulator performs great already, and at least on VGA, looks stunning at all times. My Extron can't generate scanlines, but I'm really not concerned about it. The main benefit is that this emulator performs far better than any previous efforts on the Dreamcast, be it from Sega themselves, or the community.

[MoeFoh]

If you really wanted to dial-in what your flat-panel hdmi monitor final output looks like and you can afford it - I'd be looking at one of these.

RetroTINK 5X. Updated firmware is frequent.
https://www.retrotink.com/product-page/5x-pro
https://www.retrotink.com/post/retrotin ... re-updates

Mike, the designer, is an amazing guy.

[MoeFoh]

Dreamcast 240p titles + 480p to 240p conversation (near bottom of page): https://www.retrorgb.com/dreamcast.html

Bob's a good guy with good advice.

[azel]

Well as I mentioned it’s not the output resolution that is the issue, that was more just a question on my behalf as it would be the nice way to play on a CRT tv. It looks very blurry and strange on CRT in general compared to other 480i 2d games like it has some sort of weird filter over it. I tried it in VGA mode using my DCHDMI and it looks pretty decent.

Can’t even believe how much push back I’m getting for daring to bring this up, never experienced the 480p VGA dogma within the Dreamcast community and this is coming from someone with DCHDMI install.

[MoeFoh]

Well as I mentioned it’s not the output resolution that is the issue, that was more just a question on my behalf as it would be the nice way to play on a CRT tv. It looks very blurry and strange on CRT in general compared to other 480i 2d games like it has some sort of weird filter over it. I tried it in VGA mode using my DCHDMI and it looks pretty decent.

Can’t even believe how much push back I’m getting for daring to bring this up, never experienced the 480p VGA dogma within the Dreamcast community and this is coming from someone with DCHDMI install.

Could you show us a picture?

Do I have this right? You have one Dreamcast with DCHDMI installed and use that same Dreamcast for VGA output to a CRT?

I don't think 480i is a valid VGA mode.

[mistamontiel]

always hated scanlines

L0L on the real lucky bunch of my sets it's like magnifying glass er eyes on top of screen to see them cheeks bastids

[azel]

Well as I mentioned it’s not the output resolution that is the issue, that was more just a question on my behalf as it would be the nice way to play on a CRT tv. It looks very blurry and strange on CRT in general compared to other 480i 2d games like it has some sort of weird filter over it. I tried it in VGA mode using my DCHDMI and it looks pretty decent.

Can’t even believe how much push back I’m getting for daring to bring this up, never experienced the 480p VGA dogma within the Dreamcast community and this is coming from someone with DCHDMI install.

Could you show us a picture?

Do I have this right? You have one Dreamcast with DCHDMI installed and use that same Dreamcast for VGA output to a CRT?

I don't think 480i is a valid VGA mode.

No this is the same Dreamcast but not using HDMI or VGA output. I just have a normal consumer crt tv I prefer to use for some types of games like some 2d games, especially ones that don't support VGA. Or a handful of 3d games like Jet Grind Radio and Crazy Taxi I think looks worse over HDMI.