Kega Fusion is an
emulatorAn emulator in computer sciences duplicates the functions of one system using a different system, so that the second system behaves like the first system...
of the
Sega Mega DriveThe is a fourth-generation video game console released by Sega in Japan in 1988 and Europe in 1990. The console was released in North America in 1989 under the name Genesis, as Sega was unable to secure legal rights to the Mega Drive name in that region...
(Sega Genesis) for
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces...
,
Mac OS XMac OS X is a line of computer operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc., and since 2002 has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
and
LinuxLinux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed,...
, written by Steve Snake. It also emulates the
Sega-CD/Mega-CDThe is an add-on device for the Mega Drive video game console, designed and produced by Sega and released in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and North America. In North America, it was renamed Sega CD, as the name Mega-CD bore no obvious associative meaning in that market where the console...
and
Sega 32XThe Sega 32X , codenamed Project Mars, is an add-on for the Sega Mega Drive video game console by Sega.In Japan, it was distributed under the name Sega Super 32X. In North America, its name was the Sega Genesis 32X...
add-ons (together or separately), as well as the
Sega PicoThe Sega Pico, also known as , was an electronic toy by Sega. The aim of creating the Pico was to get more young children to use video game systems. The Sega Pico was designed for ages 2–8 and the slogan was "the computer that thinks it's a toy."...
,
Sega Game GearThe is a handheld game console which was Sega's response to Nintendo's Game Boy. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the TurboExpress....
,
Sega Master SystemThe Sega Master System is an 8-bit cartridge-based video game console that was manufactured by Sega and was first released in 1986. Its original Japanese incarnation was the Sega Mark III...
,
SG-1000The , which stands for Sega Game 1000, was a cartridge-based video game console manufactured by Sega. This system marked Sega's first entry into the home video game hardware business, and while the system was not popular, it provided the basis for the more successful Sega Master System.-History:The...
and SC-3000.
Kega Fusion is based on the earlier Kega and its successor Kega Lazarus, both of which have been discontinued.
As of February 9th, 2009, Kega Fusion is recognized by
XfireXfire is a freeware instant messaging service targeted at gamers, that also serves as a game server browser and has various other features. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows. Xfire was originally developed by Ultimate Arena based in Menlo Park, California. Xfire currently has over 14...
.
KGen (1997)
KGen was Steve Snake's original attempt at a Genesis emulator, written because at the time the only existing emulator, Genem, ran slowly and had poor sound quality. This was the first Mega Drive emulator to feature true digital YM2612 emulation, rather than "bodgy OPL3 rubbish" (as Steve put it) which attempted to approximate Genesis sound and music via the then popular OPL3 chips of
AdlibFounded by Martin Prevel, a former professor of music and vice-dean of the music department at the Université Laval, Ad Lib, Inc. was a manufacturer of sound cards and other computer equipment...
and
Sound BlasterThe Sound Blaster family of sound cards was the de facto standard for consumer audio on the IBM PC compatible system platform, until the widespread transition to Microsoft Windows 95, which standardized the programming-interface at application-level , and the evolution in PC design led to onboard...
compatible cards. Another quality emulator called
GenecystGenecyst was a popular Sega Mega Drive/Genesis emulator for DOS, by Bloodlust Software . Due to its high speed and then-good YM2612 emulation , it was widely regarded as the all-around best Mega Drive/Genesis emulator on the scene, with the nearest competitor being KGen...
was released around the same time by
Bloodlust SoftwareBloodlust Software is a developer of humorous PC computer games. It was originally formed in 1992 by two high school students who were angry at the rise of movements against computer game violence...
and a friendly rivalry began (although mostly amongst emulation fans themselves). This was a DOS based emulator and ran on high end 486 or faster hardware, but required at least a Pentium for full speed.
KGen-X
KGen-X was an aborted
rewriteA rewrite in computer programming is the act or result of re-implementing a large portion of existing functionality without re-use of its source code. When the rewrite is not using existing code at all, it is common to speak of a rewrite from scratch...
of KGen which was never released to the public.
KGen98 (1998)
KGen98 was a new version of KGen rewritten from scratch, with better compatibility, more features and higher quality stereo sound. Still DOS based, its CPU requirements were about the same as its predecessor but slightly higher for the high quality sound mode and 16 bit video with raster effects and shadow/highlight modes enabled. Afterwards, Steve was commissioned by Sega to create a Windows compatible version which could be marketed with some classic games in the "
Sega Smash PackSega Smash Pack is a series of game compilations featuring mostly Sega Genesis games. Sega Smash Pack games have been released for the PC, Sega Dreamcast, and the Game Boy Advance.-PC:The first Sega Smash Pack was released in 1999 for the PC...
".
Kega (2002)
After a long break from the emulation scene, Snake surprised many fans with the sudden release of Kega, an all new Windows/DirectX based emulator. It included many new features, such as Sega Master System and Mega-CD emulation. To run full speed, it required at least a 500 MHz Celeron based computer. It followed the release of the very popular
GensGens is a free Sega Genesis emulator. It runs on Windows systems , on Linux and on Microsoft's Xbox. A port to the Sega Dreamcast, known as Gens4All, is currently in development. Development of Gens began in 1999...
, another Windows based Genesis emulator with good speed and compatibility released by Stef D in 1999. Steve originally started Kega because he was trying to help Stef fix some incompatibility issues.
Kega Lazarus (2003)
Kega Lazarus was so named because it was an attempt to get the emulator up to date (and beyond) after a hard disk crash caused Steve Snake to lose all his Kega sources since 0.02b (0.04b being the final release of Kega).
LazarusLazarus is a name found in two separate contexts in the New Testament. Lazarus of Bethany is the subject of a miracle recounted only in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus restores him to life four days after his death...
is supposed to have risen from the dead. An important feature during the development of Lazarus was the addition of 32X support - although incomplete, it was still the most compatible 32X emulator at the time.
Kega Fusion (2004)
The final (and current) version of Kega is named "Fusion", because it is in spirit a fusion of Kega and Kega Lazarus with even more features and compatibility. It was the first version to support hardware accelerated blitters via Direct3D, as well as vastly improved 32X support.
Previously, Kega Fusion used version number 0.1 with a letter and Beta suffix, with the last revision being 0.1e. The next release was labeled Kega Fusion 3.0 beta as its developer Steve Snake said that the low version number made some people shy away; sub-1.0 version software is commonly believed to be incomplete and unstable (most freeware and open source programs are indefinitely in a beta-like state as there is no need to go gold). The logic in starting at 3.0 is that Kega Fusion is actually the third major revision of the Kega heritage, in the order of Kega, Kega Lazarus and Kega Fusion. The beta moniker was dropped after version 3.2 for the same reason.
On Christmas Day 2008, Kega Fusion 3.52i, the first build for the
MacintoshThe Macintosh, or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced on January 24 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a graphical user interface rather than a...
, was released, whilst on September 28, 2009 a pre-compiled Linux version, Kega Fusion 3.62x was released.
Features
The majority of the emulator is written in
assembly languageAssembly languages are a family of low-level languages for programming computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other integrated circuits. They implement a symbolic representation of the numeric machine codes and other constants needed to program a particular CPU architecture...
. On a
Pentium IIIThe Pentium III brand refers to Intel's 32-bit x86 desktop and mobile microprocessors based on the sixth-generation Intel P6 microarchitecture introduced on February 26, 1999. The brand's initial processors were very similar to the earlier Pentium II-branded microprocessors...
class or a similar microprocessor, Kega Fusion runs Mega Drive / Genesis
ROM imageA ROM image, or simply ROM, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip, often from a video game cartridge, a computer's firmware, or from an arcade game's main board...
s at 50 or 60 frames per second, though with the popular
2xSaIPixel art scaling algorithms are image scaling algorithms specifically designed to upsample low-resolution pixel and line art that contains thin lines, solid areas of colour rather than gradient fills or shading, and has not been anti-aliased....
graphics filter
pluginIn computing, a plug-in consists of a computer program that interacts with a host application to provide a certain, usually very specific, function "on demand"...
the processing power needed to achieve the full 50/60 frames per second is much higher (it should also be noted that emulating Sega 32X games at a playable speed requires an 850 MHz or faster microprocessor). The emphasis on accuracy is demonstrated by Fusion's emulation of the
Yamaha YM2612300px|rightYM2612, aka OPN2, is a six-channel sound chip developed by Yamaha. It belongs to Yamaha's OPN family of FM synthesis chips used in several game and computer systems. Developed as a stripped-down version of the YM2608, it lacks its larger sibling's ADPCM channel, Rhythm Sound System,...
chip, which is reported by Steve Snake to be almost perfect — other emulators, such as
GensGens is a free Sega Genesis emulator. It runs on Windows systems , on Linux and on Microsoft's Xbox. A port to the Sega Dreamcast, known as Gens4All, is currently in development. Development of Gens began in 1999...
, suffer from imperfections in emulation of this chip (as demonstrated by the title screen theme for
Sonic 3D BlastSonic 3D is an isometric platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It was developed in the United Kingdom by Traveller's Tales and published by Sega. The Japanese version was a Sega Saturn exclusive...
and
Sonic & KnucklesSonic & Knuckles is a platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series for the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Genesis. It was developed in the United States at Sega Technical Institute by members of Sonic Team, and was published by Sega worldwide on October 18, 1994.As well as working as a standalone game,...
). Compatibility is very high with Kega Fusion, even for the Sega 32X - every 32X game, including SegaCD+32X games, are accurately emulated. Many of these games are unplayable on other emulators. Since the Sega 32X
BIOSIn IBM PC Compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS, is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface. The BIOS is boot firmware, designed to be the first code run by a PC when powered on...
routines have been more thoroughly reverse engineered than those for the Mega-CD, as of version 3.3 Kega Fusion does not require the Sega 32X BIOS images, though they can still be used. Kega Fusion can emulate all known
Segais a multinational video game software and hardware development company, and a home computer and console manufacturer headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan...
home video game consoles released before the
Sega SaturnThe is a 32-bit video game console that was first released on November 22 1994 in Japan, May 11 1995 in North America, and July 8 1995 in Europe...
(there is some cryptic indication by Steve Snake that Saturn emulation could be possible in the future) besides Sega SF-7000 emulation which is missing.
Along with being able to emulate most Sega home console systems Kega Fusion also supports logging to a
WAVWAV , short for Waveform audio format, also known as Audio for Windows, is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs. It is an application of the RIFF bitstream format method for storing data in “chunks”, and thus is also close to the 8SVX and the AIFF...
file or the successor to
GYMGYM is a sound format for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis.The name stands for Genesis YM2612, since the file contains the data sent to the Yamaha YM2612 sound chip in the console. The data is logged to a file through the use of emulators running a ROM image.The GYM format first appeared on the...
format, VGM. VGM is much like GYM in terms of how it is created but widely superior in its accuracy to YM2612 synthesis, compression (in the VGZ format) and looping. As of version 3.5, Kega Fusion supports
multiplayerA multiplayer video game is one which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time. Unlike most other games, computer and video games are often single-player activities that pit the player against preprogrammed challenges and/or AI-controlled opponents, which often...
over the
internetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
or
LANA local area network is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport...
. While multiplayer support is still in its preliminary stages, Kega Fusion 3.51 has made multiplayer more stable.
As of December 10, 2008, Kega Fusion 3.6 supports emulation of the
Sega Virtua ProcessorThe Sega Virtua Processor is a DSP introduced by Sega in 1994 to expand the Sega Mega Drive's 3D capabilities.The SVP was Sega's answer to Nintendo's Super FX processor used in some of their SNES cartridges....
, along with movie logging support through the included custom Kega Game Video 1 lossless codec. Preliminary
Sega PicoThe Sega Pico, also known as , was an electronic toy by Sega. The aim of creating the Pico was to get more young children to use video game systems. The Sega Pico was designed for ages 2–8 and the slogan was "the computer that thinks it's a toy."...
support was also added.