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Introduction


Kega is the latest in the re-emergence or Sega Genesis/Megadrive emulation. On its first release it outshone nearly every existing emulator because of its completeness.

Its written by Steve Snake who in Genesis circles is legendary. He wrote an older DOS based emulator called KGen which is still regarded as one of the best Genesis emulators ever because of it's speed and compatability. Alas as DOS died its death KGen died too.

Kega has been written completely from scratch and is amazingly fast. Also because it also runs SegaCD games you can play even more games than ever.

As ever with a new release there are only a few options you can change which are all listed below. As this wonderful emu develop I'll make sure I keep the tutorial up to date.

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Downloading Kega


You can find the latest version of Kega on its homepage here. I have made a file that will create all the necessary folders here.

For Sega CD emulation you need some BIOS images which can be downloded from http://www.eidolons-inn.de. The files you require are...

eu_mcd1_9210.zip
jp_mcd1_9111.zip
us_scd1_9210.zip

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Installing Kega


To install Kega you will need a copy of Winzip. All you have to do is to open the zipfile, press the extract button and type C:\Kega into to the path area of the window that opens.

If you have downloaded the folders zip then extract it into the same folder.

Here is what your Kega folder should look like...

To use the SegaCD emulation you need to extract the 3 bios files into the C:\Kega\Bios folder. You can use the method above that you used to extract the main zip file.

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Installing Games


Because Kega is a console emulator there aren't many sites around holding roms for it. You could try a search engine like Google with the keywords Sega Genesis Roms or SegaCD ISOs.

All you need to do to install roms is to put the zipped files into the C:\Kega\Roms directory. If you are not sure how to do this try the basics tutorial.

The CD files need to be treated a little differently. Kega supports both original CD's and ISO files. The only drawback to the ISO files is that you don't get the CD Music but both work equally well for running games.

To install ISO files you need to extract them into the C:\Kega\Roms directory.

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Setting Up Kega


This is the screen that you will see when you first load Kega...

AVP Screen

Here is a summary of the menu system...

File Menu
Load Genesis Rom

Open a rom (They can be zipped or unzipped)

Load Sega CD Image Loads an ISO Sega CD disk image.
Boot From CDROM Loads a Sega CD game from your CDROM.
Load State As Load a specific saved state.
Save State As Saves a specific saved state.
Load State

Load a saved state

Save State Save position of current game
Change State Slot Lets you choose one of ten slots per game.
Load RAM Cart Loads a RAM cartridge
Create RAM Cart Creates A SegaCD RAM cartridge.
Reset Console Resets the emulator
Power Off Console Clears everything from memory and return you to a blank screen
Exit Saves the game position not using a state.

Country Menu
Lets you choose which country Kega will emulate. You can also set Kega to autodetect which country to use and which priority to check.

Video Menu
Normal Draws the window using the original Genesis resolution
Double Doubles the screensize which is useful for running on higher resolutions.
Scanlines Doubles the screensize but gives the effect of low resolution TV screens
TV Mode Blurs the screen to emulate low res TV screens.
Full Screen Switches Kega to full screen mode.
Vsync Reduces graphics "tearing" on fast moving objects and screens.

Sound Menu
Lets you choose the sound rate used by Kega. Remember the higher the rate the slower the performance on slower machines. There is also an option called overdrive which double the volume of the original sounds.


Drive Menu
Lets you choose which drive to use for the SegaCD emulation.

Option Menu
Set Config
Genesis Tab

SRM Files Directory for the Genesis ROM battery backup files
State Files Where kega put game saved states
Auto Fix Checksums Corrects possible errors with roms downloaded from the net.
SegaCD Tab


USA BIOS
Path for the US SegaCD BIOS
JAP BIOS
Path for the Japanese SegaCD BIOS
EUR BIOS
Path for the European SegaCD BIOS
BRM Files
Path for saves RAM files used by the SegaCD
Read Ahead
How fast your CDRom reads. If you find your game music is skipping slow it down.
BRM File Mode
Determines whether Kega saves the SegaCD ram files as one file or individually.
Controllers Tab

Simply choose what type of controller you want. In the using column you can pick which device you want to use. Pressing the Define button open a small window which asks you to press the key or button you want to use for each controller button.

Perfect Syncro
Sets the emulator to match exactly the timing of the hardware in the Genesis/SegaCD which helps get some games running. This can slow down Kega a bit on slower machines.

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Playing A Game


To play a rom based game all you need to do is open the file menu and select Load Rom. Select the game you have downloaded and press the open button.

To run from an ISO image you still go to the Load Rom option but at the bottom of the new window change the File Type to Sega CD Image (ISO/Bin). You can now select the image you want and press the Open button.

If you want to use an original CD you need to put the CD into your CD/DVD drive, go to the Drive menu and make sure your CD/DVD drive is selected and finally go to the File menu and select Boot CD. If all is O.K. then you'll see the SegaCD boot screen and your game will load.

Keyboard Settings
At the moment Kega doesn't have any default keys. You will need to define the keys you want to use from Options-> Set Config-> Controllers Menu. See above for details.

Here is Kega playing a few games...
Earthworm Jim 2

Sonic The Hedgehog

SegaCD Boot Screen

Final Fight CD

Shining Force CD

Shining Force CD In Game

Thunderhawk Mega CD

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