Picodrive

From wiki.gp2x.org

Picodrive
Download(s)	(archive) source (archive)
Developer(s)	Dave from finalburn.com
Porting developer(s)	notaz
Version	v1.32
Status	Megadrive-Playable, Sega CD
Webpage

Compatibility

Fully Compatible

Picodrive is a Sega Megadrive/Genesis and Sega CD emulator.

Background

Picodrive is yet another Megadrive/Genesis emulator. It was originally written by Dave from finalburn.com for Pocket PC back in 2004. There were also some ports for other systems (Gigadrive/Genadrive) based on the same code, which were done also by Dave. They were not very accurate and didn't emulate sound. There was still a lot to do, but Dave abandomed his works, including unfinished Cyclone core. Fortunately Dave released the source, so then Reesy used it as a base of DrMD(x). In the summer of 2005 notaz saw a port of PicoDrive on his mobile, but it was very inaccurate, had no sound and was unable to run most of his favourite games. DrMD's source was not available, so he took Dave's code and started fiddling with it. The project was slowly moving and reached the state it is in today.

Recently (22/01/2007) A version of Picodrive was coded to include limited SegaCD support (As of 1.14 Snatcher, Lunar, and Sonic CD boot, with only Sonic CD playable).

So why to make PicoDrive, when we already have DrMDx?

• it can use both GP2X CPUs.
• it can handle mid-frame palette changes, because it does 16bit rendering (water in Sonic).
• it can do shadow/hilight modes also because of 16bit rendering (check Skitchin' menus, Toy Story intro images, ...)
• it can emulate window plane nearly properly (check GRIND Stormer, Mercs, ...)
• it can render interlace mode2 (Sonic2 and Combat Cars 2 player modes)
• it can emulate serial SRAM chips (Megaman - The Wily Wars, Wonder Boy in Monster World, NBA Jam, many other EA sports games, ...)
• it can emulate custom banking of 4-in-1 and 12-in-1 ROMs
• one of few emus which can run some protected unlicensed games like Super Bubble Bobble, King of Fighters '98.
• one of few emus which can boot Virtua Racing and run it's 2d stuff.
• open source (but DrMDx is open source, too)

Controls

The controls can be changed in the "Configure controls" menu.

• Default controls:
  • Gp2x : MD
  • X : B.
  • B : C.
  • A : A.
  • START : START.
  • Y : Change render mode.
  • L : Save state.
  • R : Load state.
  • Vol+/- : Volume Up/Down.

• In the menu:
  • B : Enter or validate.
  • X : Back to the main menu.

• In the "Configure controls" menu :
  • SELECT : Validate change for an action, if you don't want change for an action just press SELECT.
  • Any Gp2x buttons : Affect one or many buttons to an action. If you press tow time on the same button, the button is not more affected to this action.

To end the config you have to go to the "DONE" action and press any buttons but not SELECT.

Accurate Sprites option

It is not easy to explain what this option does, but it is much easier to illustrate it with some screenshots:

Unfortunately enabling it noticeably slows down emulation.

Settings Menu

Compatibility Status

Please note version on compatibility reports. Firmware seems to affect the compatability slightly. make sure to upgrade to the latest firmware before reporting.

Status Levels: