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This is yet another SEGA 8 bit and 16 bit console emulator.

It can run games developed for most consumer hardware released by SEGA, up to and including the 32X:

  • 16 bit systems: Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega/Mega CD, 32X, Pico
  • 8 bit systems: SG-1000, SC-3000, Master System/Mark III, Game Gear

PicoDrive was originally created with ARM-based handheld devices in mind, but later received various cross-platform improvements such as SH2 recompilers for MIPS (mips32r2), ARM64 (armv8), RISC-V (RV64IM) and PowerPC (G4/2.03).

PicoDrive was the first software to properly emulate Virtua Racing and its SVP chip.

At present, most development activity occurs in irixxxx's fork; notaz's repo is updated less frequently.

Sega Pico and Storyware Pages

PicoDrive can use Storyware pages and pad overlays in png format in the same directory as the cartridge image. The selected page is displayed automatically if the pen is used on the storyware or pad. Details about how to correctly name the pages can be found in the How to run Sega Pico games section in platform/base_readme.txt.

Gallery

Some images of demos and homebrew software:

Titan Overdrive 2 Raycast Demo OpenLara
MegaDrive: Titan Overdrive 2 MegaCD: RaycastDemo 32X: OpenLara
Titan Overdrive 2 DMA David Doom Resurrection
MegaDrive: Titan Overdrive 2 MegaDrive: DMA David 32X: Doom Resurrection
Cheril Perils Classics Stygian Quest Sword of Stone
SG-1000: Cheril Perils Classic MasterSystem: Stygian Quest GameGear: The Sword of Stone
Nyan Cat Anguna the Prison Dungeon Turrican
SG-1000: Nyan Cat MS: Anguna the Prison Dungeon GameGear: Turrican

Compiling

For platforms where release builds are provided, the simplest method is to use the release script tools/release.sh. See the script itself for details. To create platform builds run the command:

tools/release.sh [version] [platforms...]

This will generate a file for each platform in the release-[version] directory. A list of supported platforms can be found in the release script.

These commands should create an executable for a unixoid platform not included in the list:

configure --platform=generic
make

To compile PicoDrive as a libretro core, use this command:

make -f Makefile.libretro

Helix MP3 decoder for ARM

For 32 bit ARM platforms, the optimized helix MP3 decoder can be used to play MP3 audio files with CD games. Due to licensing issues, the helix source files cannot be provided here; if you have obtained the sources legally, place them in the platform/common/helix directory.

To compile the helix sources:

  • Set the environment variable CROSS_COMPILE to your cross compiler prefix (e.g. arm-linux-gnueabi-)
  • Set the environment variable LIBGCC to your cross compiler's libgcc.a (e.g. /usr/lib/gcc-cross/arm-linux-gnueabi/4.7/libgcc.a)
  • Run the command:
make -C platform/common/helix CROSS_COMPILE=$CROSS_COMPILE LIBGCC=$LIBGCC
  • Copy the resulting shared library named ${CROSS_COMPILE}helix_mp3.so as libhelix.so to the directory containing the PicoDrive binary on the target device.

In addition, helix support must be enabled in PicoDrive itself by compiling with:

make PLATFORM_MP3=1

This switch is enabled automatically for Gamepark Holdings devices (gp2x, caanoo and wiz). Without installing libhelix.so, these devices will not play MP3 audio.

Installing

The release script produces packages or zip archives which have to be installed manually on the target device. Usually this involves unpacking the archive or copying the package to a directory on either the internal device storage or an SD card. Device-specific instructions can be found on the internet.

Send bug reports, fixes etc. to derkub@gmail.com