fMSX

VGB

VGBA

iNES

MG

ColEm

Speccy

Windows

Symbian

PocketPC

How?

Who?

Tell!

News  |  Manual  |  Downloads  |  Screenshots  |  Windows  |  MSDOS  |  Symbian  |  PocketPC

The Latest Version of MasterGear is 2.6!
Starting with this version, I am releasing free MasterGear ports to Unix and Maemo. The latest MG-Unix is currently available for Ubuntu Linux. MG-Maemo runs on Nokia N800/N810 internet tablets with Maemo OS2008. See below for binaries. The MG-Symbian port features optimized display routines and extra configuration options for sound latency, frame skip, and frame sync.

The complete list of features and the list of new features and fixes can be found in the documentation. Currently, you can get both MG-Windows and MG-MSDOS for the total price of $19.99 (or less if you use coupons). The full version of MG-Symbian for your Nokia mobile phone is available for only $14.99. Finally, you can get all three MG versions (MG-Windows, MG-MSDOS, and MG-Symbian) for only $24.98 if you use the "TOTALMG" coupon.

What is MasterGear?
MasterGear (MG) is a program that emulates 8bit SEGA videogames on your computer. It runs games made for SEGA MasterSystem (Mark3 in Japan) and GameGear, as well as their predecessors: SG1000, SC3000, SF7000, and Mark2. MG will also help hobbyists who still write software for these systems to debug their works without using rare and costly development hardware.

I started working on MG in 1996, after finding some technical documentation about SEGA MasterSystem on the Net. Writing an SMS emulator was relatively simple, as I already had experience with the fMSX emulator and SEGA's consoles are very similar to MSX computers. Since then, I extended MG to support the GameGear handheld and the previous generation of SEGA consoles: the SG1000, the keyboard-equipped SC3000 home computer, and the disk-based SF7000 computer. There is also support for add-ons, such as enchanced FM sound chips found in Japanese SEGA consoles and serial EEPROMs used to save games in some GameGear cartridges.

Because MG source code is highly portable, it runs on many different platforms, from Apple Macintosh to Sony PlayStation (see MasterGear Ports section below). While the source code is not available to the general public, I do share it with people every now and then, when they ask nicely and if I like their projects.

MG is still being developed, although not as actively as before because most features have already been implemented. At the moment, I am mostly dealing with bug fixes, adapting MG for commercial applications, and extending functionality beyond that of the original consoles.

Licensing MasterGear
MG is written in portable C language and will run on any sufficiently fast computing device, be it a computer, a videogame console, a PDA, an MP3 or DVD player, a set-top box, a cell phone, or even a digital camera. For example, MG has been successfully used to add gaming capabilities to several DVD players. If your company plans on using SEGA games in its products, you can license MG from me. I will also point you to a place where you can license the games themselves. Finally, I am available for consulting work in the software emulation, embedded programming, and other fields. See my resume and contact me if interested.

Free Updates
Everybody who registers MG-Windows or MG-Symbian becomes entitled to free lifetime updates by email, as long as I am developing the programs. If you are already a registered user but have not received the latest version of MG yet, please, send me email with your valid email and postal addresses for verification, and I will send you the latest version.

Playing Your Games With MasterGear
MG-Windows, as well as any other legal version of MG, does not contain any games, as they are copyrighted by the companies which produced them. You will have to find the cartridge images yourself, using Google or other search engines. I do suggest you buy the original cartridge for every image you are using, or use a copier on the cartridges you own.

At This Site

MasterGear Windows for all versions of Windows MasterGear MSDOS included with MG-Windows MasterGear Symbian for Nokia S60 3rd Edition (get trial version or see instructions) MasterGear Symbian for Sony Ericsson UIQ3 (get trial version or see instructions) MasterGear PocketPC for all PocketPC versions MasterGear Linux for Ubuntu Linux and 16bpp or 32bpp X11 MasterGear Maemo for Nokia N800/N810 tablets (or install directly to device) MasterGear 2.0 FreeBSD binaries for 80x86 (5.x-RELEASE) MasterGear 2.0 Linux binaries for 80x86 (RedHat) MasterGear 1.3 OSF/1 binaries for DEC Alpha MasterGear 2.0 Solaris binaries for SPARC MasterGear 1.2 SunOS binaries for SPARC EMUL8 Discussion Group discuss your problems here HOWTO for Linux users EMUTools, Z80 emulation core, etc. The Address Book look up email addresses here

MasterGear Ports
MasterGear Macintosh by John Stiles MasterGear PocketPC by Panutat Tejasen MasterGear Acorn by David McEwen MasterGear OS/2 by Darrell Spice Jr. MasterGear BeOS by Brian Verre MasterGear PlayStation by Bero (in Japanese) MasterGear Nintendo64 by Maxime Henrion MasterGear PC98 (in Japanese) MasterGear PC98 by Bero (in Japanese) MasterGear FM-Towns (in Japanese)

Other Stuff
Improved Unix/X drivers by Ian Spielman SVGALib drivers for Linux by Tim Fisken Drivers for Linux by Hans de Goede SMS Copier Schematics by Andy Lindsay

Built-in Debugger

NetPlay Feature (connecting)

Aladdin (GG)

Fire & Forget 2 (SMS)

Hook (SMS)

Thunder Blade (SMS)

Judge Dredd (GG)

Strider 2 (SMS)

Batman and Robin (GG)

Basic (SC3000)

Zaxxon (SG1000)

Yeno Demo (SF7000)

Rock and Bolt (SG1000)