¤ archaic ruins ¤

MEKA
by Zoop and Hiro-shi

Just when you thought emulation could get no farther with new technology, something comes along and reminds you how cool the old technology was. Thus, MEKA is born. Zoop has made what seems to me as the best Master System Emulator to be created yet. MEKA is a little laking in the speed area but its user interface is well beyond most emulators and sits next to Retrocade in creativity.

The GUI has different palettes to choose from so you never get board with the way it looks. There are many windows available to choose from, sprites, messages, and others. Also included in MEKA is the feature of "Easter Eggs" which are little extras hidden throughout the program. Such as games, features, and you can even play Super Mario Bros. even though Zoop is a firm believer that Nintendo sucks :)

MEKA running Cool Spot

INFORMATION

Homepage: http://www.emucamp.com/meka/
License: Freeware & Registration
Released: May 18, 1999
Language: English
Platform: MS-DOS
Programmed in: C
Other: Editor's Choice Award Winner!

COMPATIBILITY

Game Gear
Master System
SEGA Game 1000

SEGA Computer 3000
Colecovision

DOWNLOAD

DOCUMENTATION EXCERPT

MEKA 0.13 - Documentation
==========================
Sega Master System, Game Gear, SG-1000 and SC-3000 emulator for MS-DOS.
(c) in 1998-1999 by Omar Cornut / Zoop (cornut@cybercable.fr)
and Hiromitsu Shioya / Hiro-shi (shica@cool.ne.jp)
========================================================================
  This documentation is best viewed with the MS-DOS editor, as usual.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Level 1 : Introduction
------------------------------------------------------------------------

 MEKA is a Sega 8-bit emulator for MS-DOS, made by the following people:

 > Omar Cornut / Zoop (cornut@cybercable.fr)
   Machines emulation, graphical user interface and the rest.

 > Hiromitsu Shioya / Hiro-shi (shica@cool.ne.jp)
   Sound emulation (standard PSG and Yamaha 2413 chipset).

 > Marat Fayzullin / Rst38h (fms@cs.umd.edu)
   Z80 CPU Core (publicly released a while ago).

 MEKA officially emulates the following systems:
  - Sega Master System / SMS
  - Sega Game Gear     / GG
  - Sega Game 1000     / SG-1000
  - Sega Computer 3000 / SC-3000
  - Colecovsion
 You can play other systems on it only if you are smart enough to figure
 how.  And if you are, I doubt you will want to play Nintendo games. So
 forget it.

 Now let me tell you more about these cool systems:

 The SG-1000, for "Sega Game 1000", was released in Japan in July 1983.
 Heavily based on the MSX hardware, it is the first known Sega system
 (until someone proves me wrong, which I would love to have happen).

 The SC-3000, for "Sega Computer 3000", is a variation of the SG-1000
 (still compatible with it) with a keyboard, and some optionial
 peripherals such as a printer (SP-400), a tape recorder (SR-1000), or
 a big black box called the SF-7000 that provided a 3" floppy disk
 drive, a Centronics printer port and  more memory for use for
 programmers. The SC-3000 was released in November 1983 in Japan, and
 then was sold in certain countries around the world (in Australia and
 Europe, I think), shipped a Basic programming cartridge.

 Later, Sega released some updates to these systems, included, but not
 limited to the SC-3000h, SG-1000-II, SK-1000, Mark II and then Mark
 III.

 I don't know a lot about these systems, but the Mark III is compatible
 with what we call the Master System, and still have the necessary
 ports to plug a printer, or a keyboard. A FM extension was available,
 providing a much better sound hardware, and which is supported by most
 games released in Japan between 1986 and 1988.

 In 1987 came the Sega Master System, almost around the same time
 Nintendo released the crappy gray box. It was sold just about
 everywhere, but the Japanese system had the FM extension embeded and
 profited from it because  of better musics.

 Later came the Game Gear, which was nothing but a portable Master
 System with a smaller screen, a communication port (for dual gaming)
 and more colors to choose from.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Level 2 : Features
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graphics
--------
Unlike some other emulators, MEKA doesn't feature thousands of
different graphic engines, but only one, and a working one. Therefore
most games should be working, as it uses a true line-per-line refresh,
and supports most raster effects (including palette effects).

Consequently, MEKA is slow. Very slow.  If your computer is not a fast
Pentium, I suggest using BrSMS instead, which will run very fast on most
games (not all, though). It is available at the following address:
http://www.lsi.usp.br/~ricardo/brsms.htm


Sound
-----
MEKA emulates both PSG and FM hardware.
Although technically better, the FM hardware is only used in certain
Master System games, released in Japan between 1986 and 1988.

The four channels of the Programmable Sound Generator should be
correctly emulated, and waves are realtime synthetized. Last but not
least, the way the sound is updated allow voices to be heard in games
that uses them (not perfectly, though).

The FM hardware uses the Yamaha 2413 chipset. It features nine voices,
fifteen pre-defined instruments, and one user definable. Three of the
voices can be used for percussions, and the chipset provides hardware
vibrato and amplitude modulation. 

Consequently, MEKA is even slower.


Peripherals
-----------
MEKA supports/emulates the following peripherals:

 - Standard two buttons joypads:
   Almost all games use them. 

 - Lightguns 1 and 2:
   So far only two dumped games use them: Gangster Town and Rescue
   Mission.  It is emulated using a cursor that you control with mouse.
   Yet you cannot use both Lightguns on the same time (for Gangster
   Town).

  - Paddle Controllers ("ala Steering Wheel"):
    Some Japaneses games use it. It is emulated via the mouse, and
    therefore you cannot use two of these at the same time (for
    Galactic Protector).

  - SC-3000 Keyboard:
    Used in all SC-3000 programs.
    Please note that keyboard emulation is *working* under MEKA,
    which obviously is not the case with all emulators that
    "supports" SC-3000.

  - 3-D Glasses:
    This is one of the weirdest features of this emulator, as 3-D
    Glasses are supported, but not simulated properly. If someone
    is familiar with 3-D on the PC, I'm interested in knowing which is
    the best way to simulate this kind of effect. You can also drop me
    a note to tell me the pros and cons of the differents methods
    featured in the Virtual Boy emulator.


 Interface
 ---------
 A feature that most emulators lack is a graphical user interface
 (GUI).  MEKA has one, which does not require particular skill to use.
 Just use your mouse to point and click. Experienced users that are
 sick of using mice are also able to use keyboard shortcuts to activate
 certain functions.

 Due to the way it was done, the graphical user interface is extremely
 slow, and a *very* fast machine is recommended to use it in optimal
 conditions (without having to skip frames). Of course, it doesn't
 affect the emulation speed (which is already slow) while in fullscreen
 mode.

 I have some ideas on how to optimize it. Maybe.

 Other things
 ------------
 A lot of work has been done on certain other things that most
 people won't notice (because they have been worked on), including,
 but no limited to:

  - Patching system: this allows you to hack/crack ROMs without
    having to modify the file. Check the file called "MEKA.PAT".

  - Smart configuration file system: MEKA will *never* bother you
    because of a corrupted configuration file, or some bad options
    in it. Also, the file is rewritten and commented everytime you
    quit.

  - BIOS inclusion. You can play the snail game in MEKA, provided you
    know how to access to it :-)

    Originally, MEKA was supposed to use my own reprogrammed BIOSes.
    Then I found that someone already dumped them so I stopped working
    on mines and included the original ones instead.

  - A very precise compatibility list. MEKA was heavily tested, unlike
    some other emulators that you doubt they were even ran by their
    author because being released. Most of the tests on Game Gear games
    were done by Mxs.

  - Easter eggs / secret features: find them by yourself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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