Sega Genesis Classics

Sega Genesis Classics
Also known as: Sega Mega Drive Classics (EU/AU) Developer: Sega Publisher: Sega Platform: Windows Released internationally: November 16, 2006 This game has revisional differences.

Sega Genesis Classics is little more than an emulator packaged with some (licensed) Genesis ROMs. You know, in case piracy isn't your thing. Games can be bought in bundles or on a game-by-game basis.

The compilation was updated (with the option to access the old version remaining) to look more impressive, support online multiplayer, choose the desired region for some games, and add an unskippable intro video. The most interesting addition, however, was Steam Workshop support that allowed people to upload and download ROM hacks. While certainly a useful feature with plenty of valid uses, it "unfortunately" turned Steam Workshop into a dumping ground for illegal ROMs, since it was quickly realised that they could just create patches that replaced, say, Streets of Rage 2 with another game entirely.

Uncompressed ROMs

Contained inside the collection's folder is another folder called "uncompressed ROMs", which is, well, pretty much exactly what it sounds like - a folder containing usable ROMs of all the games contained in the collection. The game itself never uses them, meaning that the folder's purpose is obviously for those that want to be able to play the games in the collection on their emulator of choice.

Oddly, the file formats used are all over the place - .bin, .68K, .SGD, and .smd are all used interchangeably for each ROM. However, they all functionally work the same - the .bin format is simply a compressed binary format readable by most emulators, and all the file types listed above are simply renamed .bin files (except for the .bin, of course). This means that if a user renames them to be all .bin files, they can be run in any Genesis emulator. In addition, PhantasyStar4.SGD is the ROM for Phantasy Star IV... but only the Japanese version. The English version is absent.

Revisional Differences

Input Settings

To do: Screenshot from same Windows theme/skin?

DotEmu	Steam

The simple launcher has an Options button, which opens the window displayed above.

On the left is a version of input settings taken from DotEmu's distribution. It is from the North America region, with the executable SEGAGenesisClassics.exe signed on January 5, 2011. This version is no longer available from that company's website.

On the right is a version of input settings taken from Steam's distribution. It is also from the North America region, with SEGAGenesisClassics.exe being signed on May 29, 2010. The difference is the lack of ability to disable one of the two input devices. This small change impacts one game, Alien Storm, by preventing you from playing one of the game modes that requires disabling the second controller.

The left version also uses a slightly more compact layout (the Windows theme has no impact on positioning the window's contents).

(Source: http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Thread:User_talk:Garrett/Sega_Mega_Drive_Classics/reply)