MS-DOS based
Sega Genesis emulator coded by the mighty
Steve Snake.
Snake started coding this
emulator in early 1997, impressed by the power of the new
MMX Pentium PCs, and dissapointed with the then
meagre crop of Genesis emulators. He was particularly curious about the
myth that the PC couldn't accurately emulate the Genesis'
FM chip.
The first release of KGen in late '97 proved that wrong, and also proved to be an accomplished
Genesis emulator; possibly the equal of the recently released
Genecyst by the
Bloodlust team, which had taken
the scene by storm. Emu
MBs across the web erupted in arguments about
which emu was best, although there was no
animosity between the authors. Updates improved compatibility and sound, but after a
manic two months of development all went
quiet.
Ten months after the original KGen release, KGen98 made it's debut, in mid '98. 90% of the code from KGen was thrown and out and rewritten for this
release, which shifted the focus of the emulator from
raw speed to
accuracy; for a small speed tradeoff, KGen98 achieved a
compatability level still
unmatched over two years later. Updates improved speed,
VESA graphics modes, and even managed to get
MS Sidewinder pads working in DOS. KGen98 indisputably knocked Genecyst into a
cocked hat, although some still prefer Genecyst's
GUI (and also arguably superior sound emulation).
After less than a month of
post-release development, all news from Snake ceased. Then roughly a year later, in early '99, Sega released the
Smash Pack for the PC; eight old Genesis titles for
Windows 95/98. After some poking around in the files,
Steve Snake's name was found in the credits section, and the pack was shown to be a Win9x port of KGen98, running
proprietry ROM files.
In an
interview shortly afterwards, Snake explained how Sega had let him see official
development documents for the Genesis, and not tried to 'take' KGen from him, saying that he was free do continue working on the emulator (in stark comparison to
Nintendo, who liked to state that
all emulators are illegal). Hopes were high for new versions of KGen featuring
Sega CD or
32X emulation, but they failed to materialise, despite Snake talking about "
KGen2" for a while.
In September of this year, Snake stated (again in interview) that he didn't know what his future plans for KGen were, only that he'd like to start over again at some point <g>. In the
interim,
Sega released another PC Smash Pack with the help of Snake (hacking required to get
Sonic 2 working), and announced a
Dreamcast Smash Pack bundle, which may or may not be KGen code-based, being developed in
Japan without Snake's help.
Snake himself now only noticably exists on the
Eidolon's Inn message boards, where the
Sega Emulation Gods live, although I believe he was responsible for some work on a
region-changer for Sega CD
ISOs. KGen98 is still considered to be
the best Genesis emulator, although the more convienient
Win9x based
Gens is more widely used.