Changing roms

Sega Genesis
History will always remember Sega’s last massively successful console as playing second fiddle to the SNES, but it still has moments well worth revisiting that aren’t Sonic the Hedgehog.

Get it working

1) Gens is perhaps the best Genesis emulator around, supporting games made for the Sega CD add-on (including Monkey Island with a full orchestral score) and with built-in server browsing.

2) Look under the Graphics menu, then select a preferred filter type under Render. Alt+Enter will switch you between windowed and fullscreen mode.

3) F8 and F5 handle quicksave and load, while you’ll find netplay under the file menu. The server browser covers multiple emulators, so you’ll need to filter it for Gens, then pick a game that you already have the ROM for.

Sega Genesis
History will always remember Sega’s last massively successful console as playing second fiddle to the SNES, but it still has moments well worth revisiting that aren’t Sonic the Hedgehog.

Get it working

1) Gens is perhaps the best Genesis emulator around, supporting games made for the Sega CD add-on (including Monkey Island with a full orchestral score) and with built-in server browsing.

2) Look under the Graphics menu, then select a preferred filter type under Render. Alt+Enter will switch you between windowed and fullscreen mode.

3) F8 and F5 handle quicksave and load, while you’ll find netplay under the file menu. The server browser covers multiple emulators, so you’ll need to filter it for Gens, then pick a game that you already have the ROM for.

Above: Most PCs are perfectly capable of pulling off "Blast Processing"

Essential games

Sonic the Hedgehog
The default choice, and one tarred by years of unfathomably bad sequels, but revisiting it now reveals just how well it accomplished its goal of being the anti-Mario.

Phantasy Star II
Back before the series span off into a cult niche, this huge RPG proved the Genesis could do epic scale and storytelling.

Streets of Rage II
Blatant rip-off of Final Fight and Double Dragon this may have been, but it was very much the Genesis’ own.