SEGA Classics F.A.Q. & game list

As there are still many questions about the Mega Drive / Genesis collection on Steam, especially from users who do not own any games (yet), I decieded to write down some commonly asked questions and answers.

PLEASE NOTE: This guide's Sections I, II, III and IV were written before SEGA launched the new emulator on April 28, 2016 and before a bundle with all Mega Drive games existed here on Steam! These Sections basically cover questions and tips for the old emulator which is still available, called "Simple Launcher".

Important: I'm not responsible for any damage caused by any of the software I refer to in this guide. Use at your own risk!

Tip of the day (for the new "virtual room" emulator):
"If you're using an xbox 360 controller (and with some luck an xbox one controller), try holding LB when you press A to launch a game." - Chris Budden

I - Frequently Asked Questions

How many Mega Drive/Genesis games are available on Steam?

It used to be 58 games before the Sonic games got delisted in June 2022. As of now, it's 55 in total. For a detailed list scroll down to IV - Genesis / Mega Drive Game List.

I bought Golden Axe but it isn't listed in my Steam library, so where is it?

Each MD/GEN game you purchase on Steam is in fact DLC for an emulator, referred to as "SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics" in your Steam library. When you open the emulator, you can browse through your owned MD/GEN games.

Please note:
There is no Steam store page for "Downloadable Content for SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics", that will list all available games/DLC for the emulator, because the Steam store treats each MD/GEN game as if it was an indivdual game, while, as mentioned above, in fact each game is DLC for an emulator! If you want to know what MD/GEN games are on Steam, go to the game list at the bottom of this guide. That's why I created the list for! Update: GO HERE

So does this mean these games are actually ROMs and not ported PC games?

Yes, it does. By purchasing MD/GEN games on Steam you'll get officially released ROMs by Sega, all legal of course.

What features does the emulator have?

You can browse through your games, create, load and erase save states for each game you own. There is not much room for playing around with settings though.

Is there any online multiplayer feature?

No, but local co-op is possible for games that support it. As of May 29, 2018 online multiplayer is supported on the "bedroom" emulator.

How many save states can I create in this emulator?

For each game you can save up to 5 save states as well as 1 quick save state, making it 6 save states per game in total.

Can I run the emulator without Steam?

Yes you can. Once you downloaded it from Steam, along with some games, the Steam client is not required to run the emulator. Be aware that your play time in Steam is not being counted if you run it outside of Steam (if you care for such things at all).

Can I play my own MD/GEN ROMs with this emulator? Can I play these ROMs on a different emulator?

Read Section III Extracting & Importing Roms.

When I open the emulator I only see one game, but I own more games, what's up?

Unfortunately the emulator doesn't show a list of games, instead you have to either use your keyborad/joypad and press right or left or click with your mouse on the arrow icons below the preview screen to swich from one game to another.

Does it mean I have to click through my entire collection if I want to swich from game #1 in my list to game #50?

Unfortunately yes. Alternatively you can disable unwanted games and only keep the ones you currently play. Your Steam client shows which games you own for the emulator - simply uncheck the checkbox for the DLC (=game) you don't want to play for now and the game will be removed from your hard drive.



To bring the game(s) back, just check the checkbox and Steam will donwload the DLC again.

I've noticed there are several MD/GEN bundles on Steam, what's the deal?

That's right, there are 5 bundles (5 volumes) on Steam, each containing 10 games. There's also one bundle containing volumes 1 - 4, being cheaper than all 4 indivdual bundles purchased separately. If you intend to get the entire MD/GEN catalog, you can save some cash if you go for bundles rather than each game separately.

Why is there not one single Sonic game in any of those bundles? Have they been removed from the bundles?

The MD/GEN Sonic games on Steam have never been in any of these bundles formerly. All 5 games are being sold seperately, most definitely to cash in a little more. The same applies to Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine as well as to both ToeJam & Earl games.

Edit: Steam user Foxysen brought to my attention, that the Sonic Games Collection contains all MD/GEN Sonic titles, along with other Sonic games.

I am in Germany and some of the bundles only show 9 or 8 games in their store page, what's going on here?

For some reason the German Steam store doesn't have Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, Fatal Labyrinth, Decap Attack and Flicky. If you still want these games / the complete bundles in your Steam emulator, you must look elsewhere (e.g. friends in other countries or online key retailers). Also, the SEGA Genesis Classics Pack 5 games are not available in the Japanese steam store.

Edit: As of 11/11/23, it is still possible to get those games as Steam gifts from a Steam friend from abroad.

I bought several games and the order in the emulator's list is not alphabetical, why is that?

Only Sega knows, but you can try this handy tool created by Steam user Peroxide. It basically renames the rom files on your hard drive, so that the games appear in an alphabetical order in the emulator.

Attention if you used Peroxide's file renaming tool:
1. If you created save state files before you used the renaming tool, and want to retain your save states after renaming, also use GENESISSaveSort.bat or MEGADRIVESaveSort.bat, depending on how your folder is named.

The save state location should be:
C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\SEGA Mega Drive Classics\ or
C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\SEGA Genesis Classics\

2. Also, be aware that disableing unwanted games / enableing games as proposed above will not work properly anymore. Use this tool wisely!

My save state for Landstalker has disappeared! What can I do?

You probably only saved in-game and didn't use any of the 6 emulator's save slots before you quit the game. Unfortunately your save state is gone. When playing games that support in-game saving, such as Shinging Force, Phantasy Star, etc. always save your state on one of the emulator's save slots before you quit!

UPDATE: The new emulator supports in-game saving!

What are the keyboard controls for the game Phantasy Star 4?

All MD/GEN games use the same controls. Please read Section II - Controls, to look up the emulator's default controls. Alternatively use a controller.

My controller doesn't work, what can I do?

You could bind your keyboard keys to your controller, e.g. with the handy tool JoyToKey[joytokey.net]. For more info look up Section II.

I am missing some classics, such as Hyperstone Heist, Rocket Knight Adventures or Ghouls N' Ghosts. How come these games are not available for the emulator on Steam?

These games were not developed / published by Sega. Sega does not own the copyrights for these and many other games that were released on the MD/GEN and therefore they will probably never get released for this emulator.

Are there more games to come in the future?

As of now there is no word on additional games to come in the near future.

II - Controls

Below you find an illustration of a six-button Mega Drive/Genesis controller and a table for the emulator's default keyboad mapping for both, player 1 and player 2.

MD/GEN button	keyboard key player 1	keyboard key player 2
A	A	del
B	S	end
C	D	page down
X	Q	fn
Y	W	home
Z	E	page up
Start	Enter	+
Mode	M	-
D-Pad up	arrow up	8 (10-key pad)
D-Pad down	arrow down	2 (10-key pad)
D-Pad left	arrow left	4 (10-key pad)
D-Pad right	arrow right	6 (10-key pad)

others	keyboard key
quicksave	F5
load quicksave	F9
exit to menu	ESC

You can change the button to key mapping for both players in the emulator by going to "Options/Input Configuration" or switch from the keyboard to controller(s).

Emulating keyboard with a controller
Some USB controllers are supported by this emulator, others are not. I didn't have any issues with generic controllers that look like PS2 controllers, while my wireless xbox360 controllers would not be recognized.

If your controller is not recognized, a turnaround to make it work for this emulator is to use a tool that will bind your keyboard's keys to your controller. There are several programs that emulate keyboard and mouse input with a gamepad such as JoyToKey, Xpadder, Pinnacle Game Profiler and Enjoy2.

I've been using Joy2Key[joytokey.net] for free ever since and was able to bind all keyboard keys to my xbox360 controller, even the quick save/load keys (F5/F9) and the 'quit to menu' key ESC, which allows me to navigate through the Sega emulator without having to use the keyboard at all. Of course all the above mentioned tools can be used for any game that natively lacks joystick/joypad support, not only for this emulator.

6-button controller support
While most games from this collection get by with a 3-button Mega Drive controller (A, B, C buttons), others support the usage of 6-button Mega Drive controllers (with the extra buttons X, Y, Z). The buttons X, Y, Z (Q, W, E keys on your keyboard if you use the default settings) are useless for the games that don't support 6 buttons. This is not much of an issue nowadays since most PC controllers have enough buttons, but in case your are using a controller that has less than 6 buttons, you might not be able to play 6-button supported games properly.

There are only a bunch of games in this collection that support the 6-button contoller:
- Beyond Oasis
- Comix Zone
- Eternal Champions
- Streets of Rage 3
- ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
- Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (if you use a cheat)
- Virtua Fighter 2 (activate in options, e.g. for "Defence+Punch" used in some moves)
You can play these games with 3 buttons anyhow, although it is not recommended for Eternal Champions.

Mode button
The Mode button is more or less useless. It was initially used to make the Mega Drive / Genesis console recognise a 6-button controller as a 3-button controller, because some games didn't work properly with a 6-button controller.

Thanks to Steam user Foxysen for the information on the Mode button and list of 6-button supported games.

III - Extracting & Importing Roms

Update 2016-03-01 - PscdPack:

Steam user cyanic created a program called PscdPack which lets you easily extract roms from .pak archives and import into .pak archives.

GitHub: https://github.com/GMMan/PscdPack
Downloads: https://github.com/GMMan/PscdPack/releases

Extracting ROMs

1. Run the program
   
2. Click on "New/Open"
   
3. Browse and select the .pak to open
   
4. Click on "Extract ROM"
   
5. Save the ROM somewhere

Importing ROMs

1. Run the program
   
2. Click on "New/Open"
   
3. Navigate to the emulator's data folder, and type a file name. The file name should be in the format of "gXXXX.pak", where each "X" is a digit. The emulator will be looking for this naming scheme. Click Save.
   
4. Click "Replace ROM"
   
5. Browse to the ROM you want to load. The ROM should be in BIN format. If it's in SMD format, you will need to convert it to BIN first.
   
6. The program will automatically fill out the fields. You should adjust the settings if needed, such as adding in the proper SRAM/EEPROM info or forcing a region. Please see the readme for more information on on-cartridge memory config options.
   
7. Click "Save"
   
8. Click "Close" or "Exit"

My original post about Quick BMS (this tool only lets you extract ROMs)

If you ever wondered whether these games can be played on a different emulator of your choice then the answer is yes. It is possible to play the roms on any MD/GEN emulator, though some work has to be done beforehand.

The rom files in this collection come as .pak files, which is a compression format. No other emulator supports reading from pak archives, hence you need to extract the roms first. There is this tool by Luigi Auriemma, called QUICK BMS, which lets you extract the rom files from the pak archive.

Here's how it works

1. Go to http://aluigi.altervista.org/quickbms.htm to download quickbms.zip and sega_classics.bms

2. place the sega_classics.bms in the folder where your pak files are stored (should be {...}\Steam\steamapps\common\Sega Classics\data)

3. extract quickbms.zip somewhere and open quickbms.exe

4. from here select the sega_classics.bms then select the .pak file you would like to extract and
then just select the same directory where to place the extracted file (just extract to the same dir where the pak files are)

The extracted files will be .bin files with the game's name. Unfortunately you will have to repeat step 4 for each rom as it will only extract one file at a time.

Thanks to Steam user Oakreef for linking QUICK BMS in the discussions.

IV - Mega Drive / Genesis Game List

This section contains all Mega Drive games available on Steam, and their respective pak file. The Simple Launcher orders the games accoring to the pak filenames by default, with Altered Beast (g0000.pak) being the first game and Wonder Boy in Monster World (g0057.pak) being the last game in the list. The new hub orders the games alpahbetically in the sleeve.

game	pak file
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle	g0011.pak
Alien Soldier	g0034.pak
Alien Storm	g0023.pak
Altered Beast	g0000.pak
Beyond Oasis	g0048.pak
Bio-Hazard Battle	g0024.pak
Bonanza Bros.	g0012.pak
Columns	g0013.pak
Columns III	g0025.pak
Comix Zone	g0001.pak
Crack Down	g0002.pak
Decap Attack	g0026.pak
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine	g0014.pak
Dynamite Headdy	g0049.pak
Ecco the Dolphin	g0003.pak
Ecco Jr.	g0015.pak
Ecco: The Tides of Time	g0027.pak
ESWAT: City Under Siege	g0028.pak
Eternal Champions	g0016.pak
Fatal Labyrinth	g0017.pak
Flicky	g0029.pak
Gain Ground	g0004.pak
Galaxy Force II	g0018.pak
Golden Axe	g0005.pak
Golden Axe II	g0030.pak
Golden Axe III	g0050.pak
Gunstar Heroes	g0035.pak
Kid Chameleon	g0019.pak
Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole	g0036.pak
Light Crusader	g0037.pak
Phantasy Star II	g0051.pak
Phantasy Star III	g0052.pak
Phantasy Star IV	g0053.pak
Ristar	g0020.pak
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi	g0006.pak
Shining Force	g0038.pak
Shining Force II	g0039.pak
Shining in the Darkness	g0040.pak
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master	g0007.pak
Sonic the Hedgehog	g0031.pak
Sonic the Hedgehog 2	g0041.pak
Sonic 3 and Knuckles	g0042.pak
Sonic 3D Blast	g0008.pak
Sonic Spinball	g0021.pak
Space Harrier II	g0009.pak
Streets of Rage	g0043.pak
Streets of Rage II	g0044.pak
Streets of Rage III	g0054.pak
Super Thunder Blade	g0022.pak
Sword of Vermilion	g0032.pak
The Revenge of Shinobi	g0055.pak / TheRevengeOfTheShinobi.pak *
ToeJam & Earl	g0046.pak
ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron	g0047.pak
Vectorman	g0010.pak
Vectorman II	g0056.pak
Virtua Fighter II	g0033.pak
Wonder Boy in Monster World	g0057.pak
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair	g0045.pak

* The Simple Launcher uses g0055.pak, the new emulator uses TheRevengeOfTheShinobi.pak. See VII - Random facts for more info.

Update June 2022

Due to the release of Sonic Origins, the three Sonic games as well as Sonic CD (not part of this collection) have been delisted from the Steam Store. Anyone who purchased these previously is still in possession of these games though.

Update May 2018

With the update on May 29, 2018 alternate versions of some games can be played. Here's a list of their represenive files in the data folder of Sega Classics. In the Simple Launcher they appear at the end of the game list (games 58 to 71).

g9001.pak - Alien Soldier (JP)
g9002.pak - The Story of Thor (Beyond Oasis) (FR)
g9003.pak - The Story of Thor (Beyond Oasis) (GE)
g9004.pak - The Story of Thor (Beyond Oasis) (SP)
g9005.pak - The Story of Thor (Beyond Oasis) (JP)
g9006.pak - Dynamite Headdy (JP)
g9007.pak - Landstalker (EN)
g9008.pak - Landstalker (FR)
g9009.pak - Landstalker (GE)
g9010.pak - Ristar (JP)
g9011.pak - Bare Knuckle II (Streets of Rage 2) (JP)
g9012.pak - Streets of Rage 3 (EN)
g9013.pak - Bare Knuckle III (Streets of Rage 3) (JP)

V - Play Mods on Simple Launcher

On April 28, 2016 SEGA updated the Mega Drive Classics here on Steam by adding a new fancy emulator and the ability to play Mods, but the old emulator (now known as "Simple Launcher") didn't get any update and Workshop Mods are not accessible via the launcher naturally. However, there is a fiddly workaround to launch Mods on the Simple Launcher...

1. Subscribe to a Mod in the SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics Workshop. The Steam client will download the Workshop Mods to your Steam directory:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\34270\".

2. Go to the directory and search for your Mod in a subfolder. It should be a .bin file.

3. Copy that file to some other place on your hard drive, to compress it to a .pak archive. Read section III of this gudie about Importing Roms.

4. After you put the .bin file into a .pak file as decribed in Section III of this guide, rename the file properly (e.g. g1001.pak for your first mod) and put it into the data folder of your Sega Classics collection:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sega Classics\data\"
It should appear at the end of your game list in the Simple Launcher and you should be able to play it now.

I admit this is very tedious but that's the only way to launch mods from the workshop in the Simple Launcher.

VI - Write Steam Reviews for MD games

The Steam interface will not let you write a review for Sega Mega Drive games. The reason is simple, people need to have at least 5 minutes of play time in any game to be eligible for writing a Steam review. The problem here is, all Mega Drive games are DLC and Steam will not count play time for each DLC. While Valve fixed the problem for "normal" games on Steam, the Mega Drive games still cannot be reviewed.

I think that everyone who owns and uses any product on Steam, should be eligible to write a review, hence I will show you a workaround to write your review, which is kinda dodgy but well...

Workaround #1

What you need is:
- The game / DLC in your Steam library
- A software which I will neither call out nor link here.*

* Some hints though: It starts with S, has an A somewhere in the middle and ends with M - just let us call it MAX for now and remember, google is your friend. Use this application wisely, I do not recommend using it for anything else. Use at your own risk!

1. Download MAX
2. Open your Steam client
3. MAX comes with 2 .exe files, Game.exe and Picker.exe. Open the Picker.
4. In the application, enter the App ID of your game in the input field and press Enter. For this example we will be using Golden Axe, you can find the game's App ID in the Steam Store URL of your game, which is 34276 here . [notice my typo for the App ID in the screen shot :)]
5. Now the game title appears below, double click it. A new window will pop up, just wait for at least 5 minutes before closing it again.
6. Now visit the Steam Store page of the game and write your review.

Make sure to close the application entirely again before resuming to play any games!

I wish there was a better way to do this and I'm happy to remove this section again if this changes. Until then there is really no other way around. Happy reviewing.


Workaround #2

Steam user Aevoa mentioned another way how to make yourself eligible to write reviews for your Mega Drive games. It looks even simplier than the other workaround I mentioned. Here's what they said:

Originally posted by Aevoa:

Concerning the "Write Steam Reviews for MD Games", there's a method of spoofing app IDs without using the third party program. A lot of games on Steam come with a "appid" text file in their folders. If you download one of these games you can just go in and change the text file to whatever app ID you want, launch the game's .exe from the folder, and Steam will say you're playing your desired app ID. Idle it for more than 5 minutes, click exit, and you're golden.

Most simplistic games have this text file it seems. I use a game called "Super Hexagon".

Actually, you can use any game to do do this. If a game doesn't have a "steam_appid.txt" just create one yourself.

VII - Random facts

Here's a list of interesting facts, that Steam user Foxysen submitted to me to include in this guide. Thanks for the heads up buddy.

1) Since the launch of the new Hub emulator, all purchased Mega Drive games on Steam are also stored in the "Uncompressed ROMs" folder in the Sega Classics directory. In order to use them on a different emulator, their file endings must be renamed from ".68k"/".SGD" to ".bin" or ".gen". Some games even come with extra roms, like a Japanese version, e.g. Beyond Oasis, Dynamite Heady, and Streets of Rage 3.

2) Some of these games actually were slightly edited similar their Virtual Console versions, mostly to avoid any legal trouble. Example: The red cross icon in Phantasy Star 2 was replaced by green "H".

3) Alien Soldier is played at incorrect speed in new emulator. The Alien Soldier version that is included on Steam is the European PAL version, which had music optimized to correct the speed for 50Hz, while gameplay is a bit slower than intented. The new Hub emulator runs this PAL version at 60Hz, thus music is way too fast while the gameplay speed is either the same as in Japanese version or a bit faster. (Foxysen's tip: just use the Japanese version from workshop)

4) Alien Storm has a "duel" mode that is accessable only if game detects only one controller. Since both emulators (Simple Launcher and the Hub) here on Steam always assume that both controllers are connected, it's impossible to play this mode.

5) Beyond Oasis actually makes use of mode button. Pressing Mode+B allows you to quickly switch weapons. Also used in some cheat codes, I heard.

6) Columns 3 actually supports up to 5 players multiplayer. Both Mega Drive emulators only support 2 players.

7) The 2 Players Mode in Golden Axe 3 is disabled in the Simple Launcher.

8) The Simple Launcher uses an older revision of The Revenge of Shinobi, where Godzilla and Spider-Man are still present (they were replaced in later revisions).

9) Sword of Vermilion doesn't support in-game saving in the Simple Launcher. You must use the emulator's save states in order to keep your progress.

10) There is a bug in the Simple Launcher. If you create a save state with the emulator and re-load it, it causes the emulator to fail writing in-game saves from that point. You are basically forced to use the emulator's save states in order to keep your progress after you loaded a save state from the emulator.

IIX - Steam Achievements

With the latest update on May 29, 2018, Steam Achievements and Challenges have been implemented. The challaneges and achievements only work for the bedroom emulator, the Simple Launcher doesn't have them. For more details have a look at Fortify45's guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1398500429

IX - Steam Update History

On this section I will try to sum up the major changes in the Sega Collection on Steam

December 6, 2024

• The complete Sega Calssics Collection as well as the Dreamcast Collection delisted from the Steam Store

May 20, 2022

• The Sonic games were delisted from the Steam Store

May 29, 2018

• Steam Achievements
• Two-player online multiplayer 
• Leaderboards
• Challenge Modes
• Additional graphics filters & border options
• ROMs from other regions for games with significant differences
• Fast-forward and rewind 
• Sprite limit disable 
• Mirror mode – reverse the screen for a fresh challenge
• VR support 
• Mac and Linux support

April 28, 2016

• New emulator (virtual bedroom) added. The old emulator is still available, called "Simple Launcher" now
• Steam Workshop support added: Users can upload Hacks/Mods for the games in the collection

[HerogonPoly]

At least RetroArch will allow PC players an alternative way to play Sega Genesis games.

[HerogonPoly]

@falloutdude83 You're right. I did add the ROMs manually by scouring through the internet for certain ROMs. They only appear in the Simple Launcher once I put the .pak file and .bin files in the correct spot.
Shame we can't use the room for that, as I rather like the modding scene of other games.

[falloutdude83]

Maybe those Sonic 1 and 2 roms in the uncompressed folder came accidentally with Spinball or 3D Blast. Hard to tell. I owned all roms before the game room was introduced but to have the games appear in the room you must buy them and own the steam license.

[falloutdude83]

@HerogonPoly well, if you didn't buy or don't own Sonic 1, it will not show up obviously. You can no longer buy it the sonic games for this collection, and all other games will be delisted in December 2024. I have no idea how or why you are seeing it in the Simple Launcher though, you must have added it manually or something, or maybe got it because you are family sharing. No idea.

[HerogonPoly]

@falloutdude83 If you're referring to purchasing any games on Genesis Classics in general, only Sonic 3D Blast and Spinball.

[falloutdude83]

@HerogonPoly, sorry buddy no idea what's up with your set up. Are you positive you purchased it?

[Apfelratte]

Cool Auther

[HerogonPoly]

@falloutdude83 I'm sorry, but uninstalling and reinstalling the collection did not make Sonic 1 pop up in the Game Room. You can still only play it via Simple Launcher.
What could allow the Game Room to show the ROMS like Sonic?

[falloutdude83]

@HerogonPoly, try uninstalling the collection and install again.

[HerogonPoly]

Excuse me, but how can we get the Sega Genesis games to show up in the Game Room? I've got the ROMs for Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 in the Uncompressed ROMs folder, but they don't show up in the Game Room. Sonic 1 only shows up in the Simple Launcher, while Sonic 2 doesn't show up at all.
Any fixes to have them show up in the Game Room?