The Megadrive/Genesis (from here on reffered to only as the Megadrive) was SEGA's most popular gaming hardware to date. Also, it was their last stab at a cartridge-based console (if you don't include the 32X add-on). It had some failures during it's time most notably the 32X and the Mega-CD but this emulator doesn't go near them. It just emulates the 'classic' Megadrive. Which is no bad thing in my book. No sir.

There are numerous Megadrive emulators around but these appear to be the best so far unless you have a very powerful PC. The reason I'm reviewing both is that they both are necessary. True you can get away with either but each have features which are better than the other.

KGEN98 is the more complete Megadrive emulation. Special screen techniques and raster FX are emulated more faithfully with KGEN98. So Virtua Fighter runs with much better backgrounds then on 0.34b whearas The Lawnmower Man doensn't even show up on the older KGEN. Of course this means that you need a much faster PC for some games but with the amount available this is not a problem.

KGEN 0.34b seems to handle large directories of zipped games (when using ZipFolders or ZipMagic to show them as dirs) much better than KGEN98 which takes around 1 or 2 minutes to sort the directories out. So for speedy playing of a large number of normal games KGEN 0.34b is the one to use.

Sound on both is flawless with both the FM sound of the Megadrive and sampled sound appearing clear and distinct. Sample rates can be selected and stereo/mono used. I must admit that my Sound Blaster PCI128 had quite a few problems to get clear sound but, after much fiddling with the settings, I had it going just fine thank you.

A nice touch which is sometimes overlooked is the ability to have a second player using either the keyboard or another pad. This is great as there are a huge number of two player games out there for the Megadrive. This is an area of gaming ignored by PC programmers with eyes glazed over by the Internet and modems. If I want to play games against some friends I invite them round and get the beers in not phone them up and play online. What's being sociable about that. Brownie points there then.

There was no 32X, Mega CD or additional controllers like light guns or steering wheels but, then again, I was able with both emulators on my P200 to achive scrolling as smooth as a a baby's bum which still seems to elude most PC games. As far as being close to the original console, apart from some games having incorrect colours in places, It's fine and groovy. Go get this, it's very easy to use, has sh*tloads of configurations options and most of all is great fun to play.

8/10 A couple of games displayed incorrectly so I await an update. Please. In the meantime, go get both of these.