Awesome Mega Drive Development

A curated list of useful resources for Mega Drive programming.

Despite being over 30 years old, the Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis) is still alive and kicking. A community of passionate fans has kept the 16-bit dream alive by releasing new projects and games throughout the years. If you've also always wanted to create your own Mega Drive game, then here is a list of various resources to help get you started!

Feel free to submit a pull request if you have anything to add to the list.

Documentation and Articles
Programming
- Frameworks
- Toolchains
- Engines
- Snippets and Demos
- Tutorials
  - Assembly
  - SGDK
Tools
Sound and Music
Open Source Games
Reverse Engineering
- Disassemblies
Communities
- Boards
- Discords
Extra Hardware
Other Sites and Resources

Documentation and Articles

Making a SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis game in 2019 - An article about current MD development
Mega Drive Development Wiki - A wiki about the technical aspects of the Mega Drive
Sega Genesis Manual - A technical overview of the Mega Drive by Sega
Hardware Notes by Kabuto - SEGA Mega Drive hardware notes written by Kabuto of TiTAN during the development of Overdrive 2
Pushing Polygons on the Mega Drive - Overdrive 2 demo polygon renderer write-up
Red Eyes demo technical details - Details on the Red Eyes demo of Remute's music album Technoptimistic
MD Development Kit Hardware - A look at the MD development kit hardware
Hello, Sega Genesis - A post about experimenting with MD dev (includes code examples)
Sega VR Revived - Reviving the unreleased Sega VR accessory
Porting Fantasy Zone to the Mega Drive - Porting Fantasy Zone to the Mega Drive (in Japanese)
M2 Interview on 3D Sonic the Hedgehog - Interview with M2 about developing the Sega 3D Classics version of Sonic
Sega Japan Sound Documents - Technical documents on the YM2612 and the Mega Drive sound drivers
Digging for Treasure in Aladdin's Source Code - An article exploring the source code of Aladdin
An authoritative reference on the YM2612 - A whole pile of Japanese documentation on the YM2612
Exodus MD Tech Docs - Technical details important for emulation and development
The Sound Drivers of Sonic the Hedgehog - An article about the sound drivers used in the classic Sonic games
Sonic Megamix is not Sonic CD! - An article about what Sonic Megamix is (and isn't)
How I built my own Sega Mega Drive hardware dev kit from scratch - An article about building a devkit, hardware and all

Programming

Frameworks and Compilers

SGDK - Allows you to develop Mega Drive games in C
SecondBasic - Allows you to develop Mega Drive games in Basic
32x DevKit - Devkit, manuals and links for 32X development
NEXTBasic - Page about the NEXTBasic compiler
BasiEgaXorz - The Sega Genesis Tiny BASIC Compiler
GINCS Studio - A tool to create text adventures and visual novels for the Mega Drive (Page in Russian)
MEGADEV - A Sega Mega CD development framework

Toolchains

Marsdev - Cross platform Mega Drive / 32X toolchain
mdcc - Sega Mega Drive GCC Based Toolchain
SGDK for Linux - A set of makefiles to get SGDK working on Linux

Engines

KAdventure - An adventure game engine using SGDK and Python
BSPView - An in-progress 3d graphics engine
PortalView - A second-gen BSP/Portal renderer

Snippets and Demos

Samples in 68000 Assembly - Small, discreet, complete samples for the SEGA Mega Drive in 68000 assembly
ArcadeTV Samples - Code snippets in assembly for the Mega Drive
Hijacking the S&K Lock-on Cart - How to hijack the Sonic & Knuckles lock-on cart
Writing ROMs using Rust - A proof-of-concept project using Rust to write Mega Drive ROMs

Tutorials

Assembly

Plutiedev - Various tutorials on programming the 68000, Z80 and more
68000 Assembly Programming for the Sega Genesis - Various tutorials on assembly coding for the Mega Drive
Big Evil Corporation - A tutorial on getting started with assembly coding for the Mega Drive
Mode 5 - A few basic assembly tutorials
MarkeyJester’s Motorola 68000 Beginner’s Tutorial - An extensive 68000 assembly tutorial for beginners
Hugues Johnson Tutorials - An assembly programming tutorial

SGDK

Ohsat Games - Various full project and one-off tutorials for SGDK
Danibus - Various SGDK tutorials in Spanish and English

Tools

Beehive - A complete content tool for the SEGA Mega Drive
MDTools - A collection of several free tools designed to aid in development of Mega Drive homebrew
Genesis Code - Visual Studio Code Extension For Use Easily SGDK and some other tools like Tiled.
Color Mixer - Color Mixer for SEGA Mega Drive
Sonic Retro Tools - Collection of tools and disassemblies by the members of Sonic Retro
Palette Batch - Converts images to use certain color palettes (made for use with SGDK)
240p Test Suite - A test suite to evaluate upscalers and related equipment
TILED-Python-to-C - A Python tool to convert Tiled XML data to C for use with SGDK
Retro Graphics Toolkit - A graphics tool to convert images for use on retro systems
TUME - An old map editor for 8bit and 16bit games
Aseprite Mega Drive Digitizer - Display images from Aseprite on your CRT using the Mega Drive
MCD-Verificator - A test program for CD core accuracy verification

Sound and Music

Echo - A Mega Drive Sound Engine
Mega PCM - A sound driver that exclusively plays digitized audio samples through an YM2612 sound chip's DAC channel
Mega Drive MIDI Interface - Control the Yamaha YM2612 and PSG of the Sega Mega Drive via MIDI
MDTracker - Native music tracker for the Mega Drive
MDSDRV - A sound driver for Sega Mega Drive
MML2VGM - Converts MML files to Mega Drive format
Lusid-Dreams - A SID player for the Sega 32X
VGM Music Maker Primer - A primer on creating music for the Mega Drive
DefleMask Instrument Tutorial - A video guide to making FM instruments for the Sega Mega Drive
GENNY VST - A VST for DAWs emulating Mega Drive instruments
Chipsynth MD emulation (Video) - Video about rigs created for chipsynth MD's emulation

Open-Source Games

Tanglewood - A platformer made in assembly
5 Stars - A minimalistic shmup made in assembly by SikTheHedgehog
Miniplanets - A unique platformer made in assembly by SikTheHedgehog
Project MD - Another game by SikTheHedgehog
Dragon's Castle - A platformer made in assembly...by SikTheHedgehog
Mega Grappler X - And another game by SikTheHedgehog!
Cave Story MD - A rewrite/port of Cave Story for the Mega Drive
Penguin World - A game made using SGDK
Lunch Break - A game made using SGDK
Right 2 Repair - A 2-player game made using SGDK
Dr. Mario MD - A port of Dr. Mario, made using SGDK
MegaDriveSnake - A Snake game made using SGDK
Moon Watcher Games - Various games and ports using SGDK and/or assembly
Tetris MD - A Tetris game made using SGDK
Tro-Now - A Tron lightcycle game made using SGDK
Retail Clerk '89 - An interactive fiction game made in assembly
Chris Shrigley Source Code Archive - Collection of code of games Chris Shrigley worked on (for educational purposes only!)
BattleCity Online - A port of BattleCity with online multiplayer
Fatal Smarties - An entry for Global Game Jam 2016
Pingouin Bleu - A horizontal shmup written with SGDK
Downforce - A futuristic racer written in C
Ramless Pong - Source code of Pong that does not use RAM, only CPU regs
xRick - A clone of Rick Dangerous for the 32X
Wolf32X - Source code for Wolf32X
Uwol - Quest For Money - Source code for Uwol
Doom - Proof of concept Doom port for Mega Drive

Reverse Engineering

Disassemblies

lory90 dissassemblies - Dissassemblies of various Mega Drive games
Vladimir Kononovich Videos - Videos on reverse-engineering (in Russian)
Vladimir Kononovich Tools - Various tools for Mega Drive reverse-engineering
Shining Force Central - A github with projects relating to the Shining Force games
TMSS Disassembly - A disassembly of the TradeMark Security System

Communities

Boards

Discords

Extra hardware

SVP chip development - Open-source hardware boards to turn retail Virtua Racing cartridges into a "devkits", an assembler for the SVP chip DSP, sources and docs.
MegaWiFi - WiFi enabled cartridge for the Mega Drive

Other Sites and Resources

Romhacking.net MD - Resources for Mega Drive development
Romhacking.net MCD - Resources for Mega CD development
Romhacking.net 32X - Resources for 32X development
SMS Power! - Resources on Master System development
Super Splash Wave - Youtube videos by strafefox covering the development of various games, including Mega Drive games
Dithering on the Sega Genesis with Composite Video - Examination of dithering and composite video on the Sega Genesis
Sega Genesis Low Resolution Aspect Ratio - Examination of the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive output of low resolution games (256x224) to a CRT
flamewing Github - A github with various Mega Drive projects
GenesisFan64 Github - A github with various Mega Drive and 32X projects
Mega Cat Studios Blog - A blog on Mega Drive development by Mega Cat Studios
2020 Games on Dreamcast and Mega Drive - A list of games made in 2020 for the Dreamcast and Mega Drive

haroldo-ok / awesome-megadrive