crater vs MEKA

crater is a free Sega Game Gear emulator written in C, with a Z80 assembler and disassembler included. Games can be loaded from the roms directory or from a command-line path. Display controls include fullscreen mode, integer scaling in a window, and an option to force square pixels. Keyboard and joystick or controller input are supported; SDL controller mappings can be defined in gamecontrollerdb.txt. Compatible games can save cartridge RAM to a .sav file, with custom save locations or saving disabled. Save states and custom keyboard mappings are not supported. The assembler converts Z80 source into a Game Gear ROM image and is described as complete. The disassembler attempts to produce assembly but cannot distinguish code from data. Most games are described as playable with minor bugs, while audio, some uncommon CPU instructions, and advanced graphics features are missing. Building requires a modern C11 compiler and SDL 2; OS X and Linux are the tested systems.

MEKA is a free multi-machine emulator for Sega 8-bit systems and ColecoVision. It supports the SG-1000, SC-3000, SF-7000, Mark III, Master System, Game Gear, ColecoVision and Othello Multivision, along with a wide range of peripherals and unusual games. The project includes a debugger and tools for debugging and hacking, aimed at programmers and people working with Sega 8-bit systems. It also provides a game database and compatibility list, which the site describes as receiving fixes and changes. MEKA is free software under a BSD-like license, and its source and data may be browsed and reused without restrictions. The download page lists a Windows x86 build and directs GNU/Linux and macOS users to build from source. That page describes MEKA 0.80 as in development, while the GitHub releases page lists Meka 2025-08-17 as the latest release. Initiated in 1998, the project is maintained by Omar Cornut, known as Bock. The project says it has limited use for the average player.