Dega vs MasterGear

Dega is an emulator for Sega Master System, Mark III, and Game Gear games. It runs on Windows and *NIX systems; its README names Windows 95, NT, 98, 2000, ME, and XP. The software is free for non-commercial use only, and the GitHub repository has no releases. Dega supports Python scripting for input, resets, movie playback and recording, and access to a running game's RAM. Python can be used as a module in another program or embedded in the emulator. The distribution includes memory.py, a Python memory viewer and trainer. Users can record a movie and continue recording later from a saved state. Windows provides save-state slots, and Dega also supports a gzip-compressed .dgz save-state format. Other features include loading ROMs from ZIP files, AVI encoding from movie files on *NIX, and Yamaha 2413 FM audio for machines equipped with that chip. It can also combine some games' flickering-glasses effect into a red-and-blue image for red/blue glasses. Technical information estimates compatibility at 97%.

MasterGear emulates 8-bit SEGA consoles and computers, including MasterSystem, GameGear, SG1000, SC3000, SF7000, Mark2, and Mark3. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Android. The maker says hobbyists can use it to debug software without rare development hardware. Documentation reports support for about 98% of the maker’s SMS, GG, SF7000, SC3000, and SG1000 cartridge and disk images, while noting compatibility is not complete. Emulated hardware includes the Z80 CPU, console video processors, SN76489 sound, and Mark3 YM2413 FM sound. It can save and load emulation states, but state files are not guaranteed to work across versions on different hardware. Other listed features include automatic GZIP ROM handling, MIDI soundtrack logging, a built-in debugger, cheat support, and NetPlay. Windows and Linux are free; the Android plan costs 430.00 USD once. Game ROM images are not included, and source code is not publicly available.