Emulicious vs MasterGear

Emulicious is a free emulator for Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Master System, Game Gear, and MSX. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, as well as Raspberry Pi OS and other systems that support Java SE; Java 1.6 or newer is required. The download does not need an installer: extract the files and run Emulicious.jar, or use Emulicious.exe in the Windows bundle with Java. Its emulation aims for precision, and it includes savestates, IPS patching, automatic updates, and adjustable turbo and throttle controls. For development, the debugger has an interactive disassembler that separates code and data automatically, plus reverse stepping. Other tools include a profiler, tracer, coverage analyzer, memory editor, palette and tile viewers, RAM search and watch, and remote debugging. Emulicious can connect to Visual Studio Code; its linked extension supports source-level debugging for assembler and C code using SDCC. It also runs Analogue Pocket ROMs with the .pocket extension. The free license is for personal use; commercial users should seek permission.

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.