Picodrive is a Megadrive/Genesis/Sega/CD Mega/32X/SMS emulator for PSP and PSVITA with eCFW Adrenaline/Ark or VHBL, optimized for ARM, which features 68k, Z80 and VDP chip emulation cores. Initially developed by Dave (aka fdave, author of FinalBurn), the project was expanded by notaz and subsequently updated by Robson Alcantara.

The base code originates from Dave's PicoDrive 0.30 for Pocket PC, and the Sega/Mega CD code is based on Stephane Dallongeville's Gens.

Copy the whole PicoDrive directory to /PSP/GAME/ directory in your Memory Stick.

For games create a ROMS subdirectory and put the roms inside (CUE, BIN).

In order to play any Sega/Mega CD games, you will also need BIOS files. These files must be copied to the CFG directory, named as follows.

• US - us_scd1_9210.bin, us_scd2_9306.bin, SegaCDBIOS9303.bin
• EU - eu_mcd1_9210.bin, eu_mcd2_9303.bin, eu_mcd2_9306.bin
• JP - jp_mcd1_9112.bin, jp_mcd1_9111.bin

These files can also be zipped.

Note that this emulator may require some tweaking of configuration settings to run some games well (see below FAQ section).

Supported file types

The game must be dumped to ISO+MP3, CUE+CSO+MP3 or CUE+BIN format. When using CUE+BIN, you must load CUE file from the menu, or else the emulator will not find audio tracks.

CUE+BIN can take a lot of space, so it can be converted to CUE+CSO+MP3 by using bin_to_cso_mp3 tool.

ISO+MP3 files can be named similarly as for other emulators. Examples are as follows (you can name them either way).

SonicCD.iso (data track)
SonicCD_02.mp3 (audio track 1 (CD track 2))
SonicCD_03.mp3

Sonic the Hedgehog CD (US) - Track 01.iso
Sonic the Hedgehog CD (US) - Track 02.mp3
Sonic the Hedgehog CD (US) - Track 03.mp3

In case there is a CUE file with properly specified files names in it, file naming doesn't matter. Just be sure to load CUE from the menu.

It is very important to have the MP3s encoded at 44kHz sample rate and they must be stereo, or else they will play too fast/slow or won't play at all. Be sure not to use anything but classic MP3 format (don't use things like mp3pro).

ISO files can also be CSO compressed or zipped (but not MP3 files, as they are already compressed). CSO will cause slightly longer loading times, and is not very good for FMV games. Zipping ISOs is not recommended, as it will cause very long (several minute) loading times, and make some games unplayable. File naming is similar as with uncompressed ISOs.

SonicCD.cso (data track)
SonicCD_02.mp3 (audio track 1 (CD track 2))
SonicCD_03.mp3

Cheat support (PAT)

To use GG/patch codes, type them into your favorite text editor, one per line. Comments may follow code after a whitespace. Only GameGenie and Genecyst patch formats are supported.

Genecyst patch example (for Sonic).

00334A:0005 Start with five lives
012D24:0001 Keep invincibility until end of stage
009C76:5478 each ring worth 2
009C76:5678 each ring worth 3

Game Genie patch example (for Sonic 2).

ACLA-ATD4 Hidden palace instead of death egg in level select

Both GG and patch codes can be mixed in one file. When the file is ready, name it just like your rom file, but with additional .pat extension. Here are some examples, making sure that case matches.

ROM: Sonic.zip
PATCH FILE: Sonic.zip.pat

ROM: Sonic 2.bin
PATCH FILE: Sonic 2.bin.pat

Put the file into your ROMs directory. Then load the PAT file as you would a rom. Then Cheat Menu Option should appear in main menu.

FAQ (Sega/Mega CD)

Q. Game hangs after Sega logo.

You may need to enable Better Sync and/or Scale/Rot.fx options, found in Sega/Mega CD options submenu, and then reset the game.

Some other games may also require CDDA Audio and PCM Audio to be enabled to work (enabled by default).

Incorrectly named/missing mp3s may also be the cause.

Q. Background music is missing.

You might have named your MP3s incorrectly.

Q. Game music plays too fast/too slow/out of sync.

You have encoded your MP3s incorrectly. You will have to re-encode and/or resample them. PicoDrive is not a mp3 player, so all mp3s MUST be encoded at 44.1kHz stereo.

Badly encoded mp3s can cause various kind of problems, like noises, incorrect playback speeds, not repeating music or even prevent game from starting.

Q. Game hangs at the BIOS screen (with planets shown).

You may be using a bad BIOS dump. Try another from a different source.

Q. Settings that can improve performance.

Some Sega/Mega CD games don't use Z80 for anything, but they leave it active, so disabling Z80 manually (in Advanced Options) improves performance.

Use lower bitrate for better performance (96 or 128kbps CBRs recommended).

FAQ (Genesis/MegaDrive)

Q. Game has graphical glitches.

This is most likely because Accurate Renderer is not enabled (see Options).

Q. Game does not boot or sound is glitchy.

Try to enable Accurate Renderer; Make sure Z80 is not disabled (in Advanced Options). Some games may need to be reset after adjusting settings.