The Genesis, called Mega Drive outside America, was SEGA's 16-bit console and the Super Nintendo's great rival. SEGA sold three add-ons for it: the SEGA CD, the 32X, and the Pico, a learning console for children with the same chips inside.
We have about 900 Genesis games on My Abandonware, plus SEGA CD, 32X and Pico games. One emulator can run them all.
Genesis emulators
Genesis Plus GX is the best choice for cartridge and SEGA CD games; PicoDrive adds the 32X and the Pico. Both are free, and both run in RetroArch on any system.
- Genesis Plus GX: very accurate, and it also runs the Master System, the Game Gear and the Pico. The easiest way to get it is as a core in RetroArch.
- PicoDrive: the one emulator that runs all four systems, the 32X included. Also a RetroArch core.
- Kega Fusion (Windows, Mac, Linux): an old favorite with its own window and menus, which runs every SEGA system of that time. It has not been updated for years, but it still works: on Windows 11, it needs no setup, and you can drop a zip on its window. Download it from the SEGA Retro wiki, or from the original site, which is no longer updated.
- ares (Windows, Mac, Linux): a very accurate multi-system emulator, a good second opinion when a game misbehaves.
Running Genesis games
In RetroArch, drop the zip as it is on the window, then choose a core: Genesis Plus GX and PicoDrive both run Genesis games. The game starts. With another emulator, unzip the game and open the .bin or .md file. Cartridge games need nothing else: no BIOS, no setup.
Most of our Genesis games are a zip of a few MB holding one file. Some zips hold several copies of the same game. The zip of Heavy Nova holds three .bin files, named Heavy Nova (JU) [!].bin, [b1].bin and [h1C].bin. The tag [!] marks the good, checked copy: use that one. [b1] is a bad copy, and [h1C] is a hacked one. A Genesis game file may end in .bin, .md, .gen or .smd: they are all the same cartridge, saved in slightly different ways, and emulators read them all.
Games made in Japan sometimes refuse to start on an American or European console. If a game shows a "wrong region" screen, set the region in the emulator, or turn on its region-free option.
SEGA CD games
The SEGA CD, or Mega CD, added a CD drive, full-motion video and CD music. Its games are disc images of 80 to 500 MB, and they need the BIOS of the add-on.
Our SEGA CD downloads are disc images: a .cue file, and one .bin file for each track of the disc. Jaguar XJ220 has 13. Unzip the download first, with all the files in the same folder. You do not need to mount the disc. In RetroArch, drop the .cue file on the window, never the .bin, so the emulator finds the music tracks.
Without the BIOS, the game does not start, and RetroArch gives little help. The BIOS comes in three versions, one per region: bios_CD_U.bin for America, bios_CD_E.bin for Europe and bios_CD_J.bin for Japan. The BIOS must match the region of the game. Put the files in the system folder of RetroArch. You can change this folder in the RetroArch settings.
In Kega Fusion, the BIOS files are set in the program: open Options > Set config..., then the Sega CD tab, and give it the files.
To see the names the core looks for, load it, then open Information > Core Information. The Libretro documentation lists them too. We took ours from the RetroPieBIOS repository on GitHub. See our page about BIOS files to get them.
32X games
The 32X was a box that plugged into the Genesis and added 3D power. Use PicoDrive or Kega Fusion: their 32X emulation needs no extra file.
32X games are small cartridge files, like Genesis games. The one we tested, a zip with a single .bin file, ran in PicoDrive: drop the zip on RetroArch's window and pick the PicoDrive core. PicoDrive asks for no 32X BIOS file. A few games, like Knuckles' Chaotix, only exist on the 32X, which is why the add-on is still worth a try.
Pico games
The SEGA Pico was a console for young children: a plastic book on top, a pen, and a cartridge. An emulator turns your mouse into the pen.
Each Pico game came with a "storyware" book whose pages change the game. Our Pico downloads hold only the cartridge, a .md file: the pages of the book are missing, and so are their pictures. In RetroArch, drop the zip as it is on the window and choose PicoDrive. The game runs. Use your mouse where a child used the pen.
I need help!
We do not provide support for running abandonware games. SEGA emulation is old and well documented.
The RetroArch documentation lists the BIOS files of each core and the file types it reads. For questions about a game, SegaXtreme is the main SEGA forum in English.
Checked in October 2026 against each emulator's own documentation and, where it exists, its source code. Game counts and file sizes come from our own catalogue. These guides were drafted with the help of an AI assistant and checked by hand before publishing. If something here is out of date, tell us.