PicoDrive for 3DS is a port of notaz’s PicoDrive emulator by bubble2k16 to the old 3DS / 2DS. Although PicoDrive is already highly optimized for ARM processors, if ported as is, it still doesn’t run full speed for all Mega Drive games on the old 3DS / 2DS, as it’s evident in the RetroArch’s version. So this port heavily relies on the 3DS’s 2nd core to emulate the FM synthesized music for the YM2612 FM chip to achieve 60 FPS. But the 2nd core on the old 3DS is unfortunately not fast enough to generate the FM synthesized music at a full 44100Hz, so sounds are generated at 30000Hz on an Old 3DS. It sounds ok for many games, except for those that use high-pitched notes or sound samples. The screen rendering is done completely using the original PicoDrive’s ARM processor-optimized renderer.

You can play Master System, Mega Drive games and Sega CD games, and 32X games. CD games run a little slower (you should enable 1-2 frameskips) on an old 3DS, but it runs very well on a new 3DS. 32X games can only played at a reasonable speed on a New 3DS using the .CIA version of the emulator. Some dynarec instructions for 32X games will crash the emulator (Virtual Fighter, Virtual Racing Deluxe have this issue).

Release notes:

I’m putting up v0.94b for testing for anyone who would like the latest. 🙂

Fixes include:
– Added support to save battery-backed RAM for CD games
– Fixed problems with games that show parts of the previous screens at the left/right edges
– Added support for cheats.

No emulation-related fixes, so in terms of compatibility, it should remain the same as v0.93.

Some explanation on the cheat format:

The .CHX is a cheat file format that you can create with any text editor. Each line in the file corresponds to one cheat, and is of the following format:

[Y/N],[CheatCode],[Name]

1. [Y/N] represents whether the cheat is enabled. Whenever you enable/disable it in the emulator, the .CHX cheat file will be modified to save your changes.
2. [CheatCode] must be an Genesis / Mega Drive Game Genie or Pro Action Replay cheat code. The cheat code looks like one of the following:
– **RHVA-A6WR** (Game Genie)
– **FFFE0D:0099** (Pro Action Replay)
– **FFB933:00** (Pro Action Replay)
– **FFB9 3300** (Pro Action Replay)
3. [Name] is a short name that represents this cheat. Since this will appear in the emulator, keep it short (< 30 characters).

The .CHX must have the same name as your ROM. This is an example of a .CHX file:

Filename: **Contra – Hard Corps (USA).chx**
“`
N,RHVA-A6WR,Invincible
N,NNCT-AAH4,Start with 99 lives
N,H9GA-AAE6,Start with all weapons
N,AM4A-AA8C,You don’t lose a weapon when you die
“`

NOTE: Some games may not boot when cheat codes are enabled at the start. Disable the cheat codes when booting the games, and enable them only after the game has started.

Thanks to Nintendomax for the news.