What is AGES?
        It is a Genesis/Sega CD/32X/SMS emulator for Windows written by
        Quinntesson.  For more information, visit the About page on the
        AGES website.  (http://www.emuitalia.com/ages/about.html)

How can I help the project?
        Please visit the Contributing page on the AGES website.
        (http://www.emuitalia.com/ages/contributing.html)

Is AGES free?
        Yes.

Is AGES open source?
        Not now or anytime soon.

Will AGES be ported to other platforms/OSes?
        I have considered porting AGES to Dreamcast, but this would mean
        rewriting all of the assembly code.  Furthermore, I have some really
        big reservations because of possible conflict with the commercial and
        still present Genesis/PCE emulation service provided by Sega to its
        consumers.  Finally, I don't yet have all the parts for my PC<->DC
        serial cable.  Despite all of this I think DCAGES ("Sega CD"
        backwards...) would be pretty cool, but don't expect it to show up
        anytime in the near future.

What is AGES written in?
        99% optimized assembly, %1 C++/MFC.

What are the minimum system requirements to run AGES?
        You will need Windows, DirectX 3.0 or higher, and a CPU with MMX.
        To use a joystick, you will need DirectX 5.0 or higher.  To use your
        CD-ROM drive(s), you will need ASPI.  To use AGES in windowed mode
        your display must be 16-bit color.

        Genesis: should run 60+ fps on an Intel P2 350 MHz with sound at
                 22050 Hz.

        Sega CD: Using an ISO image with auto frameskip and sound at
                 22050 Hz, I get full speed on an Intel PIII 500 MHz.
                 Some CD drives blatantly hog CPU time when accessing.  If
                 you have this kind of drive, using CDs directly will lower
                 the performance somewhat.

        32X: should be about 17 fps on an Intel PIII 500 MHz if you have not
             adjusted the SH2 speeds in the AGES.INI file.  By editting those
             SH2 speed paramaters, I can get up to around 35-40 fps on an
             Intel PIII 500 Mhz before compatiblity  starts to suffer.  Your
             mileage may vary.  Frameskip has little effect.

        I am continuously bringing down the CPU speed requirements for each
        system.  If you want to use joysticks, you will need DirectX 5.0
        instead of 3.0.

Aren't there any better Genesis/32X/Sega CD emulators?
        AGES's sound support isn't as complete as other Genesis emulators, but
        those other emulators did not write their own sound emulation!  AGES
        is the first emulator since Genecyst and KGen with a custom sound
        core, and it is constantly improving.  So for now, the other emulators
        could be qualified as "better," but AGES has many cool features that
        no other Genesis emulator has, and it is constantly adding more.

        retroDrive and Xega are the only other 32X emulators.  They can play
        a few games that AGES can't, but AGES can play many games that they
        can't.  I'd suggest keeping all three of them around for the time
        being.

        There are three other Sega CD emulators under development:  Gens,
        Kega, and Xega.  As far as I know, Gens has the highest compatiblity,
        but AGES has many unique features which make it worth using.

Does AGES need the System ROMs for Genesis, Sega CD, and/or 32X?
        You do not need the Genesis system ROM to emulate Genesis games, but
        you can use it if you have the file and have configured AGES to use
        it.

        You *MUST* have a Sega CD BIOS to emulate Sega CD games designed for
        use with the region of that BIOS.  I currently have no plans to
        implement any sort of "BIOS Faking."

        You will need the three 32X System ROMs to properly run AGES in 32X
        mode.  If you are running AGES on a laptop in the middle of the
        desert with no Internet access, you can use AGES's "BIOS Faking,"
        capabilities which alleviate the need for *ANY* of the 32X System
        ROMs.  I WILL NOT PROVIDE ANY SUPPORT FOR THE USE OF AGES IN THIS
        MODE.  IF THERE ARE ANY PROBLEMS, GO DOWNLOAD THE 32X SYSTEM ROMS!
        If you are emulating Sega CD/32X games, you must have the 32X system
        ROMs present and configured.  There is no "BIOS faking" for CD/32X
        games.

Where can I find technical information about Genesis, 32X, and/or Sega CD?
        Go to a search engine and enter keywords like "emulation,"
        "technical", and "documents."  Please note that you may have to go to
        several websites to find one that doesn't suck.  Also note that the
        Genesis, 32X, and Sega CD hardware and software manuals scans are
        huge and thus not available on any website.  Finally, the Sega CD
        documentation scans do not provide sufficient information to write an
        emulator, you will have to do a *LOT* of reverse engineering.  To
        give you an idea of how long it takes, I spent the better part of a
        mostly free summer on it, and I was reasonably experienced at reverse
        engineering when I started.  Do not ask me to send technical
        information to you, your request will be ignored.

Does AGES use dynamic recompiling (drc) or high-level emulation (hle)?
        I have written a dynamic recompiler for the SH2s, but currently it is
        not present in public releases as it has some bugs that lower AGES's
        compatibility.  I am planning to add a tiny bit of HLE into the
        dynamic recompilers sometime later.  The other CPU cores are still
        interpretive.  No HLE is used to emulate the Sega CD, all unavailable
        information was painstakingly reverse engineered.

What 3-D APIs will AGES support?
        None.  The 32X does not have a real 3-D chip in it.  All polygons are
        calculated by the SH2s.  By emulating the SH2s properly, the polygons
        and texturing trivally comes as a "free lunch."  As for Sega CD
        rotate/scale graphics chip, it operates in a substantially different
        way than any 3-D API, so it is also not emulated using 3-D
        acceleration.

Will AGES ever include ____ support?
        My primary focus is on the Genesis/Sega CD/32X.  I may or may not add
        other systems someday.  It depends on whether or not I feel like it.

When will you release the next version of AGES/Can I be a beta tester?
        AGES is a non-commercial, ongoing project.  It really doesn't make
        sense to call any versions of it "beta."  Anyway, I don't like giving
        out private builds.  Wait for the next public release.  I don't
        anticipate there being more than a 2 months or so in-between releases.
        If you are still eager to help out, you can do compatiblity testing
        on each release and send your results to me by email.

What is the difference between ISO, RAW, and BIN?
        AS AGES SEES IT, there are only 2 types of CD image.  The first type
        contains only the 2048 data bytes of a CD data sector.  AGES
        considers this type to be .ISO.  The second type contains all 2352
        bytes of a CD data sector including sync, mode, and CRC junk.  AGES
        considers this type to be either .RAW or .BIN.  If your image file
        has the incorrect extension, you will get an error.  Please note that
        all of these filetypes are incomplete representations of a CD if they
        are not accompanied by a CUE file.

What is a CUE file?
        CUE files are pretty standard among CD burner software.  It tells the
        software what files are to be burned and how to format them on the
        CD.  AGES requires a CUE file when using a CD image in order to
        produce accurate TOC information.  Without accurate TOC information,
        most Sega CD games will not work.

How do I make a CUE file?
        Many places all over the web have tutorials on this.  Use a search
        engine to find them.  Do not go on messageboards and ask; it is very
        annoying to most people.

I get a message stating something like "Internal battery RAM not
formatted," what should I do?
        Do one of two things.  Option 1 is to go into your BRM directory and
        delete the BRM file associated with Sega CD BIOS(es).  Option 2 is to
        reset the emulated Sega CD and press button-A (instead of start)
        during the boot screen.  This will take you to the CD-player screen.
        Select "option" (USA v1.10) or "memory" (USA v2.00) to get to the
        format screen.  Then format the RAM.

Every time I want to save something with AGES, I can only use internal
battery RAM; is there a way to use RAM cartridges?
        Yes, enable it in the Machine->Sega CD menu.  Also choose a size
        for the RAM cartridges.

Can I use multiple RAM cartridges simultaneously?
        Each Sega CD game (whether on CD or just as an image) has its
        own unique RAM cartridge file in your BRM directory.  A single game
        can not have multiple RAM cartridges associated with it
        simultaneously.

Is there a dump of the RAM cartridge/where can I find it?
        AGES will create and format these automatically.  If you are looking
        for some kind of Saved-State/Battery-Ram/RAM-cartridge archive
        website, I have no idea where to find one.  I suggest a search engine.

How do I use MP3s in AGES to get sound?
        You can't yet.  AGES just doesn't play MP3s currently.

I keep getting error messages about GoodGen.DLL and Good32X.DLL, how do I fix
it?
        Make sure they are actually present on your machine.  Make sure you
        have the newest versions of them.  Otherwise, they may simply just
        not work right on your version of windows.  The best you can do if
        this is the case, is to go into the GUI menu and turn off those
        errors messages until I can fix the problem.

How do I use Sega Menacer / Konami Justifier lightgun emulation?
        Straight out of the manual:

        AGES can emulate the Sega Menacer lightgun, or Konami Justifier
        lightgun.  Note that all games I know of are designed to use a control
        pad in port 1 and the lightgun in port 2.  The ablity to select
        Menacer and Justifier on port 1 exists only for completeness.  If you
        want to use your PC's mouse to control the lightgun, be sure to
        actually configure the appropriate player's input device to "mouse"
        (instead of "keyboard" or "joystick").  Note that these lightguns are
        not perfectly useable due to some nasty timing issues.  This will be
        fixed soon.  Also, the second Konami Justifier gun (pink) is not yet
        supported.
