In a market increasingly dominated by the NES, a new giant was looking to break through: Sega. For this, this company launched a new console (its second console) with which to conquer the homes of gamers: the Sega Master System . This 8-bit console was the predecessor of the well-known Mega Drive, and although it did not become very popular in Europe, it did bring with it mythical games that, today, many of the veterans of this console miss . Fortunately, thanks to emulation, we can play these games again.
Finding a Master System console today is very difficult. The consoles that are still on the market are highly valued by collectors, not to mention games. Therefore, if in its day we had the console in our possession and we want to be able to have good times with it again, let’s see what are the best Sega Master System emulators that we can use in Windows. The games on this console can be found on a large number of retro websites. And these roms usually have a .sms extension.
MasterGear, the most complete emulator of the Master System
This is one of the most complete specific emulators for Sega consoles that we can find. MasterGear is specialized in emulating both the company’s first console, SG-1000, and the Master System. This emulator shares a large amount of code with fMSX, and has been in operation since 1996, when it had a version that ran on MS-DOS. Its latest version, from 2017, is available for Windows and Android.
A very simple emulator to start and use that, although it does not have a large number of options and configurations, it will allow us to fully enjoy the emulation of this veteran 8-bit console, configure some graphic parameters and make use of of the NetPlay.
We can download MasterGear from this page .
SMS Plus, Master System and Game Gear on your PC
SMS Plus is another open source emulator designed to allow us to play 8-bit games from the Sega console on our PC. This emulator is characterized, above all, because it has been migrated to a large number of different platforms, being able to run on any PC, on mobile devices and even on consoles.
The truth is that it is a very simple emulator, without complicated options and features, focused simply on playing. It is compatible with the entire catalog of games available for this console and has great precision when playing games.
We can download SMS Plus from here .
BizHawk, an emulator designed especially for speedrunners
Second, we are going to talk about BizHawk. This is no longer a specialized emulator, but rather a complete multi-platform emulator that will allow us to play retro games on a large number of classic consoles. Among them, of course, all of Sega.
This emulator focuses on offering excellent core precision, and a large number of tools to facilitate emulation. Among its most interesting features we can highlight a series of tools designed to help us in speedruns, if we are of this type of player. It also has save spaces, speed control, screenshots and video recording and excellent precision of the controls.
We can download BizHawk for free from this website .
FB Alpha, the king of the arcade
FB Alpha is a complete arcade emulator, similar to MAME, designed to allow us to load a large number of retro platforms, among them, the Sega Master System. This emulator is more of an “arcade center” to which we can add all kinds of retro roms, both individually (as happens with Master System roms) and through one of the many romsets that circulate on the net. Unlike MAME, this retro emulator is much simpler and more intuitive to use, and its rom packs are usually much more careful and organized to avoid games that do not work or are repeated.
We can download FB Alpha from its main page .
Higan, the SNES emulator that can do it all
Higan was originally born as an SNES emulator, although over time the project evolved into one of the most complete retro emulator kits that we can find. This emulator has very mature cores, especially focused on obtaining the best possible performance from games at the same time as high fidelity. It has a very clear and easy-to-use interface, as well as offering us a series of options to adjust the operation of the program to our needs.
We can download Higan from their website .
RetroArch, the all-in-one with retro emulation
Of course, how could it be less, we could not forget about RetroArch either. This is the most complete retro emulator kit that we can find on the net, and it is capable of running on practically any platform and playing games from any console, even several relatively modern ones. All development, of course, is OpenSource.
Among its long list of cores, or cores, we will find several options that will allow us to load games from the Master System, like the Mega Drive, the Game Gear or the SG-1000. RetroArch also has a large number of options, functions and features that allow us to adjust the emulation experience to our liking. A somewhat complicated emulator for those who just want to play, but one of the most complete and with the best support that we can find.
We can download RetroArch from their website .