Need Recommendations for Sega Emulators (No Retroarch)

[KingPizza]

I'm at the tail end of my quest to create an emulation box that doesn't use Retroarch as much as possible. Why not use Retroarch? Long story, not important, don't worry about it. 

I'm having difficulty finding good emulators for pretty much every Sega console. All the best ones are Libretro cores, and I haven't been doing this long enough to know if there's a more simple frontend I can use for Libretro instead of Retroarch, so if you have a recommendation, I would appreciate it. Some of my needs are a little specific so I'll go in to details now:

-My Sega CD ROMs are in CHD format. I simply cannot find a standalone Windows emulator that will run them. I've tried the Windows fork of Genesis Plus GX to no success, and Kega Fusion doesn't seem to like CHD either. PicoDrive is another Libretro-only emulator.

-My Sega Saturn ROMs are also in CHD format. I've tried Madnafen, SSF, and Kronos, but none of them seem to like CHD. If you've been able to get CHD to work in any of these emulators, let me know.

-My Master System, Game Gear, and Genesis ROMs are in normal formats, but one of the emulators I choose to use for the CD or Saturn would ideally run these ROMs as well.

If Retroarch is truly my only option here, then so be it, I'll use it. But I can't imagine I'm the only one who has the above issues. Please let me know if you have ANY ideas. I'll try anything.

 

[neil9000]

If you dont want to use Retroarch then your disc based systems are in the wrong format, you need to convert or redownload sets that are actually compatible with the emulators you are using. You are right though, all the best sega emulators are in Retroarch, and they also support CHD, so........

[KingPizza]

I'm still fairly new to all this so I didn't realize CHD files were made for specific kinds of emulator cores. Now that I know that I'll just go ahead and redownload my CD and Saturn games in cue/bin, that should solve the issue. Thanks.

[Gosunkugi]

With Saturn you 'll probably have to sacrifice performance if you want to use chd, the cores that use the format are choppy at best. The best emulator I've found out of all of them is the standalone Mednafen (not the Retroarch core), it doesn't read chd, so yeah, you'd have to look for games in bin and cue, or iso. They'll be bigger, and you'd have to take the time to download them again, obviously, but Mednafen I think is worth it, as it runs at a great framerate with no crackling sound. Oh, and it's still being updated, so chances are chd is coming eventually.

My advice would be get Mednafen standalone, get the handful of games you like to play in bin and cue, and wait it out.

Edited August 15, 2021 by Gosunkugi