An emulator is a special program that makes your computer think like a video game console. To play a game, double click your emulator of choice and choose a ROM file. A ROM file is the actual video game downloaded from the cartridge or CD.
Once you have chosen a ROM file and emulator, the only other thing left is to configure your controls. You can use a keyboard or joystick depending on which you prefer (or what you actually own).
A good emulator for the Sega Genesis is Gens, which can emulate a Sega Gensis/Megadrive, Sega CD/Mega CD and Sega 32X. It's preferred that you download Gens from the official Gens website but we provid it in the related section below.
Download the Gens zip file to your desktop and use a program like UltimateZip to extract the files. Go into the extracted Gens folder and double click the Gens program to launch it.
Navigate to the "Option" menu and click "Joypads...", this will allow for you to configure your game controller or keyboard. Click "Redefine Keys" under player 1 to bring up a dialog box that allows you to set each individual button.
Click any of the button functions to set the corresponding keyboard or gamepad button. If you click "Up" you might want to assign that key to the up arrow on your keyboard or the up button on your game pad. You are going to have to set all the keys before playing a game. When you are finished, click "OK" to return to the main window.
Next, go to the "File" menu and click "Open" and navigate through your folders until you locate the ROM file (the file that represents the actual game). Once you select a ROM file and clicked the "Open" button your ready to play.
Download: Gens Windows 32-bit Version 2.14
