blastem(6)

💖 blastem(6) — the fast and accurate Genesis emulator 💖

okay bestie, sit down, because we're about to talk about blastem, and she is that girl. this is the manual page for the blastem command in section 6, and by the end of this you're gonna be running Sega games like it's nothing. no cap. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

blastem — a highly precise multi-system emulator that emulates the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Master System and Game Gear. three consoles, one icon. she contains multitudes. 👑

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

blastem [OPTION] ROMFILE [WIDTH] [HEIGHT]

like yes, that's the whole vibe. options, then your ROM, then optionally a width and a height if you're feeling fancy. 💅

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🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

so here's how you actually use her, in order of "just wanna click stuff" to "I read the docs, obviously":

1. To run the BlastEm GUI:

$ blastem

just blastem, nothing else. the graphical interface opens up and you get to be a normal person about it. iconic behaviour. ✨

2. To run the game from the command line (extract the tarball/zip to a directory previously):

$ blastem ROMFILE

🫶 psst — that parenthetical is doing real work. extract the tarball/zip into a directory first, then point blastem at your ROMFILE. don't skip that step, she will not find your game, and you will be sad.

3. To list all command line options:

$ blastem -h

the classic. -h for help, and suddenly you know everything. main character energy fr fr. 💜

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🎀 KEYBOARD 🎀

okay so this is the part everyone actually needs, because default keyboard bindings are a mystery until someone tells you. here's the tea, console by console. 🍓

💖 Control Genesis/Mega Drive:

• UP — up arrow
• DOWN — down arrow
• LEFT — left arrow
• RIGHT — right arrow
• Button A — press letter A
• Button B — press letter S
• Button C — press letter D
• Button X — press letter Q
• Button Y — press letter W
• Button Z — press letter E
• SCREENSHOT — press letter P
• RESET — press TAB
• START — press ENTER

🌈 Control Game Gear/Master System:

• UP — up arrow
• DOWN — down arrow
• LEFT — left arrow
• RIGHT — right arrow
• Button A(1) — press letter S
• Button B(2) — press letter D
• PAUSE/SELECT — press letter Z
• SCREENSHOT — press letter P
• RESET — press TAB
• START(1) — press letter S

💀 yes bestie, Button A(1) and START(1) both live on the letter S for Game Gear/Master System. that's not a typo, that's just how it is. write it on a sticky note, thank me later.

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

BlastEm is developed by Michael Pavone (<https://www.retrodev.com/blastem>). go say hi, she's his baby and she's thriving. 🫶

This manual page was written by Carlos Donizete Froes [a.k.a coringao], for the Debian project (but may be used by others). giving credit where credit is due, always. 🌟

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and that's the whole page, bestie. BlastEm, January 2019, blastem(6) — that's the version-and-date energy we're closing on, mwah. now go play some Genesis. 💅💖✨