1.0.5 NOW AVAILABLE!

What is Project Lunar?

Project Lunar is a fully fledged modification tool for the SEGA Mega Drive / GENESIS Mini. It allows users to add games, mods and ports whilst also including a large array of extra features and quality of life improvements. It consists of an on console payload and bespoke desktop application for the PC and is extremely easy to use.

Project Lunar feature list

Add your own selection of SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis ROMS to your console with use on the stock UI

Manage your games, mods and configs via purpose built desktop PC application

Full NAND backups before any customisation

RetroArch bundled with Genesis GX Plus & PicoDrive. (MS,GG,MD,32X, MEGA CD support) (Also capable of playing other consoles by adding additional RetroArch cores)

Performance tweaks and boosts (fix lag issues) (1.0ghz > 1.344ghz, ZRAM compression, DRAM SWAP)

NAND (console only) and USB support

OTG support

exFat, NTFS, FAT32 filesystem support

Extended gamepad compatibility

USB2 and USB3 device support

Customisable boot menu with built-in additional option menu & network manager.

Ability to autoboot to selected boot items. (i.e. boot directly to stock UI)

Additional third-party controller support

Automatic Error recovery system (automatically reload to bootmenu if Stock E error occurs)

Launch boot menu or RetroArch from the Stock UI

EmulationStation support (optional mod package, USB only)

‘Fix’ stock scanlines by toggling smoothing off within stock emulator

Bundled Wi-Fi support (Realtek 8188eu + 8187)

RA MD mini cores downloadable via RA using network adapter

RA scraper and EmulationStation scrapers work using network adapter

SSH/SFTP via RDNIS support

Boot menu, splashscreen and music are all customisable

Additional mod package support

Project Lunar Desktop App features

Easy to use interface to allow installation/removal of PL on console, and console management.

Bulk addition of ROMS

Zipped ROM support (.zip)

New MegaDrive/Genesis games integration is totally seamless in stock UI, with a scraping function providing description, cover art, spine, release year, developer, players, icons, etc. for (almost) every game.

Automatic IPS patching within desktop app

ScreenScraper, TheGameDB scraper support. (Scrape all the details, cover art, and metadata for your games online when adding them)

Automatic spine art generator. If spine art doesn’t exist, PL will generate it for you

Mod management. List, add and remove consoles mod via the mod management tool

Customise stock UI/Emulator features

Interactive assistant to assist users with the install of Project Lunar

Easy sync to either NAND or USB

Recovery mode (for console repair situations)

Automatic update checks. Every time game manager is opened, it will check for console updates online.

Project Lunar 1.0 caveats

Bluetooth support is 80% done, however we want to improve support with broadcom bluetooth devices to extend compatibility. Due to this we have delayed releasing it until 1.1

Xinput and SONY HID drivers are bugged. This means xbox based input devices are not properly working and PS4 controllers (when connected with USB) produce lag in the default emulator. This is something that is being worked on and an update will be pushed out when it’s available.

Individual game selection for sync within desktop is not supported within 1.0. It will be added ASAP

Features to come in 1.1 (or) future rolling update



Folder support. Technically we can implement folders as of 1.0, however we want to do it right and integrate it as seamless as possible.

Launch different console games from stock UI

Custom command “executors” per game. Again, executors are available within 1.0 meaning that you can run any emulator, app or command from the stock UI. This can be done via scripts on the command line however desktop integration will be available in 1.1

Bluetooth support

Desktop app sync via Wi-Fi/Ethernet. This is also available as of 1.0 but we want to improve it. It is also capable of handling multiple consoles on the same network.

Requirements to use Project Lunar

A micro USB cable capable of data transfer (Not cable that shipped with the system)

Windows 7/10

MacOS/Linux *

How to use Project Lunar / Documentation

Below is a list of detailed documentation on each subject. (Click to open in a new tab)

Video How-To Tutorials

Below is a collection of “how-to” videos that should help you install/use Project Lunar

(English) Restalgia

(English) ETAPRIME

(English) JonnyTro

(Spanish) TuberViejuner

(Spanish) LaNaveRetro

(French) RetroJeux

(Japanese) もしも物産

Latest Version Feature List

1.0.5 Project Lunar feature list

Overhauled Stock Savestates (fixed some flaws with the stock M2 code in terms of save states. This is important as it allows for proper folder integration moving forward. We have also laid the foundation work so we can manipulate the SRAMs in the future)

Added Desktop UI executor support. This allows you to run any console emulator from the stock UI. When adding a game, you can select what RA core you wish to use to run it. We also extended the scraper support to allow for all consoles. This means you can now add problematic Mega Drive games to run via RA like Hyperstone Heist or add 32x and Mega CD iso games to the stock UI.

If scraped box art is horizontal (i.e. SNES EU/US box art) rotate it automatically so it fits better on the stock UI

Added .7z compressed rom support. (You can add .7z ROMs)

Added compress ROM addition support. When adding a ROM not intended for the stock emulator, you can chose to have it uploaded compressed.

Added Stock Emulator “Pixel Perfect Mode” option. This will dynamically resize the game screen depending on what the emulator wants it to be instead of force stretching it. (Golden Axe is a good example)

Added “Force theme” option. You can now force a specific region background theme for the stock UI whilst retaining your language. I.e. Japanese theme but with English text. (Please note if you force US from a EU console you will get missing boxart as the EU console doesn’t come with all the artwork for some reason)

Added save state repair. If you have had an issue with save states disappearing into random games etc, you can now run the save state repair by clicking: Tools > Advanced > Fix misplaced save-states (This will also clean up your NAND of any left over save states where the ROM doesn’t exist any more.

Cleaned up uninstall where a file would be left over on uninstall.

Overhauled the main menu save handling (008) so you no longer need to reset your menu settings (i.e. language) when installing/uninstalling.

Added .SMD support

Fixed and re-added The Games DB scraper so you now how two options

Added performance improvements for ScreenScraper. (Also add some reliability fixes)

Added workaround fix to allow install if NAND flag incorrectly set.

Numerous bug fixes

Where to Download

Legal Notice – Please note, by downloading and using this software, you are doing so at your own risk. Neither ModMyClassic, nor it’s affiliates will not be held responsible for any damages to your property when using this software.

(Please note, we updated the installer to be a multi 32/64bit installer and to resolve some other issues. Because of this, the installer won’t fully remove the old PL desktop app from your desktop. You can leave it as is but if you want to and it won’t cause issues, or you can uninstall the desktop app via control panel and install the latest version. This won’t be an issue moving forward. If you chose to uninstall then install, we always recommend to install on top of previous install! Otherwise you will have to copy over your lunar_data to the new install directory.)

(Please also note, if your anti virus flags the installer as a virus, this is a false positive! We are working to work out a way to solve this but some anti virus providers are flagging it as a virus because of the bundled allwinner FEL driver.)

(New! In the interim, Defkorns has made his own Project Lunar games export and import tool to backup your PL config and games and import them. You can find it here)

Downloads – Release page

Mega Drive Mini RetroArch cores – Download here

Project Lunar IPS M2Engage patches – Download here

Credits

(In alphabetical order)

CompCom – Developer

– Developer Cyanic – Developer

– Developer Defkorns – Developer & Chief UAT Tester

– Developer & Chief UAT Tester Enderling – Graphics & UI Design

– Graphics & UI Design Fred_PJ – Graphics & ES Sound Artist

– Graphics & ES Sound Artist Swingflip – Developer

– Developer TulioAdriano – Developer

– Developer Wraith – Developer

– Developer Z-10 – Boot Menu Sound Artist

– Boot Menu Sound Artist ScreenScraper – Website

– Website TheGameDB – Website

– Website Team Shinkansen – FEL lib

Special thanks to HoneyLab, XorLoser and the Project Lunar testers: DefKorns, Darkdev1, Advokaten, Milenko, AyanamiRei0, defenceplox, FaithLes, Fred_PJ, Gorez, harland_mct, Hidalgator, Iain_YX, Kaliezel, MeteK, Restalgia, Ropen, shintoz, spannernick, UNBREAKABLE, Lodmot

Troubleshooting

Q. I am stuck waiting for reboot! What gives!?A. This is usually due to reconfiguration or conflict with your desktop OS. Usually installing the bundled driver and trying a different USB cable fixes it, however if not. You can try the following: Press Win+R and type ncpa.cpl Check if you have a network adapter that says “Remote RNDIS”. If you don’t, it’s a driver problem. Press F4 on the main window, open the driver folder and install it. If you have a “Remote RNDIS” network adapter and you have a VPN, disable it. If that’s not the case, temporarily disconnect your internet (unplug Ethernet or disconnect from WiFi). If that solves the problem, your home network is mis-configured and you should get that fixed. Q. I keep getting install errors/cannot back up console A. Try a different USB cable and/or USB port, we have had reports in the past of weird behavior which turned out to be down to bad USB cables. Also try with nothing connected to the console and only the USB cable. Q. The install was successful but after install, my PC won’t detect my console!? A. This is likely because you are trying to connect your console via FEL mode (holding RESET on boot). You only need to boot into FEL for the initial install or for recovery. For normal operation, you just need to connect your console to the pc and turn it on normally without holding RESET. Q. I pressed SYNC on the desktop app and now when I select PL from the boot menu I get a black screen! (Music will sometimes still play) A. This is usually because of a bad sync. Before you disconnect your console from the PC after syncing make sure to turn the console off properly. Usually re-syncing the console via the desktop app will resolve the issue. If issue persists remove the last added games and try syncing again. Q. I don’t know what I have done, every time I try to load stock UI I get a black screen! A. This is likely due to a bug or some scenario we haven’t programmed for.Please note that your console is safe. We effectively rebuild and patch the stock UI files dynamically on the fly and load them on top of your stock files. When the black screen appears its because of an issue with the newly generated files. (Not your stock files!) If you are stuck with a black screen and you tried troubleshooting as much as possible. Load and produce the black screen, connect to the console via SFTP/SCP and grab the project_lunar.log file from /tmp and send it over for further analysis. Q. When I try to run <insert name here> Mega Drive rom from the stock UI, I get an “E<X> Please shutdown error”

A. This is due to the fact the ROM is not supported by the stock emulator. Please refer to the compatibility list. Q. I plugged in my USB and it won’t work!? (Sometimes the console may just freeze when using USB) A. You need to make sure that your USB is formatted NON MBR. Also you need to make sure you have an active partition on the usb otherwise you will get weird issues. To set an active partition on your USB if you are having issues: Press WIN+R to open RUN box, type diskpart

Type list disk (diskpart will list all the disks you have installed)

(diskpart will list all the disks you have installed) Type select disk X with X being the right number.

with X being the right number. Type list partition

Type select partition X with X being the right number.

with X being the right number. Type active

Type exit Q. I synced with Project Lunar and everytime the stock UI opens (even after playing a game) I get the language select menu A. This is because you have a badly formatted main menu save. We have to rewrite a chunk of the Stock UI code to fix some bugs with the stock code which only allows X amount of games (differs between region console) Because of this fix to the stock code, the old main menu save is NOT compatible with the patched stock UI. On Uninstall and install we remove that save which forces the stock UI to recreate the main menu save file in the new format. Sometime though (especially when using USB) this might go wonky. If so, follow the following instructions. (If you use USB storage make sure the USB is plugged in port 1 or 2 in the console directly) Make sure you have the latest desktop app version SYNC with Project Lunar Open up puTTY (download if need) and SSH to console. Details in FAQ copy and paste each line one by one with the console plugged in and on and run them (make sure USB is connected) project_lunar toggle_usb_mounts 0 rm -f /rootfs_data/data_008_0000.bin rm -f /rootfs_data/meta_008_0000.bin rm -f /media/mega_drive_saves/data_008_0000.bin rm -f /media/mega_drive_saves/meta_008_0000.bin sync && restart

Q. Help I think I have bricked my console! A. This is technically not possible, so don’t panic! One of our main concerns during development was safety. Because of this, we ensure that a full NAND partition backup is carried out before any modifications take place. On top of this we included a recovery/staging image which will boot your console even if your NAND partitions are completely empty and also a fail safe recovery system, which will directly flash raw backup images to your NAND partitions. (For extreme emergencies only!) Because we don’t adjust any of the partition table on the NAND or OOB data and make minimal adjustments to the rootfs, the mod is as safe as we could make it whilst giving as much flexibility and functionality as possible. Because we only write to areas of the NAND that are partitioned, the ultimate fail safe will allow you to flash the raw partition images back to the NAND partitions. This being said, the stock UI is very complicated so if there is a single error due to a bug you might get issues. Please contact us on the #sega-support channel here and one of the team or devs will try and help you resolve your issue.

FAQ