Sega Smash Pack ROM Loader
 |
 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. (March 2014) |
The Sega Smash Pack ROM Loader is a front-end loader program released by the warez group Echelon, allowing a user to load their own ROMs into the Sega Genesis emulator built into Sega's Sega Smash Pack Volume 1 game for the Dreamcast. Provided in the release are the emulation software, tools, and instructions on burning a CD with custom ROMs.
The legality of such a loader is dubious, even if one owns the original title. As it runs in full speed with very few issues (the most prominent being its poor sound), the emulator, being dubbed "Segagen" to avoid legal issues, was originally embraced in the Dreamcast homebrew community. However, after much controversy, most Dreamcast web sites soon stopped hosting the ROM loader.
Due to the loader's small text and poor controls, Obsidian later released their own version of the Sega Smash Pack ROM Loader, called "Lemec." It featured larger, easier-to-read text, quick scrolling through files, additional VMU functionality, and added stability. Obsidian's release did not include the Smash Pack emulator software for legal reasons. As such, the user requires the original Echelon release in order to build a disk using the Lemec loader.