Collection:Computer and video game console emulators
For free emulator games, see Collection:Game ROM images.
The following is a list of notable computer hardware/OS virtualization software focusing on game compatibility (for example DOSBox that emulates the MS-DOS operating system, and Fellow, and UAE, that emulates the Commodore Amiga PC computer), as well as video game consoles including arcade cabinets, home video game consoles, and handheld game consoles. All of these types of emulators can be installed from the video game console emulator front-end Retroarch.
These emulators are tools with many capabilities and differing purposes. We hope that the community will use these tools to expand the reach of free software in video games and encourage free game development. All emulators listed have been verified as free software and have approved entries in the Free Software Directory.
Emulators are important, so nonfree games can be cloned to free games for the sake of video game preservation.
Contents
- 1 Home video game console status
- 2 Emulators
- 3 Frontends
- 4 Notes
- 5 External links
Home video game console status
Only consoles with emulators that can play fresh released are listed, for example, PS4 emulators are not listed since they cannot old 3D games.
Free firmware replacement | Generation | Console | Status | Regional lockout |
---|---|---|---|---|
None | 8th | Nintendo Switch | Produced | No |
None | 8th | Nintendo 3DS | 2020-09-16 | No |
None | 8th | Sony PlayStation Vita | Discontinued 2019-03-01 (ref) | No |
None | 8th | Nintendo Wii U | Discontinued 2017-01-31 (ref) | No |
None | 7th | Sony PlayStation 3 | Discontinued 2017-05-29 (Japan) | No |
None | 7th | Sony PlayStation Portable | Discontinued 2014-12 | No |
None | 7th | Nintendo DS | Discontinued 2014 | No |
None | 7th | Nintendo Wii | Discontinued 2013-10-24 (EU) | Yes |
None | 6th | Sony PlayStation 2 | Discontinued 2013-01-04 (world wide) | Yes |
None | 6th | Microsoft Xbox | Discontinued 2009 (NA) | Yes |
None | 6th | Nintendo GameCube | Discontinued 2007 (world wide) | Yes |
OpenBIOS (see) | 5th | Sony PlayStation | Discontinued 2006 (world wide) | Yes |
Emulators
Emulators
3DO
Home consoles
Amstrad
Home computers
Arcade
Atari
Home consoles
- Atari Jaguar
Handhelds
- Atari Lynx
Personal computers
- Atari Falcon
- Atari ST/STE/TT/Falcon
Bandai
Handhelds
- WonderSwan
Coleco
Home consoles
- ColecoVision
Commodore
Home computers
- Commodore 64
- Commodore 128
- Commodore Plus/4
- Commodore VIC-20
Personal computers
- Amiga
- Commodore CBM-II
- Commodore PET
- PCBox
Microsoft
Home consoles
Personal computers
- MS-DOS
NEC
Home consoles
- PC-FX
- SuperGrafx
- TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine)
- TurboGrafx-CD
Nintendo
Home consoles
Handhelds
- Mednafen
- mGBA
- VisualBoyAdvance (Also supports Game Boy and Game Boy Color)
Also backward compatible with Nintendo DS.
Head-mounted display
- Nintendo Virtual Boy
Hybrid
Android:
Sega
Home consoles
Handhelds
SNK
Handhelds
- Neo Geo Pocket / Color
Home consoles
Sony
Home consoles
- AdriPSX
- bleem!
- bleemcast!
- Connectix Virtual Game Station
- DuckStation
- ePSXe
- Mednafen
- PCSX-Redux
- OpenBIOS (reverse engineering) - https://github.com/grumpycoders/pcsx-redux/tree/main/src/mips/openbios
- OpenBIOS game compatibility list
- OpenBIOS compatibility for PlayStation emulators #1027
- Useful for all PlayStation 1 emulators, but cannot be used for Beetle PSX HW, Beetle PSX, PCSX ReARMed, SwanStation (except for Windows) as described in the issue
- Debian package request - https://github.com/grumpycoders/pcsx-redux/issues/1025
- OpenBIOS (reverse engineering) - https://github.com/grumpycoders/pcsx-redux/tree/main/src/mips/openbios
Handhelds
- PPSSPP
- No BIOS file needed, the BIOS is simulated - https://www.ppsspp.org/faq.html
Uzebox
- MAME
- Uzem
Multi-system emulators
Multi-system emulators are capable of emulating the functionality of multiple systems.
- FinalBurn Neo
- FinalBurn Alpha
- higan
- MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator)
- MESS (Multi Emulator Super System), formerly a stand-alone application and now part of MAME
- Mednafen
- OpenEmu
- RALibRetro
Frontends
Notes
Tool-assisted speedrun
Emulators that currently feature the tools necessary to create tool-assisted speedrun (TAS) include:
- Arcade: MAME (MAMEUI's option to record an uncompressed AVI slows down a game)
- NES: FCEUX (Windows-only)
- Genesis: Gens
- Game Boy Advance: VisualBoyAdvance
- Nintendo 64: Mupen64
- GameCube and Wii: Dolphin
- Nintendo DS: DeSmuM
- Sega Saturn: Yabause
- PlayStation: PSXjin
External links
- https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Software/FSDG_distributions/DistroExecutionEnvironments#Other_execution_environment
- https://wiki.parabola.nu/Emulator_licensing_issues
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RetroArch#Supported_systems
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Free_video_game_console_emulators
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_console_emulators
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