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# Video game platform emulators

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From ArchWiki

An emulator is a program which serves to replicate the functions of another platform or system so as to allow applications and games to be run in environments they were not programmed for.

Note: For possibly more up to date selection of emulators, try checking the AUR 'emulator' keyword.
Warning: Owning a high-level emulator is legal, but distribution of any type of copyrighted ROMs is illegal. Consequently, Arch Linux does not distribute this copyrighted content, including game ROMs and ripped console BIOSs. You are fully responsible for whatever usage of the emulators obtained from the official repositories or the Arch User Repository you make, as well as any legal repercussion that result. Arch Linux bears no responsibility at all.

## Multi-system

- ares — Multi-system emulator by Near with experimental Nintendo 64 and PlayStation support.

  https://ares-emu.net/ || ares-emuAUR

- BizHawk — A multi-system emulator on .NET. Features rerecording and tools for TASing. (Mono runtime)

  https://tasvideos.org/BizHawk || bizhawk-binAUR

- Fightcade — The best way to play your favorite retro games with or against any other player in the world.

  https://www.fightcade.com/ || fightcade2AUR

- FinalBurn Neo — Emulator for Arcade Games & Select Consoles. Based on FinalBurn and MAME.

  https://neo-source.com/ || fbneo-gitAUR

- higan — Multisystem emulator focusing on accuracy, supporting SNES, NES, GB, GBC, GBA.

  https://higan-emu.com/ || higan-gitAUR

- GNOME Games — GNOME application to browse your local video games library and to easily pick and play a game from it. It is also a frontend to libretro. Part of gnome-extra.

  https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Games || gnome-games

- MAME — Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator.

  https://www.mamedev.org/ || mame

- mednafen — Command-line driven multisystem emulator.

  https://mednafen.github.io/ || mednafen, graphical front-end mednaffeAUR.

- RetroArch — Frontend to libretro (emulation library, using modified versions of existing emulators as plugins).

  https://www.libretro.com/ || retroarch

## Nintendo

- bsnes — Super Nintendo emulator focusing on performance, features, and ease of use.

  https://github.com/bsnes-emu/bsnes || bsnes-qt5AUR HD Fork: bsnes-hdAUR

- Cemu — Wii U emulator.

  https://cemu.info/ || cemuAUR

- DeSmuME — Nintendo DS emulator.

  https://desmume.org/ || desmume

- Dolphin — Very capable GameCube and Wii emulator.

  https://dolphin-emu.org/ || dolphin-emu

- FCEUX — NTSC and PAL 8 bit Nintendo/Famicom emulator that is an evolution of the original FCE Ultra emulator. It is accurate, compatible and actively maintained.

  https://fceux.com/ || fceux

- GBCC — A Game Boy Color emulator written in C

  https://github.com/philj56/GBCC || gbcc-gitAUR

- GBE+ — DMG/GBC/GBA emulator and experimental NDS emulator.

  https://github.com/shonumi/gbe-plus || gbe-plus-gitAUR

- GearBoy — GameBoy and GameBoy Color emulator.

  https://github.com/drhelius/Gearboy || gearboyAUR

- gopher64 — Nintendo 64 emulator written in Rust and C.

  https://github.com/gopher64/gopher64 || gopher64AUR

- melonDS — Nintendo DS emulator.

  https://melonds.kuribo64.net/ || melondsAUR

- Mesen — Multi-system emulator (NES, SNES, Game Boy and PC Engine)

  https://github.com/SourMesen/Mesen2 || mesen2-gitAUR

- mGBA — A Nintendo Gameboy Advance Emulator focusing on both speed and accuracy.

  https://mgba.io/ || SDL frontend: mgba-sdl, QT5 frontend: mgba-qt

- Mupen64Plus — Highly compatible Nintendo 64 emulator with plugin system.

  https://www.mupen64plus.org/ || mupen64plus or a graphical front-end, such as rmg-gitAUR, simple64AUR, parallel-launcherAUR, m64pyAUR or cutemupenAUR.

- NanoBoy Advance — Accuracy-focused Game Boy Advance emulator.

  https://github.com/nba-emu/NanoBoyAdvance || nanoboyadvance-gitAUR

- Nestopia — Very accurate NES emulator.

  http://0ldsk00l.ca/nestopia/ || nestopiaAUR

- NooDS — A (hopefully!) speedy NDS emulator.

  https://github.com/Hydr8gon/NooDS/ || noods-gitAUR

- puNES — Qt-based Nintendo Entertaiment System emulator and NSF/NSFe Music Player

  https://github.com/punesemu/puNES || punesAUR (Note: Fails to run on Wayland as of 0.109. Use punes-gitAUR for working version.)

- SameBoy — An accuracy-focused Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulator

  https://github.com/LIJI32/SameBoy || sameboyAUR

- SkyEmu — Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advanced Emulator.

  https://skyemu.app/ || skyemu-gitAUR

- Snes9x — Portable, freeware Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) emulator.

  https://www.snes9x.com/ || snes9x, GTK frontend snes9x-gtk

- Visual Boy Advance — Game Boy emulator with Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, and Super Game Boy support.

  https://vba-m.com/ || GTK frontend vbam-wxAUR, SDL frontend vbam-sdlAUR

- ZSNES — Highly compatible Super Nintendo emulator.

  https://www.zsnes.com/ || zsnes

## Sony

- DuckStation — DuckStation is an simulator/emulator of the Sony PlayStation(TM) console, focusing on playability, speed, and long-term maintainability.

  https://github.com/stenzek/duckstation || duckstationAUR

- ePSXe — Emulator for the PlayStation video game console for x86-based PC hardware.

  https://www.epsxe.com/ || epsxeAUR

- PCSX2 — PlayStation 2 emulator.

  https://pcsx2.net/ || pcsx2AUR

- PCSXR — PlayStation emulator; Debian fork of the abandoned original PCSX.

  https://archive.codeplex.com/?p=pcsxr || pcsxrAUR

- PPSSPP — PlayStation Portable emulator.

  https://ppsspp.org/ || ppsspp

- RPCS3 — Experimental open-source Sony PlayStation 3 emulator and debugger.

  https://rpcs3.net/ || rpcs3AUR

- ShadPS4 — PlayStation 4 emulator.

  https://shadps4.net/ || shadps4AUR

- Vita3K — Experimental PlayStation Vita emulator.

  https://vita3k.org/ || vita3k-binAUR

## Sega

- BlastEm — Genesis and Sega CD Emulator focused on accuracy.

  https://www.retrodev.com/blastem/ || blastemAUR

- FlyCast — Sega Dreamcast Emulator

  https://github.com/flyinghead/flycast || flycast-gitAUR

- Kega Fusion — An emulator of classic Sega consoles like Genesis/Mega Drive, Master System, Sega CD. Game Gear, 32X.

  https://www.carpeludum.com/kega-fusion/ || kega-fusionAUR

- Kronos — Hardware-accelerated Sega Saturn emulator forked from uoYabause.

  https://fcare.github.io || kronosAUR

- Yabause — A Sega Saturn emulator.

  https://yabause.org/ || yabause-qt

## Other consoles

- Stella — Atari 2600 VCS emulator.

  https://stella-emu.github.io/ || stella

- Supermodel — A Sega Model 3 Arcade Emulator

  https://www.supermodel3.com/ || supermodel-gitAUR

- Virtual Jaguar — A portable Atari Jaguar emulator

  https://icculus.org/virtualjaguar/ || virtualjaguar-gitAUR

- xemu — An original Xbox emulator (fork of XQEMU).

  https://xemu.app/ || xemuAUR

- Xenia — Xenia is an experimental emulator for the Xbox 360.

  https://xenia.jp/ || xenia-gitAUR

- Xenia Canary — Active fork of Xenia.

  https://github.com/xenia-canary/xenia-canary || xenia-canary-binAUR

## Personal computers

- 86Box — Emulator of x86-based machines based on PCem.

  https://86box.net/ || 86boxAUR

- ARAnyM — Atari Running on Any Machine

  https://aranym.github.io/index.html || aranymAUR

- Atari++ — An emulator of Atari 400/800/400XL/800XL/130XE/5200

  http://www.xl-project.com/ || atari++AUR

- Atari800 — An emulator of the Atari 800/800XL/130XE/5200 with various extensions

  https://atari800.github.io/ || atari800AUR

- Basilisk II — Open Source 68k Macintosh Emulator

  https://basilisk.cebix.net || basiliskii-gitAUR

- BeebEM — BBC Micro Emulator

  http://beebem-unix.bbcmicro.com/ || beebemAUR

- box64 — Linux Userspace x86_64 Emulator with a twist

  https://github.com/ptitSeb/box64 || box64AUR

- CaPriCe32 — An emulator of the Amstrad CPC 8bit home computer range (CPC 464, 664, 6128)

  https://github.com/ColinPitrat/caprice32 || caprice32-gitAUR

- CLK — A latency hating emulator for 8 and 16 bit platforms

  https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK || SDL frontend: clk-sdlAUR, QT5 frontend: clk-qtAUR

- Denise — Highly accurate C64/Amiga emulator

  https://sourceforge.net/projects/deniseemu/ || deniseAUR

- DOSBox — Open-source DOS emulator which primarily focuses on running DOS Games.

  https://www.dosbox.com/ || dosbox

- DOSEmu — Open-source DOS emulator.

  http://www.dosemu.org/ || dosemu

- EasyRPG Player — RPG Maker 2000/2003 interpreter.

  https://easyrpg.org/player/ || easyrpg-playerAUR

- fMSX — Portable MSX Emulator.

  https://fms.komkon.org/fMSX/ || fmsxAUR

- FS-UAE — Amiga Emulator.

  https://fs-uae.net/ || fs-uae, frontend: fs-uae-launcher

- Fuse-emulator — ZX Spectrum emulator.

  https://fuse-emulator.sourceforge.net/fuse.php || fuse-emulatorAUR

- Hatari — An Atari ST and STE emulator.

  https://hatari.tuxfamily.org/ || hatari

- LinApple — Apple 2e emulator

  https://github.com/linappleii/linapple || linapple-gitAUR

- Mini vMac — a miniature early Macintosh emulator

  https://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/ || minivmacAUR

- OpenMSX — The MSX emulator that aims for perfection.

  https://openmsx.org/ || openmsxAUR

- PCem — Emulator for various IBM PC computers and clones.

  https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/ || pcemAUR

- ScummVM — Virtual machine for old school adventures.

  https://www.scummvm.org/ || scummvm

- Vice — Versatile Commodore 8-bit Emulator.

  https://vice-emu.sourceforge.io/ || vice

- X Neko Project II — PC-9801 emulator.

  https://www.nonakap.org/np2/[dead link 2025-03-15—domain name not resolved] || xnp2AUR

- ZEsarUX — A Zx80/Zx81/Z88, Zx Spectrum 16/48/128/+2/+2A and ZX-Uno emulator with ULAPlus support

  https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux || zesaruxAUR

## Fantasy computers

- Lowres-NX — Open source fantasy game console and Basic interpreter.

  https://github.com/timoinutilis/lowres-nx || lowres-nx-gitAUR

- microw8 — WebAssembly based fantasy console.

  https://exoticorn.github.io/microw8/ || microw8AUR

- Pico8 — A fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs that supports the Lua language (multiple architectures supported, but binary only).

  https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php || pico-8AUR

- Pixel Vision 8 — 8-bit fantasy game console that supports the Lua language.

  https://pixelvision8.github.io/Website/ || pixelvision8-1.0.0-binAUR

- TIC-80 — A GPL-licensed fantasy computer for making, playing and sharing tiny games that supports multiple languages.

  https://tic80.com/ || tic-80-gitAUR

## See also

- Emulation General wiki
- Wikipedia:List of video game console emulators

Categories:

- Gaming
- Emulation
- Lists of software

Hidden category:

- Pages with dead links