Getting involved

Getting involved with the Emulation General Wiki.

If you're interested in helping out the wiki but don't know where to start, here are some things we would appreciate help with.
Before reading / Guidelines

Contributing

Emulation General Wiki focuses on detailed and advanced information for "software emulators", preservation projects and other related stuff such as "hypervisors", "simulators", "compatibility layers", "wrappers" and "FPGA-based hardware cloning" (see Emulation accuracy page for more information about these terms).

Also check out and join us in building a comprehensive resource by contributing other emulation related pages such as Game engine recreations and source ports, Homebrew, list of notable ports, history of emulation, Official emulators, Emulation boxes, revival projects, legal status of emulation and much more...

Compatibility & Accessibility

To ensure compatibility, accessibility and reliability with older systems and retro web browsers (and related proxy projects), please avoid (as much as possible) using redirection links and other elements on pages that rely on JavaScript. Opt for non-JavaScript alternatives whenever possible, as JavaScript can cause issues with legacy systems/retro web browsers and the Wayback Machine (web.archive.org).

Mindfulness

To protect emulator projects, please avoid sharing the Emulation General Wiki pages directly on their official websites, discord servers and other services.

This public exposure could potentially attract unwanted legal attention and jeopardize their projects. The last thing we (the Wiki users and contributors) want is for these projects to be taken down. Thank you, see Legal Status of Emulation page for more information.

With communities (Like the CHIP-8 and Fantasy consoles communities) that have little to no worries for legal persecution this advice likely would not need to be followed.

This is for a variety of reasons, some of which are links connected to or committing copyright infringement (such as violating the GNU GPL license).

Sandboxing

See Help:Sandbox and Template:Sandbox

Not needed, recommended for overhauls of (commonly read / popular) pages

It is recommended to make your own Sandbox page so there are not multiple edits for different pages in the main Sandbox.

Creating your own Sandbox page or using the Emulation General's Sandbox allows to demo page edits before adding them to the proper page, This is useful in the case of making large redesign/addition to a page while having the proper page readable before the redesign is finished.

Architecture

Before adding an emulator, ensure that you place it in the correct architecture section (ARM, x86, etc.). Due to recent advancements in compatibility layers, some users mistakenly believe that certain x86 emulators are native ARM applications. However, these x86 emulators running on ARM devices through compatibility layers like Winlator.

Cites and references

Editors should largely follow Wikipedia's citation rules (listed here), with the exemption that twitter and other sources by the other are allowed.

Guide lines:

• Cite clearly viewable content. Not things such as Discord, where it requires you to have an account.
• Primary sources are commonly used, secondary news sources should also be cited when available.
• Facts not included in the emulators home page or repository should have a reference.

Low effort

• Updating. You can find news and new releases on EmuNations, Zophar's Domain and AEP Emulation Page.
• Updating the News section on the Main Page.
• Correcting any redirect that links to another redirect instead of a page.
• Finding categories to put these pages in.
• Finding categories to put these templates in.
• Finding categories to put these categories in.
• Tagging pages that need it with {{stub}}, {{Outdated}} or {{WIP}}.
• Checking Short pages and tagging them with either {{stub}} if they should be longer or {{delete}} if they fill no function.
• Fixing spelling and grammar issues.

Moderate effort

• WIP articles – These are new articles that are not yet ready for the main page and need to be improved.
• Outdated articles – These articles contain information that might no longer be accurate and need to be updated.
• Articles stubs – These articles are stubs and need to be expanded with more information.
• Update/create new emulator pages - Copy the template below, add {{WIP}} if you need help or intend to finish the page later, add {{stub}} if everything is finished but it should be longer.
• Adding licensing info to Image files using Image wiki templates for licensing info.

Archival and preservation.

• Archive links on the wiki using archive.org or ghostarchive.org for websites/downloads
• Archiving YouTube videos on the wiki using ghostarchive.org or preservetube.com
• Fixing broken links with archived versions using archive.org or ghostarchive.org
• Identifying broken links with tools such as deadlinkchecker.com
• Adding old news previous years section of the news template, using this list.

High effort

Wikipedia copies

These are articles we took from Wikipedia. The source article may either contain updated information beyond what we've copied, causing us to stagnate and provide potentially incorrect information, or showcase a subject in a manner that may stray from its relevance in emulation. The best way to deal with these articles is to rewrite them, but in their current form they require a high degree of knowledge in their fields in order to break them down for readers.

Layout

Emulator infobox template

Here's our current layout for an emulator page. Copy-paste this if you are creating a new emulator page or use it if a page needs updating.

Software infobox template

Here's our current layout for an non-emulator software page. Copy-paste this if you are creating a new software page or use it if a page needs updating.

System page example

Most system pages are more detailed, this is a bare-bones example. Copy-paste this if you are creating a new system page or use it if a page needs updating.

Layout

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;width:100%"
! scope="col"|Name
! scope="col"|Platform(s)
! scope="col"|Latest version
! scope="col"|[[Licensing|License]]
! scope="col"|Active
! scope="col"|[[Recommended emulators|Recommended]]
|-
!colspan="11"|x86
|-
| [[Dolphin]]
| align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|FreeBSD}}
| [https://dolphin-emu.org/download/ {{DolphinVer}}]
| {{Green}} {{License|GPLv2}} ({{License|Copyleft}})
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
|}

Render

Name	Platform(s)	Latest version	License	Active	Recommended
x86
Dolphin		2412	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	✓

Similar and related sites

For similar sites see

• FantasyAnime - Has in depth pages on the options of each emulator. Emulation General Wiki focuses on detail of the history of a emulator on its page and details of our many other articles.
• PCGamingWiki - Focuses on PC gaming instead of emulators. (Emulation specific pages are outdated)
• AppleGamingWiki - Similar to PCGamingWiki but instead focuses on M1 Apple silicon Macs