https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Emulation+General+Wiki&feedformat=atomEmulation General Wiki - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T05:29:44ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.32.0https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Resolution&diff=25200Resolution2019-01-12T13:37:06Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: /* Console Resolutions */</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Resolution''' is the measure in which how many pixels are displayed on the screen.<br />
<br />
For emulation of 2D systems, the resolution can only be upscaled, making the pixels more apparent. For emulation of 5th generation consoles and newer, the internal resolution can be increased to make the game look sharper.<br />
==Console Resolutions==<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
|-<br />
! scope="col"|System<br />
! scope="col"|Native Resolution<br />
|-<br />
|[[Atari 2600 emulators|Atari 2600]]<br />
|160×192*<br />
|-<br />
|[[Nintendo Entertainment System emulators|NES]]<br />
|256×240<br />
|-<br />
|[[Master System emulators|Sega Master System]]<br />
|256×192, 256×224<br />
|-<br />
|[[Super Nintendo emulators|SNES]]<br />
|256×224, 512×448<br />
|-<br />
|[[Virtual Boy emulators|Virtual Boy]]<br />
|384×224<br />
|-<br />
|[[Sega Genesis emulators|Sega Genesis]]<br />
|320×224, 256×224<br />
|-<br />
|[[Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators|Game Boy/Color]], [[Master System emulators|Sega Game Gear]]<br />
|160×144<br />
|-<br />
|[[Nintendo 64 emulators|Nintendo 64]]<br />
|640×240, 640×480**<br />
|-<br />
|[[PlayStation emulators|PlayStation]]<br />
|256×224p, 256x240p, 320x224p, 320×240p, 512x224p, 512×240p, 640x224p, 640x240p<br />
320x448i, 320x480i, 370x448i, 370x480i, 512x448i, 512x480i, 640x448i, 640×480i<br />
|-<br />
|[[WonderSwan emulators|WonderSwan]]<br />
|224×144<br />
|-<br />
|[[Game Boy Advance emulators|Game Boy Advance]]<br />
|240×160<br />
|-<br />
|[[PlayStation 2 emulators|PlayStation 2]]<br />
|512×224 512×448<br />
640x448?<br />
640×480<br />
|-<br />
|[[Sega Dreamcast emulators|Sega Dreamcast]]<br />
|640×480<br />
|-<br />
|[[GameCube emulators|GameCube]] and [[Wii emulators|Wii]]<br />
|596×448<br />
608×456<br />
640×480<nowiki>***</nowiki><br />
etc<br />
|-<br />
|[[Nintendo DS emulators|Nintendo DS]]<br />
|256×192<br />
|-<br />
|[[PlayStation Portable emulators|PlayStation Portable]]<br />
|480×272<br />
|-<br />
|[[Nintendo 3DS emulators|Nintendo 3DS]]<br />
|800x240 top screen****<br />
320x240 bottom screen<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki>This is a rough figure given for simplicity's sake. In reality, the Atari 2600 doesn't really output pixels, and it has no limits on the number of lines it can display. However, it did have a hard limit on the number of horizontal color clocks for drawing the picture (160), and most games only output 192 lines, hence the commonly given resolution of 160x192.<br />
<br />
<nowiki>**</nowiki>While N64 games ran at various resolutions internally, in practice the hardware's VI component always doubled the scale horizontally, and output in either 640x240p or 640x480i, though there is letterboxing at times.<br />
<br />
<nowiki>***</nowiki>Similar to N64, games ran at various resolutions internally[https://tcrf.net/Help:Contents/Taking_Screenshots#GameCube/Wii], though output is usually in 480p.<br />
<br />
<nowiki>****</nowiki>This is the "true" resolution of the top screen and what games will be rendered at in full 3d mode, however, due to said 3d effect the horizontal resolution is effectively halved. Each eye will only see 400x240 and games run in 2d mode will (normally) be rendered at 400x240 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_3DS#Hardware]<br />
<br />
==Integer Scaling==<br />
{{Main|Scaling}}<br />
Upscaling the resolution will only look good if you scale it by integers (2x, 3x, 4x, etc.). If you are scaling with non-integers, you can make the image look better using the [[Shaders_and_Filters#Pixellate|Pixellate]] shader.<br />
[[Category:FAQs]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Nestopia&diff=25183Nestopia2019-01-12T11:41:29Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: /* References */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox emulator<br />
|logo = nestopia.gif<br />
|logowidth = 250<br />
|version = {{NestopiaVer}}<br />
|active = Yes<br />
|platform = Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, [[libretro]]<br />
|target = [[Nintendo Entertainment System emulators|NES]]<br />
|prog-lang = C++<br />
|developer = Martin Freij, rdanbrook<br />
|website = [http://0ldsk00l.ca/nestopia/ 0ldsk00l.ca]<br />
|source = [https://github.com/rdanbrook/nestopia GitHub]<br />
}}<br />
'''Nestopia UE''' is an open-source [[Nintendo Entertainment System emulators|Famicom (NES)]] and Famicom Disk System (FDS) emulator written in C++. Nestopia allows graphical enhancements such as texture scaling and TV filters, as well as netplay support. It's one of the most popular and most compatible emulators around. <br />
<br />
==Downloads==<br />
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/nestopiaue/files/ Nestopia UE Stable Builds]<br />
* [http://www.emucr.com/search/label/Nestopia Nestopia UE Dev Builds]<br />
* [http://0ldsk00l.ca/nestopia/ Official Linux and BSD Binaries]<br />
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/nestopia/files/Nestopia/v1.40/Nestopia140bin.zip/download Original Nestopia]<br />
<br />
==Overview==<br />
According to TASVideos, Nestopia is ranked as the fifth most accurate NES emulator, with 1.40 scoring a score of 82.3%.<ref>http://tasvideos.org/EmulatorResources/NESAccuracyTests.html</ref> Other NES/FDS emulators, such as [[Mesen]] and [[puNES]], have higher scores on these tests. However, these test ROMs don't test everything that matters for accurate emulation (and in some cases, test stuff that doesn't matter for emulating any games). So the test results may be a bit misleading, but that does not mean it is not a high accuracy emulator.<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
{{Nes}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Nintendo Entertainment System emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Netplay]]<br />
[[Category:Windows emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:Linux emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:macOS emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:BSD emulation software]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Category:BSD_emulation_software&diff=25181Category:BSD emulation software2019-01-12T11:40:11Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: </p>
<hr />
<div>This category lists the emulators that can run in Berkeley Software Distribution.<br />
[[Category:Emulators by operating system]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Category:BSD_emulation_software&diff=25180Category:BSD emulation software2019-01-12T11:39:33Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: Created page with "This category lists the emulators that can run in Berkeley Software Distribution. Category:Emulators by operating systems"</p>
<hr />
<div>This category lists the emulators that can run in Berkeley Software Distribution.<br />
[[Category:Emulators by operating systems]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Stella&diff=25176Stella2019-01-12T10:55:19Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: Automated Stella's version updates.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox emulator<br />
|logo = Stella_title.gif<br />
|version = {{StellaVer}}<br />
|active = Yes<br />
|platform = Multi-platform<br />
|target = [[Atari 2600 emulators|Atari 2600]]<br />
|developer = [https://stella-emu.github.io/theteam.html Stella Team]<br />
|website = [https://stella-emu.github.io/ GitHub]<br />
|source = [https://github.com/stella-emu/stella GitHub]<br />
}}<br />
'''Stella''' is an open-source, multi-platform [[Atari 2600 emulators|Atari 2600]] emulator.<br />
<br />
==Downloads==<br />
*[http://www.emucr.com/search/label/Stella?&max-results=12 Windows Dev Builds]<br />
*[https://stella-emu.github.io/downloads.html Stable Releases]<br />
<br />
==Overview==<br />
Stella is also available as a [[libretro]] core for [[RetroArch]], albeit an older version (3.4.1).<br />
<br />
It has some television filters to up the nostalgia factor.<br />
<br />
==Links==<br />
[http://www.libsdl.org/download-2.0.php SDL 2.0.] You need this as it's required to run Stella (and some versions aren't packaged with it.) It's easy to install. It's just a .dll that you drop into your Stella folder.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Atari 2600 emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Windows emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:Linux emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:macOS emulation software]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Template:StellaVer&diff=25175Template:StellaVer2019-01-12T10:55:17Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: Created template page to automate Stella's version updates.</p>
<hr />
<div>6.0</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=GBE%2B&diff=25174GBE+2019-01-12T10:48:54Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: /* Resources */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox emulator<br />
|logo = gbe_plus.png<br />
|logowidth = 120<br />
|version = 1.2<br />
|active = Yes<br />
|platform = Windows, Linux, macOS <small>(untested)</small><br />
|target = [[Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators|Game Boy/Color]]<br/>[[Game Boy Advance emulators|Game Boy Advance]]<br/>[[Nintendo DS emulators|Nintendo DS]]<br />
|developer = Shonumi<br />
|website = [https://shonumi.github.io/ Shonumi's website]<br />
|source = [https://github.com/shonumi/gbe-plus GitHub]<br />
}}<br />
'''GBE+''', full name '''GB Enhanced+''', is an open-source [[Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators|Game Boy/Color]], [[Game Boy Advance emulators|Game Boy Advance]] and [[Nintendo DS emulators|Nintendo DS emulator]] with the goal of having all possible enhancements for these platforms. Main features are [[Texture Packs|tile replacement]], for custom sprites in games, or coloring Game Boy games. Later Shonumi turned his attention to obscure peripherals and has made many of these and titles that need them emulated for the first time. Nintendo DS emulation is a possible future feature. The emulator is a continuation and rewrite of Shonumi's previous project - GB Enhanced, which was deprecated due to the core not being robust enough. You can find the released version of this software below.<br />
<br />
The release version of 1.0 Beta came after 2 years of progress and rewriting. Released on the same day as the original GBE, April 1st.<br />
<br />
[[File:GBE+_texture_pack_beta_by_GregoryMcGregerson.png|thumb|250px|An unfinished texture pack for Super Mario Land by GregoryMcGregerson]]<br />
<br />
Here is a list of things that were pioneered in emulation by GBE+ and are mostly exclusive to it:<br />
* [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#IR_Transmitter|IR link]]<br />
* [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#Mobile_Game_Boy_Adapter|Mobile Network GB]] - incomplete<br />
* [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#4-Player_Adapter|4-Player Adapter]]<br />
* [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#Barcode_Boy|Barcode Boy]]<br />
* [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#Barcode_Taisen_Bardigun|Barcode Taisen Bardigun]]<br />
* [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#Full_Changer|Full Changer]]<br />
<br />
==Download==<br />
'''Windows binaries''' (as GBE):<br />
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-WE3IAskDSYMkRBc1k3SHhpSVk/view version 1.0]<br />
<br />
'''Windows binaries''' (as GBE+):<br />
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-WE3IAskDSYNTFGYjJIRkwxYUk/view version 1.0]<br />
* version 1.1 (unavailable)<br />
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sFih4G6tk9DQHtVIZGXcdnpcUXCKSAv2/view version 1.2]<br />
<br />
'''[https://github.com/shonumi/gbe-plus/releases Source]'''<br />
<br />
==Resources==<br />
[https://github.com/shonumi/gbe-plus Official GitHub]<br />
<br />
[https://shonumi.github.io/index.html Shonumi's Blog]<br />
<br />
[https://twitter.com/shonumi_ikuzumo Shonumi's Twitter (obsolete)]<br />
<br />
[http://www.emutalk.net/threads/55007-GB-Enhanced Emutalk thread]<br />
<br />
[https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/4cwj4u/gb_enhanced_10_beta_released/ 1.0 Beta thread]<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Windows emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:Linux emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:macOS emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:Custom Assets]]<br />
[[Category:Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Game Boy Advance emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Nintendo DS emulators]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=TGB_Dual&diff=25173TGB Dual2019-01-12T10:48:12Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: /* Netplay */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox emulator<br />
|version = v8.3.1 / "L" v1.2<br />
|active = No<br />
|platform = Windows, Linux <small>(SDL)</small><br />
|target = [[Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators|Game Boy/Color]]<br />
|developer = [http://gigo.retrogames.com/mail.html GIGO and Hii (Windows)]<br />[http://shinh.skr.jp/tgbdualsdl/ shinichiro.h (SDL)]<br />
|website = [http://gigo.retrogames.com/index.html GIGO's]<br />[http://shinh.skr.jp/tgbdualsdl/ shinichiro.h's] <br />
|source = [http://gigo.retrogames.com/tgb/tgb_dual_8_3_src.zip v8.3 Source Code (GPL)]<br />[http://shinh.skr.jp/tgbdualsdl/tgb_dual_sdl.tar.bz2 SDL Source Code]<br />
}}<br />
'''TGB Dual''' is a Japanese [[Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators|Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulator]]. It was the first to support link cable emulation (through TCP/IP), later followed by VBA Link and then modern emulators. It is also available as a [[libretro]] core in [[RetroArch]], based on unofficial Linux SDL port. The most common version which was translated to English by the author is ver. 7, but later an unofficial translation of v8.3.1 surfaced.<br />
==Ports and forks==<br />
The emulator is very old and obsolete nowadays. Still, there were recent tries to update the codebase and support new features. First, there was shinichiro.h's SDL port, which added no new features. After that came a few forks:<br />
===TGB Dual Kai===<br />
This fork was made by gameboym on his blog and mainly adds settings and a debugger. After about a year of development, the fork went dead in 2013.<br />
<br />[http://blog.gameboymania.com/ Official site]<br />
<br />[https://github.com/gameboym/tgbdual_kai Source code on Github]<br />
===TGB Dual "L"===<br />
At first, a try at a pseudo-official continuation with ver. 9 release, the author named libertyernie soon found out about the Kai fork and added his enhancements to the newer codebase as TGB Dual "L". New features are a full translation from Japanese, Goomba Color files compatibility and mirror mode.<br />
<br />[http://www.lakora.us/gba/tgbdual/ Official site]<br />
<br />[https://github.com/libertyernie/tgbdual_L Source code on Github]<br />
==Download==<br />
[https://github.com/libertyernie/tgbdual_L/releases TGB Dual "L" v1.2]<br />
<br />[https://sites.google.com/site/gameboymania/TGB_Dual_Kai.zip?attredirects=0 TGB Dual Kai v1.1.4.1]<br />
<br />[http://gamehacking.org/vb/attachment.php?s=5f31209b91ede892133244c1b8933d9d&attachmentid=2028&d=1352823397 TGB Dual Vol. 8.3.1]<br />
==Plugins==<br />
TGB Dual supports plugins for additional devices. On the official site, there is a [http://gigo.retrogames.com/tgb/devices.zip download] for them. They are for the Barcode Reade, Pocket Printer and IR linking. As all documentation is in Japanese. The [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#Barcode_Boy|Barcode Boy]] implementation just generates random data until a valid barcode is accepted, as discovered by Shonumi in his reverse engineering work for [[GBE+]].<br />
<br />
==Netplay==<br />
'''You will need a VPN to netplay with this emulator.''' Download hamachi or Comodo VPN. Unless you can figure out what ports does this emulator use, there is no other way to play this over the internet besides VPNs.<br />
<br />
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" style="width: 100%;"<br />
! colspan=2 width="250"|How to<br />
|-<br />
|<br />
#Unpack the emulator wherever you want<br />
#Configure your emulator: map buttons (physical controller preferred!), change resolutions, apply filters (if you want them)<br />
#Go to Options, click Folders<br />
#Set a path for your save files and ROMs folders, click OK<br />
#Go to File, click Netplay. A window will appear.<br />
#In the ROM section, set the ROM you'll be using in the "Player" box, and the ROM your opponent will be using in the "Rival" box (unless you're both using the same ROM).<br />
'''If you're hosting:'''<br />
#Click Server<br />
#Type in a number between 1024 and 65535 in the Timeout field (1024 usually works just fine)<br />
#Click connect and wait<br />
<br />
<br />
'''If you're connecting:'''<br />
#Click Client<br />
#Type in your opponent's VPN IP<br />
#Click Connect and wait<br />
#The status section will change to some other illegible gibberish and a status bar will appear (AFAIK, haven't used it in a very long time so I don't remember)<br />
#Once the connection has been established, the game will start for both people and a small rudimentary chat box will appear. Enjoy!<br />
<br />
<br />
Worth noting: the game will be choppy/laggy, and will still be somewhat playable at 150 ms. Anything beyond will respond too slowly to be playable. Be warned.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Windows emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:Linux emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:Netplay]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=GBE%2B&diff=25166GBE+2019-01-12T10:30:01Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox emulator<br />
|logo = gbe_plus.png<br />
|logowidth = 120<br />
|version = 1.2<br />
|active = Yes<br />
|platform = Windows, Linux, macOS <small>(untested)</small><br />
|target = [[Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators|Game Boy/Color]]<br/>[[Game Boy Advance emulators|Game Boy Advance]]<br/>[[Nintendo DS emulators|Nintendo DS]]<br />
|developer = Shonumi<br />
|website = [https://shonumi.github.io/ Shonumi's website]<br />
|source = [https://github.com/shonumi/gbe-plus GitHub]<br />
}}<br />
'''GBE+''', full name '''GB Enhanced+''', is an open-source [[Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators|Game Boy/Color]], [[Game Boy Advance emulators|Game Boy Advance]] and [[Nintendo DS emulators|Nintendo DS emulator]] with the goal of having all possible enhancements for these platforms. Main features are [[Texture Packs|tile replacement]], for custom sprites in games, or coloring Game Boy games. Later Shonumi turned his attention to obscure peripherals and has made many of these and titles that need them emulated for the first time. Nintendo DS emulation is a possible future feature. The emulator is a continuation and rewrite of Shonumi's previous project - GB Enhanced, which was deprecated due to the core not being robust enough. You can find the released version of this software below.<br />
<br />
The release version of 1.0 Beta came after 2 years of progress and rewriting. Released on the same day as the original GBE, April 1st.<br />
<br />
[[File:GBE+_texture_pack_beta_by_GregoryMcGregerson.png|thumb|250px|An unfinished texture pack for Super Mario Land by GregoryMcGregerson]]<br />
<br />
Here is a list of things that were pioneered in emulation by GBE+ and are mostly exclusive to it:<br />
* [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#IR_Transmitter|IR link]]<br />
* [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#Mobile_Game_Boy_Adapter|Mobile Network GB]] - incomplete<br />
* [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#4-Player_Adapter|4-Player Adapter]]<br />
* [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#Barcode_Boy|Barcode Boy]]<br />
* [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#Barcode_Taisen_Bardigun|Barcode Taisen Bardigun]]<br />
* [[Game_Boy/Game_Boy_Color_emulators#Full_Changer|Full Changer]]<br />
<br />
==Download==<br />
'''Windows binaries''' (as GBE):<br />
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-WE3IAskDSYMkRBc1k3SHhpSVk/view version 1.0]<br />
<br />
'''Windows binaries''' (as GBE+):<br />
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-WE3IAskDSYNTFGYjJIRkwxYUk/view version 1.0]<br />
* version 1.1 (unavailable)<br />
* [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sFih4G6tk9DQHtVIZGXcdnpcUXCKSAv2/view version 1.2]<br />
<br />
'''[https://github.com/shonumi/gbe-plus/releases Source]'''<br />
<br />
==Resources==<br />
[https://github.com/shonumi/gbe-plus Official github]<br />
<br />
[https://shonumi.github.io/index.html Shonumi's Blog]<br />
<br />
[https://twitter.com/shonumi_ikuzumo Shonumi's Twitter (obsolete)]<br />
<br />
[http://www.emutalk.net/threads/55007-GB-Enhanced Emutalk thread]<br />
<br />
[https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/4cwj4u/gb_enhanced_10_beta_released/ 1.0 Beta thread]<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Category:Emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Windows emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:Linux emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:macOS emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:Custom Assets]]<br />
[[Category:Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Game Boy Advance emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Nintendo DS emulators]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Super_Nintendo_emulators&diff=25164Super Nintendo emulators2019-01-12T10:28:20Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: Famicom is short for Family Computer</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox console<br />
|title = Super Nintendo Entertainment System<br />
|logo = snesna.png<br />
|developer = [[:Nintendo]]<br />
|type = [[:Category:Consoles|Home video game console]]<br />
|generation = [[:Category:Fourth-generation video game consoles|Fourth generation]]<br />
|release = 1990<br />
|discontinued = 2003<br />
|predecessor = [[Nintendo Entertainment System emulators|NES]]<br />
|successor = [[Nintendo 64 emulators|Nintendo 64]]<br />
|emulated = {{✓}}<br />
}}<br />
The '''[[gametech:Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super Nintendo Entertainment System]]''' (SNES) is a 16-bit, fourth-generation home video game console released by [[wikipedia:Nintendo|Nintendo]] on November 21, 1990 in Japan and on August 23, 1991 in the US. It retailed for $199 ($367.17 in 2018 money). It has a Ricoh 5A22 CPU at 3.58 MHz. Borrowing the name of its predecessor, the [[Nintendo Entertainment System emulators|Nintendo Entertainment System]], it was similarly named the '''Super Family Computer''' or '''Super Famicom''' in Japan, and during that time it had ''fierce'' competition with SEGA's [[Sega Genesis emulators|Genesis]] (known in other regions as the Mega Drive).<br />
<br />
Emulation for the SNES is robust, with several high-quality emulators for various systems, some of which are [[Emulation Accuracy|cycle-accurate]].<br />
<br />
==Emulators==<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"<br />
! scope="col"|Name<br />
! scope="col"|Operating System(s)<br />
! scope="col"|Version<br />
! scope="col"|[[libretro|Libretro Core]]<br />
! scope="col"|[[Emulation Accuracy|Accuracy]]<br />
! scope="col"|Active<br />
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="7"|PC<br />
|-<br />
|[[higan]] (formerly bsnes)<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://byuu.org/emulation/higan/ {{higanVer}}] <br /><br />
[https://board.byuu.org/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=2102 v106r44 beta] <small>(bsnes official)</small> <br /><br />
[https://board.byuu.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2131 csnes WIP] <small>(from scratch)</small><br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|Cycle<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Higan#nSide|nSide]] (forked higan)<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[https://github.com/hex-usr/nSide/releases v009r16]<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|Cycle<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Higan#bsnes-classic|bsnes-classic]]<br/><small>(forked bsnes Qt)</small><br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://github.com/sharknnth/bsnes-classic/releases v073u7]<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|Cycle<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Snes9x]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[https://sites.google.com/site/bearoso/ {{Snes9xVer}}]<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|High<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[BizHawk]] (bsnes v087)<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://tasvideos.org/BizHawk/ReleaseHistory.html {{BizHawkVer}}]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Cycle<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|lsnes<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://tasvideos.org/Lsnes.html rr2-β23] <br /> [http://repo.or.cz/w/lsnes.git Git]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Cycle<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Mednafen]] (bsnes v059)<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[{{MednafenURL|releases/}} {{MednafenVer}}]<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|High<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[No$|NO$SNS]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://problemkaputt.de/sns.htm 1.6]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Medium<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[MAME]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://www.mamedev.org/release.html {{MAMEVer}}]<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|Low<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Silhouette]]<br />
|macOS<br />
|[https://www.zophar.net/fileuploads/1/816uajag/Silhouette.sit.hqx 1.0]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Low<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[ZSNES]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://zsnes.com 1.51]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Low<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[CATSFC]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[https://github.com/ShadauxCat/CATSFC 1.36]<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|Low<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="7"|Mobile<br />
|-<br />
|Snes9x EX+<br />
|[[Android emulators|Android]]<br />
|[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.explusalpha.Snes9xPlus Varies]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|High<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Snes9x]] Next<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|1.53<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|Mid<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|Snes8x<br/><small>(Different to 'Snes9x')</small><br/><small>(Snes9x based)</small><br />
|Windows Phone<br />
|[https://www.appx4fun.com/xap/497/ 2.15.3]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Mid<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[http://yoyofr92.free.fr/ Little John]<br /><small>(Snes9x 1.39 based)</small><br />
|PalmOS<br />
|[https://www.zophar.net/palm-os/multiem/little-john-palmos.html 1.1], [https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/resources/little-john-palm-os.4443/ 1.2]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|[http://blogote.com/features/download-little-john-palm-os-retro-emulator/3352/ Mid]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|Snes9x EX<br />
|[[Android emulators|Android]]<br />
|1.5.34<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Low<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[http://www.superretro16.com/ SuperRetro16]<br />
|[[Android emulators|Android]]<br />
|[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bubblezapgames.supergnes 1.7.11]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Low<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[CATSFC]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|1.36<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|Low<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[http://yoyofr92.free.fr/ OpenSnes9x]<br />
|GP32, [[wikipedia:List_of_Palm_OS_devices#Tapwave|Zodiac]]<br />
|[http://yoyofr92.free.fr/os9xgp/html/downloads.html 0.3beta]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Low<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="7"|Console<br />
|-<br />
|[[Virtual Console]]<br />
|[[Wii emulators|Wii]], [[Wii U emulators|Wii U]], [[Nintendo 3DS emulators|New 3DS]]<br />
|N/A<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Mid-High<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Snes9x]] Next<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|1.53<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|Mid<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[https://wololo.net/talk/viewtopic.php?t=48157 Snes9xTYL Mod]<br /><small>(Snes9x 1.39 based)</small><br />
|[[PlayStation Portable emulators|PlayStation Portable]]<br />
|[https://github.com/esmjanus/snes9xTYL/releases 180404]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Mid<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[CATSFC]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|1.36<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|Low<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Snes9x]] for 3DS<br />
|[[Nintendo 3DS emulators|Nintendo 3DS]]<br />
|[https://github.com/bubble2k16/snes9x_3ds/releases Git]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Low<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|blargSNES*<br />
|[[Nintendo 3DS emulators|Nintendo 3DS]]<br />
|[http://blargsnes.kuribo64.net/ 1.3b]<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|Low<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki> ''This emulator is currently in beta, but it does run several games. A compatibility list is available [http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/BlargSnes_Compatibility_List here]. It doesn't support any cart-chips (SuperFX, DSP-1, Cx4, etc.). This emulator is no longer recommended due to inactivity and other more accurate and more compatible emulators, such as Snes9x for 3DS.''<br />
<br />
===Comparisons===<br />
1. [[higan]] <small>(formerly bsnes)</small><br />
* The most [[Emulation Accuracy|accurate]] of the bunch. Should play all commercially released games without trouble, assuming you have the power.<br />
* Incompatible with ROM hacks made to take advantage of emulator quirks, much like real hardware.<br />
* A superb LLE audio engine.<br />
<br />
higan (or, as it was known before it expanded its scope to more systems, bsnes) is the most accurate SNES emulator out there, but newcomers who care more about playing games rather than 100% accurate emulation should stick with [https://byuu.org/emulation/bsnes/ the most recent version of the forked bsnes core from the same author.]<br />
<br />
2. [[Snes9x]]<br />
* Compatible with most games, even many ROM hacks that make use of emulator quirks.<br />
* Fast enough for pretty much any toaster (even Pentium 1 or 2 machines).<br />
* LLE audio engine shared with bsnes.<br />
* Often buggy graphics and shaders in standalone, though it's video card and driver dependent.<br />
<!-- ** Remember those diagonal lines of offset across older 3D games on certain graphics cards? Yeah. ''Finding a picture.'' --><br />
* Hit-and-miss controller support, especially when it comes to XInput.<br />
<br />
3. [[RetroArch]]<br />
* Not a unique emulator, but there are official cores for bsnes and Snes9x you can easily obtain.<br />
* Very customizable and programmable by nature.<br />
* Tends to have better graphics than standalone software.<br />
** The viewport is scalable to any resolution.<br />
** It makes good use of full-screen with the right choice of interface.<br />
** A highly robust and flexible [[Shaders_and_Filters|shader]] system completely separate from the core.<br />
* Dynamic rate control fixes most audio issues.<br />
* Mirrored Rom and Ram maps, allowing ordinary rom images to be played right away.<br />
* The Snes9x Next core was forked from a commit somewhere between upstream version 1.52 and 1.53 and includes some extra speed hacks to run full speed on the Wii, as well as a SuperFX overclock option.<br />
* The bsnes-mercury restores things like HLE DSP and SGB emulation using [[Gambatte]], as well as some optimizations that don't sacrifice accuracy. Things like the HLE DSP were removed in higan and, much like Snes9x Next, it has an option to overclock SuperFX. The default options match bsnes, where HLE emulation is not enabled by default.<br />
<br />
4. [[BizHawk]]<br />
* TASVideos tests say its the best for TASes (tool-assisted speedruns/superplays).<br />
* Not cross-platform; it's written in C#, and compiled for .NET 4.0 on Windows.<br />
* Has support for libretro cores.<br />
<br />
5. [[Mednafen]]<br />
* Much like higan, it's an open-source, multi-system emulator. The libretro core is a fork renamed Beetle.<br />
* Graphical shells exist (like Mednaffe) to help with the fact that it can only run from the command line.<br />
* Its SNES core is based on bsnes v059 which is actually pretty old. It predates the performance/balanced/accuracy profiles to as far back as 2010. However, this version is much faster than upstream.<br />
** It's missing many of the improvements to the LLE audio engine that newer versions of Snes9x and higan have.<br />
** It's also missing out on many accuracy updates that address a few edge cases such as Air Strike Patrol, one of two games known to notoriously manipulate the PPU mid-scanline. It also has some problems rendering text, flickering lines near the bottom, and displaying shadows during flight.<br />
* There ''are'' systems Mednafen emulates well and very accurately, but the SNES is not exactly one of them. At that point, it's worth using bsnes or its libretro cores instead.<br />
<br />
6. [[ZSNES]]<br />
:''See also [[ZSNES#Review|the review]].''<br />
* The least accurate of the bunch but still relevant for many reasons.<br />
** Runs full speed on even very old [[wikipedia:x86|x86]] systems such as an early Pentium 1.<br />
** Many ROM hacks were often designed around (let alone possible, simply because of) its problems, and would often break on anything else.<br />
** It had tons of bugs and lacked certain operations for less notable games that needed them. Some testing also showed it didn't synchronize the components as often as other newer emulators would.<br />
*** One of these bugs was '''a severe <abbr title="arbitrary code execution">ACE</abbr> vulnerability''' that could allow a maliciously designed ROM to run its own code on the host machine. Therefore, it's best to check the source of your roms before using them with ZSNES.<br />
** Though fans have modded the builds, the project is basically dead.<br />
* It has [[ZSNES#Netplay|surprisingly good netplay]].<br />
* Sports an interesting but polarizing graphical user interface; it's either loved, or it's despised by the community.<br />
* Relies on external pre-decompressed graphical packs to emulate some games with elaborate chips, much like older versions of Snes9x such as 1.43. Assuming you get (what are now rare and very hard-to-find) graphical packs for the SPC7110 (like from [http://other.ipherswipsite.com/gpacks/ here]) and Star Ocean, and put them in folders you then set under "Paths" in ZSNES, they can be playable without missing graphics.<br />
* Viable alternatives are bZSNES (for ZSNES-centric rom hacks), ZMZ (for the UI), NO$SNS or older versions of Snes9x (for speed boosts tailored to old systems). Otherwise, choose any of the others like bsnes/higan and Snes9x (for better compatibility).<br />
<br />
'''Detailed round-ups of the best SNES emulators:'''<br />
* [https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/best-snes-emulators/ The best SNES emulators available] (August 16, 2018) (Don't use ZSNES)<br />
<br />
'''List of recommended SNES emulators for Android:'''<br />
* [https://www.androidauthority.com/best-snes-emulator-android-368394/ 5 best SNES emulators for Android] (AUGUST 29, 2018. Includes some emulators not found in above charts. Reviews may be subjective.)<br />
<br />
==Accessories==<br />
There aren't as many accessories that were released for the SNES compared to the NES<ref>[[Wikipedia:List of Super Nintendo Entertainment System accessories|List of Super Nintendo Entertainment System accessories]]</ref> but there is still quite a few to go over.<br />
===Super Game Boy===<br />
The '''[[gametech:Super Game Boy|Super Game Boy]]''' was a peripheral designed to play Game Boy and black Game Boy Color cartridges on the Super Nintendo through the cartridge slot, just like a typical SNES game. The Super Game Boy uses a special version of the Game Boy hardware to allow for ''Super Game Boy enhanced'' Game Boy games to operate its otherwise hidden features. Although many [[Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators]] and [[Game Boy Advance emulators]] fake this ability, [[higan]] and forks are the first and only emulators to truly emulate its features.<br />
<br />
Another thing to note is that there is a redesigned model, only released in Japan, called the ''Super Game Boy 2''. It has the ability to use a link cable connection that the first model lacks. It also fixes a slight overclocking issue and runs games at normal speed.<br />
<br />
There are a few hiccups with emulating the Super Game Boy, however. higan's Game Boy core isn't up to snuff yet. One notable example is Pokémon Yellow Version and the special border that is supposed to display. higan displays the standard Game Boy border while the real hardware displays a special green Pikachu border. On the other hand, Pokémon Gold/Silver Version, designed for Game Boy Color, can operate on a Game Boy and that operates as intended when played on a Super Game Boy. Also, if one attempts to run Game Boy Camera in higan in Super Game Boy mode, the emulator crashes. higan can run in ''Super Game Boy 2'' mode, but link cable connections are not possible yet, not even with other Game Boy emulators that can emulate a link cable.<br />
<br />
===asciiPad===<br />
The asciiPad is a controller by asciiWare that has similar features to the NES Advantage. Unlike the standard SNES controller, it has seven small switches that extend the way buttons are pressed. All the switches can be set to one of three modes for the standard buttons they individually represent, except for the seventh labeled "Slow" which changes the frequency of the additional modes. The switch can be set off, to turbo, and to auto. The turbo setting holds the button, and the auto setting control presses them automatically. [[higan]] is the first and only emulator known to support this specific controller's switches. Other emulators have a completely different implementation of turbo presses in their GUI, which can work for some, but not to this extent.<br />
<br />
===Super Scope===<br />
The Super Scope is a bazooka-looking light gun that is a bit more complex compared to the Zapper for the [[Nintendo Entertainment System emulators|Nintendo Entertainment System]]. ''Super Scope 6'', ''Yoshi's Safari'', ''Battle Clash'', and ''Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge'' used it. Some emulators including Snes9x and bsnes/higan support the Super Scope, emulated with the mouse.<br />
<br />
===Mouse===<br />
The mouse allowed control over ''Mario Paint'' and ''Mario & Wario'' among other games, though in later games mouse support was optional. Some emulators including Snes9x and bsnes/higan support the Mouse. A ROM hack for Mario & Wario replaces mouse controls with traditional controls for the emulators that don't support this feature.<br />
<br />
===Konami Justifier===<br />
Similar to the NES Zapper but differs from the Super Scope, this is another light gun but needs calibration. It looks like a real gun. It was meant to simulate the shooter arcade experience. Only one game is compatible and that is ''Lethal Enforcers''. Snes9x and higan support this gun.<br />
<br />
===Super Multitap===<br />
Made by Hudson Soft and licensed by Nintendo, this functions similarly to the [[Nintendo Entertainment System emulators|NES Four Score]]. Instead of using both controller ports, it just used one, allowing up to 5 players at once. ''Bomberman'' games used this accessory. Some emulators including Snes9x and bsnes/higan support five players.<br />
<br />
===JRA PAT, SNES Modem, and NTT Data Controller===<br />
This is a rather obscure Super Famicom game with compatible accessories. ''JRA PAT'' is a horse race gambling game where you could use real money.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtMlEcf8x6Q</ref> The service is dead. However, it is unknown if any emulator supports the special controller and modem that can plug into the player 1 and player 2 slots respectively.<br />
<br />
===Voice-kun===<br />
A few games by Koei shipped with an Audio-CD that typically contained voice acting, and supported this accessory which would command a CD player with IR signals typically used by remote controllers so that audio plays at specific points in the game. These games are still playable in most emulators but without Voice-kun support. byuu intends to make either MSU-1 hacks or proper Voice-kun emulation for these games in future higan versions, which would make it the first emulator to emulate this feature.<br />
<br />
==Satellaview emulation==<br />
The '''Satellaview''' was a subscription-based add-on released only in Japan that streamed content to the Super Famicom. BS-X or Satellaview software was broadcast the console add-on and stored as temporary data to be deleted shortly afterward. As such, a wealth of games went undumped and lost forever.<br />
<br />
Many of these games had Soundlink features and would have assets like streamed music and voice acting, as well as some extra data, but these have been lost forever outside of video recordings and OST releases. These games will likely play without music on your emulator. The entirely fan-made MSU-1 feature on the higan emulator tries to replicate the BS-X Satellaview and unreleased SNES-CD concept for streamed music in SNES games far beyond the maximum cartridge capacity (12MB), but it's not the same thing.<br />
<br />
Some games like BS Treasure Conflix make use of the additional RAM provided by the BS-X add-on. While you can try playing them on regular SNES emulators as regular emulators, you may face issues for many of these games (no font appearing, hangs with a black screen, and so on). You'll need Satellaview emulation to properly emulate those.<br />
<br />
bsnes-sx2 and snes9x-sx2 are recommended. They use your PC clock with no option to modify it, though. SNESGT had the option to modify the clock, but it wasn't updated for a while and isn't really recommended for SNES emulation in general. No$SNS has good BS-X emulation (and the best debugger tools for ROM hackers and translators) but falls behind the others when it comes to general emulation.<br />
<br />
You'll need the BS-X BIOS to properly emulate the Satellaview. It goes as BS-X.bin under the BIOS folder when using snes9x-sx2. There are many variants. You'll want the translated one (with English text) with removed DRM so that you can play a given broadcast without restrictions on how many times you can do so, like in the original hardware. <br />
<br />
Whenever you open a BS-X compatible ROM (that wasn't modified to behave like a normal SNES game, like most BS Zelda translations were), you'll be greeted by the BIOS software. It will ask you to choose your name and avatar, which you can control in a city. Of course, the St-GIGA broadcast service went defunct in 2000, so the big radio tower will just give you a "Hello Satellaview" test broadcast. However, you may be interested in seeing how Nintendo used to do loading screens. To see them without them shutting down instantly, open <code>BSX0001-47.bin</code> (bsxdat folder) in a hex editor and change offset <code>0x06</code> from <code>0x30</code> to <code>0x00</code>. Most houses will be closed, though.<br />
<br />
You'll want to enter the little red house you start in front of and load the stored data. In some cases, you may have to wait a while before actual gameplay starts, or until a given time (on real hardware people would wait for up to 6 minutes).<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"<br />
|+PC<br />
|-<br />
! scope="col"|Name<br />
! scope="col"|OS<br />
! scope="col"|Version<br />
! scope="col"|BS-X Emulation <br />
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]<br />
|-<br />
|[[higan]] (bsnes)<br />
|Windows, Linux, macOS<br />
|[http://byuu.org/higan/ {{higanVer}}]<br />
|Cycle<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Higan|bsnes]] <br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://bsxproj.superfamicom.org/archive.htm sx2 v009] (based on v082)<br />
|Cycle<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Snes9x]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://bsxproj.superfamicom.org/archive.htm sx2 0.02] (based on 1.53)<br />
|High<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|NO$SNS<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://problemkaputt.de/sns.htm 1.6]<br />
|Mid <br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[BizHawk]] (bsnes v087)<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://tasvideos.org/BizHawk/ReleaseHistory.html {{BizHawkVer}}]<br />
|Cycle<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Mednafen]] (bsnes v059)<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[{{MednafenURL|releases/}} {{MednafenVer}}]<br />
|High<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|SNESGT<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://www.zophar.net/snes/snesgt.html 2.18 (2007)]<br />
|Mid <br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Data Pack emulation==<br />
Also known as DLC for the Super Famicom - not only the old Mega Drive could do its lock-on thing! (incredible, isn't it?) <br />
<br />
Data Packs are Satellaview 8M Memory Paks which have data meant to be used as an expansion for a Data Pack-compatible game. Data Pack-compatible game cartridges look like the BS-X Cartridge. For most of these games, data was distributed via St.GIGA’s Satellaview streaming services. Same Game and SD Gundam G-Next had some Data Packs sold in physical form via retail stores. RPG Tsukuru 2, Sound Novel Tsukuru and Ongaku Tsukuru Kanaderu could save user-created data to 8M Memory Paks.<br />
<br />
The following games were compatible with Data Packs:<br />
* Derby Stallion 96<br />
* Joushou Mahjong Tenpai<br />
* Ongaku Tsukuru Kanaderu <br />
* RPG Tsukuru 2<br />
* Same Game<br />
* SD Gundam G-NEXT<br />
* Shigesato Itoi no Bass Tsuri No. 1<br />
* Sound Novel Tsukuru<br />
<br />
These Data Packs are available on ROM sites as regular SFC files, but their actual nature couldn't be more different. Unlike regular SNES games, they won't load in SNES emulators by themselves.<br />
Two emulators support this feature:<br />
* '''Snes9x:''' Under "File/Load Multi Cart...", choose the base game for "Slot A" and the expansion pack for "Slot B", and then the BS-X BIOS file. The combined game variant should open. Most Memory Pack games should work this way but some are unemulated for various reasons - it's one of the last overlooked areas in SNES emulation after all.<br />
* '''bsnes-sx2:''' Under "File/Load Slotted BS-X Cartridge". However, due to how the emulator doesn't have a "Show files from all extensions" option, and an oversight during development, the expansion pack file can't be selected. Due to this, current versions can't go in-game.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"<br />
|+PC<br />
|-<br />
! scope="col"|Name<br />
! scope="col"|OS<br />
! scope="col"|Version<br />
! scope="col"|Data Pack Emulation <br />
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]<br />
|-<br />
|[[Snes9x]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://bsxproj.superfamicom.org/archive.htm sx2 0.02] (based on 1.53)<br />
|Mid<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Higan|bsnes]] <br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://bsxproj.superfamicom.org/archive.htm sx2 v009] (based on v082)<br />
|Low<br />
| {{✗}}<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==SNES-CD revival and emulation==<br />
===SNES-CD===<br />
It's well-known enough that the Super Famicom was to get a CD add-on called the SNES-CD, developed by Sony who already helped with the sound chip for the SNES. However, Sony got greedy and tried to include a clause in the contract to give them all rights to any software developed on the device. In retaliation, Nintendo publicly humiliated the Sony executives present at the SNES-CD announcement by claiming they would partner with Phillips instead. Talks between Sony and Nintendo continued afterward as late as 1993, but the project couldn't be salvaged. Nintendo lost interest in the CD peripheral, seeing how the Sega CD failed in the US and the PC-Engine CD only enjoyed modest success. They canceled the Phillips collaboration on yet another SNES-CD prototype, but in return they allowed them to use some of their properties for their Phillips CD-i console. Later, they collaborated with the St. Giga radio service to create the Japan-exclusive Satellaview add-on for the Super Famicom which played broadcasts of SFC games using streamed audio. As for Sony, they took the hardware and experience from their collaboration with Nintendo to create the first PlayStation. Nintendo would continue to support the cartridge format for its next console, the Nintendo 64. A shy attempt at rewritable disk media was attempted with the 64DD, but the add-on failed due to the pathetic 64MB maximum storage limit which would be obsoleted by later bigger N64 cartridges, as well as the lack of support from third parties, many of whom had opted to support the PS1 instead. And the rest is history.<br />
<br />
Some prototype units of the Sony SNES-CD were indeed made. While games were in development for the add-on, some were eventually reworked as regular SNES cartridge games with lots of content gutted (e.g. Nintendo R&D's Marvelous, Square's Secret of Mana and Romancing Saga 2). Other games, like Hook, were ported to other systems instead (Hook to the Sega CD, and Rayman to the Atari Jaguar, among others), while the rest were outright canceled. These games were to have much bigger worlds, streamed music, cutscenes, and even FMVs according to various interviews. That never happened, however, and even most of the stuff developed for these consoles, including their various manuals and specifications, were lost. <br />
<br />
Recently, an actual Sony SNES-CD prototype has been uncovered<ref>http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/11/the-fabled-snes-playstation-prototype-has-been-turned-on-and-disassembled/</ref> and repaired.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug-CyGXMabg</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh91IO9cV48</ref> It had various weird hardware restrictions (number of saves, CD size limit, no co-processors) with much of it likely having to do with its unfinished nature. For example, it had a planned Audio CD support that doesn't actually work, which means the MSU-1 is a much more attractive alternative for hacks aiming to reflect what SNES-CD could have been.<br />
<br />
No$SNS 1.6 supports the Sony SNES-CD add-on. This was made possible after some reverse engineering and analysis of the leaked BIOS file. Get the leaked Super Disc BIOS, circulating on the net as "SDBR_v0.95.sfc". Under the same directory as the no$sns executable, make a "BIOS" folder, put the BIOS file there and rename it to "SFX-100.bin".<br />
<br />
<br />
The only SNES-CD games available online at this time are a legitimate BIOS for one of the discovered prototypes and two homebrew games. These games, Magic Floor and Super Boss Gaiden (both of which have alternate versions as regular SNES ROMs) come as BIN/CUE files. NO$SNS 1.6 supports only one CD mode, so it doesn't actually read the CUE but just the BIN file. Both of these were tested on the real hardware and have severe visual glitches due to the SNES-CD adding more undocumented interrupts which are not accurately emulated anywhere, which means it's safe to say that while SNES-CD emulation exists nowadays, it would have low compatibility with any legit unreleased SNES-CD game prototypes.<br />
<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"<br />
|+PC<br />
|-<br />
! scope="col"|Name<br />
! scope="col"|OS<br />
! scope="col"|Version<br />
! scope="col"|SNES-CD (Sony)<br />
! scope="col"|[[Emulation Accuracy|Accuracy]]<br />
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]<br />
|-<br />
|[[No$|NO$SNS]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://problemkaputt.de/sns.htm 1.6]<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|Mid<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===MSU-1===<br />
Cue the MSU-1, which aims to add some of these features to the SNES. It's a custom fan-made hardware specification for an additional chip, eventually made available and working with real SNES hardware, as the SD2SNES flashcard. It's the closest to the SNES-CD that you'll ever get. No more 12MB maximum cartridge size limitation!<br />
<br />
One inconvenience is that this specification isn't really supported by most emulators. It's currently supported by the SD2SNES flash card, bsnes (v075 and up), higan (v094 and up), and Snes9x (1.55 and up). These hacks simply won't work at all in other emulators, unless their developers implement an MSU-1 check to let the game run in these emulators without the MSU-1 enhancements (the MSU-1 specification has a specific feature to allow for compatibility testing).<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"<br />
|+PC<br />
|-<br />
! scope="col"|Name<br />
! scope="col"|OS<br />
! scope="col"|Version<br />
! scope="col"|MSU-1<br />
! scope="col"|[[Emulation Accuracy|Accuracy]]<br />
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]<br />
|-<br />
|[[higan]]<br />
|Windows, Linux<br />
|[http://byuu.org/higan/ {{higanVer}}]<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|Cycle<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Higan|bsnes]]<br />
|Windows, Linux, macOS<br />
|[http://byuu.org/higan/ {{higanVer}}]<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|Cycle<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Snes9x]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://www.snes9x.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=24351 {{Snes9xVer}}]<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|High<br />
| {{✓}}<br />
|}<br />
<br />
To load the MSU-1 patched games with higan or bsnes:<br />
# Patch the original SNES ROM with the IPS patch<br />
# Make sure to copy <code>manifest.bml</code> and the PCM files (generated with <code>create_pcm.bat</code>, often found included with the sound pack) in the same directory as the ROM<br />
#* Make sure it's <code>%USERPROFILE%\Emulation\Super Famicom\</code> in the case of higan, and follow the readme included to know what names to use<br />
# Launch with higan/bsnes.<br />
To load the MSU-1 patched games with Snes9x:<br />
# Patch the original SNES ROM with the IPS patch<br />
# Copy the patched ROM file, any MSU image file and the PCM files (generated with <code>create_pcm.bat</code>, often found included with the sound pack) in the same directory as the ROM.<br />
#* Make sure the files all carry the same name prefix as the base ROM, with the MSU image having a <code>.msu</code> extension and all PCM files suffixed by track number.<br />
# Launch the base ROM with Snes9x.<br />
<br />
Notable hacks for the MSU-1 include:<br />
* [http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/right.shtml BS Zelda no Densetsu] (a restoration of how the streamed audio played in the Satellaview game!)<br />
* [http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/sekibanfiles.shtml BS Zelda no Densetsu: Inishie no Sekiban]<br />
* [http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2546/ Chrono Trigger] (includes a conversion of the FMV intro from the PlayStation version of the game)<br />
* [http://www.dkc-atlas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2073 Donkey Kong Country 2]<br />
* [http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2483/ The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past] (with an optional patch adding FMVs)<br />
* [http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2274/ Mega Man X]<br />
* [http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2342/ Mega Man X3] (with CD version audio)<br />
* [http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2311/ Rock n' Roll Racing]<br />
* [http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2467/ Secret of Mana]<br />
* [http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2472/ Super Mario World]<br />
* [http://www.dforce3000.de/?uid=48 Super Road Blaster] (port of the FMV arcade game)<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
<br />
==Resources==<br />
* [http://wiki.superfamicom.org/snes/show/HomePage SNES Development Wiki] – SNES Development Wiki for you know, SNES Development.<br />
* [http://tasvideos.org/EmulatorResources/SNESAccuracyTests.html SNES Accuracy Tests (TASVideos)] – Test results on various emulators using test ROMs<br />
<br />
<br />
{{Nintendo}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Consoles]]<br />
[[Category:Nintendo consoles]]<br />
[[Category:Super Nintendo emulators|*]]<br />
[[Category:Fourth-generation video game consoles]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Multi-system_emulators&diff=25162Multi-system emulators2019-01-12T10:23:44Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: /* Emulators */ Added Xe.</p>
<hr />
<div>Multi-system emulators focus on emulating many different systems under one program. They can be focused on a single company's systems because of the similarity of the systems or may have systems from many different companies.<br />
<br />
To be defined as "multi-system" an emulator has to emulate two or more distinct systems. Although, for simplicity reasons in this wiki (not just this page), the term, "multi-platform", in the OS column fields can come to mean three or more covered platforms. For the purpose of this list, Add-ons (eg. Sega CD, 32X) are not counted as a separate system.<br />
<br />
==Emulators==<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"<br />
! scope="col"|Name<br />
! scope="col"|Operating System(s)<br />
! scope="col"|Latest Version<br />
! scope="col"|[[libretro|Libretro Core]]<br />
! scope="col"|# of Emulated systems<br />
! scope="col"|Active<br />
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="6"|Multi-company<br />
|-<br />
|[[MAME]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://www.mamedev.org/release.html {{MAMEVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|Thousands of electronics<ref>[http://www.mamedb.org/List.aspx www.mamedb.org's list] (Only shows the games covered, not systems)</ref><br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Mednafen]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[{{MednafenURL|releases/}} {{MednafenVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|17<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[OpenEmu]]<br />
|macOS<br />
|[http://openemu.org/ {{OpenEmuVer}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|35<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Phoenix (emulator)|Phoenix]]<br />
||Multi-platform<br />
|[http://www.arts-union.ru/node/23 2.8.JAG]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|5<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[BizHawk]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://tasvideos.org/BizHawk/ReleaseHistory.html {{BizHawkVer}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|29 (excluding the [[libretro]] cores)<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[ZEsarUX]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux/releases {{ZEsarUXVer}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|18<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|Retro Virtual Machine<br />
|Windows, Linux, macOS<br />
|[https://www.retrovirtualmachine.org/ 2.0.beta-1.r1]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|2<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Pantheon]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://bostjan-grandovec.si/Content/News.htm {{PantheonVer}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|20<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{~}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[higan]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://byuu.org/emulation/higan/ {{higanVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|12<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Clock Signal|CLK]]<br />
|macOS, Unix-alikes<br />
|[https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/releases {{clkver}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|11<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Exodus]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://www.exodusemulator.com/index.php/downloads/current-release {{ExodusVer}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|More than 1<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|?<br />
|-<br />
|DSP<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[https://github.com/leniad/dsp-emulator 0.18]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|More than 10<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|?<br />
|-<br />
|WinArcadia<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://amigan.1emu.net/releases/#amiarcadia 24.93]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|More than 20<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|?<br />
|-<br />
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20141105014113/http://www.xe-emulator.com/ Xe]<br />
|Windows, Linux<br />
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20141022230129/http://www.xe-emulator.com/index.php?m=download 2.16.2]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|More than 5<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="6"|Nintendo<br />
|-<br />
|[[Dolphin]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[https://dolphin-emu.org/download/ {{DolphinVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|3<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[No$|No$GBA]]<br />
|Windows, DOS<br />
|[http://problemkaputt.de/gba.htm {{No$GBAVer}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|3*<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="6"|Sega<br />
|-<br />
|[[Kega Fusion]]<br />
|Windows, Linux, macOS<br />
|[http://www.carpeludum.com/kega-fusion/ 3.64]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|10<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[PicoDrive]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[https://notaz.gp2x.de/pico.php {{PicoDriveVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|6<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="6"|Sinclair<br />
|-<br />
|[[EightyOne]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[https://sourceforge.net/projects/eightyone-sinclair-emulator/files/ {{EightyOneVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|12<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="6"|Commodore<br />
|-<br />
|[[VICE]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://vice-emu.sourceforge.net/index.html#download {{VICEVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|6<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|}<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki>No$GBA apparently also does [[PocketStation emulators|PocketStation emulation]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references/><br />
<br />
==External Links==<br />
* [https://github.com/mamedev/mame/tree/master/src/mame/drivers GitHub list of all covered 'drivers' (Systems & machines emulated) under the MAME group] (Pretty crappy list. Only the first 1,000 drivers are shown there. The rest are omitted. Approximately 2250 drivers in all.)<br />
<br />
[[Category:Consoles]]<br />
[[Category:Multi-emulators|*]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=SG-1000_emulators&diff=25161SG-1000 emulators2019-01-12T10:18:37Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: /* Emulators */ Version bump</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox console<br />
|title = Sega SG-1000 <br />
|logo = Sega-SG-1000-Console-Set.png<br />
|developer = [[:Sega]]<br />
|type = [[:Category:Consoles|Home video game console]]<br />
|generation = [[:Category:Third-generation video game consoles|Third generation]]<br />
|release = 1983<br />
|discontinued = 1985<br />
|successor = [[Master System emulators|Master System]]<br />
|emulated = {{✓}}<br />
}}<br />
The '''SG-1000''', also known as '''Sega Game 1000''', was a third-generation 8-bit home video game console released by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega Sega] on July 15, 1983 and had a Zilog Z80 CPU at 3.58 MHz with 1KB of RAM. This system marked Sega's first entry into the home video game hardware business. The SG-1000 didn't see much success in its home country, mostly due to competition from the technically superior [[Nintendo Entertainment System emulators|Famicom]]; it did however enjoy a brief period of popularity in Taiwan, prior to the latter market being inundiated by unlicensed Family Computer clones.<br />
<br />
Sega's use of off-the-shelf components in developing the console, which was also shared with the [[ColecoVision emulators|ColecoVision]], led to at least one unauthorized clone of the SG-1000, manufactured and sold by Taiwan-based Bit Corporation as the Dina 2-in-1. Indeed, the Dina had support for SG-1000 games and ColecoVision titles to a certain extent.<br />
<br />
The '''SC-3000''' (also known as '''Sega Computer 3000''') was its home computer counterpart and has a built-in keyboard.<br />
<br />
==Emulators==<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"<br />
|+PC<br />
! scope="col"|Name<br />
! scope="col"|Operating System(s)<br />
! scope="col"|Latest Version<br />
! scope="col"|SG-1000<br />
! scope="col"|SC-3000<br />
! scope="col"|SF-7000<br />
! scope="col"|[[libretro|Libretro Core]]<br />
! scope="col"|Active<br />
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]<br />
|-<br />
|[[Kega Fusion]]<br />
|Windows, Linux, macOS<br />
|[http://www.carpeludum.com/kega-fusion/ 3.64]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|MasterGear<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://fms.komkon.org/MG/ 4.5]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[MAME]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://www.mamedev.org/release.html {{MAMEVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Genesis Plus GX]]<br />
|Multi-platform*<br />
|{{GenPlusGXVer}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[BizHawk]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://tasvideos.org/BizHawk/ReleaseHistory.html {{BizHawkVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[blueMSX]]<br />
|Windows, Multi-platform**<br />
|[http://bluemsx.com/download.html 2.8.2]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|Meka<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://www.smspower.org/meka/ 0.80]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[vdmgr]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://www.geocities.jp/g_lsluk/vdmgr.html {{vdmgrVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{~}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[https://web.archive.org/web/20071206014650/http://www.dridus.com:80/~nyef/darcnes/ DarcNES]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[https://segaretro.org/DarcNES 9b0401/9b0313]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{~}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Clock Signal|CLK]]<br />
|macOS & UNIX-alikes<br />
|[https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/releases {{clkver}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|CoolCV<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://atariage.com/forums/topic/240800-coolcv-emulator-for-mac-os-x-linux-windows-and-raspberry/ 0.6.6]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[http://sourceforge.net/projects/twombit/ TwoMbit]<br />
|Windows, Linux, macOS<br />
|[http://sourceforge.net/projects/twombit/files/ 1.0.5]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[http://freezesms.emuunlim.com/ FreezeSMS]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://freezesms.emuunlim.com/download.html 4.6]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki>Only available on PC as a libretro core (e.g. [[RetroArch]]).<br />
<br />
<nowiki>**</nowiki>Only available outside of Windows as a libretro core (e.g. [[RetroArch]]).<br />
<br />
{{Sega}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Consoles]]<br />
[[Category:Sega consoles]]<br />
[[Category:SG-1000 emulators|*]]<br />
[[Category:Third-generation video game consoles]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Multi-system_emulators&diff=25158Multi-system emulators2019-01-12T10:00:34Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: /* Emulators */ Added DSP and WinArcadia</p>
<hr />
<div>Multi-system emulators focus on emulating many different systems under one program. They can be focused on a single company's systems because of the similarity of the systems or may have systems from many different companies.<br />
<br />
To be defined as "multi-system" an emulator has to emulate two or more distinct systems. Although, for simplicity reasons in this wiki (not just this page), the term, "multi-platform", in the OS column fields can come to mean three or more covered platforms. For the purpose of this list, Add-ons (eg. Sega CD, 32X) are not counted as a separate system.<br />
<br />
==Emulators==<br />
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"<br />
! scope="col"|Name<br />
! scope="col"|Operating System(s)<br />
! scope="col"|Latest Version<br />
! scope="col"|[[libretro|Libretro Core]]<br />
! scope="col"|# of Emulated systems<br />
! scope="col"|Active<br />
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="6"|Multi-company<br />
|-<br />
|[[MAME]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://www.mamedev.org/release.html {{MAMEVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|Thousands of electronics<ref>[http://www.mamedb.org/List.aspx www.mamedb.org's list] (Only shows the games covered, not systems)</ref><br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Mednafen]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[{{MednafenURL|releases/}} {{MednafenVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|17<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[OpenEmu]]<br />
|macOS<br />
|[http://openemu.org/ {{OpenEmuVer}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|35<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Phoenix (emulator)|Phoenix]]<br />
||Multi-platform<br />
|[http://www.arts-union.ru/node/23 2.8.JAG]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|5<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[BizHawk]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://tasvideos.org/BizHawk/ReleaseHistory.html {{BizHawkVer}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|29 (excluding the [[libretro]] cores)<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[ZEsarUX]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[https://github.com/chernandezba/zesarux/releases {{ZEsarUXVer}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|18<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|Retro Virtual Machine<br />
|Windows, Linux, macOS<br />
|[https://www.retrovirtualmachine.org/ 2.0.beta-1.r1]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|2<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Pantheon]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://bostjan-grandovec.si/Content/News.htm {{PantheonVer}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|20<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{~}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[higan]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://byuu.org/emulation/higan/ {{higanVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|12<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Clock Signal|CLK]]<br />
|macOS, Unix-alikes<br />
|[https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/releases {{clkver}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|11<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[Exodus]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[http://www.exodusemulator.com/index.php/downloads/current-release {{ExodusVer}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|?<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|?<br />
|-<br />
|DSP<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[https://github.com/leniad/dsp-emulator 0.18]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|More than 10<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|?<br />
|-<br />
|WinArcadia<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://amigan.1emu.net/releases/#amiarcadia 24.93]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|More than 20<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|?<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="6"|Nintendo<br />
|-<br />
|[[Dolphin]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[https://dolphin-emu.org/download/ {{DolphinVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|3<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[No$|No$GBA]]<br />
|Windows, DOS<br />
|[http://problemkaputt.de/gba.htm {{No$GBAVer}}]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|3*<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="6"|Sega<br />
|-<br />
|[[Kega Fusion]]<br />
|Windows, Linux, macOS<br />
|[http://www.carpeludum.com/kega-fusion/ 3.64]<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|10<br />
|{{✗}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
|[[PicoDrive]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[https://notaz.gp2x.de/pico.php {{PicoDriveVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|6<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="6"|Sinclair<br />
|-<br />
|[[EightyOne]]<br />
|Windows<br />
|[https://sourceforge.net/projects/eightyone-sinclair-emulator/files/ {{EightyOneVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|12<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|-<br />
!colspan="6"|Commodore<br />
|-<br />
|[[VICE]]<br />
|Multi-platform<br />
|[http://vice-emu.sourceforge.net/index.html#download {{VICEVer}}]<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|6<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|{{✓}}<br />
|}<br />
<nowiki>*</nowiki>No$GBA apparently also does [[PocketStation emulators|PocketStation emulation]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references/><br />
<br />
==External Links==<br />
* [https://github.com/mamedev/mame/tree/master/src/mame/drivers GitHub list of all covered 'drivers' (Systems & machines emulated) under the MAME group] (Pretty crappy list. Only the first 1,000 drivers are shown there. The rest are omitted. Approximately 2250 drivers in all.)<br />
<br />
[[Category:Consoles]]<br />
[[Category:Multi-emulators|*]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=QEMU&diff=25153QEMU2019-01-12T09:26:18Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: Automated QEMU's version updates.</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Infobox emulator<br />
|title = Quick Emulator<br />
|logo = <br />
|logowidth = <br />
|developer = Fabrice Bellard et al.<br />
|version = {{QEMUVer}}<br />
|active = Yes<br />
|platform = Windows, Linux, macOS, [[Android emulators|Android]] <small>(port)</small><br />
|architecture = x86_64, ARM, PowerPC, SPARC, MIPS, Itanium<br />
|target = [[86/286/386/486/Pentium/Pentium II]]<br/>Various PowerPC machines<br/>Various ARM devices<br/>SPARC<br/>MicroBlaze<br/>LatticeMico32<br/>CRIS<br/>OpenRISC<br />
|compatibility = <br />
|accuracy = <br />
|website = [https://www.qemu.org/ qemu.org]<br />
|prog-lang = C<br />
|source = [https://git.qemu.org/?p=qemu.git Official repository]<br/>[https://github.com/qemu/qemu GitHub mirror]<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''[[wikipedia:QEMU|QEMU]]''' (an acronym for '''<u>Q</u>uick <u>Emu</u>lator''') is a general-purpose computer emulator and hypervisor originally developed by Fabrice Bellard in 2003. It emulates a wide range of architectures beyond [[wikipedia:x86|x86]], and has been used in [[Android emulators|Android emulation]] both officially and unofficially; it's also well-known in the server industry for its handling of virtual machines using KVM (and more recently libvirt), and is the choice of the VFIO community (running Windows in a virtual machine with a dedicated graphics card for gaming). QEMU is also the only known emulator to implement user-mode emulation (on Linux), which allows one architecture to run software for another as if it were native.<br />
<br />
==Download==<br />
* [https://www.qemu.org/download/ '''Official / Recommended builds'''] (Windows, Linux, macOS)<br />
* [https://limboemulator.weebly.com/downloads.html Limbo port] ([[Android emulators|Android]])<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
* [https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation QEMU Wiki Documentation]<br />
* [https://wiki.qemu.org/Documentation/Platforms Wiki] (Platforms available in QEMU)<br />
<br />
[[Category:Emulators]]<br />
[[Category:Windows emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:Linux emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:macOS emulation software]]<br />
[[Category:Android emulation software]]</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Template:QEMUVer&diff=25149Template:QEMUVer2019-01-12T09:26:06Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: Created template page to automate QEMU's version updates.</p>
<hr />
<div>3.1.0</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Template:DOSBox-XVer&diff=25148Template:DOSBox-XVer2019-01-12T09:26:03Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: Created template page to automate DOSBox-X's version updates.</p>
<hr />
<div>0.82.14</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Template:BochsVer&diff=25147Template:BochsVer2019-01-12T09:26:00Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: Created template page to automate Bochs's version updates.</p>
<hr />
<div>2.6.9</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Support_emulation_projects&diff=25138Support emulation projects2019-01-12T09:07:35Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''''WIP page, help wanted.'''''<br />
<br />
There are several ways to support or contribute to an emulation project (or similar projects such as [[compatibility layers]], [[game engine recreations/Source Ports|game engine recreations/source ports]] or simulators). Explained here are different ways you can get involved, even if you have low technical skill and/or no money.<br />
<br />
Note that almost all these methods require getting involved in some way. Offering to help in a specific area may not be necessary in some cases, so you'll have to check with each project you're interested in to determine what they're looking for and what they find useful.<br />
<br />
==Testing & bug reporting==<br />
One area you may be able to help in is reporting information, especially if you notice bugs in games that you play. This can be done a number of ways, but they all help the developer see where the emulator still has to improve.<br />
<br />
''more text here...''<br />
<br />
=== Compatibility reporting ===<br />
<br />
A compatibility report communicates the emulation quality. It is aimed at other users, and often consists of a compatibility list.<br />
<br />
Some emulators use GitHub for their lists. Most projects have instructions on how they should be written. Make sure you search to see if any issues you're having has already been encountered by another user. Note that sending users to GitHub is dangerous - you should only do it if the project has a simplified compatibility list which doesn't require technical understanding / writing; most projects actually use wikis or custom tools / websites for compatibility reporting. Some use spreadsheets and forms to get their data.<br />
<br />
''more text here...''<br />
<br />
=== Bug reporting ===<br />
<br />
A bug report concerns one specific problem. It is aimed at emulator developers.<br />
<br />
Because bug reports are meant for developers, they are expected to be more technical than a compatibility report.<br />
They're also typically expected to include details about specific situations when the problem arises, but also technical details as to why it happens.<br />
Developers also read compatibility reports and create respective bug reports themselves.<br />
<br />
Sometimes you need a fair bit of experience in order to report bugs to the major projects. If you lack the experience to match what developers themselves report then most smaller projects are fine with it as long as you try to make it coherent and professional. Many projects have the program set up to automatically forward logs to developers at the user's discretion. This can avoid having to explain the problem, though sometimes they'll want context in case they need to reproduce it.<br />
<br />
Generally you should chat to other developers / maintainers (via IRC or Discord) before creating a bug report.<br />
Often they are aware of issues and have grouped them under a known technical term.<br />
<br />
''more text here...''<br />
<br />
=== Console verification ===<br />
<br />
Despite being aimed at developers, users should read / follow bug reports they care about.<br />
<br />
Many emulators not only need games tested in the emulator, but also on real hardware, because games aren't perfect. If you've been involved with the speedrunning community, you ''know'' bugs exist, and can be taken advantage of to get a faster time.<br />
Determining what is a bug in the game and what is inaccurate emulation can prevent developers from wasting time on problems they didn't create. All projects encounter this at some point; even the testers behind [[Dolphin]] encounter [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd29mWwp5c8 bugs that happen on hardware].<br />
Ideally, you should have a capture card for recording footage from hardware.<br />
<br />
During the research and documentation phase, some developers will also write small programs to test hardware behavior.<br />
In some cases the developers don't have access to the physical hardware or they need to confirm results by having multiple users run the tests. This can also be done in cases where the code doesn't work on all hardware revisions, and the developer needs to test it on all revisions to understand where each model has deficiencies; sometimes they don't have all models, but the more accuracy-focused projects will have this covered in some way. Hackers and those in the homebrew scene may have documented these deficiencies already.<br />
You can follow developer chat-rooms, and offer assistance by running tests and collecting data from real hardware.<br />
<br />
==Provide support for end users==<br />
Helping and guiding other users through problems is one of the pillars of open communities. If there's one thing a developer doesn't want to have to do alone, it's troubleshoot problems that end users get themselves into. Providing support for end-users will allow developers to focus on the software they make, creating a filter that allows actual bugs to be reported and saving time in the process. You also need a slight sense of confidence to make decisions for the user. For most people who work in IT (or just Google their problems), this comes naturally.<br />
<br />
Support can be provided on a Discord server, IRC server, or a project's forums.<br />
<br />
==Write & promotion==<br />
Outreach and promotion is an important factor in the success of an emulator because it gets people talking about it, especially emulators for newer consoles that make strides in their efforts regularly.<br />
<br />
This can be done by writing official blog posts, posting news on social media, providing information, making videos for YouTube, explaining and summarizing changelogs, etc.<br />
<br />
== Archival & hardware donations ==<br />
<br />
Optical discs like CD and DVDs have a limited lifespan. They degrade over time and will eventually be unreadable to a disc reader.<br />
Projects like [http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Redump.org Redump] are focused on identifying all officially released discs.<br />
Each known disc is stored with information which makes it possible for users to verify the correctness of their disc.<br />
Contributing to these databases (by dumping your discs and contributing metadata) helps to build a full-set for testing emulators.<br />
It also encourages users to make legal backups of their discs before they break.<br />
<br />
Game databases like [https://www.mobygames.com/ MobyGames] can be used to find additional information for each game. Launchers can use the uploaded descriptions and cover artwork. You can contribute by scanning your game artwork, finding and adding game information (such as release dates).<br />
MobyGames also stores barcodes and serial numbers which can be used to find releases in Redump's database.<br />
You can look at the existing cover artwork and extract such information.<br />
<br />
You can donate games or hardware to developers or other volunteers who are accepting such donations.<br />
Donated games can then be analyzed by the recipient and their information can be added to databases such as those listed above.<br />
Emulator developers usually require a large number of consoles, games, and peripherals (controllers, memory cards, ..), so donations are typically welcome.<br />
Depending on the project structure these will be forwarded to people who are in need of such hardware.<br />
Contact project maintainers to find out what they accept.<br />
<br />
== Help with technical documentation ==<br />
<br />
Emulators depend on technical documentation about the systems they emulate.<br />
Typically, there are dedicated communities (often including people from the homebrew scene, and much less commonly the piracy and warez scene) for these research and documentation tasks.<br />
<br />
These research communities often uses wikis that need to be maintained.<br />
Beginners can help by fixing typos or formatting. For some of these tasks, no coding skills are required.<br />
Advanced users and developers can contribute their own research, or participate in technical discussions.<br />
<br />
Many of these communities also maintain their own tools which can be helpful for ROM dumping or testing emulation.<br />
These tools are often written in beginner-friendly programming languages (such as C# or Python) and can be stepping-stone for moving towards actual emulator development.<br />
<br />
=== Communities ===<br />
<br />
* [https://github.com/xboxdev/xboxdev XboxDev] for original Xbox and SEGA Chihiro<br />
* [https://www.3dbrew.org/ 3DBrew] for 3DS<br />
<br />
== Learn how to code and help out ==<br />
A pretty obvious one, but it should be stated that most open-source emulation projects don't get nearly enough support in the programming area. Bigger projects often have an abundance of developers to constantly check on the code and make sure it's written well, but those are rare, so most projects are often one man operations or have few (if multiple) developers. Many projects are actively looking for programmers, so if you have knowledge in systems programming and such, you could definitely be of help.<br />
<br />
Programming for the emulator itself isn't even necessary, as many projects are in need of websites and continuous integration (CI). If the emulator doesn't use stable builds (or all that exists are instructions for compiling from source), you could implement CI and integrate it with the website so it can host precompiled builds for users. Continuous integration is also useful because it can run the program with test ROMs to ensure that compatibility isn't broken between commits. The major projects will have this covered. Sometimes older project developers don't like to change the website's infrastructure, so you're better off handling projects for which there is no existing website.<br />
<br />
If you're experienced with Linux, you can help port a program to your distribution (or mostly every distro if the main developers are already considering something like AppImages).<br />
<br />
==Donate money==<br />
<br />
Emulator development is a time-intensive task. A lot of projects could use some money, especially ones where they often don't get it when they should. Some projects are simply possible because the developers have money from their existing job to be able to fund their efforts on the emulator. Sometimes it goes a long way in helping archivists on the team hunt for rare items.<br />
<br />
Many projects are often a group effort, so from a user's perspective there's no fair way to distribute what comes in.<br />
Often developers of emulators can only do their work because research has been done by other people - unfortunately, that work often goes unrewarded.<br />
It's therefore important to understand who you donate to, and how that money will be shared and used among the group. Make sure developers are upfront about who gets paid and what they're using your donations for. More informal ones will say they use the donations on a beer or coffee, but it's also often put towards project operations like domain registration for the website and such to keep the website running.<br />
<br />
Some problems may arise from this; money can potentially be a deterrent for newcomers on open-source projects. By only supporting the core developer group, it might actively discourage other contributors because the reward system would be unfair. ("Why do I have to work for free when ''x'' is getting paid on a monthly basis?") This can quickly lead to one "hero" developer - if they ever disappear, the project essentially dies because nobody else is familiar with the [[source code]]. Some projects have countered this by implementing a bounty system, where newcomers can be rewarded for fixing bugs that are outside the scope of what the core developers focus on. Keep in mind that even in the hundreds of dollars, a bounty isn't going to pay the developer's bills, but it's a better incentive than otherwise.<br />
<br />
For some projects, there is no practical use for money: money doesn't write code.<br />
There's also a lot of free services for open-source projects, so many projects don't have any expenses.<br />
<br />
=== Patreon ===<br />
[[Emulators on Patreon|Several emulators have a Patreon.]] We've been tracking projects that use Patreon since mid-2017.<br />
<br />
=== BountySource ===<br />
BountySource lets you directly donate money to certain features or improvements you wish for. Some known projects that use BountySource include [https://www.bountysource.com/teams/libretro libretro] and [https://www.bountysource.com/teams/reicast Reicast].<br />
<br />
=== PayPal and other ways to donate ===<br />
Some emulators have PayPal addresses and such on their homepages.<br />
<br />
== Big projects ==<br />
Note that this list is only intended to provide examples of ways to help out/getting involved, so we only list major examples.<br />
<br />
=== MAME ===<br />
It's not possible to donate directly to MAME, but several other projects that help MAME's development can be supported.<br />
<br />
* [http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Number=311481 The Dumping Union] - Accepts donations from PayPal.<br />
<br />
* [https://team-europe.blogspot.com/ Team Europe] - Accepts donations from PayPal. [https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/9txdsz/mame_team_europe_would_like_help_funding_some/ See info here on how to donate].<br />
<br />
* [https://caps0ff.blogspot.com/ CAPS0ff] - [https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4805718 Has a Patreon].<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Libretro / RetroArch ===<br />
The libretro Team has<br />
* A [https://www.libretro.com/index.php/contributions/ contribute page] with wish lists for hardware and other info. <br />
* [https://www.patreon.com/libretro A Patreon.]<br />
* [https://www.bountysource.com/teams/libretro A BountySource system] where you can donate money directly to features, bugfixes, and improvements you'd wish to see.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=== ScummVM / ResidualVM ===<br />
The ScummVM Team has<br />
* [http://sourceforge.net/donate/index.php?group_id=37116 A PayPal.]<br />
* [https://bugs.scummvm.org/ A bug tracker.]<br />
* [https://translations.scummvm.org/projects/scummvm/scummvm/ A translation portal.]<br />
* [https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Developer_Central A Developer Central page] with instructions on how to contribute code.<br />
<br />
ResidualVM has a [http://wiki.residualvm.org/index.php/Getting_Involved getting involved page] and a [http://wiki.residualvm.org/index.php/Reporting_Bugs page for reporting bugs].<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Wine ===<br />
The Wine Team has a [https://www.winehq.org/donate Donate page] where you can find information on how to donate with PayPal and other ways to send money. You can also support them by buying merchandise.<br />
<br />
Another option is to buy [https://www.codeweavers.com/about/support-wine CrossOver] which is a commercialized, supported version of Wine from CodeWeavers. They contribute all of their work on CrossOvers back to Wine and make up about two thirds of the commits made to Wine.</div>Emulation General Wikihttps://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php?title=Support_emulation_projects&diff=25137Support emulation projects2019-01-12T09:06:38Z<p>Emulation General Wiki: /* WINE */ WINE -> Wine</p>
<hr />
<div>'''''WIP page, help wanted.'''''<br />
<br />
There are several ways to support or contribute to an emulation project (or similar projects such as [[compatibility layers]], [[game engine recreations]] or simulators). Explained here are different ways you can get involved, even if you have low technical skill and/or no money.<br />
<br />
Note that almost all these methods require getting involved in some way. Offering to help in a specific area may not be necessary in some cases, so you'll have to check with each project you're interested in to determine what they're looking for and what they find useful.<br />
<br />
==Testing & bug reporting==<br />
One area you may be able to help in is reporting information, especially if you notice bugs in games that you play. This can be done a number of ways, but they all help the developer see where the emulator still has to improve.<br />
<br />
''more text here...''<br />
<br />
=== Compatibility reporting ===<br />
<br />
A compatibility report communicates the emulation quality. It is aimed at other users, and often consists of a compatibility list.<br />
<br />
Some emulators use GitHub for their lists. Most projects have instructions on how they should be written. Make sure you search to see if any issues you're having has already been encountered by another user. Note that sending users to GitHub is dangerous - you should only do it if the project has a simplified compatibility list which doesn't require technical understanding / writing; most projects actually use wikis or custom tools / websites for compatibility reporting. Some use spreadsheets and forms to get their data.<br />
<br />
''more text here...''<br />
<br />
=== Bug reporting ===<br />
<br />
A bug report concerns one specific problem. It is aimed at emulator developers.<br />
<br />
Because bug reports are meant for developers, they are expected to be more technical than a compatibility report.<br />
They're also typically expected to include details about specific situations when the problem arises, but also technical details as to why it happens.<br />
Developers also read compatibility reports and create respective bug reports themselves.<br />
<br />
Sometimes you need a fair bit of experience in order to report bugs to the major projects. If you lack the experience to match what developers themselves report then most smaller projects are fine with it as long as you try to make it coherent and professional. Many projects have the program set up to automatically forward logs to developers at the user's discretion. This can avoid having to explain the problem, though sometimes they'll want context in case they need to reproduce it.<br />
<br />
Generally you should chat to other developers / maintainers (via IRC or Discord) before creating a bug report.<br />
Often they are aware of issues and have grouped them under a known technical term.<br />
<br />
''more text here...''<br />
<br />
=== Console verification ===<br />
<br />
Despite being aimed at developers, users should read / follow bug reports they care about.<br />
<br />
Many emulators not only need games tested in the emulator, but also on real hardware, because games aren't perfect. If you've been involved with the speedrunning community, you ''know'' bugs exist, and can be taken advantage of to get a faster time.<br />
Determining what is a bug in the game and what is inaccurate emulation can prevent developers from wasting time on problems they didn't create. All projects encounter this at some point; even the testers behind [[Dolphin]] encounter [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd29mWwp5c8 bugs that happen on hardware].<br />
Ideally, you should have a capture card for recording footage from hardware.<br />
<br />
During the research and documentation phase, some developers will also write small programs to test hardware behavior.<br />
In some cases the developers don't have access to the physical hardware or they need to confirm results by having multiple users run the tests. This can also be done in cases where the code doesn't work on all hardware revisions, and the developer needs to test it on all revisions to understand where each model has deficiencies; sometimes they don't have all models, but the more accuracy-focused projects will have this covered in some way. Hackers and those in the homebrew scene may have documented these deficiencies already.<br />
You can follow developer chat-rooms, and offer assistance by running tests and collecting data from real hardware.<br />
<br />
==Provide support for end users==<br />
Helping and guiding other users through problems is one of the pillars of open communities. If there's one thing a developer doesn't want to have to do alone, it's troubleshoot problems that end users get themselves into. Providing support for end-users will allow developers to focus on the software they make, creating a filter that allows actual bugs to be reported and saving time in the process. You also need a slight sense of confidence to make decisions for the user. For most people who work in IT (or just Google their problems), this comes naturally.<br />
<br />
Support can be provided on a Discord server, IRC server, or a project's forums.<br />
<br />
==Write & promotion==<br />
Outreach and promotion is an important factor in the success of an emulator because it gets people talking about it, especially emulators for newer consoles that make strides in their efforts regularly.<br />
<br />
This can be done by writing official blog posts, posting news on social media, providing information, making videos for YouTube, explaining and summarizing changelogs, etc.<br />
<br />
== Archival & hardware donations ==<br />
<br />
Optical discs like CD and DVDs have a limited lifespan. They degrade over time and will eventually be unreadable to a disc reader.<br />
Projects like [http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Redump.org Redump] are focused on identifying all officially released discs.<br />
Each known disc is stored with information which makes it possible for users to verify the correctness of their disc.<br />
Contributing to these databases (by dumping your discs and contributing metadata) helps to build a full-set for testing emulators.<br />
It also encourages users to make legal backups of their discs before they break.<br />
<br />
Game databases like [https://www.mobygames.com/ MobyGames] can be used to find additional information for each game. Launchers can use the uploaded descriptions and cover artwork. You can contribute by scanning your game artwork, finding and adding game information (such as release dates).<br />
MobyGames also stores barcodes and serial numbers which can be used to find releases in Redump's database.<br />
You can look at the existing cover artwork and extract such information.<br />
<br />
You can donate games or hardware to developers or other volunteers who are accepting such donations.<br />
Donated games can then be analyzed by the recipient and their information can be added to databases such as those listed above.<br />
Emulator developers usually require a large number of consoles, games, and peripherals (controllers, memory cards, ..), so donations are typically welcome.<br />
Depending on the project structure these will be forwarded to people who are in need of such hardware.<br />
Contact project maintainers to find out what they accept.<br />
<br />
== Help with technical documentation ==<br />
<br />
Emulators depend on technical documentation about the systems they emulate.<br />
Typically, there are dedicated communities (often including people from the homebrew scene, and much less commonly the piracy and warez scene) for these research and documentation tasks.<br />
<br />
These research communities often uses wikis that need to be maintained.<br />
Beginners can help by fixing typos or formatting. For some of these tasks, no coding skills are required.<br />
Advanced users and developers can contribute their own research, or participate in technical discussions.<br />
<br />
Many of these communities also maintain their own tools which can be helpful for ROM dumping or testing emulation.<br />
These tools are often written in beginner-friendly programming languages (such as C# or Python) and can be stepping-stone for moving towards actual emulator development.<br />
<br />
=== Communities ===<br />
<br />
* [https://github.com/xboxdev/xboxdev XboxDev] for original Xbox and SEGA Chihiro<br />
* [https://www.3dbrew.org/ 3DBrew] for 3DS<br />
<br />
== Learn how to code and help out ==<br />
A pretty obvious one, but it should be stated that most open-source emulation projects don't get nearly enough support in the programming area. Bigger projects often have an abundance of developers to constantly check on the code and make sure it's written well, but those are rare, so most projects are often one man operations or have few (if multiple) developers. Many projects are actively looking for programmers, so if you have knowledge in systems programming and such, you could definitely be of help.<br />
<br />
Programming for the emulator itself isn't even necessary, as many projects are in need of websites and continuous integration (CI). If the emulator doesn't use stable builds (or all that exists are instructions for compiling from source), you could implement CI and integrate it with the website so it can host precompiled builds for users. Continuous integration is also useful because it can run the program with test ROMs to ensure that compatibility isn't broken between commits. The major projects will have this covered. Sometimes older project developers don't like to change the website's infrastructure, so you're better off handling projects for which there is no existing website.<br />
<br />
If you're experienced with Linux, you can help port a program to your distribution (or mostly every distro if the main developers are already considering something like AppImages).<br />
<br />
==Donate money==<br />
<br />
Emulator development is a time-intensive task. A lot of projects could use some money, especially ones where they often don't get it when they should. Some projects are simply possible because the developers have money from their existing job to be able to fund their efforts on the emulator. Sometimes it goes a long way in helping archivists on the team hunt for rare items.<br />
<br />
Many projects are often a group effort, so from a user's perspective there's no fair way to distribute what comes in.<br />
Often developers of emulators can only do their work because research has been done by other people - unfortunately, that work often goes unrewarded.<br />
It's therefore important to understand who you donate to, and how that money will be shared and used among the group. Make sure developers are upfront about who gets paid and what they're using your donations for. More informal ones will say they use the donations on a beer or coffee, but it's also often put towards project operations like domain registration for the website and such to keep the website running.<br />
<br />
Some problems may arise from this; money can potentially be a deterrent for newcomers on open-source projects. By only supporting the core developer group, it might actively discourage other contributors because the reward system would be unfair. ("Why do I have to work for free when ''x'' is getting paid on a monthly basis?") This can quickly lead to one "hero" developer - if they ever disappear, the project essentially dies because nobody else is familiar with the [[source code]]. Some projects have countered this by implementing a bounty system, where newcomers can be rewarded for fixing bugs that are outside the scope of what the core developers focus on. Keep in mind that even in the hundreds of dollars, a bounty isn't going to pay the developer's bills, but it's a better incentive than otherwise.<br />
<br />
For some projects, there is no practical use for money: money doesn't write code.<br />
There's also a lot of free services for open-source projects, so many projects don't have any expenses.<br />
<br />
=== Patreon ===<br />
[[Emulators on Patreon|Several emulators have a Patreon.]] We've been tracking projects that use Patreon since mid-2017.<br />
<br />
=== BountySource ===<br />
BountySource lets you directly donate money to certain features or improvements you wish for. Some known projects that use BountySource include [https://www.bountysource.com/teams/libretro libretro] and [https://www.bountysource.com/teams/reicast Reicast].<br />
<br />
=== PayPal and other ways to donate ===<br />
Some emulators have PayPal addresses and such on their homepages.<br />
<br />
== Big projects ==<br />
Note that this list is only intended to provide examples of ways to help out/getting involved, so we only list major examples.<br />
<br />
=== MAME ===<br />
It's not possible to donate directly to MAME, but several other projects that help MAME's development can be supported.<br />
<br />
* [http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showthreaded.php?Number=311481 The Dumping Union] - Accepts donations from PayPal.<br />
<br />
* [https://team-europe.blogspot.com/ Team Europe] - Accepts donations from PayPal. [https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/9txdsz/mame_team_europe_would_like_help_funding_some/ See info here on how to donate].<br />
<br />
* [https://caps0ff.blogspot.com/ CAPS0ff] - [https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4805718 Has a Patreon].<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Libretro / RetroArch ===<br />
The libretro Team has<br />
* A [https://www.libretro.com/index.php/contributions/ contribute page] with wish lists for hardware and other info. <br />
* [https://www.patreon.com/libretro A Patreon.]<br />
* [https://www.bountysource.com/teams/libretro A BountySource system] where you can donate money directly to features, bugfixes, and improvements you'd wish to see.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=== ScummVM / ResidualVM ===<br />
The ScummVM Team has<br />
* [http://sourceforge.net/donate/index.php?group_id=37116 A PayPal.]<br />
* [https://bugs.scummvm.org/ A bug tracker.]<br />
* [https://translations.scummvm.org/projects/scummvm/scummvm/ A translation portal.]<br />
* [https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Developer_Central A Developer Central page] with instructions on how to contribute code.<br />
<br />
ResidualVM has a [http://wiki.residualvm.org/index.php/Getting_Involved getting involved page] and a [http://wiki.residualvm.org/index.php/Reporting_Bugs page for reporting bugs].<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=== Wine ===<br />
The Wine Team has a [https://www.winehq.org/donate Donate page] where you can find information on how to donate with PayPal and other ways to send money. You can also support them by buying merchandise.<br />
<br />
Another option is to buy [https://www.codeweavers.com/about/support-wine CrossOver] which is a commercialized, supported version of Wine from CodeWeavers. They contribute all of their work on CrossOvers back to Wine and make up about two thirds of the commits made to Wine.</div>Emulation General Wiki