Mesen
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Developer(s) | Sour(Mesen1 and Mesen2); Nova Squirrel has a Mesen1 fork for maintaining the codebase and accept pull requests ; [1] also has a fork that has released numerous "beta" builds |
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Latest version | 2.0.0 (preview) |
Active | No |
Platform(s) | Windows Linux macOS 11/12 |
Emulates | NES / Famicom Famicom Disk System SNES / Super Famicom Game Boy (Color) PC-Engine (TurboGrafx-16) |
Accuracy | Cycle-Accurate |
Website | Mesen.ca |
Support ($) | Patreon |
Programmed in | C++, C#, C |
License | GNU GPLv3 |
Source code | GitHub |
Mesen is a free and open-source Famicom (NES), Famicom Disk System (FDS), Super Famicom (SNES), GB/GBC and PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16 emulator for Windows, Linux and macOS. Before 2023, it could only emulate NES, and SNES/GB(C) emulation is in a seperate emulator named Mesen-S. The classic NES-only version is also available as a Libretro core for RetroArch. The macOS version currently must be compiled from source.
Contents
Download[edit]
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Official release | |
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Arch Linux Latest stable package |
Overview[edit]
According to test ROMs, it is ranked as the most compatible NES/FDS emulator, slightly above puNES with a score of 100%.[1]
It has cycle-accurate emulation and offers numerous features, including:
- Support for over 290 mappers, (all licensed games supported.)
- FDS (Famicom Disk System) support
- Top loader NES variant support
- VS. System support
- Dendy support
- HDNes HD packs
- NTSC/PAL support
- NSF/NSFe support
- Video recording/playback
- Video filters (xBRZ, NTSC, etc.)
- Netplay
- Debugging tools
- Overclocking
- Custom palettes
- Sound effects (fake stereo, reverb, etc.)
- Rewind
Mesen can also run SNES games, which also feature similiar features, as well as Super FX and Satellaview support.
Game Boy (DMG) and Game Boy Color (CGB) games can also be played on Mesen, but only Game Boy Color can play CGB games. For DMG games, you can choose either Game Boy or Game Boy Color, or run the game using the Super Game Boy BIOS (1 or 2).
An exclusive feature excluded from older versions is PC-Engine support, as well as the CD-ROM².
Screenshots[edit]
Hardware support[edit]
Mappers[edit]
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 28 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 |
48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | ||
64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 |
80 | 82 | 83 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | ||
96 | 97 | 99 | 101 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 111 | |||||
112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 | 123 | 125 | 126 | |||
132 | 133 | 134 | 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141 | 142 | 143 | |||||
144 | 145 | 146 | 147 | 148 | 149 | 150 | 151 | 152 | 153 | 154 | 155 | 156 | 157 | 158 | 159 |
162 | 163 | 164 | 165 | 166 | 167 | 168 | 170 | 171 | 172 | 173 | 174 | 175 | |||
176 | 177 | 178 | 179 | 180 | 182 | 183 | 184 | 185 | 186 | 187 | 188 | 189 | 190 | 191 | |
192 | 193 | 194 | 195 | 196 | 197 | 198 | 199 | 200 | 201 | 202 | 203 | 204 | 205 | 206 | 207 |
208 | 209 | 210 | 211 | 212 | 213 | 214 | 215 | 216 | 217 | 218 | 219 | 220 | 221 | 222 | |
224 | 225 | 226 | 227 | 228 | 229 | 230 | 231 | 232 | 233 | 234 | 235 | 236 | 238 | ||
240 | 241 | 242 | 243 | 244 | 245 | 246 | 249 | 250 | 252 | 253 | 254 | 255 |
List of forks[edit]
Name | Platform(s) | Latest Version | libretro | Active | Recommended | ||
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PC / x86 | |||||||
Mesen X | ![]() ![]() |
2023-09-11 libretro core |
✓ | ✗ | ~ |
Comparisons[edit]
This fork is meant to gather development efforts from different forks. Not under active development but pull requests are welcome. This fork is deprecated as of Mesen2's release
References[edit]
- Emulators
- Console emulators
- Home console emulators
- Multi-emulators
- Nintendo Entertainment System emulators
- Super Nintendo emulators
- PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) emulators
- Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators
- Windows emulation software
- Linux emulation software
- MacOS emulation software
- Netplay
- Custom Assets
- Inactive emulation software