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Game testing & bug reporting
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 no money.
==Game testing Testing & bug reporting==
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=== Compatibility reporting ===
A compatibility report communicates the emulation quality. It is aimed at other users.
<!-- 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 uses wikis or custom tools / websites for compatibility reporting -->
Some emulators use GitHub for their compatibility list.
Create a GitHub account, most projects have instructions on how bug reports should be written, make sure you search to see if the issues is already brought up by another user, in that case just add your observation to that report.
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=== Bug reporting ====
A bug report is about one specific problem. It is aimed at emulator developers.
Because bug reports are meant for developers, they are expected to be more technical than a compatibility report.
Bug reports are typically expected to include details about specific situations when the problem arises, but also technical details as to why it happens.
Developers also read compatibility reports and create respective bug reports themselves.
''If you are not a software developer, you probably shouldn't do bug reports.''
Generally you should chat to other developers / maintainers (via IRC or Discord) before creating a bug report.
Often they are aware of issues and have grouped them under a technical term.
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=== Console verification ===
Despite being aimed at developers, users should read / follow bug reports they care about.
Many emulators not only need games tested in the emulator, but also on real hardware.
Sometimes it looks like there's a bug in the emulator, but it might be a bug in the game, so it also happens on the console.
So you can possibly prevent developers from wasting time on bugs which aren't really bugs in the emulator.
Ideally, you have a capture card to record footage as proof.
Also, during the research and documentation phase, some developers will write small programs to test hardware behaviour.
In some cases the developers don't have access to the physical hardware or they need test results from many users.
You can follow developer chat-rooms, so you can offer your help with running tests and collecting data from real hardware.
==Provide support for end users==
