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! scope="col"|[[Netplay#NES|Netplay]]

! scope="col"|[[libretro]]

! scope="col"|<abbr title="Free/Libre and Open-Source Software">FLOSS</abbr>

! scope="col"|Active

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|{{✗}}[https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/issues/2450 *]

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|{{~}}<ref group=N name=lrActiveonly>Libretro core is still active.</ref>

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|{{✓}}<br/><small>(Android only)</small>

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*[[Mesen]] is a cycle [[Emulation_accuracy|accurate]] NES emulator. Also it is very user-friendly and supports lots of [[#Enhancements|enhancements]], [[#Peripherals|peripherals]], [[#Hardware_variants|variants]] and [[#Mappers|mappers]] that other emulators are missing. On top of these its supports [[GoodTools|goodmerged]] file loading. The standalone emulator ceased development around October 2020 for unknown reasons, but the [https://github.com/libretro/Mesen libretro] fork is still active and the original developer resumed development in March 2021 with multi-system emulator [https://github.com/SourMesen/Mesen2 Mesen2].

*[[puNES]] is another cycle [[Emulation_accuracy|accurate]] NES/FDS emulator.

*[[Nintendulator]] also is a cycle [[Emulation_accuracy|accurate]] NES/FDS emulator. NintendulatorNRS is a fork of Nintendulator that supports the Famicom Disk System, rare mappers, VRT chipsets, and many unlicensed and bootleg carts and systems.

*[[FCEUX]] is not one of these cycle [[Emulation_accuracy|accurate]] NES/FDS emulators but still it's highly accurate one, on top of this its a recommended emulator on TAS Videos. The New PPU implementation is more [[Emulation_accuracy|accurate]] than the Old PPU implementation. The emulator is very useful though, thanks to its robust Lua scripting and incorporating FCEUmm into its feature set.

There are many other NES emulators not listed here, as the NES has more emulators than any other system (new ones are started all the time). Only those that are well-known or stand out in some way are covered here.

===Mappers===

A key difference between many emulators nowadays is how many mappers they support.

Related to this issue: This is why most emulators won't run unheadered NES ROMs. Newer versions of Nestopia can open those, but they're handled in a slightly different way: the information that would have been included in the iNES header is instead provided in emulator configuration files that get summoned as long as the ROM's hash matches exactly the No-Intro dump of that given game (which is inconvenient for ROM hacks).

==Enhancements==

The NES Classic Edition is a mini console that emulates the experience of the Nintendo Entertainment System. It includes 30 classic NES games and is compatible with the Wii Classic Controller and NES Classic Edition controller.

Nintendo produced and sold about 2.3 million NES Classic Editions from November 2016 through April 2017, with shipments selling out nearly immediately. In April 2017, Nintendo announced they were discontinuing the product, leading to consumer confusion and incidents of greatly increased pricing among private sellers. Due to the demand for the NES Classic and the success of the Super NES Classic Edition console, Nintendo re-introduced the NES Classic on June 29, 2018. Production was discontinued again in December 2018.

==Resources==