Arcade emulators

Example of a Ms. Pac-Man arcade cabinet.

For the compatibility list of arcade games, see Arcade game compatibility list.

Arcades were venues in which many games were played at, often containing thousands of games. Arcades often got their revenue from players who paid to play games. Most arcade emulators focus on emulating many systems in one program, the scope of which varies between projects.

Emulators

Name	Platform(s)	Active?	Latest version	License	Compatibility	Emulated system board(s)	ROM set	libretro core	Recommended? (overall)
Mobile
FinalBurn Neo		✓	libretro core	Non-commercial		Hundreds (2D only)	1.0.0.2	✓	✓
MAME		✓	libretro core	GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause		Thousands	0.289	✓	✓
MAME4droid Current (0.287)		✓	1.36.4.1 1.36.4	GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause		Thousands	MAME 0.287	✓	✓
FinalBurn Alpha		✗	SVN	Non-commercial		Hundreds (2D only)	FBA 0.2.97.42 (based on MAME 0.187)	✓	✗
MAME4droid (0.139u1)		✗	1.16.9 git	GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause		Thousands	MAME 0.139u1	✓ (mame2010)	✗
MAME4droid (MAME4All) (0.37b5)		✗	1.5.3 git	GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause		Thousands	MAME 0.37b5	✓ (mame2000)	✗
Play!		✓	0.77 libretro core	MIT GPL		PlayStation 2-based		✗	?
Console
MAME4All		✗	1.0 ? git 0.3.0	Non-commercial		Thousands	MAME 0.37b5	✗	✓
FinalBurn Neo		✓	libretro core	Non-commercial		Hundreds (2D only)	1.0.0.2	✓	✓
Virtual Console		✗	?	Proprietary		Various	?	✗	✓
pFBN		✓	git	Non-commercial		47	1.0.0.2	✗	✓
NJEMU		✗	2.3.5	GPLv3 (Copyleft)		CPS1, CPS2, Neo Geo, Neo Geo CD	MAME 0.152	✗	✓
Unofficial Mod		✗	2.3.1	?		CPS1, CPS2, Neo Geo, Neo Geo CD	MAME 0.120	✗	✓
FBA4PSP		✗	v12.4.0	Non-commercial		CP System	MAME 0.141	✗	✓

Comparisons

MAME

Very extensive in scope, with the majority of arcade system boards from the 1970's, 1980's and early 1990's supported, with a minor amount of games from the 2000s being bootable and another minority of thise being playable, but buggy. Do not expect support for more recent boards, such as Atomiswave. MAME focuses on accuracy and preservation, meaning usability comes second for the end user. Only the most up-to-date ROM dumps will work in the latest MAME.

FinalBurn Neo

A fork of the now-inactive FinalBurn Alpha. Supports many boards, such as Neo Geo, Capcom CPS1-3, and others. It is very good for the boards it supports. The Neo Geo X system, in fact, uses FBA. It offers much better speeds on lower-end hardware than MAME and has been ported to many different devices. It has a smaller ROMset than MAME, but the ROMs are identical for the machines they share. If you have a system that is incapable of running the newest version of MAME, it is generally recommended to use FinalBurn Neo instead of a very old version of MAME.

Visual PinMAME

An emulator for the electronics of pinball systems. The simulation of most modern pinball machines (especially those made after 1992, using large portions of DMD animations and digital sound samples) require the PinMAME (sometimes referred to as VPinMAME or VPM) program in order to behave as close to the physical machine as possible. PinMAME is a fork from old MAME code and can be loaded as a DLL in Visual Pinball. MAME can emulate the electronics for quite a few pinball systems aswell but doesn’t include physics simulation for the pinball table part and no simulator supports using MAME for emulation.

DICE

Emulates old arcade machines from the early 1970's at a very high level of accuracy. Since these machines had no CPU, the emulator instead emulates discrete logic components in the circuit board. This method is very system-intensive, and getting full speed requires at least a mid-range gaming PC along with the 64-bit version of the emulator. Due to incompatibility with the newest Windows, the program will need to be run in compatibility mode or else it would crash when attempting to run a game.

Supermodel

Emulates Sega's Model 3 arcade platform focusing on accuracy. Presently, Supermodel is in a very early "alpha" stage of development, meaning it lacks many planned features. It does not yet have a user-friendly graphical interface, and all CPUs are emulated using straightforward (and slow) interpretation rather than fast just-in-time translation. Game compatibility is quite good. It has an experimental multi-player network build.

Model 2 Emulator

Emulates, as per its name, Sega's Model 2 arcade platform with a focus on speed over accuracy. Despite this, however, it still manages to play games for that hardware with far higher accuracy than MAME currently can.

Virtual Console

Emulates Sega, Namco, Capcom and Tecmo arcade games, as well as the Neo Geo. It is a viable method for official emulation, but forces you to play like you would on a real arcade machine.

Arcade Archives

Emulates Namco, Tecmo, Konami, and Taito arcade games, as well as the Neo Geo. It is a viable method for official emulation but forces you to play like you would on a real arcade machine.

Enhancements

Name		MAME	FinalBurn Neo	Hypseus Singe	TeknoParrot	Supermodel	Visual Pinball with Visual PinMAME/vPinMAME	Flycast
Graphics	Resizable internal resolution	✗	✗	?	?	✓	✓	✓
Quality of life	Automatic updater	✗	✗	?	?	?	✗	✗
Misc.	Ambient sounds simulation Simulation of audio from original hardware and environments, such as mechanical hard drive, floppy diskette, and optical drive noises (e.g., head seeks, spin-up/down, tray loading, disc spinning, and clicking), variable CRT flyback transformer whine (the classic high-pitched "coil whine" that dynamically changes pitch based on screen brightness and content), arcade cabinet effects (e.g., fan hum or button rattles), and other background ambient noises.	✗	✗	?	✗	✗	✓ Also includes button pressing sounds.	✗
	RetroAchievements	✗	~	✗	✗	✗	✗	~

Hardware features

Name		MAME	FinalBurn Neo	Hypseus Singe	TeknoParrot	Supermodel	Visual Pinball with Visual PinMAME/vPinMAME	Flycast
Banknote validator		✓	✗	?	?	?	?	✗
CHD support		✓	✗	?	?	?	?	✓
Communication play		✓	?	?	?	?	?	✓
Input	Analog sensors	✓	✓	?	?	?	?	✓
	Digital buttons	✓	✓	?	?	?	?	✓
	Keyboard	?	✗	?	?	?	?	✓
	Light gun	✓	✓	?	?	?	?	✓
	Mahjong panel	✓	?	?	?	?	?	✗
	Trackball	✓	✓	?	?	?	?	✓
Output	Coin counter	✓	✗	?	?	?	?	✗
	Force feedback	?	?	?	?	?	?	✓
	Lamps and LED lights	~ Only for certain games.	✗	?	?	?	?	✗

Machines

Machines often varied by their design and, unlike consoles, were often tailored to just one game. Games were designed to eat as many quarters as possible, which is emulated with the "Coin" key. Some games have a test mode with menus meant for the arcade owner to set dipswitches for difficulty, censorship, language, and most importantly a "Free Play" mode that allows players to continue as many as they want without requesting more coins. Sometimes, similar menus meant for developers (labeled debug or test usually, sometimes requiring a developer BIOS like with some Neo Geo games) are left in the game too.

Discrete circuitry-based

The earliest arcade games lacked any type of CPU, consisting only of discrete logic components. The first arcade video game, as well as the first commercial game, released was Computer Space in 1971.

Comparisons

DICE

The emulator works by simulating each logic chip on the board individually.

MAME

As of version .208, Breakout, Galaxy Game, Pong, Pong Doubles, and Rebound are working in MAME.

HBMAME

HBMAME is a derivative of MAME, and contains various hacks and homebrews. It is based on the latest MAME source at the time of release. Has support for a remake of Monaco G.P. which was Sega's final game to rely primarily upon discrete analog circuitry - an oddity for a game made in 1979, some three years after microprocessors were introduced to the market. As this was among the most complex games of its kind, don't bet on seeing it working in MAME anytime soon.

For emulating these hardware, see Discrete circuitry-based arcade games.

Original hardware

Hardware made specifically for the arcade to provide for graphics and performance unseen on home consoles. Extremely common in the golden age of arcades but became much less frequent as companies used modified existing hardware instead to save on R&D costs and easier cross-platform development, or tried to differentiate between the home and arcade experience with control scheme gimmicks instead.

MAME's purpose is to cover most of these. Older arcades as well as select popular arcade machines, the Neo Geo and Capcom's CPS series, in particular, received their own standalone emulators. Sometimes, they received their own console versions but those are mostly ports, not emulation, with very few exceptions.

Main article: Arcade game compatibility list

For emulating these hardware, see #Emulators.

Home console-based hardware

Those arcade boards share most of the hardware specifications with existing home consoles, with the addition of a coin slot, and occasionally DRM and some other changes. While MAME supports most of those, standalone emulators for the base home console are more mature and often (but not always) support the arcade variants.

Main article: [System16's arcade museum] (website is outdated)

System board/Game	Base console
Aleck 64	Nintendo 64
American Laser Games 3DO-based	3DO Interactive Multiplayer
Atari Bartop 5200	Atari 5200
Atari CoJag	Atari Jaguar
Atomiswave	Dreamcast
BeenaLand	Advanced Pico Beena
Chihiro	Xbox
Cubo CD32	Amiga CD32
Go! Go! Connie chan Jaka Jaka Janken	PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16
Konami (Bemani) System 573	PlayStation
Konami (Bemani) Python (2)	PlayStation 2
Konami GQ System	PlayStation
Konami GV System	PlayStation
Konami M2	3DO M2
Mega Play	Sega Genesis
Mega-Tech System	Sega Genesis
Multi Game	Nintendo Entertainment System
Namco System 10	PlayStation
Namco System 11	PlayStation
Namco System 12	PlayStation
Namco System 147	PlayStation 2
Namco System 246/256/Super 256	PlayStation 2
Namco System 357	PlayStation 3
Nintendo PlayChoice-10	Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo VS. System	Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Super System	Super Nintendo Entertainment System
NAOMI (2)	Dreamcast
Paranoia	PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16
Sega Hikaru	Dreamcast
Sega Shooting Zone-based	Master System
Sega SG-1000-based	SG-1000
Sega System C	Sega Genesis
Sega System E	Master System
Sega System SP	Dreamcast
Sega Titan Video	Sega Saturn
Sony ZN-1/2	PlayStation
Super Famicom Box	Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Taito G Net	PlayStation
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes	Wii
Triforce	Nintendo GameCube
United Amusements PC Engine-based	PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16

PC-based hardware

Based on normal PC architecture with a variation of Windows or Linux installed, and tons of DRM and custom drivers. These can still be accessed on their respective OS normally, but they cannot be run without an I/O board. They can only be run using the right launchers (Game loader All RH, SpiceTools, idmacx tools, TeknoParrot...) but most of them likely won't be emulated by MAME anytime soon, and not just because of their policies on what hardware is too recently commercialized to cover.

Main article: [System16's arcade museum] (website is outdated)

System board/Game	Base PC/OS
ALLS	Windows 10
American Laser Games Amiga-based	Amiga
Arcade Legends	JoshuaOS
Arcadia Systems Amiga-based	Amiga
Atari Media GX
Cave PC	Windows, unknown version
eX-Board	Windows XP
Erotictac/Tactic	Acorn Archimedes
Forte II Games MSX-based	MSX
Konami PC-based	Windows XP
Konami Bemani PC-based	Windows XP/7/10
Lindbergh	Montavista Linux
Lindbergh Blue	Windows, unknown version
Midway Graphite	Windows 98/2000
Midway Quicksilver II	Windows 98/2000
Namco N2	Linux (Debian-based)
Namco System BNA1 (LITE)	Windows 10
Namco System ES1	arcadelinux (Debian-based)
Namco System ES1(A2)/ES2 PLUS/ES3/ES4	Windows 7
Nippel Super Games II	Apple II
Nu (1.1/2)	Windows 8
Photon	ZX Spectrum
Raw Thrills PC-based	Windows XP
RingEdge (2) / RingWide	Windows Embedded Standard 2009
Sang Ho Soft MSX-based	MSX
See See Find Out	RISC PC
Sega Europa-R
Sente Super System	Amiga
Super Free Kick	MSX
Taito Type X Zero	Windows 7
Taito Type X/X+/X7/X2	Windows XP
Taito Type X3	Windows 7/XP
Taito Type X4	Windows 8/7
Taito Wolf System	MS-DOS
UltraCade Multi-Game System
Up Scope	Amiga

The games first need to run on an operating system equivalent to that of the machine, which may imply Wine use on Linux or having to upgrade to 64-bit editions. Some GPUs or wrappers may be required. Additionally, the following need to be installed:

• Microsoft Visual C++ Runtimes: A one-in-all link for all editions from 2005 to 2015 may be found here.
• Microsoft .NET Frameworks: Any version from 1.0 to 4.8.1 may be required, the newer, the better.
• Microsoft DirectX 9.0: Offline installer here.
• PC Video Codecs: Grabbing the standard K Lite Codec pack from here is recommended.

Remember to backup data from the downloaded scene release before trying to fix it to run.

• Launcher: The game needs this to work at all. There are many: Jconfig, TeknoParrot... and each game requires a specific launcher. If you got the dump from elsewhere, not in a clean state that doesn't work, it may be because of conflicting launchers and you will have to delete all of them (typically Detoured.dll, Game loader Rh.exe, Typex_config.exe, Typex_loader.exe, TTXconfig 2.0, TTX-moniter.dll...)
• iDmacDrv32.dll: Needed in Nesica games. If present, do not delete it, copy Jconfig.exe and the replacement iDmacDrv32.dll from the Jconfig package, then double-click NesicaXlive.reg to import keys to your registry, and use the game executable to run the game. If not present, copy Jconfig.exe, JVSemu.dll, and jvs_loader.exe from the Jconfig package, and use jvs_loader.exe to run the game.
• Save Fixes: Some games can't save scores and data at all. For a bunch of machines, there are fixes (called "loaders pack") that enable that, but some machines (nesica) handle saving purely using official servers in which case there's not much (yet) to do about it.
• Unpacked exe/dll Files: Some games, especially SEGA games, can't be executed on regular PCs as their game logic is wrapped in dlls (htsysmnt.dll etc.) in the operating system comes with the arcade hardware. Unpacked exe/dll files unwrapped such game logic so they can be executed properly. Just drop these files to where the original exe/dll is located and execute/load these files in loaders to start the game.
• Local Server: Some games, especially recent Konami and SEGA games, require network service provided by manufacture in order to save progress, unlock game contents, or even start the game itself. Local server programs (Asphyxia, Minime, Aqua, etc.) emulate such network service on the local computer which makes games bootable and network-related functionalities work. These tools have to be started before starting the game, and kept running during the game session, and game launchers have to be configured to make games communicate with them. Notice that not all functionalities (especially corner case ones such as e-cash, player camera, etc.) in every version of every game work, and some games would require extra fixes to properly communicate with the local server. Check readme files provided by developers or game scenes for more information.
• Extra Fixes: Varies per game. Check the readme with the game scene release.

You can set your controls in Jconfig.exe, and it's recommended to disable Dsound and D3D Wrapper.

Some games can have DirectX related problems. For some, deleting the existing d3d9.dll or opengl.dll files can help. For others, they expect the older D3D8 codec and have bugs (crashes, uneven speed) that can be fixed with Reshade's d3d8to9 plugin.

LaserDisc

Main article: Arcade LaserDisc emulators

Pinball

Main article: Pinball

See also

• Arcade LaserDisc emulators
• Frontends like Back-Ups Arcade or Shader presets such as Koko-aio fork for Arcade Artwork