Multi-system emulators

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.

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.

The term 'multi-system emulator' can sometimes be confused with frontend applications.

Emulators

Name	Platform(s)	Latest version	Retro Achievements	Libretro Core	# of Emulated systems	License	Active	Recommended
Multi-company
MAME		git artifacts 0.289 libretro core 0.289 (akatana and ddpsdoj unlocked)	✗	✓	Thousands of electronics	GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause	✓	✓
Mednafen		1.32.1 Wii PS3 GCW Zero	✗	✓	15	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	✓
Mesen		2.2.1	✓	✗ Cores are outdated	11	GPLv3	✓	✓
OpenEmu		2.4.1	✗	✗	35	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	✓
BizHawk		Dev builds 2.11.1	✓	✗	30 (excluding the libretro cores)	MIT GPL)	✓	✓
ares		git Artifacts v148	✗	✗	20	ISC (Permissive)	✓	✓
jgenesis		0.14.1	✗	✗	8	MIT (Permissive)	✓	?
Delta		1.7.3s	~	✗	6	AGPLv3 (Copyleft)	✓	~
Folium		2.0 ($) Sideload	✗	✗	3	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	✓	~
ZEsarUX		13.0	✗	✗	22	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	✓	~
Pantheon		16.458	✗	✗	21	Proprietary	✓	~
CLK		2026-07-23	✗	✗	14	MIT (Permissive)	✓	~
WinArcadia		30.7	✓	✗	21	?	✓	~
Xpeccy		0.6.20260804	✗	✗	14	MIT (Permissive)	✓	✗
Z64K		3.0.0	✗	✗	5	Proprietary	✓	✗
DSP		0.24WIP3	✗	✗	More than 10	Non-commercial	✓	?
Phoenix		2.8.JAG	✗	✗	5	Proprietary	✗	✗
higan (火眼)		v110	✗	~	14	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	✗	✗
WAVE Multi-Emulator		V1.1.3	✗	✗	7 (ROMs have to be converted to hex via a website to be played)	CC BY-SA 2.0	✓	✗
EMU (Russian)		1.01	✗	✗	More than 50	?	✓	?
kindred		1.12 Preview Build 3	✗	✗	7	Proprietary	✓	?
Xe		2.16.2	✗	✗	18	Proprietary	✗	✗
DarcNES		9b0401/9b0313	✗	✗	8	Proprietary	✗	✗
rew.		rew12stx	✗	?	3	?	✗	?
Nintendo
Dolphin		2606a libretro core	✓	✓	3	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	✓
mGBA		Dev builds libretro core 0.10.2	~	✓	2	MPL 2.0 (Copyleft)	✓	✓
GBE+		1.10	✗	✗	4	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	~
No$GBA		3.06	✗	✗	3	Proprietary	✓	✗
Sega
Genesis Plus GX		Latest builds v1.7.5-RC1 latest release pGENBased on Genesis Plus GX 1.2PS3 Port (Inactive) RetroArch Builds	✓	✓	5	Non-commercial Source-available	✓	✓
Kega Fusion		3.64	✗	✗	10	Proprietary	✗	~
PicoDrive		2.05 libretro core	✗	✓	6	MAME license (Non-commercial)	✗	~
Sinclair
EightyOne (81)		1.41	✗	✓	12	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	✓
Retro Virtual Machine		2.1.20	✗	✗	2	Proprietary	✓	~
Commodore
VICE		3.10	✗	✓	6	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓	✓

See also

• Frontends
• Comparison of Emulator Frontends

External Links

• 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.)
• List of multi-system console emulators on Windows