Emulators on Switch
Since the Switch was hacked early in its launch, there has been a lot of interest for emulators due to the Switch's portability. These emulators will only work on Switches with CFW on them, i.e. Switch consoles susceptible to the Tegra hardware exploit. For more information and guides on how to homebrew your Switch, or if you even can, visit r/SwitchHacks.
Contents
Multi-System
RetroArch - The following cores have shown to work well on the Switch and should be included:
Amstrad Cores
- Caprice32
- CrocoDS
Atari Cores
- Stella (2600)
- ProSystem (7800)
- Beetle Handy (Lynx)
- Virtual Jaguar (Jaguar)
Commodore Cores
- VICE (C64)
Game Cores
- 2048
- MrBoom (Bomberman)
- NXEngine (Cave Story)
- PrBoom (Doom)
- Reminiscence (Flashback)
- GW (Game & Watch)
- Cannonball (OutRun)
- TyrQuake (Quake 1)
- XRick (Rick Dangerous)
- OpenLara (Tomb Raider)
Arcade Cores
Misc Cores
- 4DO (3DO)
- Beetle WonderSwan [Cygne] (WonderSwan/Color
- DOSBox (DOS)
- Vecx (Vectrex)
- O2EM (Odyssey2 / Phillips Videopac+)
- FreeIntv (Intellivision)
- FMSX (MSX
- Pocket CDG (MP3 Karaoke Music Player)
- Mu (Palm OS)
- EasyRPG (RPG Maker 2000/2003)
- PX68k (Sharp X68000)
- ScummVM (point-and-click adventure game engine)
- EightyOne (Sinclair - ZX 81)
- Beetle Neo Geo Pocket [NGP] (Neo Geo Pocket / Color)
- Theodore (TO8D)
- FUSE (ZX Spectrum)
Nintendo Cores
- Gambatte (GB/C)
- Gearboy (GB/C)
- TGB Dual (GB/C)
- mGBA (GBA)
- VBA Next (GBA)
- FCEUmm (NES)
- Nestopia UE (NES)
- QuickNES (NES)
- Mupen64Plus (N64)
- PokeMini (Pokemon Mini)
- Snes9x (SNES)
- Beetle VB (Virtual Boy)
NEC Cores
- Neko Project II Kai (PC-98)
- Beetle PCE FAST (PC Engine / CD)
- Beetle PC-FX (PC-FX)
Sega Cores
- GearSystem (MS/GG)
- Genesis Plus GX (MS/GG/MD/CD)
- PicoDrive (MS/GG/MD/32X)
- Yabause (Saturn)
Sony Cores
- PCSX ReARMed (Playstation 1)
- PPSSPP (Playstation Portable)
Nintendo
Nintendo Entertainment System
NES - Nintendo Switch Online - Nintendo's official service for NES games. Requires a paid subscription and is limited to the number of games provided. Supports online multiplayer.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
SNES - Nintendo Switch Online - Nintendo's offical service for SNES games. Same idea as the previously mentioned NES service.
Gameboy Advance
Nintendo DS
DeSmuME-NX - there has been several attempts at porting DeSmuME to the Switch, all of which have been abandoned (including this one).
melonDS - a fork of melonDS for the Switch, still a work-in-progress.
Sega
Dreamcast
Sony
Playstation Portable
PPSSPP for Nintendo Switch - A very work in progress emulator. It is based on PPSSPP libretro port but considered as a standalone emulator.
Android
LineageOS 15.1 for Nintendo Switch - not technically an "emulator", it allows your Switch to function as an Android tablet. It's based of the Nvidia Shield TV build of LineageOS, since they both use the same system-on-chip, and runs Android 8.1 Oreo. It's most notable feature is the ability to work both in handheld and docked mode and using the Joycons as a Bluetooth controller (though not all apps may detect them correctly) .
Once you have Android up and running, you can install any emulator available through the app store or through manually installation. Some notable ones are DraStic which has been shown to work incredibly well and Dolphin which works to some degree (given that the Android port is still being developed), though some users report that the joycons aren't functioning correctly.