ares

ares


Developer(s)	Near (formerly known as byuu (謬/view)), LukeUsher
Latest version	v148 [+]
Active	Yes
Platform(s)	Windows Linux macOS FreeBSD
Architecture(s)	x64, ARM64
Emulates	2600 Famicom / NES Super Famicom / SNES Nintendo 64/64DD Game Boy (Color) Game Boy Advance WonderSwan (Color), Pocket Challenge V2 SG-1000 Mark III / Master System, Game Gear Mega Drive / Genesis Sega/Mega CD, 32X, CD 32X PlayStation PC Engine (SuperGrafx) / TurboGrafx-16 Neo Geo Neo Geo Pocket (Color) MSX2 ColecoVision ZX Spectrum My Vision Sega PAC and NEC PAC
Website	ares-emu.net
Support ($)	Patreon Ko-fi GitHub Sponsor PayPal
Programmed in	C++
License	ISC
Source code	GitHub
Issue tracker	GitHub

ares is a free and open-source, multi-system emulator. It is a descendant of higan and bsnes, and focuses on accuracy and preservation.

Download

	Official releases
	Official Nightly builds

	Flatpak ArchLinux AUR AppImage
	FreshPorts

Overview

ares began development as bsnes on October 14th, 2004. It is available under the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) license, which is a permissive license that is functionally similar to the BSD and MIT licenses. It used to be under the terms of the Creative Commons (CC) BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which it made the ares emulator a non-commercial software that does not permit publishing modifications (forks) online. The reason for this was to prevent splintering development between higan and ares.

Most cores in ares are original and were started when the project was run by Near, although its Nintendo 64 core's graphics emulation is based on Themaister's ParaLLEl-RDP Vulkan renderer as well as MAME's software renderer, and an original Atari 2600 core was added later. Its most useful cores are the ones that have been in development the longest or that have few competing options. Its SNES emulation is derived from that of the original bsnes project and is the most accurate one around. Its WonderSwan and Neo Geo Pocket emulation are also the most complete and accurate, with the highest compatibility available (100% in the case of the WonderSwan). The Genesis emulation is highly accurate across the console and its add-ons, albeit slightly less compatible than some competing options. 32x and CD emulation both have >95% compatibility with commercial games, making ares by far the best option for the 32x across emulators.

Uniquely, ares is (as of 2026) the only emulator that provides comprehensive support for the Pioneer LaserActive, thereby making MegaLD and LD-ROM² LaserDisc games playable in emulation for the first time. The Mega Drive-based Sega PAC (PAC-S10/PAC-S1) has been supported since v146, and the PC Engine-based NEC PAC (PAC-N10/PAC-N1/PCE-LP1) since v147.

Other cores are less useful, with known incompatibilities and other emulators available that are both faster and more accurate. The GBA emulation was derived from work done in bsnes for the ST018 coprocessor, but is slower and less accurate than mGBA. Its Atari 2600 emulation is well behind Stella and MAME, and its PlayStation emulation has some noticeable compatibility gaps that you won't find in DuckStation or Mednafen.

In terms of features, ares is one of the first emulators to make use of librashader, a project designed to provide a portable implementation of RetroArch's SLang shader engine. See Shader Presets for more information.

Features

Native multi-platform UI
Adaptive sync
Dynamic rate control
Save states
Run-ahead
Rewind and fast-forward
Pixel shaders
Color correction
6th-order IIR audio filtering
Input multi-mapping
Built-in games database
Debugger

High CPU usage under Windows

On some Windows systems, the default audio driver causes very high CPU utilisation, even with no game actually running. Switching from WASAPI to SDL will resolve that issue on OpenGL video driver. If your video driver is Direct3D, switching to DirectSound audio driver should resolve any audio crackles and instability.