Below is a basic comparison table for all the known multi-system front-ends for emulators. The table does not include single system front-ends (such as EmuCon, Mame Classic, Negatron, pfeMame, QMC2, etc.) or front-ends for other dedicated software such as Kodi.
| Name
|
Creator
|
Open Source
|
Free (FOSS)
|
First public release date
|
Year of latest stable version
|
Windows
|
Macintosh
|
GNU/Linux
|
Other platforms
|
| Atomic
|
'Youki'
|
✗
|
✗
|
2005-02-08 (v0.11)
|
2010-01-23 (v0.20)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| Attract-Mode
|
Andrew Mickelson
|
✓[1]
|
✓ (GPLv3)
|
2013-11-17 (v1.0)
|
2018-11-14 (v2.5.1)
|
✓
|
✓
|
✓
|
N/A
|
| Aurora Game Hub
|
Carlos Machado, Sammy Guergachi
|
✓[2][1]
|
✓ (GPLv3)
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
✓
|
✓
|
N/A
|
BSD
|
| BizHawk
|
'Nach'
|
✓[3]
|
"minefield"[4]
|
2018-03-15 (v1.0.0)
|
2019-01-06 (v2.3.1)
|
✓
|
N/A
|
To be compiled[5]
|
N/A
|
| Bottlenose
|
Quinton Ashley
|
✓[6]
|
✓ (MIT)
|
2019-03-04 (v1.0.12)
|
2019-04-09 (v1.0.65)
|
✓
|
✓
|
✓
|
N/A
|
| CabrioFE
|
Steve Maddison
|
✓[7]
|
✓ (GPLv2)
|
2009-10-26 (v0.3.0)
|
2011-06-24 (v0.8.2 - beta version)
|
v0.8.1
|
✗
|
✓
|
N/A
|
| CoinOPS
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
| EmuCenter 2
|
N/A
|
✗
|
✗
|
N/A
|
2016-09-01 (v7.1.0.181)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| EmuCon
|
N/A
|
✓[8]
|
✗
|
2008-04-23 (v2.0)
|
2017-11-21 (v2.7.7)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| Emulation Station
|
Alec Lofquist, Eduard Strehlau
|
✓[9][10]
|
✓ (MIT)
|
2013-10-26 (v1.0.0)
|
2014-06-12 (v1.0.2 - on original repo)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✓
|
Raspberry Pi[11]
|
| EmuLoader
|
N/A
|
✓[12]
|
✗
|
2007-08-27 (v5.1.6)
|
2019-05-31 (v8.7.6)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| FEEL
|
'Sincro'
|
✗
|
✗
|
N/A
|
2017-06-13 (v1.9.8.1c)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| GameEx
|
Tom Speirs
|
✗
|
✗
|
N/A
|
2019-05-09 (v1.05)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| GameRoom
|
N/A
|
✗
|
✗
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| Games (Gnome)
|
Various contributors
|
✓[13]
|
✓ (GPLv3)
|
2015-10-20 (v3.18.0)
|
2019-05-24 (v3.32.0)
|
✗
|
N/A
|
✓
|
N/A
|
| HyperSpin
|
Jonathan Habers
|
✗
|
✗
|
N/A
|
2018-05-07 (v1.5.1)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
Android[14]
|
| Ice
|
Scott Rice
|
✓[15]
|
✓ (MIT)
|
2016-01-29 (v1.0.0)
|
2016-01-29 (v1.0.0)
|
✓
|
✓
|
✓
|
N/A
|
| Launch Box
|
Jason Carr
|
✗
|
✗
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| LusSpace
|
'Space1'
|
✗
|
✗
|
N/A
|
2016-11-08 (v1.23)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| Lutris
|
Mathieu Comandon and others
|
✓[16]
|
✓ (GPLv3)
|
2013-12-15 (v0.3.2)
|
2019-04-09 (v0.5.2)
|
✗
|
✗
|
✓
|
✗
|
| MaLa
|
Stefan 'swindus' Windus, Simon 'loadman' Loader
|
✗
|
✗
|
2005-07-26 (v0.9.7b)
|
2011-03-27 (v1.74)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| Maximus Arcade
|
N/A
|
✗
|
✗
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| Metropolis Launcher
|
Jörg Sonntag
|
✓[17]
|
✓ (GPLv3)
|
2017-04-27 (v1.0.0)
|
2018-09-07 (v1.2.0)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| mGalaxy
|
N/A
|
✗
|
✗
|
2007-02-05 (v1.0)
|
2019-04-?? (v7.5)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| Pegasus
|
Mátyás Mustoha
|
✓[18]
|
✓ (GPLv3)
|
2017-08-07 (Alpha 3)
|
2019-03-10 (Alpha 11)
|
✓
|
✓
|
✓
|
Android, Raspberry Pi
|
| Photon Game Manager
|
Thomas Preece
|
✗
|
✗
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
✓
|
✗
|
Experimental
|
✗
|
| Playnite
|
Josef Nemec
|
✓[19]
|
✓ (MIT)
|
2017-03-28 (v0.70 Alpha)
|
2019-02-25 (v4.74)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| Project Ascension
|
Jake Schadewe and others
|
✓[20]
|
✓ (MIT)
|
2016-01-30 (v1.0.34)
|
2016-01-30 (v1.0.34)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| QuickPlay
|
Tony 'butter100fly' Woode
|
✓[21]
|
✓ (BSD-3)
|
2014-04-14 (v3.9.0)
|
2019-02-19 (v4.6.6)
|
✓
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
| RetroFe
|
Don Honerbrink
|
✓[22]
|
✓ (GPLv3)
|
2016-07-26 (v0.7.2-beta-1)
|
2019-05-26 (v0.9.0)
|
✓
|
To be compiled
|
✓
|
N/A
|
| RoM-Jacket
|
'Jinx'
|
✓ (.bat files)
|
✗
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| skeletonKey
|
'romjacket'
|
✓[23]
|
✗
|
2018-05-22 (v0.99.34.34)
|
2019-05-30 (v0.99.69.81)
|
✓
|
✗
|
✗
|
✗
|
| Snowflake
|
Ronny Chan
|
✓[24]
|
✓ (MPLv2.0)
|
2015-01-15 (v0.1.0)
|
2017-07-10 (v0.2.1158)
|
To be compiled
|
To be compiled
|
To be compiled
|
N/A
|
| Steam Rom Manager
|
Lukas Senionis
|
✓[25]
|
✓ (GPLv3)
|
2017-04-30 (v1.0.0)
|
2019-03-10 (v2.2.19)
|
✓
|
✓
|
✓
|
N/A
|
Technical facts
| Name
|
Download size
|
Current status
|
Language used
|
Libraries used
|
| Atomic
|
35.2 MiB
|
Discontinued
|
Visual Basic
|
N/A
|
| Attract-Mode
|
34.5-35.9 MiB
|
Actively maintained
|
C++
|
SFML, OpenAL, Zlib, FreeType 2, FFmpeg (avformat, avcodec, swscale, avutil, swresample/avresample), OpenGL+GLU, JPEG. Optionally: Fontconfig, Xinerama, libarchive, Libcurl.
|
| Aurora Game Hub
|
12.2 MiB
|
Discontinued
|
Java
|
h2 database Engine
|
| BizHawk
|
| Bottlenose
|
| CabrioFE
|
| CoinOPS
|
| EmuCenter 2
|
| EmuCon
|
| Emulation Station
|
| EmuLoader
|
| FEEL
|
| GameEx
|
| GameRoom
|
| Games (Gnome)
|
| HyperSpin
|
| Ice
|
| Launch Box
|
| LusSpace
|
| Lutris
|
| MaLa
|
| Maximus Arcade
|
| Metropolis Launcher
|
| mGalaxy
|
| Pegasus
|
| Photon Game Manager
|
| Playnite
|
| Project Ascension
|
| QuickPlay
|
| RetroFe
|
| RoM-Jacket
|
| skeletonKey
|
| Snowflake
|
| Steam Rom Manager
|
Emulator support
| Name
|
MAME
|
NEStopia
|
FCEUX
|
Snes9x
|
ZSnes
|
Mupen64Plus
|
Dolphin
|
Cemu
|
VisualBoyAdvance(-M)
|
Citra
|
NeoCD
|
EPSXe
|
PCSX2
|
RPCS3
|
PPSSPP
|
| Atomic
|
| Attract-Mode
|
| Aurora Game Hub
|
| BizHawk
|
| Bottlenose
|
| CabrioFE
|
| CoinOPS
|
| EmuCenter 2
|
| EmuCon
|
| Emulation Station
|
| EmuLoader
|
| FEEL
|
| GameEx
|
| GameRoom
|
| Games (Gnome)
|
| HyperSpin
|
| Ice
|
| Launch Box
|
| LusSpace
|
| Lutris
|
| MaLa
|
| Maximus Arcade
|
| Metropolis Launcher
|
| mGalaxy
|
| Pegasus
|
| Photon Game Manager
|
| Playnite
|
| Project Ascension
|
| QuickPlay
|
| RetroFe
|
| RoM-Jacket
|
| skeletonKey
|
| Snowflake
|
| Steam Rom Manager
|
Features
| Name
|
Has console categories
|
Theme support
|
Display descriptions
|
Display box arts
|
Display video previews
|
Scrape descriptions
|
Scrape box arts
|
Scrape video previews
|
| Atomic
|
| Attract-Mode
|
| Aurora Game Hub
|
| BizHawk
|
| Bottlenose
|
| CabrioFE
|
| CoinOPS
|
| EmuCenter 2
|
| EmuCon
|
| Emulation Station
|
| EmuLoader
|
| FEEL
|
| GameEx
|
| GameRoom
|
| Games (Gnome)
|
| HyperSpin
|
| Ice
|
| Launch Box
|
| LusSpace
|
| Lutris
|
| MaLa
|
| Maximus Arcade
|
| Metropolis Launcher
|
| mGalaxy
|
| Pegasus
|
| Photon Game Manager
|
| Playnite
|
| Project Ascension
|
| QuickPlay
|
| RetroFe
|
| RoM-Jacket
|
| skeletonKey
|
| Snowflake
|
| Steam Rom Manager
|