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An '''emulation box''' is a device built for the specific purpose of running emulators. While it can technically be any small computer, the emulation boxes we list here are primarily single-purpose embedded devices intended to capitalize on nostalgia despite a multitude of better alternatives being readily available (like computers, mobile devices, and game consoles). There are generally two types of boxes:
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An '''emulation box''' is an unofficial term for a device built with the specific purpose of running emulators. They generally consist of overpriced locked-down ARM microcomputers and some are more so just "collector's items".  They should be avoided as other readily available devices (i.e. computers, mobile devices, game consoles) may provide better performance.
  
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;First-party boxes
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===First-party boxes===
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:Use the official branding of a console, with the support of the company who made it. More often than not, modern console manufacturers are not the ones who come up with the idea, and are usually approached by some other company who offloads some or all of the work of getting it running.
 
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;Third-party boxes
 
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:Use their own branding because they don't have a license to use the actual companies' trademarks. A legal ruling for emulators has allowed them to use the name of the console in marketing (such as advertising the ability to play games from a specific console on the packaging), but not as the name for the box itself.
 
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Emulation boxes are frowned upon because, aside from a first party box's value as a collector's item, the hardware in an emulation box is often nothing more than a cheap, locked-down, ARM-based system-on-a-chip, and the price you pay for obtaining it is marked up by the designer in order to make easy money. To make matters worse, numerous boxes have been found using emulators illegally, due to a prohibition in the emulator's license (like commercial distribution or locked down hardware), resulting in many controversies unfolding over the matter.
 
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==First-party boxes==
 
 
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
 
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
 
! scope="col"|Product
 
! scope="col"|Product
 
! scope="col"|Manufacturer
 
! scope="col"|Manufacturer
 
! scope="col"|Reimplements
 
! scope="col"|Reimplements
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! scope="col"|<abbr title="Manufacturer's suggested retail price">MSRP</abbr>
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! scope="col"|MSRP
 
! scope="col"|Emulator used
 
! scope="col"|Emulator used
 
! scope="col"|Notes
 
! scope="col"|Notes
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|$79.99
 
|$79.99
 
|[[Canoe]]
 
|[[Canoe]]
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|Official Nintendo product designed to only emulate the SNES. Includes 21 games. Uses the ''exact same hardware'' (motherboard, SoC, and all) as the NES Classic, but with a different firmware.
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|Official Nintendo product designed to only emulate the SNES. Includes 21 games. Uses the ''exact same hardware'' (motherboard, SoC and all) as the NES Classic, but with a different firmware.
 
|-
 
|-
 
|[[wikipedia:Sega_Genesis_Mini|Sega Genesis Mini]]
 
|[[wikipedia:Sega_Genesis_Mini|Sega Genesis Mini]]
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|$79.99
 
|$79.99
 
|m2engage
 
|m2engage
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|Official SEGA product designed to only emulate the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Includes 42 games. Interestingly, it has the same specs as the (S)NESC. The emulator used was developed by [[wikipedia:M2 (game_developer)|M2]], who is best known for handling the emulation of various re-releases of games including several Sega ports and the Genesis Virtual Console on the Wii.
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|Official SEGA product designed to only emulate the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Includes 42 games. Interestingly, it has the same specs as the (S)NESC. The emulator used was develop by [[wikipedia:M2 (game_developer)|M2]], who are best known for handling emulation of various re-releases of games including several Sega ports and the Genesis Virtual Console on the Wii.
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|-
 
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|[https://sega.jp/genesismini2/ Sega Genesis Mini 2]
 
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|[[Sega]]
 
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|Sega Genesis, [[Sega Genesis emulators|Sega CD]]
 
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|$99.99
 
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|m2engage
 
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|Official SEGA product designed to emulate normal Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games plus Sega CD/Mega CD games and two enhanced Genesis/Mega Drive games. Includes 60 games. Compared to its predecessor, the system has an overclocked SoC, double RAM, and 8GB of NAND storage. Again, [[wikipedia:M2 (game_developer)|M2]], handled the emulation of Genesis and Sega CD games.
 
 
|-
 
|-
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|[https://www.konami.com/games/pcemini/gate PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 Mini]
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|PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 Mini
 
|Konami
 
|Konami
 
|[[PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) emulators|PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16]]
 
|[[PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) emulators|PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16]]
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|$99.99
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|TBA
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|m2engage
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|?
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|Official Konami product. Includes 57 games (58 in Japan) and has about an equal mix of American and Japanese exclusives. The casing and branding has the same regional differences as the original (Japan is the original white PC Engine, Europe is the Core Grafx revision, and the USA is the TurboGrafx-16). The emulator used was developed by [[wikipedia:M2 (game_developer)|M2]], the same company that did the Sega Genesis Mini and other console ports.
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|Official Konami product. The Japanese market will get the original white PC Engine, while Europe will get the Core Grafx revision. In the US, players will get the TurboGrafx-16 case design. Price, release date and full games list to be revealed.
 
|-
 
|-
 
|[[wikipedia:PlayStation Classic|PlayStation Classic]]
 
|[[wikipedia:PlayStation Classic|PlayStation Classic]]
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|[[Sony|Sony Interactive Entertainment]]
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|[[Sony]]
 
|[[PlayStation emulators|Sony PlayStation]]
 
|[[PlayStation emulators|Sony PlayStation]]
 
|<strike>$99.99</strike> $20
 
|<strike>$99.99</strike> $20
 
|[[PCSX-Reloaded#PlayStation_Classic|PCSX-ReARMed]]
 
|[[PCSX-Reloaded#PlayStation_Classic|PCSX-ReARMed]]
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|Official SIE product designed to only emulate the PS1. Includes 20 games.
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|Official Sony product designed to only emulate the PS1. Includes 20 games.
 
|-
 
|-
 
|[https://www.snk-corp.co.jp/us/neogeomini/ NEOGEO Mini]
 
|[https://www.snk-corp.co.jp/us/neogeomini/ NEOGEO Mini]
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|~$254
 
|~$254
 
|[[FinalBurn Alpha]]
 
|[[FinalBurn Alpha]]
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|Offical CAPCOM product designed to emulate CPS1 and CPS2 arcade games. Includes 16 games.
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|Offical CAPCOM product designed to emulate CPS1 and CPS2 arcade games. Includes 16 games. Scheduled to launch October 25th, 2019.
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|-
 
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|[https://sega.jp/astrocitymini/original/index.html Astro City Mini]
 
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|Sega Toys
 
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|Arcade
 
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|JP¥ <strike>12800</strike>13511<br>$<strike>129.99</strike>161.99
 
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|?
 
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|Offical SEGA product designed to emulate various Sega arcade games. Includes 36 games and the test program "Dottori-Kun".
 
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|-
 
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|[https://sega.jp/astrocitymini/v Astro City Mini V]
 
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|Sega Toys
 
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|Arcade
 
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|JP¥ 19580
 
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|?
 
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|Offical SEGA product designed to emulate various vertical-oriented Arcade games only. Includes 22 games (23 in the International version distributed by Limited Run Games)
 
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|-
 
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|[https://www.taito.co.jp/egret2mini Egret II Mini]
 
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|Taito
 
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|Arcade
 
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|JP¥ <strike>18678</strike>15800<br>$<strike>229.99</strike>109.03
 
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|?
 
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|Offical Taito product designed to emulate various Taito arcade games. Includes 40 games, 10 more bundled with optional paddle+trackball controller, and more purchasable games released in the form factor of SD cards.
 
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|-
 
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|[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/hardware/gamewatch/index.html Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros.]
 
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|[[Nintendo]]
 
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|NES and Disk System
 
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|JP¥ 5478
 
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|?
 
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|Offical Nintendo product designed to emulate Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2 (The Lost Levels).
 
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|-
 
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|[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/hardware/gamewatch/zelda/index.html Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda]
 
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|[[Nintendo]]
 
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|NES or Disk System and Game Boy
 
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|JP¥ 5480
 
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|?
 
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|Offical Nintendo product designed to emulate The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: Adventure of Link and Link's Awakening. International versions have the NES versions available, while the Japanese version only has the Disk System versions.
 
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|-
 
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|[https://sega.jp/ggmicro/index.html Game Gear Micro]
 
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|[[Sega]]
 
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|Game Gear and Master System
 
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|JP¥ 4980
 
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|[[m2engage]]
 
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|Offical SEGA product designed to emulate Game Gear games. The form factor is small and is difficult to play by Western users, as the device was meant to not be sold outside Japan. 5 variants of the handheld exist, 4 being in retail and one being exclusive as a Limited Edition for Aleste Collection. Only the Aleste version includes Master System games.
 
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|-
 
 
|}
 
|}
  
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==Third-party boxes==
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===Third-party boxes===
 
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
 
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
 
! scope="col"|Product
 
! scope="col"|Product
 
! scope="col"|Manufacturer
 
! scope="col"|Manufacturer
 
! scope="col"|Reimplements
 
! scope="col"|Reimplements
−
! scope="col"|<abbr title="Manufacturer's suggested retail price">MSRP</abbr>
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! scope="col"|MSRP
 
! scope="col"|Emulator(s) used
 
! scope="col"|Emulator(s) used
 
! scope="col"|Notes
 
! scope="col"|Notes
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|Playmaji
 
|Playmaji
 
|Multi-system
 
|Multi-system
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|$299.99-$499.99 <small>(Deluxe bundle)</small>
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|$499.99 <small>(Deluxe bundle)</small>
 
|[[Mednafen]], [[Mesen]], [[Kega Fusion]], and [[MAME]]  
 
|[[Mednafen]], [[Mesen]], [[Kega Fusion]], and [[MAME]]  
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|Modular system. First emulation box with CD support and one of the few to run on an Intel processor instead of ARM. Emulates PS1, Saturn, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, TG-16/CD, Neo Geo CD, NES, SNES (only disc-based systems are supported out of the box, cartridge-based systems requires a separate add-on for each system).
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|Modular system. First emulation box with CD support. Emulates PS1, Saturn, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, TG-16/CD, Neo Geo CD, NES, SNES.
 
|-
 
|-
 
|[[Retron5]]
 
|[[Retron5]]
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|[[Sega Genesis emulators|Sega Genesis]]
 
|[[Sega Genesis emulators|Sega Genesis]]
 
|$79.99
 
|$79.99
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|? <br/>(Genesis-on-a-Chip ?)
 
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|Produced under license from Sega. Emulates the Master System and the Sega Genesis.  It also has a cartridge port that can load original cartridges to some degree. The ensuing outcry over the subpar emulation quality has led Sega to drop their planned further partnership with AtGames for their actual Sega Genesis Mini.
 
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|-
 
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|Arcade1Up Home Arcade
 
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|Arcade1Up
 
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|[[Arcade emulators|Arcade]]
 
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|$200-$500 (Depends on the game)
 
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|[[MAME]], [[FinalBurn Alpha]], [[RetroArch]], and MOO <small>(their own commercial emulator)</small><ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/Arcade1Up/comments/a02870/hack_original_board_not_just_replace_w_pietc/</ref>
 
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|Officially licensed recreations of selected arcade cabinets.  Emulates whatever arcade cabinet they can get the license for.  Many have criticized its short height (about 3/4 the size of a normal cabinet), lack of a CRT monitor nor any filters for it, and minor inaccuracies compared to the original.  Many hobbyists have even gone as far as to replace the main motherboard with a Raspberry Pi just to use [[MAME]] instead.
 
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|-
 
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|[https://www.zuiki.co.jp/x68000z/ X68000 Z]
 
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|[[Zuiki]]
 
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|[[Sharp X68000 emulators|X68000]]
 
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|29530 JPY (standard pack)
 
 
|?
 
|?
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|Miniaturized X68000 personal workstation. Limited run. The standard pack comes with a joypad and two games: Gradius and ChoRenSha 68K on SD cards. Full-sized USB keyboard (mechanical switches, X68000 layout), USB mouse, and more games on SD cards are available separately. Capable of booting from third-party floppy/disk images.
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|Produced under license from Sega. Emulates the Master System and the Sega Genesis. It also has a cartridge port that can load original cartridges to some degree. Very disappointing and the ensuing outcry has led Sega to drop their planned further partnership with AtGames for their actual Sega Genesis Mini.
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|-
 
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|Pandora Boxes
 
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|Unknown
 
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|[[Arcade emulators|Arcade]]
 
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|$30-$170 (Depends on model and peripherals)
 
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|[[MAME]], [[FinalBurn Alpha]] (Older ones) / [[RetroArch]] (Newer ones)
 
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|A kind of plug & play device filled with hundreds of pirated arcade game ROMs, which was designed to be used as substitutions for actual arcade boards in commercial arcades. Emulation quality is always hit or miss, with issues like unbearable slowdowns, input latency, and screen tearing in some games.
 
 
|}
 
|}
  
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==Controversy==
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==Controversies==
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===Poor catalog===
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Some of those products have attracted the ire of parts of the emulator community over issues not necessarily related to the product's quality, but ones related to open source emulators. In some cases, it's because negotiations with open source emulator and/or frontend developers fell through and the company used a "lesser" option as a replacement. In others, an arrangement was reached, contracts and money were exchanged only for the project maintainers to turn out not to have gathered the complete consent of all contributors, some parts are licensed as a strictly non-commercial license, and similar issues. Sometimes, it might have to do with an incomplete source code release from companies that have to abide by GPLv3 obligations. And of course, the company might be acting malicious towards emulator developers.
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A first party box may prove to be lacking due to its game catalog missing some essential title. This is often the result of messy licensing issues that continue to plague consoles today, as many games are a nightmare to relicense due to some external factor. It doesn't help that first-party boxes often lack the ability to load games externally. This is done to prevent the manufacturer from having to admit support for cartridge and disc formats that the emulation community uses, as it would by extension imply support for unofficial emulation.
 
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These limitations have caused many to [[Modding Consoles/Flashcarts#NES.2FSNES.2FPSX.2FMD_.28GEN.29_Classic|modify]] their systems just to be able to get more use out of it.
 
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Some redistributors of third party boxes that pre-load them with games (which in itself is illegal to redistribute with the game images preinstalled) may contain game images that aren't 1:1 identical to the originals either due to possibly cobbling them from various sources. Use the guides on the website where possible for obtaining game images.
 
  
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===Licensing===
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Since the problem with these is primarily a meta problem that doesn't have much to do with the product's actual quality, and is a controversial subject even within emulator developer circles (some well-known developers such as byuu did eventually agree to work with the likes of Hyperkin, after all) this section is about listing some of those cases.
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Some of the products have attracted the ire of parts of the emulation community over issues not necessarily related to the product's quality, but ones related to open source emulators. In some cases, it's because negotiations with open source emulator and/or frontend developers fell through and the company used a "lesser" option as a replacement. In others, an arrangement was reached, contracts and money were exchanged only for the project maintainers to turn out not to have gathered the complete consent of all contributors, some parts are licensed as a strictly non-commercial license, and similar issues. Sometimes, it might have to do with an incomplete source code release from companies that have to abide by GPLv3 obligations. And of course, the company might be acting malicious towards emulator developers.
 
  
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Since the problem with these is primarily meta, and is controversial within emulator developer circles, they may not affect the experience that the box itself provides. Some examples where this has happened:
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* Capcom Home Arcade: Capcom has licensed (with compensation) FinalBurnAlpha from the project's maintainer, however this has lead to some [https://www.google.com/search?q=capcom+home+arcade+illegal&oq=capcom+home+arcade+illegal controversy] and outrage by fellow FBA developers (who didn't agree with this move, and eventually made their own fork) and MAME developers (where some of FBA's code comes from), as FB Alpha's license isn't cleared to allow for commercial use and many of those developers think the FBA's license is an ugly mess of contradicting licenses that should not exist.
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* Retron5 (Hyperkin): Is using RetroArch, Snes9x, Nestopia, VBA-M and Genesis Plus GX. While they did release their source code, the latter four have a non-commercial license. Retroarch's source code used was partial, and had DRM going against GPLv3 obligations.
  
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* Retron5: Its problems are explained at [[Retron5#Controversy|its page]].
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Outside of the emulation community, some people have complained that some of these products are lacking or disappointing. This is either due to poor performance, high prices, or the selection of games determined to be "worthy" of being preloaded to the system. The issue of not having certain games is mainly due to either licencing fees or the original developer's company not existing anymore.  These limitations have caused many to [[Modding Consoles/Flashcarts#NES.2FSNES.2FPSX_Classic| modify]] their systems just to be able to get more use out of it.
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* Capcom Home Arcade: Koch Media (under license from Capcom) announced that they would use [[FinalBurn Alpha]] as the backend for games on the Capcom Home Arcade. This is despite the fact that FinalBurn Alpha was developed and released under a license that forbids commercial use (which was taken from versions of [[MAME]] before they had relicensed in 2015). When other FBA developers were questioned on the issue, they were completely unaware that this happened, resulting in the the project maintainer revealing that he had greenlit its use. The resulting fallout led to the creation of [[FinalBurn Neo]].
 
  
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==DIY solutions==
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==DIY Solutions==
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{{WIP|section}}
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If you still want some kind of "emulation box", but don't want to be limited by any consumer product, you can make one yourself! These other SoCs are relatively cheaper and offer more than first-party boxes:
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If you don't want to be limited by any consumer product, but still have something you can technically call an "emulation box," you can make one yourself! These single-board computers tend to be cheaper and offer more than a first party box will:
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*Nvidia Shield TV (Android TV box fast enough for 2D & 3D emulation of many consoles)
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*LattaPanda (Windows 10 computer with integrated Arduino. Fast enough for Saturn emulation.)
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;Nvidia Shield TV
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*ODROID (Decent speeds for Saturn emulation)
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:An Android TV box fast enough for 2D and 3D emulation of many consoles.
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*Raspberry Pi (Eg. Lakka. It recommended to use the Raspberry Pi 3 or higher for decent performance.)
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;LattePanda
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It is best if you use some kind of [[Frontends|frontend]] to run the emulators as it will provide more convenience.
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:A Windows 10 computer with integrated Arduino. Fast enough for Saturn emulation.
 
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;ODROID
 
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:Has decent speeds for Saturn emulation.
 
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;Raspberry Pi
 
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:A very popular single-board computer that can run projects like Lakka off an SD card. You'll want to use a Raspberry Pi 3 or newer for decent performance.
 
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For more convenience, a [[Frontends|frontend]] is recommended with these devices.
 
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===Distributions===
 
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These Linux distributions offer complete emulation packages for single board computers and other systems.
 
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:[[Recommended_linux_distros#Emulation_focused|Emulation focused Linux distros]]
 
  
 
==See also==
 
==See also==
 
* [[FPGA]] - Devices that make use of programmable chips instead of ARM processors.
 
* [[FPGA]] - Devices that make use of programmable chips instead of ARM processors.
  
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==References==
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==External Links==
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<references />
 
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==External links==
 
 
* [http://www.thegameconsole.com/game-console-clones.html Game Console Clones] (TheGameConsole.com)
 
* [http://www.thegameconsole.com/game-console-clones.html Game Console Clones] (TheGameConsole.com)
  
 
[[Category:Emulation consoles]]
 
[[Category:Emulation consoles]]

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