Difference between revisions of "Emulation 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 and locked-down ARM microcomputers and some are more so just "collector's items".  They should be avoided as your computer will generally provide better performance overall.
+
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:
  
 +
;First-party boxes
 +
: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.
 +
;Third-party boxes
 +
: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.
  
==Cartridge based==
+
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.
===First Party Boxes===
+
 
 +
==First-party boxes==
 
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
 
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
 
! scope="col"|Product
 
! scope="col"|Product
Line 9: Line 14:
 
! scope="col"|Reimplements
 
! scope="col"|Reimplements
 
! scope="col"|MSRP
 
! scope="col"|MSRP
 +
! scope="col"|Emulator used
 
! scope="col"|Notes
 
! scope="col"|Notes
 
|-
 
|-
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|[[Nintendo Entertainment System emulators|Nintendo Entertainment System]]
 
|[[Nintendo Entertainment System emulators|Nintendo Entertainment System]]
 
|$59.99
 
|$59.99
 +
|[[Kachikachi]]
 
| Official Nintendo product designed to only emulate the NES. Includes 30 games.
 
| Official Nintendo product designed to only emulate the NES. Includes 30 games.
 
|-
 
|-
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|[[Super Nintendo emulators|Nintendo SNES]]
 
|[[Super Nintendo emulators|Nintendo SNES]]
 
|$79.99
 
|$79.99
|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.
+
|[[Canoe]]
 +
|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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|[[Sega Genesis emulators|Sega Genesis]]
 
|[[Sega Genesis emulators|Sega Genesis]]
 
|$79.99
 
|$79.99
|Official SEGA product designed to only emulate the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Includes 42 games and is scheduled to launch September 19th, 2019. Unlike the other "minis", this one may offer [https://www.polygon.com/2019/6/4/18652108/sega-genesis-mini-mega-drive-tower-price useless add-ons] that are purely for aesthetics and provide no additional features.
+
|m2engage
 +
|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.
 +
|-
 +
|[https://sega.jp/genesismini2/ Sega Genesis Mini 2]
 +
|[[Sega]]
 +
|Sega Genesis, [[Sega Genesis emulators|Sega CD]]
 +
|$99.99
 +
|m2engage
 +
|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.
 
|-
 
|-
|PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 Mini
+
|[https://www.konami.com/games/pcemini/gate 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]]
|TBA
+
|$99.99
|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.
+
|?
 +
|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.
 
|-
 
|-
 
|[[wikipedia:PlayStation Classic|PlayStation Classic]]
 
|[[wikipedia:PlayStation Classic|PlayStation Classic]]
|[[Sony]]
+
|[[Sony|Sony Interactive Entertainment]]
 
|[[PlayStation emulators|Sony PlayStation]]
 
|[[PlayStation emulators|Sony PlayStation]]
|<strike>$99.99</strike> $40
+
|<strike>$99.99</strike> $20
|Official Sony product designed to only emulate the PS1. Includes 20 games.  Uses [[PCSX-Reloaded#PlayStation_Classic|PCSX-ReARMed]] as its emulator.
+
|[[PCSX-Reloaded#PlayStation_Classic|PCSX-ReARMed]]
 +
|Official SIE 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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|[[Neo Geo and variants|Neo Geo]]
 
|[[Neo Geo and variants|Neo Geo]]
 
|<strike>~$110</strike> $89.99
 
|<strike>~$110</strike> $89.99
|Offical SNK product designed to only emulate the NEOGEO. Includes 40 games. Uses a [https://github.com/xugamezhouyuhua/neogeominiemu modified version of NJEMU]
+
|modified version of [https://github.com/xugamezhouyuhua/neogeominiemu NJEMU]
 +
|Offical SNK product designed to only emulate the NEOGEO. Includes 40 games.  
 
|-
 
|-
 
|[http://www.capcomhomearcade.com/home CAPCOM Home Arcade]
 
|[http://www.capcomhomearcade.com/home CAPCOM Home Arcade]
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|[[Arcade emulators|CPS1 & CPS2]]
 
|[[Arcade emulators|CPS1 & CPS2]]
 
|~$254
 
|~$254
|Offical CAPCOM product designed to emulate CPS1 and CPS2 arcade games. Includes 16 games. Uses [[FinalBurn Alpha]] as its emulator. Scheduled to launch October 25th, 2019.
+
|[[FinalBurn Alpha]]
 +
|Offical CAPCOM product designed to emulate CPS1 and CPS2 arcade games. Includes 16 games.
 +
|-
 +
|[https://sega.jp/astrocitymini/original/index.html Astro City Mini]
 +
|Sega Toys
 +
|Arcade
 +
|JP¥ <strike>12800</strike>13511<br>$<strike>129.99</strike>161.99
 +
|?
 +
|Offical SEGA product designed to emulate various Sega arcade games. Includes 36 games and the test program "Dottori-Kun".
 +
|-
 +
|[https://sega.jp/astrocitymini/v Astro City Mini V]
 +
|Sega Toys
 +
|Arcade
 +
|JP¥ 19580
 +
|?
 +
|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)
 +
|-
 +
|[https://www.taito.co.jp/egret2mini Egret II Mini]
 +
|Taito
 +
|Arcade
 +
|JP¥ <strike>18678</strike>15800<br>$<strike>229.99</strike>109.03
 +
|?
 +
|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.  
 
|}
 
|}
  
===Third Party Boxes===
+
==Third-party boxes==
 
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
 
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
 
! scope="col"|Product
 
! scope="col"|Product
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! scope="col"|Reimplements
 
! scope="col"|Reimplements
 
! scope="col"|MSRP
 
! scope="col"|MSRP
 +
! scope="col"|Emulator(s) used
 
! scope="col"|Notes
 
! scope="col"|Notes
 
|-
 
|-
|Polymega
+
|[[Polymega]]
 
|Playmaji
 
|Playmaji
 
|Multi-system
 
|Multi-system
|$499.99 <small>(Deluxe bundle)</small>
+
|$299.99-$499.99 <small>(Deluxe bundle)</small>
|Modular system. First emulation box with CD support. Emulates PS1, Saturn, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, TG-16/CD, Neo Geo CD, NES, SNES. Might make use of a [[FPGA]] partially.
+
|[[Mednafen]], [[Mesen]], [[Kega Fusion]], and [[MAME]]
 +
|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).
 
|-
 
|-
 
|[[Retron5]]
 
|[[Retron5]]
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|Multi-system
 
|Multi-system
 
|$159.99
 
|$159.99
|Emulates NES/GBC/GBA/Genesis/SNES and includes cart readers for those systems. Uses [[RetroArch]], [[Snes9x]], and [[Genesis Plus GX]] for its emulation.
+
|[[RetroArch]], [[Snes9x]], and [[Genesis Plus GX]]  
 +
|Emulates NES/GBC/GBA/Genesis/SNES and includes cart readers for those systems.
 
|-
 
|-
 
|Sega Genesis Flashback
 
|Sega Genesis Flashback
 
|AtGames
 
|AtGames
 
|[[Sega Genesis emulators|Sega Genesis]]
 
|[[Sega Genesis emulators|Sega Genesis]]
|
+
|$79.99
|Produced under license from Sega. Emulates the Master System and the Sega Genesis. Very disappointing and the ensuing outcry has led Sega to drop their planned further partnership with AtGames for their actual Sega Genesis Mini.
+
|? <br/>(Genesis-on-a-Chip ?)
 +
|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.
 +
|-
 +
|Arcade1Up Home Arcade
 +
|Arcade1Up
 +
|[[Arcade emulators|Arcade]]
 +
|$200-$500 (Depends on the game)
 +
|[[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>
 +
|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. 
 +
|-
 +
|Pandora Boxes
 +
|Unknown
 +
|[[Arcade emulators|Arcade]]
 +
|$30-$170 (Depends on model and peripherals)
 +
|[[MAME]], [[FinalBurn Alpha]] (Older ones) / [[RetroArch]] (Newer ones)
 +
|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.
 
|}
 
|}
  
==Controversies==
+
==Controversy==
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.
+
===Poor catalog===
 +
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.
 +
 
 +
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.
 +
 
 +
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.
 +
 
 +
===Licensing===
 +
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.
 +
 
 +
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:
 +
 
 +
* Retron5: Its problems are explained at [[Retron5#Controversy|its page]].
 +
* 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]].
 +
 
 +
==DIY solutions==
 +
{{WIP|section}}
 +
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:
 +
 
 +
;Nvidia Shield TV
 +
:An Android TV box fast enough for 2D and 3D emulation of many consoles.
 +
;LattePanda
 +
:A Windows 10 computer with integrated Arduino. Fast enough for Saturn emulation.
 +
;ODROID
 +
:Has decent speeds for Saturn emulation.
 +
;Raspberry Pi
 +
: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.
  
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.
+
For more convenience, a [[Frontends|frontend]] is recommended with these devices.
  
* 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.
+
===Distributions===
* 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.
+
These Linux distributions offer complete emulation packages for single board computers and other systems.
  
==DIY Solutions==
+
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
*Nvidia Shield TV (Android TV box fast enough for 2D & 3D emulation of many consoles)
+
! scope="col"|Name
*LattaPanda (Windows 10 computer with integrated Arduino. Fast enough for Saturn emulation.)
+
! scope="col"|Architecture
*Odroid (Decent speeds for Saturn emulation)
+
! scope="col"|Frontend
*Raspberry Pi (Eg. Lakka.)
+
! scope="col"|Latest Version
 +
! scope="col"|Active
 +
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]
 +
|-
 +
|[[RetroPie]]
 +
|ARM
 +
|[[EmulationStation]] fork
 +
|[https://retropie.org.uk/download/ {{RetroPieVer}}]
 +
|{{✓}} ||{{✓}}
 +
|-
 +
|[[Lakka]]
 +
|ARM, x86
 +
|[[RetroArch]]
 +
|[http://www.lakka.tv/get/ {{LakkaVer}}]
 +
|{{✓}} ||{{TBD}}
 +
|-
 +
|[https://batocera.org/ Batocera.linux]
 +
|ARM, x86
 +
|[[EmulationStation]] fork
 +
|[https://batocera.org/download {{BatoceraLinuxVer}}]
 +
|{{✓}} ||{{TBD}}
 +
|-
 +
|[https://www.recalbox.com/ Recalbox]
 +
|ARM, x86
 +
|[[EmulationStation]]
 +
|[https://archive.recalbox.com/ {{RecalboxVer}}]
 +
|{{✓}} ||{{TBD}}
 +
|-
 +
|[https://chimeraos.org/ ChimeraOS]
 +
|x86
 +
|Steam Big Picture
 +
|[https://chimeraos.org/download 28]
 +
|{{✓}} ||{{TBD}}
 +
|-
 +
|SteamOS 3
 +
|x86
 +
|Steam Big Picture
 +
|N/A
 +
|{{✓}} ||{{TBD}}
 +
|}
  
 
==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.
  
==External Links==
+
==References==
 +
<references />
 +
 
 +
==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]]

Revision as of 08:20, 1 February 2023

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:

First-party boxes
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.
Third-party boxes
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.

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.

First-party boxes

Product Manufacturer Reimplements MSRP Emulator used Notes
NES Classic Edition / Famicom Classic Mini Nintendo Nintendo Entertainment System $59.99 Kachikachi Official Nintendo product designed to only emulate the NES. Includes 30 games.
SNES Classic Edition / Super Famicom Mini Nintendo Nintendo SNES $79.99 Canoe 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.
Sega Genesis Mini Sega Sega Genesis $79.99 m2engage 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 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.
Sega Genesis Mini 2 Sega Sega Genesis, Sega CD $99.99 m2engage 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, M2, handled the emulation of Genesis and Sega CD games.
PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 Mini Konami PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 $99.99 ? 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 M2, the same company that did the Sega Genesis Mini and other console ports.
PlayStation Classic Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony PlayStation $99.99 $20 PCSX-ReARMed Official SIE product designed to only emulate the PS1. Includes 20 games.
NEOGEO Mini SNK Neo Geo ~$110 $89.99 modified version of NJEMU Offical SNK product designed to only emulate the NEOGEO. Includes 40 games.
CAPCOM Home Arcade Capcom CPS1 & CPS2 ~$254 FinalBurn Alpha Offical CAPCOM product designed to emulate CPS1 and CPS2 arcade games. Includes 16 games.
Astro City Mini Sega Toys Arcade JP¥ 1280013511
$129.99161.99
? Offical SEGA product designed to emulate various Sega arcade games. Includes 36 games and the test program "Dottori-Kun".
Astro City Mini V Sega Toys Arcade JP¥ 19580 ? 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)
Egret II Mini Taito Arcade JP¥ 1867815800
$229.99109.03
? 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.

Third-party boxes

Product Manufacturer Reimplements MSRP Emulator(s) used Notes
Polymega Playmaji Multi-system $299.99-$499.99 (Deluxe bundle) Mednafen, Mesen, Kega Fusion, and MAME 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).
Retron5 Hyperkin Multi-system $159.99 RetroArch, Snes9x, and Genesis Plus GX Emulates NES/GBC/GBA/Genesis/SNES and includes cart readers for those systems.
Sega Genesis Flashback AtGames Sega Genesis $79.99 ?
(Genesis-on-a-Chip ?)
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.
Arcade1Up Home Arcade Arcade1Up Arcade $200-$500 (Depends on the game) MAME, FinalBurn Alpha, RetroArch, and MOO (their own commercial emulator)[1] 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.
Pandora Boxes Unknown Arcade $30-$170 (Depends on model and peripherals) MAME, FinalBurn Alpha (Older ones) / RetroArch (Newer ones) 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.

Controversy

Poor catalog

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.

These limitations have caused many to modify their systems just to be able to get more use out of it.

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.

Licensing

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.

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:

  • Retron5: Its problems are explained at its page.
  • 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.

DIY solutions

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:

Nvidia Shield TV
An Android TV box fast enough for 2D and 3D emulation of many consoles.
LattePanda
A Windows 10 computer with integrated Arduino. Fast enough for Saturn emulation.
ODROID
Has decent speeds for Saturn emulation.
Raspberry Pi
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.

For more convenience, a frontend is recommended with these devices.

Distributions

These Linux distributions offer complete emulation packages for single board computers and other systems.

Name Architecture Frontend Latest Version Active Recommended
RetroPie ARM EmulationStation fork 4.8
Lakka ARM, x86 RetroArch 4.3 TBD
Batocera.linux ARM, x86 EmulationStation fork 38 TBD
Recalbox ARM, x86 EmulationStation 9.1-Pulstar TBD
ChimeraOS x86 Steam Big Picture 28 TBD
SteamOS 3 x86 Steam Big Picture N/A TBD

See also

  • FPGA - Devices that make use of programmable chips instead of ARM processors.

References

External links