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Fixed some grammar, boy was my grammar horrendous in March
==History==
===Arcade===
Before MAME back in 1997, there was multiple standalone arcade games emulators, only capable to emulate a single game. Games like Rygar, Gauntlet, Ghosts'n Goblins, Bombjack, Asteroids, Mr. Do! Series, Pac-Man, Lady Bug, all of them came in your own custom emulator. This was around 1994-1995.
Later, Sparcade by David Spicer <ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20010202172300/http://www.sparcade.freeserve.co.uk/download.htm]</ref> was capable of running some arcade games in 1996.
1998 was also the year of the release of various complex multiple arcade games emulators, such as Callus (Capcom CPS-1) and System16 (Sega System 16).
===Commodore 64===
The first Commodore 64 emulator appeared on BBSs in early 1990s. C64S is capable of running games on a 286 IBM PC. <ref>[https://commodore.software/downloads/download/193-c64s/11782-c64s-v0-9a]</ref>
===Atari 2600===
Activision released the “Atari 2600 Action Pack” for Windows 3.1 on June 1995. It was the first Atari emulator known. Later emulators appeared in 1996, “VCS2600” and “Stella” . <ref>
[https://atariage.com/forums/topic/203848-first-atari-2600-emulator/]</ref>
===PlayStation 2===
*[[PCSX2]] started sometime in mid 2001,<ref>[http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-blog-The-History-of-PCSX2 The History of PCSX2]</ref> with its first release on March 23, 2002.<ref>[http://pcsx2.net/download/category/10-pcsx2-v0-026.html PCSX2 v0.026 Download]</ref> It was the first PS2 emulator to boot games on Dec 19, 2002 with release v0.1.<ref>[http://pcsx2.net/download/category/14-pcsx2-v0-1.html PCSX2 v0.1 Download]</ref>
*PS2Emu started development sometime in 2001, but its first and only release wasn't until May 6, 2004.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040513005525/http://ps2emu.efx2.com/ PS2Emu site on archive.org]</ref>
*NeutrinoSX (nSX2) first released on Aug 23, 2002.<ref>[http://nsx2.emulation64.com/downloads.html nSX2 Downloads]</ref> It could boot its first commercial game on March 10, 2003.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20030402125427/http://nsx2.emulation64.com/index2.html nSX2 site archive]</ref>
*[[Play!]] started development on June 14, 2006.<ref>[https://github.com/jpd002/Play-/commit/0c5fb983fd69793334995054d41c81da54e580ed Play!'s initial Github commit.]</ref>
===Game Boy Advance===
* [https://code.google.com/archive/p/gekko-gc-emu/ Gekko] was started in April 2006.
===Xbox===
Xbox emulation dates as far as 2002.
* [[Cxbx]] was released as a proof of concept on August 2002. It can do some test apps, and later commercial games. Discontinued in October 2015.
* Xeon, released in 2003, was the first Xbox emulator whose first version can play games, but the only game that can boot and show graphics was Halo CE.
* Dxbx is a fork of Cxbx, released in 2008.
* [[Cxbx-Reloaded]] is a fork of Cxbx, that went open-source in April 2016. Because little work has been done on the original CXBX, its development is very slow (equals 15% playable titles), and like older Xbox emulators, it didn't need a BIOS dump to work.
* [[XQEMU]] was the first low-level Xbox emulator. Its first commit was on February 1, 2009. It emulated games at slow speeds. Its last commit was on December 2019.
* [[xemu]] is a continuation of XQEMU, released somewhere in February 2020. It can play 5x more titles than Cxbx-Reloaded, and needed an BIOS dump to work.
===Nintendo DS===
* [[Ensata]]: An official Nintendo DS emulator made by Nintendo (and Intelligent Systems?) that was leaked to emulation community in an unknown year (perhaps 2005 or 2006). It could run select few commercial games, though compatibility was very low.
* [[DeSmuME]]: Developed by YopYop156 around 2005, first as "YopYop DS". Discontinued at version 0.3.3 in April 2006, citing a change of laws regarding emulation in France(although it was just an April Fools joke). <ref>[http://wiki.desmume.org/index.php?title=Faq#What_are_the_origins_of_DeSmuME.3F DeSmuME FAQ - What are the origins of DeSmuME?]</ref> The source code was then released. Many devs tried on their own to make their own follow-up (one such emulator includes NDeSmuME, of which only one version was ever released), before teaming up and merging their work, resulting in build 0.5.0 as the starting point for the new emulator.
:With partial Wi-Fi emulation enabling online MP (but not local MP) in 2010, Nintendo supposedly threatened the devs with legal action (though this is unconfirmed). This resulted in the online Wi-Fi functionality being removed from the main trunk, yet it still had its own active branch which didn't face any legal action whatsoever.
===PlayStation Portable===
*PSP Player was the first PSP emulator, starting development on July 4, 2006.<ref>[https://github.com/benvanik/pspplayer/commit/1765423c9565a7435da2df0adc5e0bc662dcb364 PSP Player's initial commit.]</ref> It was the first PSP emulator to boot and run a game on Mar 6, 2008.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqyIjPFHKsI PSP Player emulating Puzzle Bobble on YouTube]</ref>
*[[JPCSP]] started development on July 17, 2008.<ref>[https://github.com/jpcsp/jpcsp/commit/c474891013ff211736e3b72e24abbf568ea3486a JPCSP's initial commit.]</ref> It booted its first game on Oct 14, 2008<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20081017063707/http://www.jpcsp.org/ JPCSP news archive]</ref>
*[[PPSSPP]] first released and went open source on Nov 1, 2012.<ref>[https://github.com/hrydgard/ppsspp/commit/4f7ad157585c0f1a8e7f7f854d477d003507be50 PPSSPP's initial commit.]</ref>
===PlayStation 3===
*[[RPCS3]] started development on May 23, 2011.<ref>[https://code.google.com/archive/p/rpcs3/source/default/commits RPCS3's initial commit on Google Code]</ref> It booted its first commercial game in March 6, 2014.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2yjoDdFIu0 Youtube video of RPCS3 running Arkedo Series - 02 Swap!]</ref>*Short Waves was first released on Dec 30, 2013.<ref>[http://emuplace.com/news/novosti_ehmuljacii/244-short_waves_0_0_1_ehmuljator_ps3_ot_razrabotchika_inorirus.html Short Waves 0.0.1 release info]</ref> It was faster and could run more complicated tests than RPCS3 at the time of its release, but development stopped before running any commercial games.*[[Nucleus]] started development on Aug 26, 2014.<ref>[https://github.com/AlexAltea/nucleus/commit/9042b530bcd92fc1989efecfa996841b67a84341 Nucleus's initial Github commit.]</ref>
===Wii===
* [[Citra]] was the first released 3DS emulator. Its first commit was on Aug 29, 2013.<ref>[https://github.com/citra-emu/citra/commit/8404376c6ba46433a3fe0ab81e029e39f85c6b65 Citra's initial Github commit.]</ref> It was able to boot its first game, Ocarina of Time 3D, on Dec 13, 2014.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/2p6m3k/citra_3ds_emu_boots_first_commercial_game/ Citra 3DS emu boots first commercial game - reddit thread]</ref>
* [[3dmoo]] was started shortly after Citra, on Mar 19, 2014.<ref>[https://github.com/plutooo/3dmoo/commit/2c42353b7262a3d66483fbbccb83c12dcfe85594 3dmoo's initial Github commit.]</ref>
* [[TronDS|TronDS's]] first version was released on May 11, 2014.<ref>[http://trondsemu.byethost15.com/?i=1 TronDS changelog.]</ref>
===Wii U===
* [[Decaf]] was the first released Wii U emulator. Its first commit was on May 18, 2015.<ref>[https://github.com/decaf-emu/decaf-emu/commit/b121b9290c1eca5de0a2f43b5497c2ac6613c397 decaf's initial Github commit.]</ref> However, it didn't run any games until Oct 28, 2015,<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/3qmcnm/decafemu_runs_a_game_now/ decaf-emu runs a game now! reddit thread.]</ref> a couple weeks after Cemu had released.
* [[Cemu]] was first released in Oct 13, 2015.<ref>[http://cemu.info/changelog.html Cemu changelog]</ref> It was the first Wii U emulator that could run games. The developer has stated that work began on it around the end of 2013.<ref>[https://gbatemp.net/threads/question-about-wii-u-emulation.398838/page-4#post-5712397 gbatemp discussion on Cemu.]</ref>
===PlayStation 4===
===Nintendo Switch===
* CageTheUnicorn, now [https://github.com/reswitched/Mephisto Mephisto], was the first program to attempt to emulate only a part (not the whole) of the Nintendo Switch, it started development on May 16, 2017.<ref>[https://github.com/reswitched/CageTheUnicorn/commits/master CageTheUnicorn's Github commit history]</ref> The developers have stated their goals are for it to be used as a debugger and that there are no plans for getting commercial games running.<ref>[https://reswitched.tech/hacking/tools/cagetheunicorn CageTheUnicorn's page on the ReSwitched website]</ref>* [[yuzu]], a fork of [[Citra]], started research and early development sometime in Spring 2017,<ref name="yuzu announcement">[https://gbatemp.net/threads/yuzu-nintendo-switch-emulator.494181/ yuzu announcement and public release.]</ref> with its first commit on September 24, 2017.<ref>[https://github.com/yuzu-emu/yuzu/commit/6bafd3f4f754e093fe0f99ebf2e1136d3398981a yuzu's NSO support commit on Github]</ref> It was publicly released in January 13, 2018.<ref name="yuzu announcement"></ref>
* [[Ryujinx]] was the first Nintendo Switch emulator to boot a commercial game, Puyo Puyo Tetris, when it released on February 4, 2018.<ref>[https://github.com/gdkchan/Ryujinx/tree/b7e1d9930db6d80fcb1f7c5c6b0aa627e42e6595 Ryujinx's initial GitHub commit.]</ref>
* [[Skyline]] is an Switch emulator for Android. It's first commit was on June 28, 2019. It's first breakthrough was booting Super Mario Odyssey.
==References==
