Mesen

Mesen

Developer(s)	Sour (Mesen1 and Mesen2); mkwong98 & NovaSquirrel have a fork that has released numerous "beta" builds
Latest version	2.0.0 (preview) [+]
Active	Yes
Platform(s)	Windows Linux macOS 11/12
Emulates	NES / Famicom Famicom Disk System SNES / Super Famicom Game Boy (Color) PC-Engine (TurboGrafx-16) Master System Game Gear SG-1000
Accuracy	Cycle-Accurate
Website	Mesen.ca
Support ($)	Patreon
Programmed in	C++, C#, C
License	GNU GPLv3
Source code	GitHub

Mesen is a free and open-source Famicom (NES), Famicom Disk System (FDS), Super Famicom (SNES), GB/GBC, PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16, SG-1000 and Master System/Game Gear emulator for Windows, Linux and macOS. For now, the macOS version must be compiled from source.

The version currently under development is Mesen 2.x, first released as a preview build in 2023. The older Mesen 0.x branch could only emulate NES, and SNES/GB(C) emulation was found in a separate emulator named Mesen S. The current Mesen Libretro core for RetroArch is still based on the 0.x branch, but receiving backports from the newer branch. For the sake of simplicity, we will refer to the 0.x branch as Mesen1.

Contents

Download

	Official release
	Arch Linux Latest stable package

Mesen UI and Screens

Overview

According to test ROMs, it is ranked as the most compatible NES/FDS emulator, slightly above puNES with a score of 100%.

It has cycle-accurate emulation and offers numerous features, including:

• Support for over 290 mappers, (all licensed games supported.)
• FDS (Famicom Disk System) support
• Top loader NES variant support
• VS. System support
• Dendy support
• HDNes HD packs
• NTSC/PAL support
• NSF/NSFe support
• Video recording/playback
• Video filters (xBRZ, NTSC, etc.)
• Netplay
• Debugging tools
• Overclocking
• Custom palettes
• Sound effects (fake stereo, reverb, etc.)
• Rewind

Mesen 2.x can also run SNES games, which also feature similiar features, as well as Super FX and Satellaview support.

Game Boy (DMG) and Game Boy Color (CGB) games can also be played on Mesen 2.x, but only Game Boy Color can play CGB games. For DMG games, you can choose either Game Boy or Game Boy Color, or run the game in Super Game Boy mode by loading the Super Game Boy BIOS (1 or 2) into the SNES core.

An exclusive feature excluded from older versions is PC-Engine support, as well as the CD-ROM².

Screenshots

• 

  Screenshot of Mesen1.

• 

  Mesen1 Logo.

• 

  Mesen2 logo

Hardware support

Mappers

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19		21	22	23	24	25	26	28	28	29	30	31
32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47
48	49	50	51	52	53	54		56	57	58		60	61	62	63
64	65	66	67	68	69	70	71	72	73	74	75	76	77	78	79
80		82	83		85	86	87	88	89	90	91	92	93	94	95
96	97		99		101		103	104	105	106	107	108			111
112	113	114	115	116	117	118	119	120	121		123		125	126
				132	133	134		136	137	138	139	140	141	142	143
144	145	146	147	148	149	150	151	152	153	154	155	156	157	158	159
		162	163	164	165	166	167	168		170	171	172	173	174	175
176	177	178	179	180		182	183	184	185	186	187	188	189	190	191
192	193	194	195	196	197	198	199	200	201	202	203	204	205	206	207
208	209	210	211	212	213	214	215	216	217	218	219	220	221	222
224	225	226	227	228	229	230	231	232	233	234	235	236		238
240	241	242	243	244	245	246			249	250		252	253	254	255

List of forks

Name	Platform(s)	Latest Version	libretro	Active	Recommended
PC / x86
Mesen-X		2023-09-11 libretro core	✓	✗	✗

Comparisons

Mesen-X

This fork was meant to gather development efforts from different forks of the 0.x branch. Not under active development, and archived as of September. This fork is deprecated as of Mesen 2.x's release.

Trivia

Origins of the name essentially come from two things:

• It's "NES EMulator", backwards -> Mesen.
• It's the Japanese word used to talk about a person's gaze or point of view, (目線 - めせん - Mesen), which is the reason why the logo is an eye icon.

References

Nintendo Entertainment System emulators
	BizHawk - FCEUX - HDNes - higan - Jnes - MAME - Mesen - nemulator - NESticle - Nestopia - Nintendulator - puNES - QuickNES - RockNES - VirtuaNES Consoles: Virtual Console