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There are several ways to support or contribute to an emulation project (or similar projects such as [[Compatibility compatibility layers]], [[Game game engine recreations]] or simulators). Explained here are different ways you can get involved, even if you have low technical skill and /or no money. Note that almost all these methods require getting involved in some way. Offering to help in a specific area may not be necessary in some cases, so you'll have to check with each project you're interested in to determine what they're looking for and what they find useful.

A compatibility report communicates the emulation quality. It is aimed at other users. <!-- Sending users to GitHub is dangerous - you should only do it if the project has , and often consists of a simplified compatibility list which doesn't require technical understanding / writing; most projects actually uses wikis or custom tools / websites for compatibility reporting -->.

Some emulators use GitHub for their compatibility listlists.Create a GitHub account, most Most projects have instructions on how bug reports they should be written, make . Make sure you search to see if the any issues is you're having has already brought up been encountered by another user, in . Note that case just add your observation sending users to that reportGitHub is dangerous - you should only do it if the project has a simplified compatibility list which doesn't require technical understanding / writing; most projects actually use wikis or custom tools / websites for compatibility reporting. Some use spreadsheets and forms to get their data.

A bug report is about concerns one specific problem. It is aimed at emulator developers.

Bug reports are They're also typically expected to include details about specific situations when the problem arises, but also technical details as to why it happens.

''Sometimes you need a fair bit of experience in order to report bugs to the major projects. If you lack the experience to match what developers themselves report then most smaller projects are not a software developer, fine with it as long as you probably shouldntry to make it coherent and professional. Many projects have the program set up to automatically forward logs to developers at the user't do bug reportss discretion.This can avoid having to explain the problem, though sometimes they''ll want context in case they need to reproduce it.

Often they are aware of issues and have grouped them under a known technical term.

Many emulators not only need games tested in the emulator, but also on real hardware, because games aren't perfect.Sometimes it looks like thereIf you's a bug in ve been involved with the emulatorspeedrunning community, you ''know'' bugs exist, but it might and can be taken advantage of to get a faster time.Determining what is a bug in the game, so it also happens on the console.So you and what is inaccurate emulation can possibly prevent developers from wasting time on bugs which arenproblems they didn't really create. All projects encounter this at some point; even the testers behind [[Dolphin]] encounter [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd29mWwp5c8 bugs in the emulatorthat happen on hardware].Ideally, you should have a capture card to record for recording footage as prooffrom hardware.

Also, during During the research and documentation phase, some developers will also write small programs to test hardware behaviourbehavior.In some cases the developers don't have access to the physical hardware or they need test to confirm results from many by having multiple usersrun the tests. This can also be done in cases where the code doesn't work on all hardware revisions, and the developer needs to test it on all revisions to understand where each model has deficiencies; sometimes they don't have all models, but the more accuracy-focused projects will have this covered in some way. Hackers and those in the homebrew scene may have documented these deficiencies already.You can follow developer chat-rooms, so you can and offer your help with assistance by running tests and collecting data from real hardware.

DiscordHelping and guiding other users through problems is one of the pillars of open communities. If there's one thing a developer doesn't want to have to do alone, IRCit's troubleshoot problems that end users get themselves into. Providing support for end-users will allow developers to focus on the software they make, forumscreating a filter that allows actual bugs to be reported and saving time in the process. You also need a slight sense of confidence to make decisions for the user. For most people who work in IT (or just Google their problems), this comes naturally.

==Write & promotion==Write This can be done by writing official blog posts, promote posting newson social media, provide providing information, make making videos on for YouTube, explain change logsexplaining and summarizing changelogs, etc.

== Archival and & hardware donations ==

Optical discs like CD or and DVDs have a limited lifespan, they . They degrade over time and will eventually be unreadableto a disc reader.There is projects Projects like [http://wiki.redump.org/index.php?title=Redump.org redump.orgRedump] which are focused on identifying all officially released discs.

Game databases like [https://www.mobygames.com/ MobyGames] can be used to find additional information for each game. Launchers can use the uploaded descriptions and cover-artwork. You can contribute by scanning you your game artwork, finding and adding game information (such as release dates).MobyGames also stores barcodes and serial numbers which can be used to find releases in redump.orgRedump's database.

Alternatively, you You can also donate games or hardware to developers or other volunteers who are accepting such donations.

Emulator developers usually require a large number of consoles, games , and peripherals (controllers, memory cards, ..), so donations are typically welcome.

Contact project maintainers to find out morewhat they accept.

Emulators depend on technical emulation documentation about the systems they emulate.Typically, there are dedicated communities (often includes including people from emulationthe homebrew scene, homebrew and much less commonly the piracy and warez scene) for these research and documentation tasks.

These research communities often uses Wikis which wikis that need to be maintained.

These tools are often written in beginner-friendl friendly programming languages (such as C# or Python) and can be stepping-stone for moving towards actual emulator development.

WIPA pretty obvious one, but it should be stated that most open-source emulation projects don't get nearly enough support in the programming area. Bigger projects often have an abundance of developers to constantly check on the code and make sure it's written well, but those are rare, so most projects are often one man operations or have few (if multiple) developers. Many projects are actively looking for programmers, so if you have knowledge in systems programming and such, you could definitely be of help. Programming for the emulator itself isn't even necessary, as many projects are in need of websites and CI integration. If the emulator doesn't use stable builds (or all that exists are instructions for compiling from source), you could implement a CI and integrate it with the website so you can get it to host precompiled builds for users. CIs are also useful because they can run the program with test ROMs to ensure that compatibility isn't broken between commits. The major projects will have this covered. Sometimes older project developers don't like to change the website's infrastructure, so you're better off handling projects for which there is no existing website. If you're experienced with Linux, you can help port a program to your distribution (or mostly every distro if the main developers are already considering something like AppImages).

Emulation Emulator development is a time -intensive task. ItA lot of projects could use some money, especially ones where they often don's only fair t get it when they should. Some projects are simply possible because the developers have money from their existing job to be able to reward fund their efforts on the emulator. Sometimes it goes a long way in helping archivists on the contributorsteam hunt for rare items.

However, emulator development is Many projects are often a group effort and , so from a user's perspective there is 's no fair way to distribute moneywhat comes in.

It's therefore important to understand who you donate to, and how that money will be shared or how it will be and used. Especially for Open-Source projects, there can also be problems with only supporting among the core developer group: it might actively discourage other contributors because of the unfair reward system ("Why should I work . Make sure developers are upfront about who gets paid and what they're using your donations for free, but XYZ is getting paid on a monthly bases?").This can quickly lead to one "hero" developer - if More informal ones will say they ever disappear use the donations on a beer or coffee, but it's also often put towards project is essentially dead because nobody else is familiar with operations like domain registration for the website and such to keep the source-codewebsite running.

For some Some problems may arise from this; money can potentially be a deterrent for newcomers on open-source projects. By only supporting the core developer group, there is also no practical use it might actively discourage other contributors because the reward system would be unfair. ("Why do I have to work for money: money doesnfree when ''x''t write is getting paid on a monthly basis?") This can quickly lead to one "hero" developer - if they ever disappear, the project essentially dies because nobody else is familiar with the [[source code]].There's also Some projects have countered this by implementing a lot bounty system, where newcomers can be rewarded for fixing bugs that are outside the scope of what the core developers focus on. Keep in mind that even in the hundreds of free services for Open-Source projectsdollars, so many projects dona bounty isn't have any expensesgoing to pay the developer's bills, but it's a better incentive than otherwise.

Several emulators have a Patreon. [[Emulators on Patreon|Here is Several emulators have a listPatreon.]]We've been tracking projects that use Patreon since mid-2017.

BountySource let's lets you directly donate money to certain features or improvements you wish for* . Some known projects that use BountySource include [https://www.bountysource.com/teams/libretro Libretrolibretro]* and [https://www.bountysource.com/teams/reicast Reicast].

 <!-- This Note that this list is only intended for the four or five biggest projects in emulation/compability layers, and is intended as an example to provide examples of ways to help out/getting involved -->, so we only list major examples.

It is 's not possible to donate directly to MAME, but several other projects that help MAME's development can be supported.

The libretro Team has* Has a A [https://www.libretro.com/index.php/contributions/ contribute page] with wish lists for hardware and other info. * Has a [https://www.patreon.com/libretro A Patreon.].* Has a [https://www.bountysource.com/teams/libretro BountysourceA BountySource system] where you can donate money directly to functions features, bugfixes, and improvements you 'd wish to see.

* The ScummVM Team has a * [http://sourceforge.net/donate/index.php?group_id=37116 A PayPal.]* ScummVM Has a [https://bugs.scummvm.org/ Bug A bug tracker.]* You can [https://translations.scummvm.org/projects/scummvm/scummvm/ help translateA translation portal.] ScummVM* ScummVM has a [https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Developer_Central devolper instructionA Developer Central page] with instructions on how to contribute code. * ResidualVM has a [http://wiki.residualvm.org/index.php/Getting_Involved getting involved page] and a [http://wiki.residualvm.org/index.php/Reporting_Bugs Bug page for reporting pagebugs].

* Has The WINE Team has a [https://www.winehq.org/donate donate Donate page] where you can find information on how to donate with Paypal PayPal and other ways to send money, you . You can also support them by buying merchmerchandise.  Another option is to buy [https://www.codeweavers.com/about/support-wine CrossOver] which is a commercialized, supported version of Wine from CodeWeavers. They contribute all of their work on Wine CrossOvers back to the Wine Project and make up for 2/3 about two thirds of the commits made to Wine commits.