nonmame.retrogames.comNonMAME Emulator Repository

Welcome to ! documents the best open-source emulator for any given system, with priority given to MAME due to its comprehensive scope. This primarily involves arcade, computer, console and handheld systems. This site represents an enormous undertaking involving tons of research with developers, discussions with the user community, and countless hours of testing. seeks to broaden understanding of extant emulation resources in the hope that MAME developers and users alike may find benefit. Bearing in mind that a great deal of information posted here comes from our readers, we strongly encourage any and all comments, questions, suggestions for better emulators etc. You can reach us via email here . What’s New 2024/04/22: Updated iOS-Based Hardware section with new information. 2024/02/01: Removed Dragon’s Lair and Thayer’s Quest from the Laserdisc-Based Hardware section now that MAME officially supports these games. Most importantly, the discs themselves have been properly preserved in a bit-perfect format that has taken the MAME team, working with other open-source teams, years to achieve. In contrast, the sets supported by Daphne (and those of other commercial emulators) were of a far lower-grade, as the audio and video data was quite compressed and lossy. This is a big step forward for emulation, and a huge win for preservation. 2023/07/08: Updated PlayStation 4 section, changing recommendation to RPCSX. 2023/04/28: Updated the Virtual Boy section to accommodate improvements to the MAME driver during the 0.254 development cycle. 2023/02/03: Added iOS-based Hardware section. Site Information Evaulation criteria for the best emulator of a given system is as follows (in order of importance): Open-source status and availability: Only emulators that are open-source and run natively in Linux (the OS behind the baseline reference system noted below) will be documented Accuracy: The ability to emulate the functions of the target system as faithfully as possible Speed: The ability to deliver an emulated experience at the same speed as the original hardware given the limitations of the baseline reference system noted below Features: Support for certain functions that aren’t core to the original experience such as gamepad rumble, shaders, networking, etc. Usability: The ease in which the emulator may be accessed by the "average user" assuming minimal computer knowledge Survivability: The emulator’s long-term potential, commonly measured by the frequency in which the emulator is updated MAME driver status documented for each system matches actual MAME nomenclature as follows: Non-existent : There is no driver for this system. Preliminary : An early driver exists. This often represents skeleton drivers under which most software will not run, though some systems may actually launch and load software on a limited basis. Imperfect : Progress has been made, but the driver is far from complete. Software may run under the driver, though some titles may run slowly or with problems. Good : Most software should run with little or no problems. With a bit more improvement, the driver will reach parity with its "competitors", and if the system is not represented on arcade hardware, it will be documented in the "Driven to Maturity" section. The optimal situation, of course, is for no systems to exist in the main section of - meaning that MAME supports all systems as good or better than all other emulators - but don’t hold your breath! Specifications of the current baseline reference system used in testing is as follows: Linux Mint 21.3 x64, kernel 6.5 Intel i7-10870H 32GB RAM NVIDIA GTX 3070M Latest MAME version tested: 0.264 Driven to Maturity The following are non-arcade systems which MAME emulates as good as, if not better than, any other emulator according to our evaluation criteria. Given that there are tens of thousands of systems in MAME, with potentially hundreds of thousands to come, only systems that have known "competition" to MAME will be cited here. This is an experimental section and may be removed if people misunderstand its intent. Please note this does not mean any of these systems are "perfectly emulated" either - emulation is never truly perfect! Please join us in extending thanks to the MAME team for their hard work and dedication to this effort, without which such accurate emulation would not be possible. Acorn [Series] [Computer] ADAM [Computer] Alice32 [Computer] Altair 8800 [Computer] Amstrad CPC [Computer] Apple II (Non-IIGS) [Computer] Apple IIGS [Computer] Aquarius [Computer] Arcadia 2001 [Console] Archimedes [Series] [Computer] Atari 400/800 Series [Computer] Atari 2600 [Console] Atari 7800 [Console] CD-i [Console] Central Data 2650 [Computer] ColecoVision [Console] CPS Changer [Console] CreatiVision [Computer] Cybiko [Handheld] Dreamcast Visual Memory System [Handheld] FM Towns Marty [Console] Game Boy [Handheld] Game Boy Advance [Handheld] Game Gear [Handheld] Genesis [Console] Instructor 50 [Computer] Intellivision [Console] JR-200U [Computer] Lynx [Handheld] Macintosh [Non-PowerPC] Master System [Console] MC-10 [Computer] Microvision (Handheld) MO Series [Computer] MSX Series [Computer] MZ [Series] (Below 2000) [Computer] MZ-2000 [Computer] MZ-2500 [Computer] Neo Geo AES [Console] Neo Geo CD [Console] Odyssey2 [Console] Othello Multivision [Console] PC-6001 [Series] [Computer] PC98 [Series] [Computer] Pico [Handheld] PIPBUG-based Systems [Computer] PocketStation [Handheld] RX-78 [Computer] Sega Computer 3000 (SC-3000) [Computer] Sega Game 1000 (SG-1000) [Console] Sega Super Control Station (SF-7000) [Computer] Studio II [Console] SuperGrafx [Console] SuperVision [Handheld] TO Series [Computer] TurboGrafx 16 [Console] TurboGrafx CD [Console] TV Games Computer [Console] VC 4000 [Console] Vectrex [Handheld] Videopac+ G7400 [Console] WonderSwan [Handheld] X1 [Computer] X68000 [Computer] ZX Spectrum [Computer] Special Notes About RetroArch RA is not itself an emulator, but rather an open-source framework composed primarily of multiple emulator "cores" commonly ported from independently-written standalone implementations and sometimes enhanced by the RA development team. RA serves as a reference implementation of "libretro", itself a generic API that allows RA not only to be core-agnostic but to extend beyond emulation purposes as a flexible and powerful instrument of its own right. RA’s main benefits include its availability on many host platforms; its support of many "best of breed" emulators under a single framework; its streamlined interface which eschews keyboard/mouse navigation in favor of controllers and other simpler means of input; and its support of cross-platform "shaders" which lend visual authenticity when used properly. That said, RA’s primary contribution isn’t the preservation of old technology for historical purposes (this site’s focus); but rather on broadened awareness and usefulness of such technology to a wide audience across an expanded range of platforms such as personal computers, tablets, and whatever the future may hold. RA could achieve certain preservation goals indirectly however, given the theory that emulation of individual target systems stands a greater chance of being preserved as part of a collective framework than on their own, as history has shown. This is of course similar to MAME in concept, though RA’s approach and design differs in several fundamental and obvious ways. While RA may offer its users certain key benefits, we encourage the use of its upstream emulator counterparts wherever possible, given several of RA’s negative aspects and limitations: Several developers of emulators that comprise much of the code within downstream RA cores have become frustrated with the treatment they’ve received from the RA team, and have aired complaints such as lack of proper attribution and credit, issues with licensing, or other similar matters. Sadly, as a result some of them have chosen to stop collaborating with...