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ES-DE (EmulationStation Desktop Edition) 3.0 (development version) - Android documentation
This document contains information specific to the Android release, for more general ES-DE documentation refer to the User guide as well as the general FAQ.
It's also generally recommended to read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Android document prior to diving into the information in this document.
The official Amazon store listing for ES-DE:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CVXRHWTT
Use the Amazon Appstore app to install it on your device:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/mas/get-appstore/android
Table of contents:
[[TOC]]
First startup and onboarding
When you first start ES-DE you will be greeted by a welcome screen, this is part of the configurator, the ES-DE onboarding interface. The configurator is easy to use and will guide you through the necessary setup steps.
As a first step you need to give ES-DE the required storage access permission or it will not be able to function. Just enable the setting and the configurator will proceed to the next step. Next you will need to define a application data directory where your settings, scraped media, custom collections and so on will be stored. By default this will be placed in the ES-DE directory in the root of your device's internal storage, and this directory will be created for you automatically.
After this step you need to select a ROMs directory where your game files will be stored, by default this will be named ROMs and will be located in the root of you device's internal storage. You can however choose to place this on an SD card if you want to, just change the path using the Android file selector GUI. If you do change the path to the SD card you will however need to manually create the ROMs directory as well as to delete the empty directory that was created for you in the built-in storage.
The next step is optional, and it's whether to create the game systems directory structure inside your ROMs folder. Performing this will also create systeminfo.txt files in each system directory. These files contain information about the system such as what file extensions and emulators that are supported. They are not mandatory for the app to function, they are only there for your convenience. In general it's recommended to create the system directories, although you could remove the ones you don't need afterwards for a slightly faster app startup speed.
This is basically the onboarding process, and ES-DE should now start up. Just be aware that you need to place at least one game with a supported file extension in the ROMs directory tree or ES-DE will only show an information dialog about missing games.
Also note that ES-DE does not install any emulators, you need to install those separately. There is more information about that topic later in this document.
If you need to re-run the configurator for some reason then the easiest way is to go into the Android Apps setting screen and revoke the storage access permissions under Special app access. This will make the configurator run automatically next time you start ES-DE. Another way to force it to start is to clear the app's storage under Storage & cache but this is normally not recommended as it also deletes all themes you have downloaded using the theme downloader. A third option would be to rename either the ES-DE or ROMs directory as this will also trigger the configurator on next app startup.
Touch input overlay
By default the touch input overlay will be enabled which makes it possible to use ES-DE without a controller or physical keyboard by overlaying virtual buttons on top of the ES-DE interface. If you are using a device which has a built-in controller you may however want to disable this feature. That is done via the Enable touch overlay option in the Input device settings menu on the main menu. Just be aware that disabling this option on a device where you have no other input method than touch will lock you out of the application.
If you accidentally disable the touch overlay you can force the configurator to run as explained in the previous section above, this will always reset the touch overlay setting. Another option would of course be to temporarily plug in a controller or keyboard to enable the setting via its menu entry. A third option would be to manually edit the es_settings.xml file in the ES-DE application data directory. The setting you are after is named InputTouchOverlay which should be changed from false to true.
Apart from this there are numerous options for the touch overlay, like the ability to change its size, opacity and fade-out time. Setting the fade-out to zero will make it permanently visible. See the User guide for a complete reference of all app settings and features.
Retention of files and data
Almost all files saved and used by ES-DE are kept in the shared storage on either the device's built-in storage or on the SD card. This means that uninstalling the ES-DE app will not remove any of that data. The only thing that will be deleted are themes that have been downloaded using the built-in theme downloader, as it's not possible to store these in the ES-DE application data directory for technical reasons.
Emulation on Android in general
There are some challenges with emulation on Android. Some emulators on the Google Play store have not been updated for a long time, or like in the case with RetroArch they are crippled to comply with Google's rules and policies. And some emulators are not available on the Play store at all. For these reasons you will need to sideload some manually downloaded APKs for a good emulation setup. There is a section later in this document describing the best place to get hold of each supported emulator.
Thankfully sideloading emulators is not very difficult to do, the exact producedure for how to install APKs manually is not covered here but there are many resources available online on how to accomplish this.
There is also the F-Droid app store as an alternative to Google Play, and this service contains a couple of emulators that are not present on the Play store, or that are present there but haven't been updated for a very long time.
A number of emulators support the FileProvider API which makes it possible for ES-DE to temporarily provide storage access to the game ROMs on launch. This means that no access permission needs to be setup in the emulator upfront. For those emulators which do not support the FileProvider API, you will generally need to manually provide scoped storage access to each game system directory. Note that it's not supported to give access to the root of the entire ROM directory for emulators that use scoped storage, it has to be for the specific system. For instance /storage/emulated/0/ROMs/n64 rather than /storage/emulated/0/ROMs.
Some emulators like RetroArch are still using an older storage access method and for those emulators this is not something you need to consider.
The following emulators are configured for FileProvider access:
- 2600.emu
- C64.emu
- GBA.emu
- GBC.emu
- Lynx.emu
- MD.emu
- MAME4droid 2024
- MAME4droid
- NES.emu
- NGP.emu
- PCE.emu
- Play!
- Ruffle
- Saturn.emu
- Swan.emu
- Yuzu
Some of these emulators still require BIOS files, so not all of them will be completely free from manual configuration.
The following emulators have partial FileProvider access support but are currently not configured for that in ES-DE:
- Dolphin (the FileProvider interface is broken on some devices)
- M64Plus FZ (the FileProvider interface doesn't work reliably and game launching randomly fails when using it)
- PPSSPP (the FileProvider interface doesn't work with .chd files specifically)
Issues with the Ayn Odin 2
There are two serious issues that seem to be specific to the Ayn Odin 2, although it remains to be seen whether the problem exists also on other devices.
The first problem is that some emulators refuse to run games that you place inside directories that contain dots in their names. This is quite problematic as the directories interpreted as files functionality depends on the ability to add file extensions to directory names.
This has been observed with M64Plus FZ, Play!, Saturn.emu, FPse and FPseNG and it's working fine with RetroArch, NetherSX2, ePSXe, DuckStation and Yuzu. Note however that this is not a complete list as not all emulators have been tested for this problem.
If you run into this issue you can use the folder link functionality as an alternative to the directories interpreted as files functionality. How to use folder links is described in the User guide.
The second problem is that a number of emulators can't be launched from ES-DE at all. When attempting to run such an emulator an error popup with the game name followed by "ERROR CODE -1" is displayed. The affected emulators are ColEm, fMSX, iNES, MasterGear, My Boy!, My OldBoy!, Redream and Speccy.
The following devices have been tested and do not experience either of these two problems:
- Ayn Odin Lite (Android 11)
- Retroid Pocket 4 Pro (Android 13)
- Google Pixel 4a (Android 13)
- Google Pixel Tablet (Android 14)
There are also some issues with sound quality on the Odin 2, such as large fluctuations in volume where some sounds are quite loud and some are quite silent. There are also some strange aliasing effects when playing samples rapidly.
Known ES-DE problems
In addition to the issues specific to the Ayn Odin 2 there are a couple of other problems that will hopefully be resolved in the near future:
- Plugging in a controller connected via USB will display a popup with the text Allow ES-DE to access Controller? Pressing OK here will cause problems with input in some emulators. Pressing CANCEL will however resolve this issue and the controller will still work correctly in ES-DE.
- Setting ES-DE as the home app/launcher will sometimes display the configurator after rebooting the device. This happens because Android starts ES-DE before it has mounted the external storage, for example your SD card. Just press/swipe back when the configurator is displayed and ES-DE should start normally.
- Poor performance/low frame rate after startup on some devices, which seems to happen randomly and is usually resolved by itself within 10 to 30 seconds.
- The Android soft keyboard causes rendering issues when navigating using a controller or physical keyboard, as such the ES-DE built-in keyboard is enabled by default for the time being. For testing purposes the Android soft keyboard can be enabled via the Enable virtual keyboard option in the UI settings menu. If only using touch input the issue is not present. This problem is believed to be caused by a bug in the SDL library so it probably needs to be resolved there.
Emulator installation and setup
Below are specific instructions and considerations for all supported emulators.
RetroArch
The RetroArch release in the Play store is problematic. It does not contain all emulator cores and a number of people have reported issues launching games from ES-DE (apparently it doesn't work at all on some specific devices). For these reasons it's strongly recommended to use the 64-bit release from the RetroArch website instead.
Or you could alternatively install their release on the F-Droid store.
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.retroarch
Be aware that you need to manually install every core you want to use from inside the RetroArch user interface, and you also need to install all necessary BIOS files. The Android release of RetroArch is pretty unforgiving and will usually just present a black screen on game launch if the core file or the BIOS file is missing, and it will hang there until Android realizes the app is not responding and displays a popup where you can choose to kill the process.
AetherSX2 / NetherSX2
Although the emulator entry is named AetherSX2 the recommended release of this emulator is actually the NetherSX2 patched version as the AetherSX2 release on the Google Play store doesn't work correctly and probably can't be used with ES-DE at all. You'll need to search for this APK online, the filename you'll want is 15210-v1.5-4248-noads.apk
If you prefer to apply the NetherSX2 patch yourself (i.e. build the APK) then you can find all relevant information here:
https://github.com/Trixarian/NetherSX2-patch
Citra
The version of Citra on the Google Play store is very old and barely works. Instead download either the Canary or Nightly builds from the Citra website or use the Citra MMJ fork:
https://citra-emu.org/download
https://github.com/weihuoya/citra/releases
ColEm
This emulator can be installed from the Play store. There is a paid version as well named ColEm Deluxe (ColEm+ ColecoVision Emulator is the store listing name).
Although this emulator supports both the Adam and ColecoVision systems it can unfortunately not do both interchangeably. In order to play Adam games you need to go into the Emulation settings in ColEm and tick the Coleco Adam box. And likewise you'll need to untick it any time you want to play a ColecoVision game. This is true for launching games from ES-DE as well as starting them from inside the emulator GUI.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fms.colem
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fms.colem.deluxe
Dolphin
The Play store version is somehow up to date and could be used, otherwise the F-Droid store version is up to date, or you could download the latest release directly from their website.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dolphinemu.dolphinemu
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.dolphinemu.dolphinemu
https://dolphin-emu.org/download/
Dolphin MMJR and MMJR2
Although it's not normally recommended to use the unofficial Dolphin forks because they are mostly ancient and have been surpassed by the mainline Dolphin releases, there could still be situations where it's useful. For example on weaker devices where the older release would work better.
There are multiple MMJR forks in existence, but the ones supported by ES-DE are Dolphin.MMJR.v11505.apk and MMJR.v2.0-17878.apk which can be downloaded from here:
https://archive.org/details/dolphin-and-citra-fork-backup
DraStic
This emulator can be installed from the Play store as a paid app. Note that it does not support launching of zipped game files.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dsemu.drastic
DuckStation
The Play store version of this emulator is getting frequent updates and is therefore recommended.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.stenzek.duckstation
EKA2L1
This emulator can be downloaded from their GitHub site.
https://github.com/EKA2L1/EKA2L1/releases
There does not seem to be a way to launch individual EKA2L1 games from a frontend application on Android, instead ES-DE will simply launch the EKA2L1 user interface and you'll have to manually start your game from there.
ePSXe
This emulator can be installed from the Play store as a paid app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.epsxe.ePSXe
EX Plus Alpha emulators
These set of emulators also known as the "Robert Broglia" emulators consist of 2600.emu, C64.emu, GBA.emu, GBC.emu, Lynx.emu, NEO.emu, NES.emu, NGP.emu, MD.emu, MSX.emu, PCE.emu, Snes9x EX+, Saturn.emu and Swan.emu
You can install them via Google Play (as paid apps) or download them from their GitHub automatic build system.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Robert+Broglia
https://github.com/Rakashazi/emu-ex-plus-alpha/actions
There are also some BIOS files and similar that are needed to run these emulators, and which can be downloaded from their website.
Fake-08
This RetroArch core is a good port of the official PICO-8 game engine which does not exist on Android. It's not shipped with RetroArch by default though so you need to manaully install it. After download you'll need to place it inside's RetroArch's downloads directory and then install it from the RetroArch app. Details on how to accomplish this can be found on the Internet. Fake-08 can be downloaded from their GitHub site.
https://github.com/jtothebell/fake-08/releases
Flycast
Flycast is not available on the Play store or the F-Droid store, but it can be downloaded from their GitHub site.
https://github.com/flyinghead/flycast/releases
fMSX
This emulator can be installed from the Play store. There is a paid version as well named fMSX Deluxe (fMSX+ MSX/MSX2 Emulator is the store listing name).
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fms.fmsx
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fms.fmsx.deluxe
FPseNG and FPse
These emulators can be installed from the Play store as a paid apps. FPseNG is the more modern version so it's probably best to go for that. Note that these emulators do not support .chd files.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emulator.fpse64
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.emulator.fpse
iNES
This emulator can be installed from the Play store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fms.ines.free
MAME4droid 2024 and MAME4droid
These emulators can be installed from the Play store. It's strongly recommended to go for the MAME4droid 2024 version as this is updated with a recent MAME release while the older MAME4droid is using an ancient MAME release.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seleuco.mame4d2024
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seleuco.mame4droid
MasterGear
This emulator can be installed from the Play store as a paid app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fms.mg
melonDS
This emulator can be installed from the Play store but it's quite buggy. Every time you add a new game to the ROM directory you need to start the emulator and manually refresh the game list or you won't be able to launch the game from ES-DE.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.magnum.melonds
M64Plus FZ
This emulator can be installed from the Play store. The Pro version is recommended to avoid annoying ads.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mupen64plusae.v3.fzurita.pro
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mupen64plusae.v3.fzurita
My Boy! and My OldBoy!
These emulators can be installed from the Play store as paid apps. There are also free/Lite versions availble for these emulators but they have not been updated in years and don't run on modern devices. As such they are not supported by ES-DE.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fastemulator.gba
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fastemulator.gbc
Nesoid
Nesoid is not available on the Play store but it can be installed from the F-Droid store, or it can be downloaded from their GitHub site.
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.androidemu.nes
https://github.com/proninyaroslav/nesoid/releases
OpenBOR
Although OpenBOR is working fine on Android it's not possible to properly integrate it with a frontend, you'll instead need to install your game PAKs into the /sdcard/OpenBOR/Paks directory and create dummy .openbor files for your games in ROMs/openbor and after launching a game from ES-DE you need to manually start it from inside the OpenBOR GUI. There are more detailed setup instructions in the OpenBOR section of the User guide.
You can download OpenBOR from their GitHub site, the version named OpenBOR v3.0 Build 6391 has for example been proven to work well.
https://github.com/DCurrent/openbor/releases
Pizza Boy GBA and Pizza Boy GBC
The Pizza Boy GBA and Pizza Boy GBC emulators can be installed from the Play store. There are Basic (free) versions and Pro (paid) versions available.
As of writing this, the Basic version of the GBA emulator does not seem to be able to launch games from ES-DE, but the Pro version is working fine. Both the Basic and Pro versions of the GBC emulator are working correctly.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.dbtecno.pizzaboygba
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.dbtecno.pizzaboygbapro
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.dbtecno.pizzaboy
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.dbtecno.pizzaboypro
Play!
This PlayStation 2 emulator can be downloaded from their website.
https://www.purei.org/downloads.php
PPSSPP
The Play store version of this emulator is getting frequent updates and is therefore recommended. There is a paid Gold version as well which is functionally identical to the free version.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ppsspp.ppsspp
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ppsspp.ppssppgold
Ruffle
This emulator can be downloaded from their GitHub site.
https://github.com/torokati44/ruffle-android/releases
Real3DOPlayer
This 3DO Interactive Multiplayer emulator can be downloaded from their website.
http://www.arts-union.ru/node/23
Redream
This emulator can be installed for free from the Play store and can later be upgraded to the Premium version from inside the application.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.recompiled.redream
Skyline
This emulator is not in active development any longer, but the latest release can be found on archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/skyline-edge-all-versions
Speccy
This emulator can be installed from the Play store. There is a paid version as well named Speccy Deluxe (Speccy+ ZX Spectrum Emulator is the store listing name).
Although this emulator supports both the Sinclar ZX Spectrum and MGT SAM Coupé systems it can unfortunately not do both interchangeably. In order to play SAM Coupé games you need to go into the Emulation settings in Speccy and select Sam Coupe from the Computer Model selection screen. And likewise you'll need to change it back any time you want to play a ZX Spectrum game. This is true for launching games from ES-DE as well as starting them from inside the emulator GUI.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fms.speccy
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fms.speccy.deluxe
Vita3K
This PlayStation Vita emulator can be downloaded from their GitHub site. Refer to the User guide for detailed game setup instructions.
https://github.com/Vita3K/Vita3K-Android/releases
Yuzu
The Play store version of this emulator is getting frequent updates and is therefore recommended. There's an Early Access version as well which is also recommended.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.yuzu.yuzu_emu
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.yuzu.yuzu_emu.ea
Supported game systems
All emulators are RetroArch cores unless marked as (Standalone)
The @ symbol indicates that the emulator is deprecated and will be removed in a future ES-DE release.
| System name | Full name | Default emulator | Alternative emulators | Needs BIOS | Recommended game setup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3do | 3DO Interactive Multiplayer | Opera | Real3DOPlayer (Standalone) | Yes | |
| adam | Coleco Adam | ColEm (Standalone) | No | ||
| ags | Adventure Game Studio Game Engine | Placeholder | |||
| amiga | Commodore Amiga | PUAE | PUAE 2021 | Yes | |
| amiga1200 | Commodore Amiga 1200 | PUAE | PUAE 2021 | Yes | |
| amiga600 | Commodore Amiga 600 | PUAE | PUAE 2021 | Yes | |
| amigacd32 | Commodore Amiga CD32 | PUAE | PUAE 2021 | Yes | |
| amstradcpc | Amstrad CPC | Caprice32 | CrocoDS | No | Single archive or disk file |
| android | Google Android | Placeholder | |||
| apple2 | Apple II | Placeholder | |||
| apple2gs | Apple IIGS | Placeholder | |||
| arcade | Arcade | MAME - Current | MAME 2010, MAME 2003-Plus, MAME 2000, MAME4droid 2024 (Standalone), MAME4droid (Standalone), NEO.emu (Standalone), FinalBurn Neo, FB Alpha 2012, Flycast, Flycast (Standalone) |
Depends | |
| arcadia | Emerson Arcadia 2001 | Placeholder | |||
| archimedes | Acorn Archimedes | Placeholder | |||
| arduboy | Arduboy Miniature Game System | Arduous | No | Single archive or .hex file | |
| astrocde | Bally Astrocade | Placeholder | |||
| atari2600 | Atari 2600 | Stella | Stella 2014, 2600.emu (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| atari5200 | Atari 5200 | a5200 | Atari800 | Yes | Single archive or ROM file |
| atari7800 | Atari 7800 ProSystem | ProSystem | Yes | Single archive or ROM file | |
| atari800 | Atari 800 | Atari800 | Yes | ||
| atarijaguar | Atari Jaguar | Virtual Jaguar | No | ||
| atarijaguarcd | Atari Jaguar CD | Placeholder | |||
| atarilynx | Atari Lynx | Handy | Beetle Lynx, Lynx.emu (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| atarist | Atari ST [also STE and Falcon] | Hatari | Yes | Single archive or image file for single-diskette games, .m3u playlist for multi-diskette games | |
| atarixe | Atari XE | Atari800 | Yes | ||
| atomiswave | Sammy Corporation Atomiswave | Flycast | Flycast (Standalone) | Depends | Single archive file |
| bbcmicro | Acorn Computers BBC Micro | Placeholder | |||
| c64 | Commodore 64 | VICE x64sc Accurate | VICE x64 Fast, VICE x64 SuperCPU, VICE x128, C64.emu (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or image file for tape, cartridge or single-diskette games, .m3u playlist for multi-diskette games |
| cdimono1 | Philips CD-i | SAME CDi | Yes | Single .bin/.cue pair | |
| cdtv | Commodore CDTV | PUAE | PUAE 2021 | Yes | |
| chailove | ChaiLove Game Engine | ChaiLove | |||
| channelf | Fairchild Channel F | FreeChaF | Yes | Single archive or ROM file | |
| coco | Tandy Color Computer | Placeholder | |||
| colecovision | Coleco ColecoVision | blueMSX | Gearcoleco, MSX.emu (Standalone), ColEm (Standalone) |
Yes | Single archive or ROM file |
| consolearcade | Console Arcade Systems | Placeholder | |||
| cps | Capcom Play System | MAME - Current | MAME 2010, MAME 2003-Plus, MAME 2000, MAME4droid 2024 (Standalone), MAME4droid (Standalone), FinalBurn Neo, FB Alpha 2012, FB Alpha 2012 CPS-1, FB Alpha 2012 CPS-2, FB Alpha 2012 CPS-3 |
Depends | |
| cps1 | Capcom Play System I | MAME - Current | MAME 2010, MAME 2003-Plus, MAME 2000, MAME4droid 2024 (Standalone), MAME4droid (Standalone), FinalBurn Neo, FB Alpha 2012, FB Alpha 2012 CPS-1 |
Depends | |
| cps2 | Capcom Play System II | MAME - Current | MAME 2010, MAME 2003-Plus, MAME 2000, MAME4droid 2024 (Standalone), MAME4droid (Standalone), FB Alpha 2012, FB Alpha 2012 CPS-2 |
Depends | |
| cps3 | Capcom Play System III | MAME - Current | MAME 2010, MAME 2003-Plus, MAME 2000, MAME4droid 2024 (Standalone), MAME4droid (Standalone), FB Alpha 2012, FB Alpha 2012 CPS-3 |
Depends | |
| crvision | VTech CreatiVision | Placeholder | |||
| daphne | Daphne Arcade LaserDisc Emulator | DirkSimple | No | ||
| desktop | Desktop Applications | Placeholder | |||
| doom | Doom | PrBoom | No | ||
| dos | DOS (PC) | DOSBox-Pure | DOSBox-Core, DOSBox-SVN |
No | |
| dragon32 | Dragon Data Dragon 32 | Placeholder | |||
| dreamcast | Sega Dreamcast | Flycast | Flycast (Standalone), Redream (Standalone) |
No | In separate folder interpreted as a file, with .m3u playlist if multi-disc game |
| easyrpg | EasyRPG Game Engine | EasyRPG | No | ||
| electron | Acorn Electron | Placeholder | |||
| emulators | Emulators | Placeholder | |||
| epic | Epic Games Store | Placeholder | |||
| famicom | Nintendo Family Computer | Mesen | Nestopia UE, FCEUmm, QuickNES, NES.emu (Standalone), iNES (Standalone), Nesoid (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| fba | FinalBurn Alpha | FB Alpha 2012 | FB Alpha 2012 Neo Geo, FB Alpha 2012 CPS-1, FB Alpha 2012 CPS-2, FB Alpha 2012 CPS-3 |
Yes | |
| fbneo | FinalBurn Neo | FinalBurn Neo | Yes | ||
| fds | Nintendo Famicom Disk System | Mesen | Nestopia UE, FCEUmm, NES.emu (Standalone), iNES (Standalone), Nesoid (Standalone) |
Yes | Single archive or ROM file |
| flash | Adobe Flash | Ruffle (Standalone) | No | Single .swf file | |
| fm7 | Fujitsu FM-7 | Placeholder | |||
| fmtowns | Fujitsu FM Towns | Placeholder | |||
| fpinball | Future Pinball | Placeholder | |||
| gamate | Bit Corporation Gamate | Placeholder | |||
| gameandwatch | Nintendo Game and Watch | Multi (MESS) | MAME4droid 2024 (Standalone), Handheld Electronic (GW) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| gamecom | Tiger Electronics Game.com | Placeholder | |||
| gamegear | Sega Game Gear | Genesis Plus GX | Genesis Plus GX Wide, Gearsystem, SMS Plus GX, PicoDrive, MasterGear (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| gb | Nintendo Game Boy | Gambatte | SameBoy, Gearboy, TGB Dual, DoubleCherryGB, Mesen-S, bsnes, mGBA, VBA-M, GBC.emu (Standalone), My OldBoy! (Standalone), Pizza Boy GBC (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| gba | Nintendo Game Boy Advance | mGBA | VBA-M, VBA Next, gpSP, GBA.emu (Standalone), My Boy! (Standalone), Pizza Boy GBA (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| gbc | Nintendo Game Boy Color | Gambatte | SameBoy, Gearboy, TGB Dual, DoubleCherryGB, Mesen-S, bsnes, mGBA, VBA-M, GBC.emu (Standalone), My OldBoy! (Standalone), Pizza Boy GBC (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| gc | Nintendo GameCube | Dolphin | Dolphin (Standalone), Dolphin MMJR (Standalone), Dolphin MMJR2 (Standalone) |
No | Disc image file for single-disc games, .m3u playlist for multi-disc games |
| genesis | Sega Genesis | Genesis Plus GX | Genesis Plus GX Wide, PicoDrive, MD.emu (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| gmaster | Hartung Game Master | Placeholder | |||
| gx4000 | Amstrad GX4000 | Caprice32 | CrocoDS | No | Single archive or ROM file |
| intellivision | Mattel Electronics Intellivision | FreeIntv | Yes | Single archive or ROM file | |
| j2me | Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) | SquirrelJME | No | Single .jar file | |
| kodi | Kodi Home Theatre Software | Placeholder | |||
| laserdisc | LaserDisc Games | DirkSimple | No | ||
| lcdgames | LCD Handheld Games | Multi (MESS) | MAME4droid 2024 (Standalone), Handheld Electronic (GW) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| lowresnx | LowRes NX Fantasy Console | LowRes NX | No | Single ROM file | |
| lutris | Lutris Open Gaming Platform | Placeholder | |||
| lutro | Lutro Game Engine | Lutro | |||
| macintosh | Apple Macintosh | Placeholder | |||
| mame | Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator | MAME - Current | MAME 2010, MAME 2003-Plus, MAME 2000, MAME4droid 2024 (Standalone), MAME4droid (Standalone), NEO.emu (Standalone), FinalBurn Neo, FB Alpha 2012, Flycast, Flycast (Standalone) |
Depends | |
| mame-advmame | AdvanceMAME | Placeholder | |||
| mastersystem | Sega Master System | Genesis Plus GX | Genesis Plus GX Wide, SMS Plus GX, Gearsystem, PicoDrive, MD.emu (Standalone), MasterGear (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| megacd | Sega Mega-CD | Genesis Plus GX | Genesis Plus GX Wide, PicoDrive, MD.emu (Standalone) |
Yes | |
| megacdjp | Sega Mega-CD [Japan] | Genesis Plus GX | Genesis Plus GX Wide, PicoDrive, MD.emu (Standalone) |
Yes | |
| megadrive | Sega Mega Drive | Genesis Plus GX | Genesis Plus GX Wide, PicoDrive, MD.emu (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| megadrivejp | Sega Mega Drive [Japan] | Genesis Plus GX | Genesis Plus GX Wide, PicoDrive, MD.emu (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| megaduck | Creatronic Mega Duck | SameDuck | No | Single archive or ROM file | |
| mess | Multi Emulator Super System | Multi (MESS) | |||
| model2 | Sega Model 2 | MAME - Current | Yes | ||
| model3 | Sega Model 3 | Placeholder | |||
| moto | Thomson MO/TO Series | Theodore | |||
| msx | MSX | blueMSX | fMSX, fMSX (Standalone), MSX.emu (Standalone) |
Yes except for fMSX standalone | |
| msx1 | MSX1 | blueMSX | fMSX, fMSX (Standalone), MSX.emu (Standalone) |
Yes except for fMSX standalone | |
| msx2 | MSX2 | blueMSX | fMSX, fMSX (Standalone), MSX.emu (Standalone) |
Yes except for fMSX standalone | |
| msxturbor | MSX Turbo R | blueMSX | fMSX, MSX.emu (Standalone) |
Yes | |
| mugen | M.U.G.E.N Game Engine | Placeholder | Yes | ||
| multivision | Othello Multivision | Gearsystem | MasterGear (Standalone) | No | Single archive or ROM file |
| naomi | Sega NAOMI | Flycast | Flycast (Standalone) | Yes | Single archive file + .chd file in subdirectory if GD-ROM game |
| naomi2 | Sega NAOMI 2 | Flycast | Flycast (Standalone) | Yes | Single archive file + .chd file in subdirectory if GD-ROM game |
| naomigd | Sega NAOMI GD-ROM | Flycast | Flycast (Standalone) | Yes | Single archive file + .chd file in subdirectory if GD-ROM game |
| n3ds | Nintendo 3DS | Citra | Citra (Standalone) [Play store version or Nightly], Citra Canary (Standalone), Citra MMJ (Standalone) |
No | Single ROM file |
| n64 | Nintendo 64 | Mupen64Plus-Next | M64Plus FZ (Standalone), ParaLLEl N64 |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| n64dd | Nintendo 64DD | Mupen64Plus-Next | M64Plus FZ (Standalone), ParaLLEl N64 |
Yes | |
| nds | Nintendo DS | melonDS DS | melonDS (Standalone), melonDS Nightly (Standalone), DeSmuME, DeSmuME 2015, DraStic (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| neogeo | SNK Neo Geo | FinalBurn Neo | NEO.emu (Standalone), MAME4droid 2024 (Standalone), MAME4droid (Standalone) |
Yes | Single archive or ROM file |
| neogeocd | SNK Neo Geo CD | NeoCD | FinalBurn Neo | Yes | |
| neogeocdjp | SNK Neo Geo CD [Japan] | NeoCD | FinalBurn Neo | Yes | |
| nes | Nintendo Entertainment System | Mesen | Nestopia UE, FCEUmm, QuickNES, NES.emu (Standalone), iNES (Standalone), Nesoid (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| ngage | Nokia N-Gage | EKA2L1 (Standalone) | Yes | See the specific Symbian and Nokia N-Gage section in the User guide | |
| ngp | SNK Neo Geo Pocket | Beetle NeoPop | RACE, NGP.emu (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| ngpc | SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color | Beetle NeoPop | RACE, NGP.emu (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| odyssey2 | Magnavox Odyssey 2 | O2EM | Yes | Single archive or ROM file | |
| openbor | OpenBOR Game Engine | OpenBOR (Standalone) | No | See the specific OpenBOR section in the User guide | |
| oric | Tangerine Computer Systems Oric | Placeholder | |||
| palm | Palm OS | Mu | |||
| pc | IBM PC | DOSBox-Pure | DOSBox-Core, DOSBox-SVN |
No | |
| pc88 | NEC PC-8800 Series | QUASI88 | Yes | ||
| pc98 | NEC PC-9800 Series | Neko Project II Kai | Neko Project II | ||
| pcarcade | PC Arcade Systems | Placeholder | |||
| pcengine | NEC PC Engine | Beetle PCE | Beetle PCE FAST, PCE.emu (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| pcenginecd | NEC PC Engine CD | Beetle PCE | Beetle PCE FAST, PCE.emu (Standalone) |
Yes | |
| pcfx | NEC PC-FX | Beetle PC-FX | Yes | ||
| pico8 | PICO-8 Fantasy Console | Fake-08 | Retro8 | No | See the specific PICO-8 section in the User guide |
| plus4 | Commodore Plus/4 | VICE xplus4 | No | Single archive or image file for tape, cartridge or single-diskette games, .m3u playlist for multi-diskette games | |
| pokemini | Nintendo Pokémon Mini | PokeMini | No | ||
| ports | Ports | ECWolf (Wolfenstein 3D) | NXEngine (Cave Story), OpenLara (Tomb Raider), Super Bros War |
Yes for ECWolf | |
| ps2 | Sony PlayStation 2 | AetherSX2 (Standalone) | Play! (Standalone) | Yes for AetherSX2 | |
| ps3 | Sony PlayStation 3 | Placeholder | |||
| ps4 | Sony PlayStation 4 | Placeholder | |||
| psp | Sony PlayStation Portable | PPSSPP | PPSSPP (Standalone) | No | Single disc image file |
| psvita | Sony PlayStation Vita | Vita3K (Standalone) | Yes | See the specific Sony PlayStation Vita section in the User guide | |
| psx | Sony PlayStation | Beetle PSX | Beetle PSX HW, PCSX ReARMed, SwanStation, DuckStation (Standalone), ePSXe (Standalone), FPseNG (Standalone), FPse (Standalone) |
Yes | .chd file for single-disc games, .m3u playlist for multi-disc games |
| pv1000 | Casio PV-1000 | Placeholder | |||
| quake | Quake | TyrQuake | vitaQuake 2, vitaQuake 2 [Rogue], vitaQuake 2 [Xatrix], vitaQuake 2 [Zaero] |
No | |
| samcoupe | MGT SAM Coupé | Speccy (Standalone) | No | Single archive or ROM file | |
| satellaview | Nintendo Satellaview | Snes9x - Current | Snes9x 2010, Snes9x EX+ (Standalone), bsnes, bsnes-hd, bsnes-mercury Accuracy, Mesen-S |
||
| saturn | Sega Saturn | Beetle Saturn | YabaSanshiro, Yabause, Saturn.emu (Standalone) |
Yes | .chd file for single-disc games, .m3u playlist for multi-disc games |
| saturnjp | Sega Saturn [Japan] | Beetle Saturn | YabaSanshiro, Yabause, Saturn.emu (Standalone) |
Yes | .chd file for single-disc games, .m3u playlist for multi-disc games |
| scummvm | ScummVM Game Engine | ScummVM | No | ||
| scv | Epoch Super Cassette Vision | Placeholder | |||
| sega32x | Sega Mega Drive 32X | PicoDrive | No | Single archive or ROM file | |
| sega32xjp | Sega Super 32X [Japan] | PicoDrive | No | Single archive or ROM file | |
| sega32xna | Sega Genesis 32X [North America] | PicoDrive | No | Single archive or ROM file | |
| segacd | Sega CD | Genesis Plus GX | Genesis Plus GX Wide, PicoDrive, MD.emu (Standalone) |
Yes | |
| sfc | Nintendo SFC (Super Famicom) | Snes9x - Current | Snes9x 2010, Snes9x EX+ (Standalone), bsnes, bsnes-hd, bsnes-mercury Accuracy, Beetle Supafaust, Mesen-S |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| sg-1000 | Sega SG-1000 | Genesis Plus GX | Genesis Plus GX Wide, Gearsystem, blueMSX, MasterGear (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| sgb | Nintendo Super Game Boy | Mesen-S | SameBoy, mGBA |
Single archive or ROM file | |
| snes | Nintendo SNES (Super Nintendo) | Snes9x - Current | Snes9x 2010, Snes9x EX+ (Standalone), bsnes, bsnes-hd, bsnes-mercury Accuracy, Beetle Supafaust, Mesen-S |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| snesna | Nintendo SNES (Super Nintendo) [North America] | Snes9x - Current | Snes9x 2010, Snes9x EX+ (Standalone), bsnes, bsnes-hd, bsnes-mercury Accuracy, Beetle Supafaust, Mesen-S |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| solarus | Solarus Game Engine | Placeholder | |||
| spectravideo | Spectravideo | blueMSX | |||
| steam | Valve Steam | Placeholder | |||
| stv | Sega Titan Video Game System | MAME - Current | MAME4droid 2024 (Standalone), MAME4droid (Standalone) |
Yes | Single archive file |
| sufami | Bandai SuFami Turbo | Snes9x - Current | Snes9x 2010, Snes9x EX+ (Standalone), bsnes, bsnes-hd, bsnes-mercury Accuracy |
||
| supergrafx | NEC SuperGrafx | Beetle SuperGrafx | Beetle PCE, PCE.emu (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| supervision | Watara Supervision | Potator | No | Single archive or ROM file | |
| supracan | Funtech Super A'Can | Placeholder | |||
| switch | Nintendo Switch | Yuzu (Standalone) | Yuzu EA (Standalone), Skyline (Standalone) |
Yes | |
| symbian | Symbian | EKA2L1 (Standalone) | Yes | See the specific Symbian and Nokia N-Gage section in the User guide | |
| tanodragon | Tano Dragon | Placeholder | |||
| tg16 | NEC TurboGrafx-16 | Beetle PCE | Beetle PCE FAST, PCE.emu (Standalone) |
No | Single archive or ROM file |
| tg-cd | NEC TurboGrafx-CD | Beetle PCE | Beetle PCE FAST, PCE.emu (Standalone) |
Yes | |
| ti99 | Texas Instruments TI-99 | Placeholder | |||
| tic80 | TIC-80 Fantasy Computer | TIC-80 | No | Single .tic file | |
| to8 | Thomson TO8 | Theodore | |||
| triforce | Namco-Sega-Nintendo Triforce | Placeholder | |||
| trs-80 | Tandy TRS-80 | Placeholder | |||
| type-x | Taito Type X | Placeholder | |||
| uzebox | Uzebox Open Source Console | Uzem | |||
| vectrex | GCE Vectrex | vecx | No | Single archive or ROM file | |
| vic20 | Commodore VIC-20 | VICE xvic | No | Single archive or tape, cartridge or diskette image file | |
| videopac | Philips Videopac G7000 | O2EM | Yes | Single archive or ROM file | |
| virtualboy | Nintendo Virtual Boy | Beetle VB | No | ||
| vpinball | Visual Pinball | Placeholder | |||
| vsmile | VTech V.Smile | Placeholder | |||
| wasm4 | WASM-4 Fantasy Console | WASM-4 | No | Single .wasm file | |
| wii | Nintendo Wii | Dolphin | Dolphin (Standalone), Dolphin MMJR (Standalone), Dolphin MMJR2 (Standalone) |
No | |
| wiiu | Nintendo Wii U | Placeholder | |||
| windows | Microsoft Windows | Placeholder | |||
| windows3x | Microsoft Windows 3.x | DOSBox-Pure | No | ||
| windows9x | Microsoft Windows 9x | DOSBox-Pure | No | ||
| wonderswan | Bandai WonderSwan | Beetle Cygne | Swan.emu (Standalone) | No | Single archive or ROM file |
| wonderswancolor | Bandai WonderSwan Color | Beetle Cygne | Swan.emu (Standalone) | No | Single archive or ROM file |
| x1 | Sharp X1 | X Millennium | No | Single archive or diskette/tape file | |
| x68000 | Sharp X68000 | PX68k | Yes | ||
| xbox | Microsoft Xbox | Placeholder | |||
| xbox360 | Microsoft Xbox 360 | Placeholder | |||
| zmachine | Infocom Z-machine | Placeholder | |||
| zx81 | Sinclair ZX81 | EightyOne | |||
| zxnext | Sinclair ZX Spectrum Next | Placeholder | |||
| zxspectrum | Sinclair ZX Spectrum | Fuse | Speccy (Standalone) | No | Single archive or ROM file |