ES-DE/ANDROID.md

ES-DE (EmulationStation Desktop Edition) v3.0 (development version) - Android documentation

This document contains information specific to the Android release, for more general ES-DE documentation refer to the User guide.

Table of contents:

[[TOC]]

Emulation on Android

In general emulation is not that mature on Android compared to other platforms, and emulator availability on the Google Play store leaves a lot to be desired. Many emulators are not there at all, or they are present but have been crippled or have not been updated for a very long time. As well many emulators simply don't integrate with a frontend application like ES-DE as they offer no way of launching games from an external application.

Some of the emulators that are supported by ES-DE have to be sideloaded using a manually downloaded APK. But thankfully this 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 dots in directory names

There is a strange issue on some specific Android devices where 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.

A known problematic device is the Ayn Odin 2 (Android 13) and devices that seem to work correctly are Ayn Odin Lite (Android 11), Google Pixel 4a (Android 13) and Google Pixel Tablet (Android 14).

The issue 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 across multiple devices.

If you run into this problem 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.

Issues with running some emulators on some devices

Some devices have issues and can't run a number of emulators. It may be related to the previous topic above, or it may be completely unrelated. But the same pattern emerges here, the Ayn Odin 2 (Android 13) is broken and the Ayn Odin Lite (Android 11), Google Pixel 4a (Android 13) and Google Pixel Tablet (Android 14) are working fine.

When attempting to run such an emulator on a problematic device you'll see an error popup with the game name followed by "ERROR CODE -1". The following emulators are affected

• ColEm
• fMSX
• iNES
• MasterGear
• My Boy!
• My OldBoy!
• Redream
• Speccy

Emulator installation and setup

Below are specific instructions and considerations for all supported emulators.

RetroArch

The RetroArch release in the Play Store is not very good and is therefore not recommended. To get access to all cores make sure to instead manually download and install the 64-bit/aarch64 APK from their website.

https://retroarch.com/

You could alternatively install their release on the F-Droid store.

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://dolphin-emu.org/download/

In the past there were multiple unofficial ports, but these are not really recommended any longer as most of them don't seem to have been updated in a long time and are likely to have been surpassed by the official Dolphin release.

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.

https://www.explusalpha.com/

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 frequent 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. Filenames containing parentheses also don't work and need to be renamed or they can't be launched from ES-DE. The same is probably true for a number of additional characters.

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

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)	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	MESS 2015
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	ParaLLEl N64	Yes
nds	Nintendo DS	melonDS DS	melonDS @, melonDS (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)		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)	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