On android, I use either:
- FEX
Basically Proton, but for Android
- JoiPlay
For RPGMaker and Ren'py games
- PPSSPP
For PSP games
On Windows, I used to run CEMU, but it's been shut down by Nintendo.
this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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When did cemu get shut down? Looking at their GitHub there was a commit 5 hours ago. Still looks pretty active?
I use Lemuroid on Android. Works well. On F-Droid. Nothing about it has prompted me to search for alternatives, so no idea how it stacks up against other options.
Also, EasyRPG Player on Android for RPG Maker games. (I played the original Yume Nikki not terribly long ago via EasyRPG Player.) Also on F-Droid. Also worked great.
RetroArch for most stuff. The main devs aren't good people but the tech of it is good, and most of the cores are by other people than the main devs. Dolphin standalone for GC and Wii. PPSSPP standalone for PSP. Both of those don't run well through retroarch
Anything I'm not already familiar with in terms of what retroarch core to use, I'll check https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page
That's the wiki for 4chans ongoing emulation threads.
What makes the devs of RetroArch bad people?
If I recall correctly they had involvement with the harassment the drove byuu (another emulator dev) to suicide. There was also some supposed harassment of the Duckstation dev, and potentially some license violation when they forked Duckstation to make the "Swanstation" core. Ah, found the weird obsessed wordpress site, and it looks like most of the shit was around a decade ago, so I guess it's not really even worth mentioning anymore.
I intentionally try to stay away from emulator dev drama. It takes a certain type of person to develop these things and they pretty frequently aren't in a good headspace and aren't particularly good at interacting with other people.
damnit not another one!!!
whyyyyyyyyyyy
It's almost like it doesn't matter and you should just use software you want to use
Honestly curious, what makes them bad?
Same. I dislike the frontend but its very feature rich and I suppose I don't hate it enough to change. This covers me for almost every system.
The android app of retroarch is buggy and very un-user-friendly
This is a meta package, rather than directly an emulator, but retrodeck (Linux, steamdeck) is such an excellent experience I have to give it a shoutout
Retrodeck is great! It's only issue for me is that they are picky with the emulators they use (not a fault of the project, since it's a flatpak it's probably done to save space) so the only options for switch is to use a ryujinx fork (accurate but poor performance) or hunt down an old yuzu appimage since they support it but nintendo stopped them from bundling it with the flatpak.
Steam + Proton, for the most part. Lutris for Kitten Space Agency.
Whatever Retro Game Corps recommends.
His guide has been great for my Retroid Pocket 5 (Android). For the Steam Deck I've basically used most of the stuff recommended by EmuDeck's installation wizard, but the Retro Game Corps guide is great for this as well.
My most used emulators have been:
-
Eden - Switch
-
PPSSPP - PSP
-
Dolphin - Wii
-
Azahar - 3DS
-
NetherSX2 (Android) and PCSX2 (PC) - PS2
I use PCSX2 for PS2, Nestopia for NES, Ares for SNES, Dolphin for GameCube, Sameboy for DMG and GBC, and likely will use Mednaffe (Mednafen frontend) for Saturn (I still have a Saturn hack of Asuka 120% I rarely play).
I game on Linux but these are all FOSS and multiplatform:
- DosBox-X - For my older Dos/PC games
- UAE - For old amiga games
- ScummVM - for my old Adventure games (preferred over Dosbox)
- Wine/Proton - for the vast majority of my gaming on Linux now
- RetroArch - a good all-in-one tool; it uses Libretro as a backend which is basically a distribution method/API to give access to other emulators like Dosbox, ScummVM etc.
There are also dedicated open source engines for old games like OpenTTD for Transport Tycoon Deluxe, and OpenMW for Morrowwind
WINE stands for "WINE Is Not an Emulator", wherein it just translates Windows calls to POSIX calls. I understand that it's strange, though that doesn't seem to be the case as much.
FightCade for netplay on all the platforms it supports. Standalone Dolphin for Gamecube/Wii. Sometimes Nintendo Switch Online for games officially available there. For everything else, Retroarch.
- PlayStation / PC Engine - Mednafen
- NES - Mesen
- SNES - Higan / bsnes / Ares (whatever it's called)
- GB(C|A)? - mGBA
- Mega Drive - BizHawk
- GameCube / Wii - Dolphin
- Amiga - FS-UAE
- DOS - DOSBOX Staging
Those are the main ones, but by and large I either use original hardware or the MiSTer.
The ones I return to regularly:
Dolphin - for GC and Wii. Most titles using Wii remotes require the sensor bar thingy and mine recently stopped working. I haven't bothered buying a new one yet so it's GC games only for now.
Nestopia UE - for NES on Windows. These days I mostly use my Switch for (S)NES titles anyway but like once a year I get the craving to return to some classic SMB 1 or 3 rom hack.
Dolphin - for GC and Wii. Most titles using Wii remotes require the sensor bar thingy and mine recently stopped working. I haven't bothered buying a new one yet so it's GC games only for now.
You probably know this already, but two candles or lamps, basically any two IR light emitters work as sensor bar replacement.
Yeah I did try the candles method years ago and it didn't work very well. Although maybe the candles weren't the right distance apart from each other or something else like that.
Good thing cheap battery powered ones seem to still be readily available on Amazon and other places
I've had problems when another IR source was nearby, like christmas lights or the sun shining in at a weird angle and/or being reflected. But yeqh, just buying a new bar is usually much less hassle.
using PortingKit, I've had good luck running windows games on my M4 Pro MBP. when that doesn't work, I try CrossOver.
I now play my favorite classic games in the browser: dos.zone
If we're talking console emulators, pcsx2 for PS2, Duckstarion for PS1, mGBA for GBA, Dolphin for gamecube, Kega Fusion for all things Sega before Dreamcast, the standard stuff. All on computer and not my phone.
If we're talking some sort of other emulators, then IDK what to answer with besides the usual things people might say like the WINE or Proton compatibility layers.
Generally, I use RetroArch with the cores Recalbox uses on all of my emulation rigs. Most of the heavy lifting is done by the RetroArch cores for Final Burn Neo, Beetle, FCEUMM, Gambatte, SNES9x, Genesis Plus GX, PCSX Rearmed, ParaLLEl N64, mGBA, Flycast, and PPSSPP. Most of my devices run Emulation Station, using ES-DE on Windows when not playing online matches with Fightcade.