Emulators

Here you will find our select emulators for each platform we've tested, both community-made solutions as well as the official ways to play these games on new and supported consoles.

Nintendo Entertainment System / NES (Famicom)

Emulation of the NES is officially supported by Nintendo and accessed on the Nintendo Switch through a Nintendo Switch Online standard subscription, though it does not have the console's full game library.

For a community-made solution, we suggest Ares. It is an open-source, multi-platform, multi-system emulator (which you can look at the full list of consoles here. If you're looking for an all-in-one emulator from this page, look over the list and see if this is for you!) that works very well with the NES' games and library with a focus on accuracy.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System / SNES (Super Famicom)

Emulation of the SNES is officially supported by Nintendo and accessed on the Nintendo Switch through a Nintendo Switch Online standard subscription, though it does not have the console's full game library.

For a community-made solution, we suggest Ares. It is an open-source, multi-platform, multi-system emulator (which you can look at the full list of consoles here. If you're looking for an all-in-one emulator from this page, look over the list and see if this is for you!) that works very well with the SNES' games and library with a focus on accuracy.

SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive

Surprisingly, Nintendo offers the official emulation services for the Sega Genesis in modern times as a part of the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, which will also net you the official emulation services for all Nintendo consoles ranging from the Nintendo Entertainment System through the Game Boy Advance on the original Switch console, and up to the Game Cube on Nintendo Switch 2 since you will also need to have Nintendo Switch Online.

For a community-made solution, we suggest Ares. It is an open-source, multi-platform, multi-system emulator (which you can look at the full list of consoles here. If you're looking for an all-in-one emulator from this page, look over the list and see if this is for you!) that works very well with the Sega Genesis' games and library with a focus on accuracy.

Nintendo 64

Emulation of the Nintendo 64 is officially supported by Nintendo and accessed on the Nintendo Switch through a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription, though they do not have the console's full library.

For our community-made solution, we recommend RetroArch, an open-source, HUGELY multi-platform emulator front-end that natively allows you to play Nintendo 64 (among many other) roms through its many cores. It is very worth it to read through its documentation!

Sony Play Station

Unfortunately, outside of the PS2 and original PS3 and the limited library of the Play Station Classic Edition, there are no official methods to play original Play Station titles on modern consoles, so we can only offer the usual lovely community-made solutions.

For said community-made solution, we recommend DuckStation! Duckstation is a reputable Play Station emulator with a focus on accuracy, which may allow it to give you better results than some older backwards-compatability solutions!

Sony Play Station 2 / PS2

The Play Station 2 officially has backwards compatibility with the PS3, and can play PS1 games itself. Outside of the physical consoles, our Games page will allow you to check what PS2 games are supported on modern Play Station consoles, since it is somewhat convoluted.

For community-made solutions, we suggest PCSX2, an open-source and reputable Play Station 2 focused emulator. The reason we specify is because it lacks the official capability to play PS1 games, which the original console could do.

Note that PCSX2 DOES require a BIOS dump to work! Find out how to do this on our Information page or watch a Tutorial here.

Microsoft Xbox

While there are some backwards-compatible games from the original Xbox that work on both the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, it is a very limited library, which leaves many of your disks useless while the data rot sets in. If you find that you can play your games through official means, that's great! If not...

Here are our community-made solutuions! We suggest Xemu, an open-source, reputable, multi-platform emulator focused on the original Xbox, with support for multiplayer connectivity with real consoles over Xbox Live recreation projects or locally. Check their website's compatability chart to see if your favorite(s) are working!

Nintendo Game Cube

The Nintendo Game Cube can have a limited library of titles officially on the Nintendo Switch 2 through Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. Outside of this, the Wii and Wii U can play GameCube disks natively through backwards compatibility.

For community-made solutions, we can't help but recommend Dolphin, the reputable, open source GameCube AND Wii emulator! Dolphin is easy to set up and use, and has a great comprehensive compatability list similar to Ares.

Sega Dreamcast

Unfortunately, the Dreamcast is not officially supported anywhere, so we can only offer the usual lovely community-made solutions.

For said community-made solution, we recommend Flycast. It is open source and actively maintained, where other good options seem to only actively develop paid variants.

Note that Flycast REQUIRES a Dreamcast BIOS dump to work. Find out how to do this on our Information page or watch a Tutorial here.