Video Game Emulators
Here you will find all the best video game emulators for every common OS & device!
New to emulation on Android? In my emulation help site, I have a general Android emulators guide. Also, I have specific tutorials for RetroArch (the top multi-system emulator) and DuckStation (the top PS1 emulator).
I don't like it any more than you do that many video game emulators in the Android Play Store have ads or require you to pay. For this page, the status of whether an emulator is free or not is highlighted in “Availability”. If an emulator does require payment or have ads (and you're opposed to that), I point out an alternative either below it or in the description. Keep in mind that the pay emulators I do recommend are worth it and better than the free ones. I just want to make sure I present you with all the options so you can decide what's best for you.
Dolphin
Availability: 100% Free, Homepage
Everyone's favorite Gamecube/Wii emulator on Windows has an excellent Android port. Enjoy games for these two consoles in full HD (1080p) with several enhancements: compatibility with controllers, turbo speed, networked multiplayer, and more! Check out its compatibility list to ensure the games you want to play fully work. It's a CPU heavy emulator, so it requires higher end Android devices to run well.
M64Plus FZ
Availability: Free with ads, Size: 6 MB
M64Plus FZ (Mupen64 Plus) is one of the better N64 emulators for Android. It's not as good as m64p or Project64 on Windows, but it's close! The most popular games definitely run flawlessly. It used to be “100% free”, but in 2022 they added ads. The ads are presented when you load a game. The game loads after showing you an ad for 10 seconds.
M64Plus FZ Pro
Availability: $3.99 US, Size: 6 MB
M64Plus FZ Pro is the premium version that doesn't have ads. This is what the free version was like before they added the ad-supported version in 2022. If ads bother and you refuse to pay for the pro version, then use RetroArch or ClassicBoy (which are free).
Snes9x EX+
Availability: 100% Free, Homepage
The great Snes9X that we all know and love from the PC is also on Android. Just like on Windows, Snes9X is the top SNES emulator for Android.
*Snes9X EX+ accepts save states & SRM saves from Snes9x on Windows!
*Don't have access to the Play Store? You can download Snes9x from its homepage. Their downloads include the X86 and ARM versions.
NES.emu
Availability: $3.99 US, Homepage
Part of the great “.emu series” of emulators, here's its NES emulator. It has an intuitive GUI and the usual assortment of emulator features: save states, cheats, screen filters, etc. Game compatibility is virtually perfect. The emulator is tiny and barely takes up space on your device, too.
Nostalgia.NES
Availability: Free with ads, Homepage
I'm not a big fan of the Nostalgia series of emulators, but it's a good alternative if you refuse to pay for NES.emu and insist on having a standalone NES emulator. If you can't stand ads, you can try the 100% free multi-system emulators, RetroArch or ClassicBoy, for NES emulation.
DraStic DS
Availability: 100% Free
The fastest and most compatible Nintendo DS emulator! Due to the drama of Nintendo suing Yuzu (the top Switch emulator) in March 2024, the DraStic DS people got nervous and decided to make their pay emulator 100% free. That's great news, but they also added that they will probably take it out of the Play Store soon. Download it now before it's too late!
nds4droid
Availability: 100% Free
A free alternative to DraStic DS. DraStic DS is a far better emulator, though. Reviews for nds4droid are generally good. The most common complaint is that it can be slow. RetroArch and ClassicBoy (which are also free) support Nintendo DS emulation as well.
GBA.emu
Availability: $4.99 US, Homepage
Part of the great “.emu series” of emulators, here's its Game Boy Advance emulator. It has an intuitive GUI and the usual assortment of emulator features: save states, cheats, screen filters, etc. Game compatibility is virtually perfect. The emulator is tiny and barely takes up space on your device, too.
Nostalgia.GBA
Availability: Free with ads
I'm not a big fan of the Nostalgia emulators, but it's a good alternative if you refuse to pay for GBA.emu and insist on having a standalone GBA emulator. If you can't stand ads, you can try the 100% free multi-system emulator, RetroArch or ClassicBoy, for GBA emulation.
GBC.emu
Availability: $2.99 US, Homepage
Part of the great “.emu series” of emulators, here's its Game Boy Classic/Game Boy Color emulator. It has an intuitive GUI and the usual assortment of emulator features: save states, cheats, screen filters, etc. Game compatibility is virtually perfect. The emulator is tiny and barely takes up space on your device, too.
Nostalgia.GBC
Availability: Free with ads
I'm not a big fan of the Nostalgia emulators, but it's a good alternative if you refuse to pay for GBC.emu and insist on having a standalone Game Boy Color emulator. If you can't stand ads, you can try the 100% free multi-system emulators, RetroArch or ClassicBoy, for Game Boy Color emulation.
MD.emu
Availability: $4.99 US, Homepage
Part of the great “.emu series” of emulators, here's its Genesis emulator. It's a good emulator that can play virtually any game. It has an intuitive GUI and the usual assortment of emulator features: save states, cheats, screen filters, etc. Game compatibility is virtually perfect. The emulator is tiny and barely takes up space on your device, too. It also supports Sega CD! Although playing Sega CD games is a little tricky. My directions for playing Sega CD games with RetroArch are actually the same for MD.emu. If you refuse to pay for MD.emu, you can try the 100% free multi-system emulator, RetroArch, for Genesis and Sega CD emulation.
Note: 32X games are not supported. To play those, you need to use the Picodrive core in RetroArch.
ClassicBoy
Availability: Free, but*
A good multi-system emulator that supports Genesis, Sega CD, Game Gear, and Master System. The only drawback is its size. MD.emu only takes up 5 MB of space while ClassicBoy takes up around 150 MB of space. It is, however, easier to use than RetroArch. Getting Sega CD games to work is the same routine as with every other emulator.
*ClassicBoy and its Sega systems emulation are 100% free. However, it has 'ads' in the sense that it teases you with support for SNES and other systems, which requires purchase to use.
Extras
Size: 264 KB - The Sega CD BIOS files that are required for booting up US, Euro and Japanese games.
YS's Saturn
Availability: Free with ads, Homepage
Yaba Sanshiro's Saturn emulator (also known as uoYabause) is excellent. Game compatibility is really good. I recommend reviewing the compatibility list before trying out games. It's a CPU heavy emulator; it may not run well on slower/older devices. Don't forget to download and configure the BIOS (which is right below). RetroArch supports Saturn emulation as well, but this emulator is the better option.
Extras
Size: 889 KB - Contains 'mpr-17933.bin' (US/UK BIOS) and 'sega_101.bin' (JP BIOS). This is required for all Saturn emulators.
Reicast
Availability: 100% Free
The most popular Dreamcast emulator for Android. Graphics are gorgeously rendered in a higher resolution than the real thing. It's updated regularly. One drawback is that it's a CPU heavy emulator, so it may not run well on slower/older devices. Reicast is compatible with most Dreamcast games.
Extras
Size: 2.10 MB - This is required by Reicast. The zip contains the standard BIOS, Flash BIOS, and VMS BIOS.
Multi-system
There aren't any standalone Game Gear or Master System emulators that I recommend. Not only that, the ones that are available all share a strange bug where a portion of the right side of the screen is cropped off. What I recommend is the free multi-system emulator, RetroArch. It emulates Game Gear and Master System perfectly. ClassicBoy is another good multi-system option that's easier to use than RetroArch.
DuckStation
Availability: 100% Free, Homepage
This is a relatively new & promising PlayStation 1 emulator. Its emulation quality is fantastic, perhaps even better than ePSXe. It requires no setup. Swapping ISOs for multiple-CD games is easy to do. ePSXe, though, still offers more features and has an easier user-interface. I recommend enabling the PGXP corrections to correct texturing and jittery animation. DuckStation is entirely free. This is a great alternative if you refuse to pay for ePSXe. It requires the BIOS (grab it below).
ePSXe
Availability: $4 US, Homepage
ePSXe is a top PlayStation 1 emulator for Android. Unlike the free version on Windows, this Android version will cost you $4 US. It supports a wide range of ISO formats. It also makes it easy to swap ISOs for multiple-CD games. If you refuse to pay for ePSXe, you can try DuckStation or the multi-system emulator, RetroArch.
Note: ePSXe requires some setup. (1) You need the BIOS (grab it below), (2) you need to install the OpenGL plugin so that you can enable upscaled 3D graphics, and (3) you need to change sound quality to “Full sound effects” - all of this is shown here.
Extras
Size: 236 KB - ePSXe and DuckStation need this in order to boot games. It's “Scph1001.bin”, the most common BIOS file. In most cases, this is all you need.
*It's a zip file with the extension changed to “_ip”. On Windows, follow these directions for changing it back to “zip”. On Android, it should recognize it as a zip file for you to extract it; here's more info.
Size: 236 KB - This is “scph5501.bin”, the BIOS file required by multi-system emulators such as RetroArch.
*It's a zip file with the extension changed to “_ip”. On Windows, follow these directions for changing it back to “zip”. On Android, it should recognize it as a zip file for you to extract it; here's more info.
Size: 2.67 MB - If for whatever reason you need all the PS1 BIOS files, here they are.
*It's a zip file with the extension changed to “_ip”. On Windows, follow these directions for changing it back to “zip”. On Android, it should recognize it as a zip file for you to extract it; here's more info.
AetherSX2
Availability: Free with ads
This emulator is based on PCSX2, so it offers nearly full support for games (see the compatibility list). See games in action in this demo footage. You may need to tweek the its settings to improve the emulation quality. In mid-2022, the author of AetherSX2 declared that he will no longer continue updating it. AetherSX2 still runs great for now, but it may not run on future builds of Android.
Play!
Availability: 100% Free, Homepage
Another PlayStation 2 emulator. It's still early in development and as of 2022 only supports around 40% of the PlayStation 2's library. Their Github has a list of compatible games.
Extras
Size: 12.7 MB - This is required in order to run games.
*It's a zip file with the extension changed to “_ip”. On Windows, follow these directions for changing it back to “zip”. On Android, it should recognize it as a zip file for you to extract it; here's more info.
PPSSPP
Availability: 100% Free, Size: 30.6 MB, Version: 1.9.4, Homepage
Everyone's favorite PSP emulator on Windows is also on Android! Just keep in mind that this is a CPU heavy emulator. The average smartphone can't handle PSP emulation at peak capacity. Here's a performance guide to help boost performance.
*Don't have access to the Play Store? You can download PPSSPP here.
MAME4droid
Availability: 100% Free, Homepage
MAME has always been a reliable arcade emulator. The Android port is pretty good. One advantage it offers is a small size. Its size is around 100 MB while multi-system emulators take up around 150-300 MB. Setting up your games with MAME4droid might be a little confusing. I do offer a MAME4droid tutorial to help you out. The NeoGeo BIOS is needed for playing NeoGeo games. Grab it below.
*If you're having trouble with game compatibility or Android preventing access to the data folder (where the roms need to go), consider using RetroArch (continue reading below).
RetroArch
This is a stub to highlight that my top recommendation for arcade emulation is the #1 multi-system emulator, RetroArch. It has the latest core for MAME and multiple cores for older versions of MAME by year. It has a core for FinalBurn Neo (the latest version of FinalBurn) and FinalBurn Alpha. If you've tried arcade emulation before, you know it can be a frustrating experience due to finding out that many of the arcade roms readily available in rom sites don't work on the latest arcade emulators. Hence, making it easy to jump between new & old arcade emulators is an essential feature for the best arcade emulation experience, which RetroArch does well. My RetroArch tutorial has a section explaining its arcade emulation. Otherwise, if you want to keep things simple you can just use MAME4droid.
Extras
Size: 931 KB - Arcade emulators need this in order to play NeoGeo games.
PCE.emu
Availability: $3.99 US, Homepage
Part of the great “.emu series” of emulators, here's its TurboGrafx16/PC Engine emulator. It's a good emulator that can play virtually any game. It has an intuitive GUI and the usual assortment of emulator features: save states, cheats, screen filters, etc. Game compatibility is virtually perfect. The emulator is tiny and barely takes up space on your device, too. It also supports CD games! Although playing CD games is a little tricky. My directions for playing CD games with RetroArch are actually the same for PCE.emu. If you refuse to pay for this emulator, you can try the 100% free multi-system emulator, RetroArch, for TurboGrafx16/PC Engine emulation.
ClassicBoy
Availability: Free, but*
A good multi-system emulator that supports TurboGrafx16/PC Engine and CD. The only drawback is its size. PCE.emu only takes up 5 MB of space while ClassicBoy takes up around 150 MB of space. It is, however, easier to use than RetroArch. Getting Turbo CD games to work is the same routine as with every other emulator.
*ClassicBoy and its PC Engine emulation are 100% free. However, it has 'ads' in the sense that it teases you with support for SNES and other systems, which requires purchase to use.
Extras
Size: 492 KB - The BIOS files that are required in order to boot CD games.
Multi-system
Android doesn't have any standalone emulators that I recommend for WonderSwan and WonderSwan Color. Rather, both of these systems are fully supported on the free multi-system emulators, RetroArch and ClassicBoy. They emulate these systems perfectly.
RetroArch Plus
Availability: 100% Free, Size: 100 MB, Homepage
This is a mass system emulator with support for pretty much everything: PlayStation 1, N64, Nintendo DS, SNES, NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, NeoGeo Pocket Color, Virtual Boy, Genesis/Mega Drive, Sega CD, 32X, Sega Master System, Game Gear, PC Engine/TurboGrafx16 (plus CD support), Wonderswan Color, Atari Lynx, arcade (MAME), and more. It offers lots of features: screen filters (shaders), save states, different screen overlays, cheats, netplay, and more! It's highly customizable! I highly recommend RetroArch.
*RetroArch Plus is for Android 8.0 or higher installed.
*Need help? Check out my RetroArch tutorial.
*Don't have access to the Play Store? RetroArch's website has the APK for download.
RetroArch
Availability: 100% Free, Size: 100 MB, Homepage
This version of RetroArch is for devices that don't support RetroArch Plus. In general, this is intended for older devices.
*Need help? Check out my RetroArch tutorial.
ClassicBoy
Availability: Free, but*
A good multi-system emulator. It comes with support for PlayStation 1, N64, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, NES, Genesis, Sega CD, Game Gear, Master System, and arcade games. Additionally, it has a plugins section where you can download support for additional systems such as Nintendo DS, Saturn, NeoGeo Pocket Color, Wonderswan Color, and PC Engine/CD. I still recommend RetroArch over ClassicBoy, but I can say ClassicBoy is easier to use and less intimidating than RetroArch.
*ClassicBoy and its base selection of supported systems are 100% free. However, it has 'ads' in the sense that it teases you with support for SNES and other systems, which requires purchase to use.
Extras
Size: 3.45 MB - This is a handy bundle of all the BIOS files required for emulating PlayStation 1, Sega CD/Mega CD, TurboGrafx-CD/PC Engine CD, Sega Saturn, and NeoGeo arcade games.
*It's a zip file with the extension changed to “_ip”. On Windows, follow these directions for changing it back to “zip”. On Android, it should recognize it as a zip file for you to extract it; here's more info.