Emulation Nation

FCEUX –Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom Emulator

Back in the mid-1980s, the arrival of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) launched the second wave of home video games throughout the United States and beyond. Its arrival also introduced Americans to some of gaming's most iconic characters and franchises — many still favorites to this day. Luckily for those of us looking to relive the glory days, anyone too busy with their head buried in a monochrome monitor to notice, or the many millions hoping to finally finish off all those ridonkulously @#$! difficult 8-bit classics, FCEUX has got you covered. An "all-in-one" emulator that offers an accurate simulation of both the NES and its original Famicom (Japanese) counterpart, just fire it up to instantly warp back to the glory days of chiptunes and chunky pixels. Fun fact for global gamers: FCEUX supports both NTSC (USA/Japanese) and PAL (European) modes, and even features advanced tools for pro users that include the ability to debug, ROM-hack, and utilize Lua scripting to make homebrew games.

Higan – Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) Emulator

Desperately seeking a first-class ticket back to the early '90s heyday of side-scrolling brawlers, one-on-one street fighters, and candy-colored platform-hopping arcade outings? Look no further. This emulator for the SNES began life in May 2005 as the BSNES and was last updated in October 2015 as Higan — and has only continued to steadily perfect its art in the intervening decade. By now, it's evolved into one of the most comprehensive programs of its kind, and is the only emulator out today that is compatible with nearly 100% of SNES titles. Better still: Higan runs on Windows as well as Linux, and in addition to emulating SNES games, it can also support NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance titles. First-person shooters and real-time strategy games not doing it for you? We're confident you'll find a welcome alternative or two in the several thousand or so digital diversions this all-in-one all-star can play.

Exodus – Sega Genesis Emulator

Go figure: where there's the hint of SNES in the air, there's always a whiff of Sega Genesis as well. (Sorry, no playing favorites here: any smack talk left over from the high school playground days — and something tells us there's a good 10- to 20-year backlog ready and waiting — will have to be pursued on your own time.) Luckily, true to its name, the Exodus could without a doubt deliver those of you who find yourself in Sega's camp to an all-new promised land of gaming goodness on the PC. Not only was this emulator designed to handle effective multithreading, which solves the timing and playback problems that can affect many emulators, but Exodus further stands out because it wasn't actually designed as an emulator at all. Ironically, the fact that it can be used to play commercial games on the PC so well is actually a side-effect of its original purpose — the software program was designed to allow for debugging and code development for homebrew titles. As adroitly as it runs though, hey... either way, we ain't complaining.

Mupen64Plus – Nintendo 64 Emulator

As with other Nintendo-themed emulators, Mupen64Plus isn't exactly new — it's been in nearly constant development since 2001, and in that time, it has been steadily refined. As a result, it is considered among the very best of the very few N64 emulators out there today. Interestingly, Mupen64Plus doesn't just have the ability to play games on a PC by reading ROM images that were dumped from a cartridge. It can also run original games that were created on computers as homebrew titles. In addition to Windows support, you'll also find versions available for Linux, OS X, and even Android devices. That way, whenever you travel, you'll be able to enjoy a little butt-stomping, coin-collecting action wherever you go.

DEmul – Sega Dreamcast Emulator

Released right before the turn of the millennium, the Dreamcast was Sega's last hardware console to launch at retail, bringing with it some of gaming's quirkiest and most offbeat franchises to date. Predictably, given its eclectic range of titles — which included everything from taxi simulators to space-age dancing games and graffiti art outings — it also spawned a hardcore following which thrives to this day. DEmul is sure to please these fans, as the emulator runs a broad library of titles, offers a variety of graphics and audio customization options, and gives tech-savvy users the option to create and save games to virtual memory. While DEmul is still in development, nearly all Dreamcast games are compatible and should run on it. Be sure to give it a whirl if you're interested in partying like it's literally 1999.

ePSXe – PlayStation Emulator

Dream of playing PSOne games on your PC? Wish granted. Released in January 2015 after a long development cycle, this closed-source emulator for the original Sony PlayStation allows titles to be loaded from a PC's CD-ROM drive or via various types of CD images directly from the hard drive. Curiously, the ePSXe emulator also allows for games to be patched as needed to address any bugs found in the original software. This emulator even supports numerous GPU plug-ins for Direct3D, OpenGL, and Glide API as well. As an added bonus, in addition to Windows support, you'll also find versions of ePSXe available for Linux and Android.

PCSX2 – PlayStation 2 Emulator

Compatible with more than 95% of the PlayStation 2's vast gaming library, the PCSX2 offers nearly unparalleled support for these older software titles. Luckily for gamers, this open source emulator — which is available for Windows, OS X, and Linux — was specifically designed to cope with the PS2's high-end computing demands from the processor, coprocessor, GPU, and vector units. Leveraging the software requires a modded PS2 to provide BIOS files needed in order to operate. But unlike less robust emulators, you'll find this one to be worth the extra time spent in setup once you realize just how big its catalogue of compatible options are, and how many new gaming options it makes available.

Cxbx – Xbox Emulator

Technically, Cxbx is not an emulator, but rather a tool to convert an Xbox executable program to a native Windows executable program — still, it works, and we're not ungrateful. Not that anyone should be surprised by the fact that it does: the Xbox was based around a PC processor, after all, and much of the code found in its games can already be executed by computers directly. Based on its most recent version, about 60 original Xbox games are supported, making it one of precious few (but several welcome) ways to truly enjoy a blast from the recent past whenever the mood strikes.

RPCS3 – PlayStation 3 Emulator

This still-in-development emulator for Sony's PlayStation 3 doesn't support a vast library — and currently only a handful of commercial games are actually playable. But this open source program, which is available for Windows, OS X, and Linux, clearly holds a lot of promise, not to mention ample gaming potential. Doubly so, since in addition to being capable of running commercial titles, RPCS3 can also support homemade software projects. You'll find an ever-growing range of indie offerings for it, if you're ever curious about what happens when you put one of gaming's most powerful consoles in the eager little hands of hackers.

Mednafen – Multisystem Emulator

So much for mincing words: formerly known as the Nintencer, this OpenGL and SDL software is officially dubbed "My Emulator Doesn't Need a Frickin' Excellent Name." We concur: offering the ability to play games on a number of systems including the Atari Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket Color, NES, SNES, Game Boy Advance, Sega Genesis, and Sega Master System and Game Gear, it's a veritable holy grail of gaming goodness. Happily for those who also agree, Mednafen runs on Windows, Linux, RISC OS, and even on the PS3, making it among the emulation field's more widely compatible offerings. While the software utilizes a command-line interface and is thus aimed at those with a bit of technical savoir-faire, you'll find it's well worth the time and setup needed to get up and gaming.

Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) – Arcade Emulator

Ever wonder what it would be like to own your own coin-operated cabinet? Forget having to clear out space in a spare bedroom or garage for a full-sized arcade machine — you can just load up MAME (one of today's most beloved emulators) instead. In essence, when loaded alongside images of an original arcade machine's ROM and disk data, MAME can faithfully reproduce most arcade experiences — including emulating several thousand different classic arcade video games from the golden days of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and beyond. Want to take a quick trip back in time? Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X editions await a test drive. Best of all: no coins required.