Emulator Resources

Table of contents [expand all] [collapse all]

Emulator overview
Supported Operating Systems
Using Emulators
Development
Accuracy tests
Subpages

We use special emulators that support tools such as savestates and frame advance, and generate movie files from them. These movie files are nothing more than a recording of input. They do not contain images or video. All movie format specifications can be found here.

Disclaimer: The majority of rerecording emulators are third-party modifications of existing open-source emulators. In most cases, only these rerecording emulators can play and make TASes, and not the official emulator.

We do not by any means claim that using any of these emulators will guarantee "correct" results. There may be bugs in these emulators which have gone unnoticed due to lack of testing.

You should read DesyncHelpTAS before making any serious projects. All movies are highly dependent on timing and the slightest difference may cause a desync. We cannot help you if you lose work due to desync problems. You must also read the Movie Rules if you plan to submit your work to this site.

For a comprehensive list of supported platforms and their emulators, see the Platforms page.

Emulator overview

System	Emulator	Movie Format
Apple II	BizHawk	BK2
Arcade/Neo Geo	MAME-RR	MAR
Arcade/Neo Geo	FinalBurnAlpha-RR	FBM
Atari 2600/7800	BizHawk	BK2
Atari Lynx	BizHawk	BK2
ColecoVision	BizHawk	BK2
Commodore 64	BizHawk	BK2
DOOM demo	(various)	LMP
DOS	JPC-RR	JRSR
Game Boy Advance	BizHawk	BK2
Game Boy/Game Boy Color/Super Game Boy	BizHawk	BK2
Game Boy/Game Boy Color/Super Game Boy	lsnes	LSMV
IntelliVision	BizHawk	BK2
MSX	openMSX	OMR^[2]
Neo Geo Pocket/Color	BizHawk	BK2
Nintendo	BizHawk	BK2
Nintendo	FCEUX	FM2/FM3
Nintendo 64	BizHawk	BK2
Nintendo DS	DeSmuME	DSM
Nintendo GameCube/Wii	Dolphin ^[8]	DTM
PCE/PCE-CD (TG-16)/SGX	BizHawk	BK2
PlayStation	BizHawk	BK2
Sega 32X	BizHawk	BK2
Sega Genesis/Sega CD	BizHawk	BK2
Sega Master System/Sega Game Gear/SG-1000	BizHawk	BK2
Sega Saturn	BizHawk	BK2
Super Nintendo/Super Game Boy	BizHawk	BK2
Super Nintendo/Super Game Boy	lsnes	LSMV
Uzebox	BizHawk	BK2
Virtual Boy	BizHawk	BK2
Windows	Hourglass ^[3]	WTF
WonderSwan/WonderSwan Color	BizHawk	BK2
ZX Spectrum	BizHawk	BK2

System	Emulator	Movie Format
Game Boy Advance	VisualBoyAdvance	VBM
Sega Genesis/Sega CD/Sega 32X	Gens	GMV

System	Emulator	Movie Format
Game Boy/Game Boy Color	Visual Boy Advance	VBM
Nintendo GameCube/Wii	Dolphin ^[8]	DTM
Sega Saturn	Yabause	YMV
Super Nintendo	Snes9x ^[4]	SMV
TG-16	Pcejin	MC2
Virtual Boy	VBjin	MC2
(Multi)^[1]	Mednafen-rr	MC2

System	Emulator	Movie Format
Nintendo	Famtasia	FMV
Nintendo	FCE Ultra	FCM
Nintendo	VirtuaNES	VMV
Nintendo 64	Mupen64-rr	M64
PlayStation	PCSX	PXM
PlayStation	PSXjin	PJM
Sega Master System/Sega Game Gear	Dega (altered versions)	MMV
Super Game Boy	Visual Boy Advance	VBM
Super Nintendo	ZSNES	ZMV

Supported Operating Systems

Tell us if one of the entries is wrong or if you can resolve one of the "Unknown" ones to a "Yes" or "No". If in doubt, just test it yourself.

Emulator	Windows	Linux	Mac OS X
BizHawk	Yes	No	Yes (with Mono)^[5]
Dega (altered versions)	Yes	Yes	Unknown
DeSmuME	Yes	Yes (with Wine)^[7]	Unknown^[7]
Dolphin	Yes	Yes	Yes
FCE Ultra	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
FCEUX	Yes	Yes	Yes
FinalBurnAlpha	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
Gens	Yes	Yes (with Wine)^[6]	Unknown
Hourglass ^[3]	Yes	No	No
lsnes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mednafen-rr	Yes	Yes	Unknown
Mupen64-rr	Yes	Yes (with Wine)	Unknown
openMSX	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pcejin	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
PCSX	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
PSXjin	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
Snes9x ^[4]	Yes	Yes	Yes
VisualBoyAdvance	Yes	Yes (with Wine)	Unknown
VBjin	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
Yabause	Yes	Unknown	Unknown

Explanation:

"Yes": The emulator compiles and runs. Limitations are given via annotations (e.g. "Yes (with Wine)") or footnotes.
"No": The emulator does not compile or run at all (even with Wine or Mono).
"Unknown": It is neither known whether the emulator compiles nor whether it runs at all.

Using Emulators

Using: Instructions on how to perform common tasks on different emulators. For more specifications, see each emulator's Source Code Repository.
Encoding Guide: Instructions on how to encode movies into high quality multimedia files suitable for easy viewing. (You do not need this for submitting movies.)

Development

Recent emulator updates: Recent changes to the rerecording emulators.
Recent emulator bug reports: Recent bug reports for the rerecording emulators.
Desired features: Lists emulator features wished by users and compares the features of different emulators.
Development: List information about source code projects, how to compile, and how to contribute to emulator development.
Potential emulators: List of ideas for developers. Lists non-approved open source emulators with links and status of their development.
TASVideos Requirements: Lists emulator features required by this site.

Accuracy tests

Subpages

[1]: Mednafen-rr supports all flavors of TurboGrafx/PC-Engine, including CD-ROM, as well as Atari Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket/Color, and WonderSwan/Color. It also supports PC-FX, but only for the Linux version.

[2] The older .gz extension is no longer supported.

[3] Technically speaking, Hourglass is not an emulator.

[4] Movies using Snes9x v1.43 are not accepted unless a continuance is granted. Movies using Snes9x v1.51 or newer are accepted but the emulator is deprecated.

[5] Working cores for the Mono branch include NES, SMS/GG/SG-1000, TI-83, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, PCE. There's no support for Lua.

[6] AVI capture may be dysfunctional.

[7] Some tools may not work or look garbled (e.g. Memory viewer) and various (minor or major) bugs may occur. There are native versions, but those don't seem to have rerecording. Alternatively, a Windows virtual machine may be used (though it runs rather slow).

[8] Dolphin versions prior to 4.0-3595 are deprecated and will not be accepted in the future.

EmulatorResources last edited by feos on 2018-06-24 15:01:51
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