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
Arcade/Neo Geo	Final Burn Alpha	FBM
Atari 2600	BizHawk	BKM
Atari 7800	BizHawk	BKM
ColecoVision	BizHawk	BKM
DOS	JPC-RR	JRSR
Game Boy/Game Boy Color/Super Game Boy	BizHawk	BKM
Game Boy/Game Boy Color/Super Game Boy	lsnes	LSMV
Game Boy Advance	Visual Boy Advance	VBM
MSX	OpenMSX	OMR^[2]
Nintendo	BizHawk	BKM
Nintendo	FCEUX	FM2/FM3
Nintendo 64	BizHawk	BKM
Nintendo DS	DeSmuME	DSM
Nintendo GameCube/Wii	Dolphin	DTM
PCE/PCE-CD (TG-16)/SGX	BizHawk	BKM
PlayStation	PSXjin	PJM
Sega 32X	Gens	GMV
Sega Genesis/Sega CD	BizHawk	BKM
Sega Master System/Sega Game Gear/SG-1000	BizHawk	BKM
Sega Saturn	BizHawk	BKM
Super Nintendo/Super Game Boy	BizHawk	BKM
Super Nintendo/Super Game Boy	lsnes	LSMV
Virtual Boy	VBjin	MC2
Windows	Hourglass ^[3]	WTF
(Multi)^[1]	Mednafen	MC2

System	Emulator	Movie Format
Nintendo	FCE Ultra	FCM
Nintendo 64	Anti-DS Mupen	M64
PlayStation	PCSX	PXM
Sega Genesis/Sega CD	Gens	GMV
TG-16	Pcejin	MC2

System	Emulator	Movie Format
Game Boy/Game Boy Color/Super Game Boy	Visual Boy Advance	VBM
Nintendo 64	Mupen64-rr	M64
Sega Master System/Sega Game Gear	Dega (altered versions)	MMV
Sega Saturn	Yabause	YMV
Super Nintendo	Snes9x ^[4]	SMV

System	Emulator	Movie Format
Nintendo	Famtasia	FMV
Nintendo	VirtuaNES	VMV
Super Nintendo	ZSNES	ZMV

System	Emulator	Movie Format
DOOM demo	(various)	LMP

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	Yes (with Mono)^[5]	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
Final Burn Alpha	Yes	Unknown	Unknown
Gens	Yes	Yes (with Wine)^[6]	Unknown
Hourglass ^[3]	Yes	No	No
lsnes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mednafen	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
Visual Boy Advance	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 Google Code page.
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.
Grrl: A project for a Linux version of Gens.
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.
Emulator task list: Open development tasks for emulators in use on the site.

Accuracy tests

Subpages

[1]: Mednafen 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).

EmulatorResources last edited by adelikat on 2014-04-06 16:57:56
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