About Emulators

An emulator is software that makes one system behave like another. That lets you play a game on hardware it was never written for, such as a Sega Genesis game on a PC or a phone.

Emulation works in every direction: Android games on Windows, Windows games on Android, PlayStation games on a Mac. Most people use emulators to play games from platforms that are no longer sold, on hardware they already own.

Two things decide it:

1. The platform you will run the emulator on – the host.
2. The platform the game was originally released for – the guest.

Pick an emulator that runs on your host and supports the guest platform. The lists at the bottom of this page are organised by host.

There are hundreds of emulators and each has its own instructions, but the shape is the same: you load a game file – usually a ROM or a disc image – and the emulator runs it as the original hardware would.

Emulators also map the original controls onto your keyboard or gamepad. Emulating a PlayStation game on a PC, for instance, the L2 and R2 shoulder buttons end up on keys you can remap to suit yourself.

Emulators themselves are legal. They are independently written software, and building one is a legitimate technical and educational exercise.

What you run on the emulator is a separate question. Downloading a game that is still sold is copyright infringement regardless of how you play it. Abandonware – games no longer sold or supported by anyone – sits in less settled territory, which our FAQs go into.

We keep a list for each host platform. Pick the one you will be running the emulator on:

• Emulators for Windows
• Emulators for Mac
• Emulators for Android