Open Source Linux Emulators - Page 8

The nesbox/emulator is an open source, browser-based emulator for a collection of retro gaming systems (NES, Super Nintendo, Sega Mega Drive, GameBoy, etc.). It’s written in ActionScript/Flash, and the project includes SWF binaries so you can embed the emulator into web pages. The emulator allows users to load ROMs and play them in their browsers via the Flash plugin. It’s licensed under the MIT license, meaning it’s quite permissive in terms of reuse. While Flash is an aging technology, the project remains a practical way to access old console gaming via browser, as long as Flash is supported or available.

QEMU is a specialized fork of the QEMU emulator designed to emulate Apple iPhone hardware, particularly devices based on the T8030 chip such as the iPhone 11. It extends QEMU’s general-purpose machine emulation capabilities by introducing support for Apple-specific hardware components and boot processes. The project enables researchers to boot and run versions of iOS, including the ability to restore firmware images and interact with the system through debugging tools. It relies on dynamic binary translation and system-level emulation to simulate the ARM-based architecture used in modern iPhones. Due to the complexity of Apple’s ecosystem, the emulator requires extensive patching of the kernel and firmware to function correctly, making it primarily a research and experimentation tool. It has been used in security research contexts to explore iOS internals, including kernel behavior and system services.

SimpleNES is a lightweight, educational Nintendo Entertainment System emulator written in C++ that focuses on demonstrating the core architecture and behavior of classic console emulation. It replicates the essential components of the NES, including CPU execution, graphics rendering, and audio playback, allowing users to run original .nes ROM files on modern systems. The project supports a subset of cartridge mappers, which means it can successfully run a significant portion of early NES games while still being limited compared to full-featured emulators. Its implementation emphasizes clarity and modularity, making it especially useful for developers or students interested in understanding how emulation works at a low level. The emulator integrates libraries such as SFML for window management and rendering, providing a simple but functional graphical output.

The Bitdefender disassembler is a highly optimized, lightweight x86/x64 instruction decoder designed for security, reverse engineering, and low-level systems analysis. It focuses on decoding machine instructions with high precision while providing detailed metadata about each instruction, including operands, access modes, CPU flags, and feature requirements. Unlike many disassemblers, bddisasm is built with zero dynamic memory allocation and no external dependencies, making it extremely portable and suitable for constrained environments such as kernels, hypervisors, and embedded systems. The project also includes a companion component called bdshemu, which provides a minimal instruction emulator capable of analyzing shellcode-like behavior in a controlled environment. Its performance is a key strength, achieving millions of decoded instructions per second while maintaining thread safety and deterministic behavior.

Triton is a dynamic binary analysis library. It provides internal components that allow you to build your program analysis tools, automate reverse engineering, perform software verification or just emulate code. Linux, Windows and OS X compatible. You can directly compile source code from our Github repository. The Triton library is Linux, Windows and OS X compatible. A potential way to getting started is to see our Python examples already bootstrapped.

AspeQt is the free Atari serial peripheral emulator for Qt. This program emulates various Atari 8-bit family peripherals, most notably the disk drives via an SIO2PC cable.

Portable emulator for Pokémon-Mini. Last version: 0.60 (16 June 2015) Check Wiki for platform dependencies and other information.

Source code is no longer updated on SourceForge - all development now happens here on GitHub - https://github.com/michalhucik/mz800emu Open-source emulator of 8-bit personal computers Sharp MZ-800, MZ-700 and MZ-1500. Developed for Linux and Windows using SDL3 (video/audio) and ImGui (GUI). Accurately emulates core hardware: CPU Z80, GDG (WHID 65040-032), CTC i8253, PIO Z80, PIO 8255, PSG SN76489AN - with precise internal signal timing. Supports peripherals: CMT (MZF/MZT/TAP/WAV), FDC WD279x, Quick Disk, ramdisks (MR1R18, Pezik variants), memory extensions, Unicard and IDE8. Integrated Z80 debugger with inline assembler, memory browser and breakpoints. Snapshot system for saving/loading complete emulator state (.mzs archives). Virtual keyboard, autotype, joystick support, variable speed control. GUI localized into 10 languages. Alternative ROM sets (JSS, WILLY) included.

Apple 1 emulator

The objective of the TPM Emulator project is the implementation of a software-based TPM and MTM emulator as well as of an appropriate TCG Device Driver Library (TDDL).

Be warned this project was discontinued in 2013 and has not been updated in years.

ep128emu is a portable emulator of the Enterprise 64/128, ZX Spectrum 48/128, and Amstrad CPC 464/664/6128 computers

A portable emulator of the Commodore 264 familiy of computers (Plus/4, C16, and C116), aiming for the best accuracy and compatibility.

LINE Is Not an Emulator. LINE executes unmodified Linux applications on Windows by intercepting Linux system calls.

Acorn Archimedes hardware emulator for Unix, Windows, Mac OS X, RISC OS, etc.

JStella is a Java-based Atari 2600 VCS emulator. It allows one to play old Atari 2600 games in an operating system independent manner. It also supports web page based applets. Its emulation core is based on Stella-Atari 2600 Emulator.

KCemu is an emulator for the KC85 homecomputer series and other Z80 based microcomputers like Z1013, LC80, Polycomputer 880 and BIC A5105. The emulation supports a number of additional hardware, e.g. floppy disk drives and extended graphic modules.

sdltrs is a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I/III/4/4P emulator for Macintosh OSX, Windows, and Linux. It has been ported from the excellent X-Windows UNIX emulator xtrs. Instead of using the X-Window system for graphics, it uses the portable SDL library.

IDLE (Incomplete Draft of a Lisa Emulator) : a minimalistic apple lisa emulator.

The FreeDO project has MOVED to http://www.freedo.org, and is close to beta. An alpha is currently being internally tested. The project is no longer open-source. Please direct your browsers to http://www.freedo.org for the latest updates.

FakeNES is a highly portable, Open Source NES and Famicom emulator. It runs on all modern operating systems and has an actively maintained DOS port for enthusiasts. Support for phones and other mobile platforms is under development. The majority of the project is entirely original code released under the zlib/libpng license. Contributed and third-party code is included under GNU licenses.

OpenGLide is a Glide to OpenGL wrapper. It emulates a Voodoo board so you can run old Windows Glide games by translating Glide calls into OpenGL. The CVS code moved to https://github.com/fcbarros/openglide.

Castadiva is a test bed based on low-cost off-the-shelf devices, which is used to test protocols developed for MANETs. Castadiva is completely compatible with the file format used by the ns-2 simulator.

vmdkutil is a utility to manage VMware sparse virtual disk files (.vmdk), creating, cloning, merging, etc.

The MSX emulator that aims for perfection. NOTE: this project moved to GitHub. The content of this project page is frozen and will not be updated. The project is alive and kicking, though! Check out our website for the new project pages.