A multi-system emulator frontend for Windows built with WPF and .NET 8, inspired by OpenEmu on macOS. Games are organized by console in a clean library interface. Emulation is handled by libretro cores loaded at runtime — no cores are bundled.
Visit emutastic.com → for a visual tour of the app, or grab the latest release directly.
Legal notice: This project is a frontend only. It does not include, distribute, or facilitate the acquisition of any copyrighted software, ROM images, BIOS files, or other proprietary system files. You are solely responsible for ensuring you have the legal right to use any software you load into this application.
- Windows 10/11 x64
- .NET 8 Desktop Runtime
- Visual C++ Redistributable 2015–2022 (x64) — required by most libretro cores
- libretro core
.dllfiles (downloadable in-app — Preferences → Cores) SDL3.dll(x64) for controller name detection (downloadable in-app — Preferences → Extras)- Optional:
ffmpeg.exefor video recording, DAT files for ROM identification (also in Preferences → Extras)
Windows SmartScreen: Emutastic is not code-signed. Click "More info" then "Run anyway" on first launch.
34 systems across 11 manufacturers (click to expand)
| System | Tag | Core (priority order) | BIOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| NES | NES | nestopia → quicknes → fceumm | No |
| Famicom Disk System | FDS | nestopia | disksys.rom |
| SNES | SNES | snes9x → bsnes | No |
| Nintendo 64 | N64 | parallel_n64 → mupen64plus_next | No |
| GameCube | GameCube | dolphin | No |
| Game Boy | GB | mgba → gambatte → sameboy | No |
| Game Boy Color | GBC | mgba → gambatte → sameboy | No |
| Game Boy Advance | GBA | mgba | Optional |
| Nintendo 3DS | 3DS | azahar | No |
| Nintendo DS | NDS | desmume → melonds | No |
| Virtual Boy | VirtualBoy | mednafen_vb | No |
| Genesis / Mega Drive | Genesis | genesis_plus_gx → picodrive | No |
| Sega CD / Mega CD | SegaCD | genesis_plus_gx | Region BIOS |
| Sega 32X | Sega32X | picodrive | No |
| Sega Saturn | Saturn | mednafen_saturn → kronos → yabause | Region BIOS |
| Master System | SMS | genesis_plus_gx → picodrive | No |
| Game Gear | GameGear | genesis_plus_gx | No |
| SG-1000 | SG1000 | genesis_plus_gx | No |
| Dreamcast | Dreamcast | flycast | No |
| PlayStation | PS1 | mednafen_psx_hw → mednafen_psx | Region BIOS |
| PSP | PSP | ppsspp | No |
| TurboGrafx-16 | TG16 | mednafen_pce → mednafen_pce_fast | No |
| TurboGrafx-CD | TGCD | mednafen_pce → mednafen_pce_fast | syscard3.pce |
| Neo Geo Pocket | NGP | mednafen_ngp | No |
| Neo Geo Pocket Color | NGPC | mednafen_ngp | No |
| Neo Geo | NeoGeo | geolith | neogeo.zip + aes.zip |
| Arcade | Arcade | fbneo + mame2003-plus ¹ | No |
| Atari 2600 | Atari2600 | stella | No |
| Atari 7800 | Atari7800 | prosystem | No |
| Atari Jaguar | Jaguar | virtualjaguar | No |
| ColecoVision | ColecoVision | gearcoleco → bluemsx | No |
| Vectrex | Vectrex | vecx | No |
| 3DO | 3DO | opera | panafz10.bin |
| Philips CD-i | CDi | same_cdi | No |
¹ Arcade routes per-game between FBNeo (primary; better controls + save states) and MAME 2003-Plus (fills FBNeo gaps — Atari vector, Sega G-80, Cinematronics, Williams pre-MK, Killer Instinct, War Gods, etc.). MAME 2003-Plus's romset expectations have drifted over time and a few drivers (Sega ST-V, Midway Vegas) aren't fully backported — your mileage will vary on those. See the Arcade wiki page for known-broken hardware.
Place BIOS files in %AppData%\Emutastic\System\ (or PortableData\System\ next to the .exe in portable mode). The app also checks each system's ROM folder.
BIOS file details by system
Sega CD — bios_CD_U.bin (USA), bios_CD_E.bin (Europe), bios_CD_J.bin (Japan)
Sega Saturn — Kronos: system\kronos\saturn_bios.bin. Beetle Saturn: sega_101.bin (JP v1.00), mpr-17933.bin (JP v1.01), mpr-17941.bin (USA/EU v1.01). Note: mpr-17933.bin is a Japan BIOS despite being commonly mislabeled as USA/EU.
PlayStation — USA: scph5501.bin, scph1001.bin, scph7001.bin. Europe: scph5502.bin. Japan: scph5500.bin
TurboGrafx-CD — Any of: syscard3.pce, syscard2.pce, syscard1.pce
3DO — Any of: panafz10.bin (Panasonic), panafz1j.bin (Japan), goldstar.bin (GoldStar)
Famicom Disk System — disksys.rom
Drag and drop ROMs onto the library or use Import ROMs. The app detects the console from file extension, cleans the title, and hashes the ROM. For ambiguous formats (.chd, .iso, .cue, .bin), a SHA1 lookup against DAT files is attempted first — if no match, a console picker is shown.
Multi-disc games (Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, etc.) are auto-bundled into a single library entry — drop a folder containing the disc files (.cue/.bin or .chd) and Emutastic writes an .m3u playlist alongside them so the game shows up once, not three times. Hand-authored .m3u files in the folder are honored as-is.
Important: Download DAT files in Preferences → Cores / Extras before importing. Without them, disc images and some cartridge ROMs may be assigned to the wrong system during import.
Themes
Four built-in themes: Dark (default), Light, OLED Black, Midnight Blue. Full visual editor with 44 color tokens and live preview. Set custom background images with zoom, pan, and tile controls. Export/import themes as .emutheme files.
Controllers
XInput button polling during gameplay with SDL3 device name detection. Xbox, DualSense/DualShock, and hundreds of other controllers are identified by product name. Button mappings configurable per-controller in Preferences → Input. Falls back to generic names if SDL3.dll is absent.
Left analog stick works as movement input on every old console with a digital joystick or D-pad — push the stick on the NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Boy line, Saturn, Neo Geo, Atari, ColecoVision, TurboGrafx, arcade games, and more, and your character moves. Diagonals are honored (pushing NE registers as up + right simultaneously). The D-pad still works exactly as before — use whichever you prefer.
RetroAchievements
Earn achievements while playing via RetroAchievements. Enable in Preferences → Achievements with your RA username and password; paste your Web API Key (from retroachievements.org → Settings) in the same place to unlock per-game stats on the detail card.
The detail card for any game you've launched with achievements enabled shows:
- An achievement progress bar with
X / Y unlocked · Z pts, gold-tinted when you've mastered the set - Coming up — three suggested achievement badges. If you've made in-game progress in your last session, these are the ones you're closest to ("73% · 3 of 5"); otherwise they're picked from the community's fastest-typical unlocks for the game
- Typical run caption:
beat ~Xh · master ~Yhbased on community medians - Hardcore mode aware — all numbers and "Coming up" picks reflect hardcore unlocks when Hardcore is on
In-game, achievements appear as toast notifications when you unlock them.
About & Updates
Preferences → About shows the current version, build date, and credits. On open, it checks GitHub for the latest release and surfaces a download link if a newer version is available. Notification-only — no auto-installer, no telemetry.
- Core Options — Per-core settings (internal resolution, graphics plugins, etc.) in Preferences → Core Options
Disk Swapping (FDS, PS1, Saturn, Sega CD)
Press L3 + Start in-game to flip between discs/sides on systems that need it. Rebindable to any two-button chord (controller or keyboard) in Preferences → Controls → Disk Swap. The status bar shows the new disc number on each swap.
Multi-disc games are auto-bundled at import time — see the ROM Import section. See the wiki page for per-console specifics and troubleshooting.
Emutastic.exe / rcheevos.dll / .NET runtime DLLs
%AppData%\Emutastic\ (or your custom data folder)
library.db
Native\ (SDL3.dll, ffmpeg.exe — downloadable in-app)
DATs\ (No-Intro / Redump DATs — downloadable in-app)
Cores\ (libretro core DLLs — downloadable in-app)
System\ (BIOS files)
Save States\ / BatterySaves\ / Screenshots\ / Recordings\ / Artwork\ / ...
Drop an empty portable.txt next to Emutastic.exe or launch with the --portable command-line flag, and everything lives in PortableData\ beside the .exe — config, library database, save states, battery saves, screenshots, recordings, artwork, BIOS files, libretro cores, and any ROMs you import. Move the install folder to a USB stick and run it on any Windows PC; library paths are stored relative to PortableData\ so drive-letter changes (E:→F:) don't break anything. ROM imports are auto-copied into PortableData\Roms\<Console>\ so they travel with the USB without setting up a separate library folder. See Portable Mode in the wiki for the full on-disk layout, caveats, and how to revert.
Per-game cheats from the in-game cog menu or the library detail card's ⋯ menu. Game Genie / GameShark / raw codes depending on system. See Cheats in the wiki for code formats per system, storage paths, and the list of cores where cheats aren't supported.
Per-system configuration, known issues, teardown fixes, and technical details are documented in the Wiki.
Requires Visual Studio 2022+ with .NET desktop development workload.
git clone <repo>
cd Emutastic
dotnet build .\Emutastic.sln -c Release
Credits
Emulation is handled by libretro cores maintained by their upstream authors. Emutastic bundles none of them — the in-app core manager downloads from the libretro build servers on demand. Please support these projects directly.
| Core | Upstream author(s) |
|---|---|
| Azahar | Azahar team (successor to Citra / Lime3DS) |
| Beetle PSX / Saturn / PCE / VB / NGP | Mednafen team (Ryphecha) |
| blueMSX | blueMSX team (Daniel Vik and contributors) |
| bsnes | byuu / near and contributors |
| DeSmuME | DeSmuME team |
| Dolphin | Dolphin team |
| FBNeo (FinalBurn Neo) | FBNeo team |
| FCEUmm | FCEUmm team |
| Flycast | flyinghead and contributors |
| Gambatte | Sindre Aamås (sinamas) |
| Gearcoleco | Ignacio Sánchez (drhelius) |
| Genesis Plus GX | Eke-Eke |
| Geolith | R. Danbrook (rdanbrook) |
| Kronos | Kronos team |
| melonDS | Arisotura |
| mGBA | Vicki Pfau (endrift) |
| Mupen64Plus-Next | libretro team |
| Nestopia UE | Nestopia UE team |
| Opera | libretro team (3DO) |
| ParaLLEl-N64 | libretro team (Themaister and contributors) |
| Picodrive | notaz |
| PPSSPP | Henrik Rydgård and contributors |
| ProSystem | Greg Stanton (upstream) / libretro maintenance |
| QuickNES | Shay Green (blargg) |
| SAME CDi | CDi community (MAME derivative) |
| Snes9x | Snes9x team |
| Stella | Stella team |
| VecX | Valavan Manohararajah (upstream) / libretro maintenance |
| Virtual Jaguar | Virtual Jaguar team |
| Yabause | Yabause team |
Artwork from OpenEmuControllerArt (BSD 3-Clause). Not affiliated with or endorsed by OpenEmu.
| Artist | Controllers |
|---|---|
| David McLeod (@Mucx) | 32X, FDS, GB, GBA, Game Gear, SMS, NES, Sega CD, Genesis, SNES |
| Ricky Romero (@RickyRomero) | Atari 2600/5200, N64, NDS, Odyssey², PS1, PSP, Saturn, SG-1000, Vectrex, Virtual Boy |
| Craig Erskine (@qrayg) | GameCube, Neo Geo Pocket, PC Engine / TG16 |
| Salvo Zummo / David Everly / Kate Schroeder | Atari 7800, 3DO, ColecoVision |
Inspired by OpenEmu for macOS.