The best Android emulators for PC. Game console emulators for computers Emulator for all consoles
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Medicine: Not required
Description:
Jnes (Dendy game console emulator)
Dendy (Nintendo) console emulator. It is possible to take a screenshot and record sound to a wav file. In order to run the games you need to unzip the emulator, run it and click on the File tab in the upper left corner ->
NESten v0.6 (Dendy game console emulator)
Just an excellent Dendy emulator, opens 95 percent of games.
corner tab File -> Play Rom and select the game you like.
Nestopia v1.06 (Dendy game console emulator)
Simply a wonderful NES emulator, which has a simple and intuitive interface, excellent compatibility (143 mappers)!, support for FSD drives and a whole set of peripherals. It can also record video and sound, save it, support all possible graphic filters (video smoothing) and much more. In order to launch games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the File -> Play Rom tab in the upper left corner and select the game you like.
RockNES X (Dendy game console emulator)
A convenient and fast emulator that does not require resources. The emulator has many settings, which are not difficult to understand. In addition to the ability to save anywhere in the game (Save State), you can take screenshots and record the daemon version, the joystick is supported.
In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab File -> Play Rom and select the game you like.
VisualBoyAdvance v1.7.2 (GameBoy emulator)
Emulator for GameBoy with many features and settings.
In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab File -> Play Rom and select the game you like.
Snes v1.29 (Nintendo game console emulator)
One of the best emulators for Super Nintendo.
In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab File -> Play Rom and select the game you like.
ZSNES v0.991 (Nintendo game console emulator)
An emulator of the popular game console ("console") Super Nintendo, it has a huge number of settings. Supports Linux joystick driver.
In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab File -> Play Rom and select the game you like.
ZSNES v1.35 (Nintendo Game Console Emulator)
Emulator for SuperNintendo with many features and settings.
In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab File -> Play Rom and select the game you like.
Chankast v0.2a (Sega game console emulator)
Emulator for Sega Dreamcast with many features and settings.
In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab Run -> Run CD-ROM and select the game you like.
Dgen v1.21 (Sega game console emulator)
The first emulator for this gaming console, DGen version 1.21, provides excellent compatibility and provides high-quality images and sound. The minimum configuration for it is a system with a processor no lower than Intel Pentium-II 266. In the video mode settings, you can select triple buffering and several display modes.
The sound sampling frequency can be selected from 8 to 44 KHz, and the quality is 8 or 16 bits. The emulator implements the Save function and supports two input devices.
In order to launch games, you need to unzip the emulator, launch it and click on the File -> Play Rom tab in the upper left corner and select the game you like.
Gens v0.76 (Sega game console emulator)
A very powerful emulator that allows you to play in full screen in WIN9x without degrading graphics! Almost all games work on it. In order to launch games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the File -> Play Rom tab in the upper left corner and select the game you like.
KGen v0.34b (Sega game console emulator)
An emulator that works very fast. It is possible to connect a joystick.
In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab File -> Play Rom and select the game you like.
LazarusSEr5 (Sega game console emulator)
New emulator for Sega Genesis, Sega CD and Sega Master.
In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab File -> Load Rom and select the game you like.
Megasis (Sega console emulator)
Simply an excellent emulator, a worthy competitor to Gens. Many different settings and at the same time ease of use make it simply irreplaceable for any fan of Sega games. In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab File -> Play Rom and select the game you like.
Vega v0.92 (Sega game console emulator)
A fairly simple multi-system Sega emulator, designed mainly for the Sega Genesis, but also supports 32x, SegaCD, Sega Master System. You can also set the mouse as a manipulator in the settings. In order to launch games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the File -> Play Rom tab in the upper left corner and select the game you like.
Epsxe v1.6.0 (Sony Playstation game console emulator)
Emulator Sony PlayStation allows you to play PS discs on a regular computer.
In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab File -> Run and select the game you like.
Pcsx 2 v0.3 (Sony Playstation 2 game console emulator)
An excellent version of the emulator for Sony PlayStation 2, with a lot of useful functions and settings.
In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab File -> Open and select the game you like.
Pcsx 2 v0.6 (Sony Playstation 2 game console emulator)
The latest version of the emulator for Sony PlayStation 2. In the new version, the developers have improved the emulation of PlayStation 2 processor commands, added USB support and fixed several bugs. In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab File -> Run CD-Rom and select the game you like.
Emulator3000 v6.1 (ZX-Spectrum game console emulator)
Awesome emulator. This emulator, which does not have high requirements (relative to the hardware
which it emulates) Pentium II 233 MHz and higher, but what can it do! And it emulates almost all Soviet
household and personal computers and their foreign analogues, as well as ZX-Spectrum, Coleco and
Dendy. Every self-respecting gamer should have this emulator.
In order to run the games you need an emulator, launch it and click on the top left
corner tab File -> Play Rom and select the game you like.
Games for Dendy
A large collection of games for the Dandy game console emulator.
Games for GameBoy
A large collection of games for the GameBoy emulator.
Nintendo Games
A large collection of games for the Nintendo game console emulator.
Games for Sega
A large collection of games for the Sega game console emulator.
Games for ZX-Spectrum
A large collection of games for the ZX-Spectrum game console emulator.
Open the image via DAEMON Tools
it contains folders with the name of the consoles.
in each folder there are games and emulators for these consoles.
all folders are signed.
System requirements:
* Operating room Windows system XP/Vista/7;
* Intel processor Pentium 4 with clock frequency 3.0 GHz/ Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.0 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 or similar;
* 2 GB random access memory;
* Video card with 256 MB video memory*;
* Sound card compatible with DirectX 9.0c;
It would seem, why emulate a mobile operating system? Android system on a computer if you are not a developer? There are plenty of reasons for this, and one of them is the huge ecosystem of applications and games that are created specifically for Android, but are not present on Windows, Linux or OS X. What to do if you want to continue playing Clash of Clans on your computer or upload a high-quality photo to Instagram from PC? Of course, you should resort to the help of emulators. The best of them are presented in this article.
Bluestacks - all in one
One of the most popular and fast-growing Android emulators for Windows and OS X. With update 2.0, the emulator has literally changed - a fresh, but sometimes overloaded interface has appeared, the developers began to position Bluestacks more as an opportunity to play Android games and for this they added several useful functions.
Most programs and games are compatible with Bluestacks - as the developers themselves say, and in general the software library for the emulator is quite extensive. It is worth noting that all games and applications in the Bluestacks internal catalog are specially optimized, that is, they will definitely work on the computer. If you install a third-party APK file, then its correct operation, of course, is not guaranteed. Some programs are completely built into the emulator and work almost out of the box, for example Instagram. All the functions characteristic of an emulator are present: changing the screen orientation, simulating shaking, creating screenshots, GPS emulation, convenient work with files - dragging and dropping from Windows Explorer or Finder OS X into the program, copy/paste, and audio controls.
You can easily switch between open applications and games using tabs, just like in a browser. Among other things, games now support gamepads. If Bluestacks has any shortcomings, then they probably include only low performance and sometimes an overly cumbersome interface. You can download Bluestacks for Windows and OS X on Trashbox or on the official website of the emulator.
Nox App Player - convenient and functional
It is a more minimalistic, convenient and functional solution. Compared to the same Bluestacks, Nox does not have any cumbersome menus with recommendations, various synchronizations with your own account, and other functionality that will be superfluous for most users. When you launch Nox App Player, the user will see the familiar Android desktop with a sidebar where there are quick function buttons, as well as the familiar “Home”, “Back” and “Recents”. The developers decided to remove the bottom bar with control buttons to save space.
One is immediately noticeable distinctive feature- when running applications that only work in portrait orientation, the emulator screen and window are adjusted. That is, there will be no situations like in Bluestacks, where portrait programs take up ¼ of the screen and the rest is empty space. By the way, in the settings you can adjust the window size and orientation, as well as performance, allocating processor cores and memory.
Geeks in Nox App Player will be pleased with the function of receiving by switching one toggle switch in the settings. You can also set custom keyboard shortcuts here. Even without rooting, Nox App Player can record screen videos. This could not even be mentioned if the emulator used latest version Android (video recording available from 5.0), but, unfortunately, the Nox developers are still stuck on 4.4.2 KitKat.
Nox App Player is not the best for games - many display graphics incorrectly. The emulator is more tailored for applications and working with them. For example, to create videos and beautiful screenshots without upper and lower bars. The emulator is also integrated with the system Windows notifications 10. You can download the Nox App Player emulator for Windows on Trashbox and the official website of the project.
Genymotion - for developers
Genymotion is an emulator designed specifically for Android game and application developers, but it can also be used by ordinary people. Unlike the two previous emulators, Genymotion is present on all three popular desktop platforms - Windows, OS X and Linux.
Since Genymotion is an alternative to the emulator built into the Android SDK, the most templates are available in it. different devices from Android - from smartphones and tablets of the Nexus line to some little-known budget devices. The emulator of each device has a set of relevant characteristics: screen size and resolution, processor and video chip, battery, GPS and support cellular networks, as well as some others. When you launch an application or game in the emulator, you can call up a special panel to control all these device parameters. For example, you can find out how the program behaves when GPS or the Internet is turned off. Also, device parameters can be freely edited.
For ordinary users who would like to play and use mobile applications on a computer, Genymotion is not very suitable, but for geeks it is quite suitable. You can download the Genymotion emulator for Windows, Linux and OS X on the official website of the project.
MEMU - for games
It is another emulator focused mainly on mobile games. There is a special keyboard layout for them and even gamepad emulation. For example, you can bind keyboard keys to on-screen buttons. Such functions are often lacking in Bluestacks, which is also positioned as a platform mobile games for PC. Otherwise, MEmu is a standard emulator with a good set of features.
At the time of writing this article, MEmu does not use the most a new version Android - 4.4.2 KitKat, but Lollipop or even Marshmallow are not particularly needed in emulators, because most software is optimized specifically for KitKat. Among the interesting additional features of MEmu are: sending applications from a computer to a smartphone or tablet for quick installation, convenient change of screen orientation, as well as a full-screen mode for games. The picture quality in the latter often leaves much to be desired, but still. Surprisingly, most of the “heavy” games in MEmu are emulated well - there are no problems with graphics.
Computers are constantly evolving, and the change of components occurs quite smoothly, unlike set-top boxes, in which everything is replaced at once and released new model, much cooler than the old one and far ahead of computers in terms of gaming performance. Then the computers are again caught up and overtaken, etc.
At the stage of computer supremacy, there is usually a process of emergence emulators. This software, simulating the operation of some console, and the stronger the computer, the more resources can be allocated to the operation of the emulator - the faster the game will run.
On this moment consoles and computers are about the same. PlayStation 3 is currently equivalent to the most powerful computer for 25,000 - 30,000 rubles. Therefore, it is impossible to emulate it, as well as the Xbox 360. However, we will now look at emulators of earlier consoles, from 1994 to 2004.
1994 - Sega Saturn
A successor to the Mega Drive, equipped with two 32-bit processors, the Sega Saturn made game development history. It's not that the games were good - the dual-core processor introduced as a response to the PlayStation made developing and porting games a difficult task, and Sega provided a meager set of tools for development. The same problem exists with emulators.
The Saturn sold well in Japan, but due to the lack of high-profile games and new consoles promised by Sony and Nintendo, sales stopped in Europe in 1998, and two years later in Japan.
1996 - Nintendo 64
After the resounding success of the 32-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Nintendo 64 had every chance of success. However, the console did not sell as well as the PlayStation, clocking only 30 million units worldwide.
The N64 was the last Nintendo console to use cartridges, which made games quite expensive due to the difficulty of producing them. However, several high-profile games were released on the console, including the first high-quality 3D Mario adventure.
Cross-platform mupen64plus emulator works on Windows, Linux and Mac, supports almost all N64 drives.
1998 - Sega Dreamcast
Sega's latest attempt to recapture some of the market was the 1998 128-bit Dreamcast. It was the first console to support Internet gaming via the included 56-kilobit modem. It didn't sell as well as the company had hoped, but the console produced many memorable games that spawned new genres.
Dreamcast exclusives such as Shenmue (which would not see the end of the series any time soon), Jet Set Radio (the world's first pseudo-cartoon 3D game) and Chu Chu Rocket (the first online console game) elevated the console to cult status, and some independent companies continue to release games on the Dreamcast to this day.
Windows users can use the nullDC emulator to satisfy their Dreamcast desires, while Linux and Mac users can try lxdream. Both emulators are still in development, so not every game can run, and to handle this powerful device (by emulation standards), you'll need a strong computer.
2000 - Sony PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2 is a record-breaking console. It's the best-selling console in gaming history - 150 million consoles - and Sony created a slim model of the device to sell even more. 11,000 games were released on the console - an absolute record.
The PlayStation 2 had multiplayer support (which you can still enjoy by using X-Link program Kai), there was a browser and several exclusives that shook the world.
A couple of years ago I didn’t even think about downloading an Android emulator for my usual Windows computer. But the popularity of Google’s brainchild cannot but surprise, of course it affected the entire industry information technologies- it turned out just unrealistically a lot various applications and games that work exclusively on Android and can be downloaded from, which I wrote about recently. This is actually why it was decided to write this guide on choosing the best emulator - it won’t work in a nutshell, there’s plenty to choose from.
In fact, there are really many reasons why there is a need to run an Android Emulator on your personal computer or laptop. For example, application developers can test their programs before publishing it in the App Store on various configurations. Fans of a wide variety of games can use their favorite mice and keyboard over the years as controls in games - and this is really necessary (however, I don’t think they will replace gyroscope control). In any case, emulating Android applications on Windows is possible, and my task is to tell you about the best in this niche.
Two years ago I had the imprudence to install the game Hay Day on my tablet, and ended up stuck there for several days. The habit has done its job - playing on the computer is more familiar and convenient for me, but online versions does not exist in nature and it was decided to establish Bluestacks emulator. At that time, probably the only adequate option for running Android games on a PC under Windows control.
Important Note: For some emulators to work, it is necessary to enable support for Intel VT-x or AMD-v hardware virtualization in the BIOS (or UEFI). Usually they are always active, but if you are experiencing problems with some of the emulators on the list, then check these settings. However, that’s not all, I noticed that when installing the Hyper-V component on the system, many of the above emulators simply refused to start - I never found a solution to this problem, so choose what is more important to you. (There are quite a few alternatives to Hyper-V and they do not conflict - this is not meant to offend Microsoft)
Since we are talking about virtualization in general, we should understand that the Android emulator is a rather power-hungry thing and requires a sufficient amount of RAM. You can view its quantity in the system properties (for beginners there is a detailed note on how to determine computer parameters -), if you have less than 4 gigabytes of RAM, then most likely you will not be able to achieve comfortable work.
Do not forget that for correct operation and maximum performance It is recommended to install the latest drivers for your graphics adapter. I did not include in this review commercial versions, I understand that most likely it is needed to satisfy interest, and in general - to see how it happens there.
Nox App Player is perhaps the best emulator
To be honest, I only recently became acquainted with this emulator, but nevertheless it deserves the first line in our review. More recently, I thought that Bluestacks was the best for our tasks, but I was very wrong (although it probably was like that before). Now there is healthy competition in this segment and many truly worthy options. Most likely, if you don’t have any problems with NOX App Player, then your acquaintance with Android virtualization will end there - you simply won’t find anything better. Everything works great even on modern Windows 10 and I didn’t find any problems with installation or settings, everything is intuitive and simple.
After installing and launching the program, and it installs quite quickly - literally a couple of minutes, we will see a familiar Android screen(unfortunately, not the latest version, but only 4.4.2, but this is enough to run a huge number of games and applications). Google is already pre-installed in the system Play Market, so there shouldn’t be any problems with choosing what to play. A small note: be prepared to confirm your Google account, authorization in NOX App Player causes distrust among the “good corporation”.
Unfortunately, the program is not localized into Russian, but Android itself allows you to switch to Russian - you can do this in the same way as on a phone or tablet. But all the program settings will remain in English, but this is not the biggest problem, set it once and forget it.
Now let's move on to the settings (you can open them by clicking on the gear icon at the top of the program). We are interested in the “Advanced” tab - by default the emulator will launch with a resolution of 1280x720, for some this may be too much, or vice versa - too little, just select the one you need and restart the application. You can also configure your emulated device here, for example, Perfomance Setting - these are performance settings; as it turned out, even in the minimum configuration nothing slowed me down, which indicates good optimization.
For the test I tried to install the game Need For Speed: No Limits - everything works extremely smoothly and there are no problems with the controls. Of course, racing is not the best example, but as far as I know, this game is quite demanding on resources, but everything works just fine.
I would like to write a few words about the action icons that are located to the right of the emulator window, let's go over some of them:
- It is possible to install applications from APK files from a computer, this function useful if you have problems with Google Play Market.
- You can select your location manually and the emulator will think it is receiving real coordinates GPS receiver, but we ask them ourselves.
- Creating screenshots, I think there is nothing special to explain here - the most ordinary picture with the contents of a window at a certain moment.
What can be summarized after the mini description of the Android emulator Nox App Player? If you need to install Prescope, Instagram or similar programs, then this emulator is ideal for these purposes. There are no questions about the speed of operation, even heavy 3D toys work great, but you must understand that a lot depends on the performance of your computer.
UPD: If Nox App Player does not start for you or refuses to install, then most likely the username contains Russian characters. You can create a new user using only English characters or rename an existing one
You can download NOX App Player completely free of charge on the official website http://en.bignox.com/
Andy is my choice
I can’t say why, but I settled on this emulator - it seemed to me the most thoughtful and convenient. Unfortunately, the interface is similar to the previous one - on English language, but Android itself is in the familiar Russian language. There were no particular problems with installation and startup; everything went like clockwork.
This Android emulator has a pre-installed application store and for the test I tried installing Township and checking how everything works. To be honest, I got stuck and lost for about an hour - everything works smoothly, doesn’t crash or glitch.
There’s nothing special to configure; I think it’s worth highlighting the emulator’s screen resolution settings if suddenly the window turns out to be too large or small. The settings are called up by clicking on the program icon in the taskbar next to the clock, the menu item is called Set Resolution@DPI, and here the desired resolution is selected. Naturally, after applying the parameters, the program must be restarted for the settings to take effect.
If you are worried that this emulator has few settings, then you are mistaken, it has everything you need. You can also configure the allocated amount of RAM (do not forget that it cannot be more than what is physically installed in your computer) and the number of processor cores. On this I think we can finish the description of this wonderful application.
You can download Andy Emulator Android by going to the official website http://www.andyroid.net/
Bluestacks is a former favorite
Bluestacks is probably the most popular and famous emulator operating system Android for a computer running Windows. The big advantage of this program is the presence of the Russian language, but it is not quite an emulator - rather an environment for running games. This is probably why Bluestacks shows excellent performance in gaming applications; if you don’t need anything else, then you can choose this option.
Unfortunately, after the update, it is no longer completely free - you will be forced to install certain applications every day or will be asked to pay a subscription of $2 per month. However, no one is stopping us from deleting unnecessary programs immediately after installation, but as they say, a residue remained...
The test game Hay Day installed and launched without problems and synchronized perfectly with facebook account. I had no desire to play, but I didn’t have any problems with this emulator before and I don’t think there will be any now.
The main feature of Bluestacks TV is the ability to broadcast games online on Twitch. I think this feature will be especially in demand by streamers and will help make reviews of Android games simpler than ever before.
Complex and demanding games also launch without problems, but it feels slower than the same Andy or Nox App Player, so the choice is yours.
You can download the Bluestacks emulator by going to the official website of the program http://www.bluestacks.com/ru/index.html
Droid4x - Gamers' Choice
I often saw the Droid4X emulator in the comments - so I decided to test it too. As it turned out, it has a lot of problems - this concerns stability; during testing I constantly had problems. However, it has a lot of useful and necessary functions, so let's not discount it.
Of course, I can’t say that my computer is weak. (Core i5 and 24 GB RAM, HD5870 video card), but the configuration is quite old by computer standards, but I didn’t notice any hints of slowdowns in games, everything goes very smoothly. There is a fly in the ointment, I was never able to launch Plants VS Zombie 2 - the game constantly crashed and did not want to start under any circumstances, there were some problems with the keyboard that resolved themselves. The most unpleasant thing is that the emulator simply froze several times literally in half an hour of work, this will probably be very annoying. Maybe I have these problems specifically - it’s quite possible that everything will work stably for you, but, unfortunately, it didn’t work for me.
Of course, he also has a bright side - this concerns management. The fact is that out of the box it is remarkably adapted to the usual keyboard and mouse (scrolling left or right, zoom in or out using the mouse wheel - this is all native and familiar to us for a long time).
Droid4X also allows you to bind computer keyboard buttons to the desired areas of the screen, this can be very useful for games, in my opinion, this emulator was intended for games - there were no problems with the Play Market.
In general, the verdict is a good and productive Android emulator for a computer, but I have problems with it, as you will have - I can’t say, try it.
You can download Droid4X on the official website http://www.droid4x.com/
Genymotion - the best for developers
The Genymotion emulator is very different from all the programs presented on today's list; it allows you to emulate not only Android itself, but a wide range of real-life devices. It works quite quickly and supports hardware graphics acceleration, which is good news. The Russian language is not provided here, so some users may have difficulty mastering it.
The audience for this emulator is not avid gamers, but most likely software developers, and I simply wasn’t able to run many games. To get the program we are looking for, we need to register on the site and the opportunity to download the distribution for personal use will become available to us. I recommend using the version with VirtualBox - it's first on the list. Separate launch VirtualBox not needed - launch Genymotion and it does everything without your intervention.
So, as I already wrote, there is an opportunity to select the version of Android and the model of the real device, I don’t think it’s required function for the average user, and developers will certainly be happy with this functionality. Click Next and the emulator automatically pulls everything from the Internet, we just have to make fine tuning applications.
In the configuration, we can choose the number of cores and the amount of RAM for the device, and we can also change the resolution - everything is only the most necessary.
Next, we need to select our newly created device in the list and click “Play”; in a couple of minutes, the ready-to-use image of the system we have chosen will launch. The emulator's capabilities are well documented, but again, a language barrier may prevent you from working with the program.
You can download Genymotion as usual, on the official website of the program https://www.genymotion.com/. This emulator also has a paid version with extended functionality, but we are not interested in this, we are looking for the one that is For Personal Use and we are happy.
Test results and my thoughts
Currently, there are a lot of Android emulators, for almost every taste and color. I distributed them based on my subjective opinion and it is not necessarily the only correct one - it is possible that for you, the presence of some functions will be decisive and then the favorite of this review will not be Nox App Player or Andy, but perhaps Bluestacks - it is the only one who can stream to Twitch out of the box , and the price of 2 bucks, in general, is rather symbolic and does not hit the pocket of a modern gamer much.