The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is a video game console that uses 8-bit graphics. It was known as the Family Computer or Famicom in Japan.
It is one of the best-selling consoles of all time, thanks to blockbuster and benchmark games such as the Super Mario Brothers series, Metroid, Excitebike, and The Legend of Zelda. Those are just the games from Nintendo.
The incredible third-party game lineup includes Battletoads, the Castlevania series, Bomberman, Contra, and Dragon Quest.
Revive your pixel dreams with the best emulators for the Nintendo Entertainment System / Famicom on this list.
1. Mesen
Mesen gives the most accurate emulation among all these NES emulators, with 100% accuracy. This means, that gaming on Mesen is like playing with an actual Nintendo Emulator System hardware, with all the kinks and quirks. While the standalone is not in active development anymore (truly, if you reach 100% accuracy, is there anything to further improve on?), its cores on Retroarch are still in active development.
It is hard to imagine those who play the Nintendo Emulator System games via an emulator not playing these games out of pure unadulterated nostalgia. Hence, Mesen should be the first emulator to use, otherwise just use Retroarch if you are not a hardcore old-school gamer since NES games, admittedly, did not age well. By using Retroarch you can swap out into a more modern video game console to emulate immediately if you are not having fun emulating NES games.
Mesen is also extremely user-friendly and supports many features that other emulators do not, such as HD packs, netplay, auto-updating, good built-in filters, both.zip, and goodmerged file loading, 290 mappers support (across all licensed games), and support for other NES variants such as the Top Loader NES, VS. System, and Dendy. Typical emulator capabilities include video recording and playback, filters, custom palettes, rewinding, and sound effects such as fake stereo and reverb.
Pros
- 100% Accurate
- Incredible feature set
- Literally perfect
Cons
- Not in active development anymore
Download from the Official Website
2. puNES
puNES is the second most accurate NES emulator at 98.08%, but truthfully, this should not matter at all given the games you play with the system is perfectly playable no matter the emulator. Mesen is incredible with features that any emulator out there dwarfs in comparison. puNES however is still in active development.
Pros
- Highly accurate
- In active development
Cons
- The feature set is not that robust compared to Mesen
3. Nestopia UE
Nestopia Undead Edition is a popular desktop environment NES emulator. It also is a Retroarch core, so in effect, it also appears on mobile devices running Android and iOS, not to mention, other hardware that Retroarch supports like the Wii, the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360. Like Mesen, Nestopia UE has several graphical enhancements such as text scaling and filters. It also has Netplay! support. The developers of this Nintendo Entertainment System emulator claim that it has 94% accuracy.
Nestopia surprisingly has been updated as recently as Dec. 29, 2022. This emulator has the 90s’ inspired GUI. Some people might not like this direction, but for sure, anyone who actively emulates the NES will eat it.
Pros
- Highly accurate
- In active development
- Great feature set
Cons
- UI might not be everybody’s taste
5. BizHawk
BizHawk is the first multi-system emulator in this list. Although largely original, its code for emulating the Nintendo Entertainment System has traces of QuickNES and FCEUX. BizHawk prioritizes accuracy over bells and whistles as it caters largely to speedrunners. BizHawk is the preferred emulator for Tool Assisted Speedruns (TAS).
What precisely is TAS? Tool Assisted Speedruns (TAS) is a very new type of speedrunning. A TAS enables a player to use any emulator-supplied tool. This will include topics such as slowing, rewinding, saving, and loading states. Purists consider this heresy, but the speedrunning community is infamous for pushing the envelope, and TAS is no exception. TAS is more concerned with the optimal way to accomplish the game than with execution.
Any modern features like rewind, are acceptable in speedrunning, which are also available on BizHawk. Other features implemented in BizHawk are full-screen support, auto controls, rerecording and save states, frame/lag/rerecording counters, TAStudio, and Lua Scripting, custom plugin support, and as well as joypad support.
Pros
- Lightweight
- Speedrunning Community (TAS) approved
Cons
- Barebones
5. NES.emu
NES.emu is based on FCE Ultra Extended (FCEUX). FCEUX is a Nintendo Entertainment System emulator with an extensive toolset. Having its extensive toolkit, it is less accurate than other NES/FDS emulators such as Nestopia, Mesen, and puNES.
This emulator is for Android handsets, but it also has a build for Pyra. Features include cheat support, Zapper / Gun support, on-screen / Bluetooth / USB gamepad, and keyboard support. Its UI is as minimalist as its features.
Pros
- Accurate
Cons
- Not a lot of features
6. Retroarch
Retroarch isn’t really an emulator. It serves as the user interface for emulators. To run emulated games, it makes use of emulator “cores” of software. The ease of switching between many systems is the main benefit of utilizing frontend apps rather than standalone emulators like Mesen. Compared to standalone emulators, this has the disadvantage of being considerably complex to set up, although not impossible.
You can choose whatever core you want for NES emulation. If Retroarch runs on your device, then NES surely will. NES emulation scene is probably the most mature hence your performance issues are basically none.
Retroarch further enhances NES emulation because of its lag compensation feature and Retroachievements. Retroarch’s remarkable feature is how it decreases input lag. This is especially vital in platformers like Super Mario Brothers and Metroidvanias like, Metroid and Castlevania. Depending on the game, you can fiddle with the VSync, Hard GPU sync, and Runahead options. To acquire what you want, you must read about it on message boards and play with these settings. Setting things up requires some effort, but the granular setup is available for the daring.
Another excellent component of Retroarch is the achievements obtained through Retroachievements. It gives gamers the ability to gain achievements by playing emulated games., Even today, Nintendo does not have any system-wide trophy, gamerscore, or achievement, unlike its competitors. At least, the Nintendo faithful will experience such a feature with Retroarch.
Pros
- Highly configurable
- Miraculous input lag reduction
- Available in a surprisingly broad range of gaming hardware including the PSP and the 3DS
Cons
- Not beginner friendly
- Menu digging
Download from the Official Website (All Platforms)
7. Delta
Fair warning, emulation on iOS devices is not really recommended as it is somehow complex and expensive to do so.
Delta is similar to Retroarch in that it is a frontend application that employs cores as emulators, and it does have the same core as Retroarch in emulating the Nintendo Entertainment System. Delta uses Nestopia as its core for the NES.
This emulator can run older Nintendo systems other than the Nintendo Entertainment System such as Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Game Boy / Game Boy Color, and Nintendo DS (although DS emulation is outright broken). It is being developed by the same person who created AltStore, which is necessary for installing this emulator on your iPhones or iPads.
Feature set includes gorgeous UI meant for iOS device display and resolution, controller support not just for MFi controllers but also PlayStation 4 and 5 controllers and Xbox family controllers, custom skins, save and load states, fast forwarding, and syncing between devices.
Pros
- Good compatibility across different systems
- Works for iOS
Cons
- Stagnated development
Follow the Instructions from GitHub
8. Provenance
Provenance is the same way as Retroarch that it uses ports of standalone emulators to emulate systems. Its emulator for the Nintendo Entertainment System is based on, again, FCEUX and also Mednafen. It claims to be a very accurate emulator with full-speed emulation. Other features include save states, battery saves, adjustable controller overlay opacity, controller support for MFi controllers and iCade, local multiplayer, and Taptic Engine Button feedback.
Pros
- Good feature set
Cons
- Installing methods is complex
Follow the Instructions from the Official Website
9. L-CLASSICS
The NES/Famicom and SNES emulators used for Nintendo’s Online Service are known as L-CLASSICS (NSO). The Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) is an online subscription service for the Nintendo Switch video game platform. Online multiplayer, cloud storage, voice chat through a smartphone app, access to a library of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) titles, and other promotions and offers are among the Nintendo Switch Online features.
The L-CLASSICS emulator also included capabilities such as saving and loading game states, rewinding the game, and online multiplayer. It also includes special types of game versions, such as a fully completed game or having unlocked a specific hard level if you complete the entire game, or simply a great starting point to begin a game.
Pros
- Accurate
- Good feature set
Cons
- Needs active subscription
- Switch only
- Only around 70 games
