Open Source Games and Emulators

Open Source Games and Emulators (Work in Progress)

Topher Lee

Open Source is the term used to describe software that's developed openly on the internet, anyone can access the Source Code to the software and use it however they wish, with certain licences requiring you to share the edits and additions you make. There's an Open Source alternative to almost every program you use on your computer. There are also a lot of really good Open Source games and even some really good Console Emulators. Here we'll take a look at a few of my favorites.

 

Emulators:

• RetroArch - www.Libretro.com (GitHub)

OS: Win/Lin/Mac/And/iOS/Wii/PS3/XB/360/GC/Toaster

RetroArch is actually just the "front-end" to a collection of emulator and retro game libraries known as "cores". RetroArch supports everything from Commodore to PSP with a few extras sprinkled in. Not every "core" is Open Source, but the program itself and a lot of the supported cores (Like PPSSPP) are. The only issue I really have with it is the UI. I would like to see a more User-Friendly-User-Interface (Maybe include some of the stuff from EmulationStation?) soon.

• PPSSPP - www.ppsspp.org (GitHub)

OS: Win/Lin/And
As you can safely assume from the name, PPSSPP is a PSP Emulator started by a guy named Henrik. This cross-platform emulator has around ? Contributors and ? Forks listed on GitHub. Development is still active (as of 2015), with improvements to game compatibility seemingly a high priority.

• Play! - purei.org

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Games:

• WarZone 2100

Win/Lin

• SuperTux

Win/Lin/And

• SuperTuxKart

Win/Lin/And

• OpenRA