Open-source alternatives to 86Box

v86 is a browser-based virtual machine and x86 hardware simulator that allows 16-bit and 32-bit operating systems to run directly within a web page. It functions as an x86 emulator for WebAssembly, simulating CPUs, memory, and storage devices to execute legacy software without original native hardware. The project utilizes a WebAssembly just-in-time compiler to translate x86 machine code into WebAssembly modules for high-performance execution in the browser. The system covers hardware emulation and lifecycle management, including the ability to boot from disk images, configure virtual hardwa

PyBoy is a programmable Game Boy emulator and hardware simulation framework written in Python. It functions as an emulation engine that allows users to execute original handheld software while providing a programmatic interface to control, probe, and automate game execution. The project is specifically designed as a reinforcement learning environment, exposing emulator states and controls to facilitate the training of machine learning agents. It distinguishes itself by providing tools for game area mapping and the extraction of simplified 2D screen representations and collision maps to suppor

Bitwise is a computer architecture education kit and a comprehensive set of guides for building a custom CPU, operating system, and compiler from scratch. It serves as a CPU design tutorial and a practical framework for implementing a unique instruction set architecture. The project provides a custom instruction set architecture toolchain, including resources for creating a matching assembler and compiler. It further includes a hardware development guide for synthesizing computer components and peripheral controllers for deployment on programmable logic devices and FPGAs. The kit covers full

Dolphin is a software environment that simulates GameCube and Wii console hardware, allowing users to execute game discs and digital software on modern computing platforms. It functions by translating original console processor instructions into native host machine code at runtime and intercepting low-level graphics commands to render them through modern graphics APIs. The project distinguishes itself through a comprehensive netplay engine that enables online multiplayer for local games by synchronizing game states and input timing across remote instances. This system enforces deterministic e

Chips is a modular, header-only C library framework designed for building cycle-accurate hardware simulators and replicating historical eight-bit computing architectures. It provides the foundational components necessary to construct complete vintage systems by integrating individual emulated microprocessors and peripheral chips. The framework distinguishes itself through a component-based architecture where hardware modules are implemented as standalone headers that can be wired together to form complex systems. It models hardware interactions at a low level, utilizing pin-level signal emula

This project is a GameBoy hardware emulator that simulates the original processor, graphics, and sound systems to run vintage ROMs. It provides a core emulation engine that executes instructions using cycle-accurate simulation to match original hardware timing. The emulator is designed for remote play, enabling cloud game streaming via HTTP and WebSockets. This allows for remote cooperative gaming through a web browser and terminal-based gaming where game state is rendered via telnet. The system includes capabilities for memory-mapped I/O emulation and state-based save restoration to preserv

The Commander X16 Emulator is a retro computer emulator that runs assembly and BASIC software designed for the Commander X16 8-bit computer architecture on modern host operating systems. It replicates vintage hardware systems to support software testing, vintage computer preservation, and retro game development in a contemporary environment. The software emulates physical 65C02 processor instructions and memory maps within a software-defined address space, utilizing a cycle-accurate timing model to synchronise CPU execution cycles with peripheral devices. It maps hardware registers and input

VirtualBuddy is a graphical user interface and manager for creating and running macOS virtual machines on Apple Silicon. It serves as an interface for the native Apple Virtualization Framework, allowing users to provision and boot guest operating systems on ARM-based hardware. The tool provides a dedicated environment for managing virtual machine administration and software compatibility testing across different macOS versions. It enables the execution of guests via local files, remote URLs, or image catalogs, and supports booting into recovery mode for system repairs. The system covers hard

Visualboyadvance-m is a cross-platform hardware simulator and Game Boy Advance emulator. It replicates handheld console hardware to run Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color software on modern desktop computers. The project also serves as a handheld console debugger for analyzing emulated code and validating homebrew software. The system is designed as a modular Libretro emulation core, allowing it to be loaded as a pluggable component into compatible frontend applications. This decoupled architecture separates the emulation logic from the user interface to ensure the engine can run across diff

DuckStation is a high-performance PlayStation 1 emulator that simulates the original console's hardware logic and CPU and GPU on modern computer systems. It functions as a console hardware emulator, disc image loader, and game state manager to execute original games and preserve retro software. The project differentiates itself through a game graphics upscaler that improves visual clarity using texture filtering, geometry precision corrections, and custom shader chains. It also features advanced memory manipulation tools for layered patch injection and the application of community cheat codes

This project is an educational framework and toolkit designed for developing and testing operating system kernels. It provides a structured environment for implementing fundamental system primitives, including virtual memory management, preemptive process scheduling, and filesystem organization, using Rust and C. The framework is specifically oriented toward RISC-V and x86 architectures, serving as a laboratory for learning how to build core system software from the ground up. The project distinguishes itself by supporting both bare-metal deployment and hardware emulation, allowing developers

This project is a freestanding kernel written in Rust that boots on x86 hardware without a standard library. It serves as a low-level system implementation focusing on the creation of a bare metal operating system. The system implements a bootable disk image toolchain that transforms source code into binaries compatible with a bootloader. It features a custom memory allocator for dynamic memory management and an x86 kernel implementation that includes paging, interrupt handling, and VGA text mode. The project covers several core capability areas, including low-level memory management through

Snes9x is a cross-platform emulator designed to replicate the Super Nintendo Entertainment System hardware. It functions as a gaming tool that allows users to load and play Super Nintendo software on modern hardware and operating systems. The software provides a portable emulation layer across various hardware architectures to ensure consistent performance. It supports the execution of game ROMs while providing utilities for input mapping and save states. The system implements hardware emulation through cycle-accurate CPU emulation, dynamic recompilation, and scanline-based video rendering.

This project provides a structured educational curriculum designed to teach Linux kernel internals and system architecture. It serves as a comprehensive training resource for developers, offering hands-on laboratory exercises that cover core operating system principles such as memory management, process scheduling, and interrupt handling. The curriculum distinguishes itself by mapping theoretical concepts directly to kernel source code, allowing learners to navigate and analyze system internals through practical implementation tasks. It facilitates the development of hardware device drivers a

VDO.Ninja is a low-latency peer-to-peer media routing service and video streaming platform designed to integrate remote audio and video feeds into professional production workflows. It functions as a WebRTC broadcast integration tool and studio controller, allowing for the direct transmission of high-definition media between publishers and viewers with minimal delay. The platform distinguishes itself through extensive protocol bridging, converting between WebRTC, WHIP, WHEP, SRT, and RTMP to ensure compatibility across diverse network environments and professional studio software. It includes

Open-smartwatch-os is an operating system designed for resource-constrained wearable devices. It provides a development and testing environment that allows developers to build, validate, and debug firmware for smartwatches within a simulated desktop environment before deploying to physical hardware. The project distinguishes itself through a comprehensive suite of tools for hardware emulation and remote diagnostics. By utilizing a hardware abstraction layer and modular driver architecture, it decouples core system logic from specific physical components. This enables developers to run the ope

Tart is an Apple Silicon virtualization manager used to build and run macOS and Linux virtual machines using native hardware virtualization frameworks. It functions as a virtual machine cluster orchestrator and an ephemeral runner for executing continuous integration pipeline steps within isolated, short-lived environments. The system utilizes an OCI-compatible virtual machine registry to push and pull images via standardized container registries. It features a controller-worker architecture that schedules virtual machine lifecycles across remote worker nodes, incorporating a secure SSH jump

WebVM is a browser-based virtualization platform that executes a full Linux operating system directly within a web browser. By leveraging WebAssembly and client-side virtualization, it simulates hardware to run native applications and development toolchains without requiring server-side infrastructure or remote desktop configurations. The platform distinguishes itself by providing a portable computing workspace that operates entirely on the client side. It includes capabilities for bridging virtual environments to private networks, allowing secure access to internal resources directly from th

This project is a cross-platform emulator designed to execute software originally developed for the PlayStation 2 console on modern computing hardware. By replicating the original processor and graphics architecture, it allows users to run legacy game discs and digital backups within a virtual environment on contemporary desktop and laptop systems. The software distinguishes itself through advanced graphics enhancement engineering, which enables users to adjust rendering resolutions, apply texture filtering, and utilize community-created patches to improve visual fidelity beyond original hard

UTM is a comprehensive virtualization suite that provides a unified interface for running guest operating systems on host hardware. It functions as a cross-platform system emulator and hypervisor, coordinating both hardware-accelerated virtualization and software-based instruction emulation to execute diverse operating systems. By leveraging native kernel-level virtualization frameworks, the software achieves near-native performance while maintaining strict security through sandboxed process isolation. The project distinguishes itself by enabling full-featured desktop operating systems to run

Tiny-gpu is an educational hardware emulator designed to model the fundamental operations of a graphics processing unit. It provides a software environment that simulates hardware data flow and parallel computing logic, allowing users to visualize the internal execution cycles and memory structures characteristic of graphics hardware. The project distinguishes itself by implementing a cycle-accurate execution model that tracks the progression of operations through discrete processing steps. It utilizes a fixed-function pipeline to process geometric data through sequential transformation and r

This project is an educational resource and virtual environment designed to teach the fundamentals of embedded systems and internet-connected device development. It provides a structured curriculum that guides learners through the essential skills required to program, connect, and integrate hardware components. The platform distinguishes itself by offering virtual hardware emulation, which allows users to test electronic circuits and device logic within a digital environment. This simulation capability enables students to practice building and testing projects without the requirement for phys

Miasm is a Python reverse engineering framework designed for binary analysis, disassembly, and modification. It functions as a binary analysis framework that lifts machine code into an intermediate representation to enable platform-independent security research. The system operates as a binary emulation engine and modification toolkit, allowing for the execution of binary code in a virtual environment to track state changes without native hardware. It provides tools for binary patching to update and modify raw binary files across multiple CPU architectures and executable formats. The framewo

Play- is a multi-system game emulator and virtual hardware emulator that simulates various console and arcade hardware to run original game files on modern devices. It functions as a retro game frontend, providing a graphical interface for organizing, launching, and managing libraries of legacy console and arcade titles. The project includes a hardware input mapper that translates modern controllers and mouse movements to simulate specialized legacy input devices, such as light guns and steering wheels. It also features a game state manager capable of capturing and restoring the exact memory

Hyperkit is a userspace virtual machine monitor and a development toolkit for building custom hypervisors. It provides primitives for embedding virtualization and hardware emulation capabilities directly into applications to execute guest operating systems within a userspace environment. The project features a guest operating system bootstrapping tool that loads kernels and initializes CPU states without relying on traditional firmware. It includes a hardware emulation library to create virtualized storage, serial ports, and networking components for guest system access. The system covers vi

LXD is a system container manager and virtual machine manager that provides a unified interface for running full Linux systems. It acts as a container cluster orchestrator, an image format converter, and an infrastructure manager that exposes control through a REST API and language-specific SDKs. The project distinguishes itself by providing a unified container and virtual machine abstraction, treating both as generic instances within a single management layer. It supports distributed cluster coordination to synchronize state and distribute workloads across multiple physical nodes. The syste

This is a virtualization tool designed to run macOS guest operating systems, such as Catalina, Mojave, and High Sierra, inside VirtualBox on Windows, Linux, or Mac hardware. It provides a system for deploying these operating systems on x86 CPUs using official installation files. The project includes specialized utilities to manage EFI and NVRAM settings, enabling the emulation of device serial numbers and board identifiers to allow connectivity for cloud services and messaging. It also features a configurator for adjusting CPUID profiles and display resolutions to ensure hardware compatibilit