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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Ghidra Plays Mario

I've been exploring new ways of testing Ghidra processor modules. In this repo, I was able to emulate NES ROMs in Ghidra to test its 6502 specification, which resulted in finding and fixing some bugs. Context: Ghidra is used for reverse engineering binary executables, complementing the usual disassembly view with function decompilation. Each supported architecture has a SLEIGH specification, which provides semantics for parsing and emulating instructions, not unlike the dispatch handlers you would find in interpreters written for console emulators. Emulator devs have long had extensive test…

Ghidra Plays Mario is a testing framework for Ghidra's processor modules that runs NES ROMs through Ghidra's 6502 emulator instead of a traditional console emulator. It bridges Ghidra's CPU emulation capabilities with… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Ghidra Plays Mario launched in 2023; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1

    This Ghidra extension unrelocates machine code through analysis and then synthesizes a working object file from a listing selection. It effectively turns computer programs into Lego bricks, to be torn down into pieces and reused into something new. It supports the COFF and ELF object file formats, for the x86 and MIPS architectures. It has been successfully used on Linux, Windows and PlayStation executables. One user report is on a commercial video game from 2009 with a ~7 MiB Windows executable written in C++: it was delinked without its C runtime library and then relinked into a new…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Run KolibriOS, Linux or Windows 98 in your browser

    2013 · copy.sh · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    NES emulator written in Rust. Contribute to pcwalton/sprocketnes development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2013 · github.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    RomM is a self-hosted app that allows you to manage your retro game files (ROMs) and play them in the browser. Think of it as Plex or Jellyfin for your ROM library: it automatically fetches metadata, artwork, and game information from online metadata sources to transform your folders into a browsable collection. You can play games directly in the browser for consoles like the N64, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation 1, using the integrated web emulator (https://emulatorjs.org/). Members of the community have released integrations for Playnite (Windows), muOS…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5
    yuzu▲123

    An experimental open-source emulator for the Nintendo Switch

    2018 · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    Z80-based CP/M emulator, in golang. Happily runs Zork, Microsoft BASIC, Turbo Pascal, Wordstar, etc. - skx/cpmulator

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    I am proud to present my solo hobby project NAND. This year-long undertaking follows the completed Nand to Tetris course, but ported to the web with its own runtime, user interface, and IDE. Using the "Load example program" selector, you can try out some programs I wrote on NAND's emulated hardware such as 2048, a genetic algorithm, and a manual stack overflow to corrupt the screen. Check out NAND at https://nand.arhan.sh Additionally, I've authored an extensive writeup about the project. Read about it on the GitHub repository's readme.

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8EB
  9. 9

    Nostalgist.js is a JavaScript library that allows you to run emulators of retro consoles within web browsers.

    2023 · nostalgist.js.org · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Adventures in hardware hacking, low-level software, FPGAs, and more!

    2019 · craigjb.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Ghidra MCP Server — 200+ MCP tools for AI-powered reverse engineering. GUI plugin + headless server, lazy tool loading, convention enforcement, batch operations, Ghidra Server integration, and Docker deployment. - bethington/ghidra-mcp

    Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12OS
  13. 13

    Hello HN, I'm sharing a little open-source utility I wrote recently. I'm a huge fan of Brendan Gregg's "BPF Performance Tools" book. However, every time I SSH into a fresh server, most of the diagnostic tools aren't installed there and installing them can be really annoying. I decided to use Nix package manager and LLMs to make this process straightforward. My utility first downloads a "toolbox" of Linux utilities (built with Nix), runs Brendan Gregg's famous "60-second Linux analysis" playbook and then summarizes the results with an LLM. So "60-second Linux analysis" now becomes a single…

    Mar 2026 · quesma.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    Absurdly cursed mono webassembly hacks, and a journey to create a project that definitely shouldn

    2025 · velzie.rip · its alternatives →

  15. 15IB

    I've been working on an MMORPG that is now in alpha as a solo developer. Here are the major open source technologies that I use: Blender - 3D modeling software for creating the overall environment and every game object. I've gotten a lot of CC and Public Domain assets from https://poly.pizza GLTF - I export assets from blender to the GLTF asset format JSON - I write a JSON config for every game object that describes things like its name, its interactions, its collisions, etc. Node.js exporter - I iterate over the environment and every asset to create a scene hierarchy. I use…

    2024 · alpha.reconquer.online · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Yet another 6502 emulator that one day dreams of being an Atari 2600. - haldean/x6502

    2013 · github.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Retro RPG Game Maker. Contribute to ericoporto/fgmk development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2016 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18GJ
  19. 19

    RetroTick parses PE/NE/MZ binaries, emulates an x86 CPU, and stubs enough Win32/Win16/DOS APIs to run classics like FreeCell, Minesweeper, Solitaire and QBasic, entirely in the browser. Built with Preact + Vite + TypeScript. Demo: https://retrotick.com GitHub: https://github.com/lqs/retrotick

    Feb 2026 · retrotick.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20CP
  21. 21
    OpenEmu▲185

    🎮Retro video game emulation for OS X

    2015 · openemu.org · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Online OR1K Emulator running Linux. Contribute to s-macke/jor1k development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2014 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    A while back I wrote a CHIP-8 emulator (which is considered the Hello, World! of emulators and is more accurately a virtual machine since historically CHIP-8 was an interpreted language running on top of the COSMAC VIP to make game programming easier). But a few months ago I got really interested in embedded software, so decided it would be neat to port my emulator to a STM32 MCU and design a console around it as a learning experience, since CHIP-8 never existed as a physical system. I didn't know much about embedded software when I began, and even less about electronics, but I managed to…

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24IM

    Hi, As a 8-bit C64 game coder in eaarly 90ties and currently mostly FE-focused dev, decided to give a go to a simple retro game archive. This is purely fun project - so i decided to post it to HN, mayne it'll resonate :)

    2023 · polishpixels.com · its alternatives →

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