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Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to I made an easy-to-understand 6502 emulator in pure C

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

This is a 6502 emulator written in pure C, designed to be straightforward and understandable. The 6502 is a classic microprocessor used in vintage computers and game consoles. The emulator aims eventually to support… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. I made an easy-to-understand 6502 emulator in pure C launched in 2013; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1

    Run KolibriOS, Linux or Windows 98 in your browser

    2013 · copy.sh · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Learn how classic game hardware worked. Write code and see it run instantly.

    2016 · 8bitworkshop.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3AR

    Software and hardware projects for fun from a guy who loves retro computing

    2019 · internalregister.github.io · its alternatives →

  4. 4XA

    x86CSS is a working CSS-only x86 CPU/emulator/computer. No JavaScript required!

    Feb 2026 · lyra.horse · its alternatives →

  5. 5MI
  6. 6

    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 →

  7. 7

    A Chip8 emulator written in JavaScript. Contribute to victorqribeiro/Chip8js development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

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

    2013 · github.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9IW
  10. 10VB
  11. 11

    CHIP-8 console on FPGA. Contribute to pwmarcz/fpga-chip8 development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12
    c64js▲100

    A commodore 64 emulator

    2016 · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    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…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    Disclaimer, I have not yet placed the order. But JLCPCB have so far excepted all files and config so I have 1 more button to press. If anyone see some obvious mistake please send feedback. This project grew out of curiosity. Loved the https://monster6502.com/ project but that is on another level. Here I tried to stay "reasonable" and added a Raspberry Pico 2 W on the back to drive it all. But also, was curious if Claude could pull this off. Guess I will have to place that order to call the cards.

    Jul 2026 · epatel.github.io · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Micro Kernel / Bootloader for Ben Eater's 6502 Computer - janroesner/sixty5o2

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Hey HN, Recently built an Apple II emulator and at the same time was getting into Tiny Tapeout and decided it would be cool to build a cycle-accurate 6502 CPU and an MCU for it. It's cycle accurate and the core itself should be 100% compatible with a stock MOS 6502 (would need to still test this though!). Tested on some FPGAs (fomu, ulx3s) and works great, hoping to get it taped out in the upcoming IHP26a shuttle. Also as part of the project I built a bus multiplexer to allow memory/bus access from an RP2040 to work around the limited pin count on Tiny Tapeout. This let's you load up…

    Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Finally got my hobby OS up and running on real hardware. I love the old IBM thinkpads, so thought it was the perfect machine to get it working on. Been working on it for quite some time now, but this has been a big milestone!

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18AT
  19. 19

    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 →

  20. 20

    the BLAKE3 hash function implemented in 6502 assembly - oconnor663/blake3-6502

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    To try it out, simply build the project yourself from source, or use attached bootable ISO image of the system (in Releases on Github) and run it in QEMU. https://blog.vxn.dev/rou2exos-rusted-edition

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    :tv: An (almost) fully featured Game Boy emulator. - Dooskington/GameLad

    2016 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23MP

    I have been working on this game somewhat sparsely for the past three years or so. However, it is still in a very early stage, and there is a lot of work to do. One of my friends encouraged me to post about it here, since he felt people might find interesting how I don’t use any libraries for it. The game can be played on a browser by virtue of WebAssembly. There are native ports using either MiniFB or SDL2, but you have to build those yourself. I decided to write the game in C because I feel like it is a simple language that a lot of people can understand well enough, and I didn’t think I…

    2023 · zamfofex.neocities.org · its alternatives →

  24. 24CP

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