Work · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Shadowboy
One Emulator to Rule them All
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
- 1RA
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 →
- 2GB
Hey HN, Over the past ~1.5 years, I built an open-source FPGA retro emulation handheld that can play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges. To my knowledge, there isn't an existing open-source FPGA emulator that can play physical cartridges like this. One of my main goals was to do all of the pieces myself, and be able to understand every component of it, so I designed my own PCB, wrote the firmware, wrote a Game Boy and Game Boy Advance emulator for the FPGA (using the Chisel HDL), and designed a 3D-printed case. I detailed the design and development process in the…
2025 · eli.lipsitz.net · its alternatives →
- 3
- 4PP
2020 · psxparty.kosmi.io · its alternatives →
- 5AG
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 6IA
Hey HN! Been working on this emulator on and off for the last couple years, and thought now would be a good time to try and show it off here. As far as unique features... I think this is the only online GameBoy emulator with support for save files? So there's your reason to exist, I guess. The WASM port was something I had in the back of my mind but I just kept putting it off because it seemed like it would've been a pain in the ass to implement, but all in all I think it took less than a week so that was a nice surprise!
2023 · nicolas-siplis.com · its alternatives →
- 7MS
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 →
- 8
- 9PP
Hello everyone! I've created a gameboy emulator to unlock my Wayland session and wanted to share this project to everyone here! I've been a Linux enthusiast since I was a kid. What always captivated me was the freedom to customize my system exactly the way I wanted. With Wayland, we've reached an incredible level of performance. It's like turning your operating system into a video game! I've always been fascinated by the blend of fun and the serious, technical nature of an OS. That’s what inspired me to create this project. I started by studying Wayland, its protocol and how to build a…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10
- 11
- 12NJ
2023 · nostalgist.js.org · its alternatives →
- 13SR
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 14
- 15
- 16LA
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 17EB
2014 · gabrielgambetta.com · its alternatives →
- 18
GameBoy vibes▲150a Candycat themed GameBoy Emulator in the browser
2025 · gb.candycatstudio.com · its alternatives →
- 19
- 20IB
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 →
- 21
- 22SG
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 23
- 24
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- RomM – An open-source, self-hosted ROM manager and player alternatives
- Game Bub – open-source FPGA retro emulation handheld alternatives
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- A Golang CP/M emulator alternatives
- IronBoy, a highly accurate GameBoy emulator written in Rust, runs WASM alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →