Batocera vs webЯcade
Batocera
batocera.orgwebЯcade
webrcade.comSide by side
| Figure | Batocera | webЯcade |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · TurboGrafx-16 Emulators | 7.9 (#11) | 8.2 (#7) |
| Integrations | The documentation lists Kodi, RetroAchievements, The Bezel Project, Syncthing, NAS storage, and a web server among available features or integrations. | Optional Dropbox linking supports sharing save data and settings across devices and uploading local files from the feed editor. |
| Purpose | Batocera Linux is a free, open-source retro-gaming distribution that can turn a computer or nano computer into a gaming console. | webЯcade is a browser-based player for gaming content organized by user-defined feeds. |
| Support | The project points users to its wiki and Discord for documentation and community support. | The project directs users to Discord, GitHub Issues, and GitHub Discussions for community, questions, bug reports, and feature requests. |
Plans
In their own words
Batocera
Batocera Linux is a free, open-source Linux distribution that turns compatible computers and small devices into retro-gaming consoles. It can run from a USB stick or SD card without changing the computer, or be installed permanently. Download builds are listed for desktop PCs, laptops, Intel-based Apple computers, handheld PCs, Raspberry Pi, Odroid boards, and other devices. Batocera supports many consoles, platforms, emulators, and related applications through a front end based on a modified EmulationStation. Its content downloader provides freely distributed ROMs, bezels, music themes, and other enhancements, with packages handled by pacman. Documentation covers Netplay for supported games and integrations including Kodi, RetroAchievements, The Bezel Project, Syncthing, NAS storage, and a web server. Installation requires at least 16 GB of storage; 32 GB is recommended. Batocera focuses on retro gaming and will not implement emulators for current-generation consoles.
webЯcade
webЯcade is a free, open-source browser-based player for gaming content arranged in user-defined feeds. Games run locally in the browser through JavaScript, WebAssembly and HTML5 gamepad and audio interfaces, rather than being streamed. Its graphical feed editor lets users create feeds without working with the underlying document format, and its ROM analyzer can identify application types, metadata and artwork. Supported categories include emulators and game engines, with examples such as Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Doom, Quake and ScummVM. USB and Bluetooth gamepads work for navigation and gameplay. Most emulator-based applications provide eight save-state slots per game. Optional Dropbox linking can share save data and settings across devices and let the feed editor upload local files; access is restricted to the Dropbox account’s /Apps/webrcade folder. Single-item links can be shared, added to iOS or Android home screens, or embedded in web pages. The project prioritizes popular-content compatibility and lower resource needs over the latest emulator features. It is listed for Android, iOS, macOS, web and Windows.