BizHawk vs SMS

BizHawk is a free multi-system emulator for Windows and Linux, built around the EmuHawk interface. It is aimed at Tool-Assisted Speedrunners and combines playback with recording and debugging. The project lists systems including 3DO, Apple II, arcade machines, Atari, Commodore, Nintendo, Sega, and PlayStation consoles. EmuHawk provides 10 hotkey-operated save slots as well as unlimited named savestates, along with speed adjustment, frame stepping, and rewind. Users can record input as TAS movies and save screenshots, audio, and video. Debugging tools let users inspect, search, and edit memory across emulated hardware, while Lua or C#.NET can control the core and frontend programmatically. Keyboard, mouse, and gamepad hotkeys can be rebound, and an input mapper covers emulated gamepads and peripherals. The Linux build targets x86_64 and omits Mupen64Plus for N64. Current releases are unavailable on Android and iOS; macOS use is limited to older releases or technical workarounds.

SMS is a free, open-source Sega Master System emulator written in Go for Linux. Its source repository is public on GitHub and described as MIT licensed. The emulator provides complete Zilog Z80 emulation and is described as concurrent. Graphics use an SDL backend with a 2x scaler and fullscreen support. Keyboard controls map the arrow keys to joypad directions, X to Fire 1, and Z to Fire 2. The README documents a Go installation command and shows launching an SMS ROM with the supplied executable. Sound support is listed as a project todo, and writing more tests is also listed as a todo. The stated free and open-source plan costs nothing. The project is focused on Sega Master System emulation, with the listed display and keyboard controls defining its documented user-facing operation.