BizHawk vs BlastEm

BizHawk is an emulation project centered on EmuHawk, a multi-system emulator written in C#. It targets tool-assisted speedrunners with recording, playback, and debugging tools. EmuHawk records rerecordable movies for 45 or more systems, while the integrated TAStudio provides a piano-roll workspace for composing movies with savestates that rewind and adjust inputs. Other functions include save slots, named savestates, speed control, frame stepping, rewinding, screenshots, audio and video recording, and memory viewing, searching, and editing. Lua and C#.NET can control the frontend and emulator cores programmatically, and keyboard, mouse, and gamepad hotkeys can be rebound. Supported systems include Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Sony PlayStation, arcade machines, and DOS/Windows. BizHawk is free and open source, with the team’s original work under the MIT License. Installation instructions cover Windows and Unix, but current EmuHawk does not work on macOS; Android and iOS are unavailable.

BlastEm is a free, open-source emulator for Sega's 16-bit and 8-bit consoles. It supports Genesis/Mega Drive, Sega CD, 32X, Master System, Game Gear, SG-1000, SC-3000, Sega Pico, and Yamaha Copera. Downloads are listed for Linux, macOS, and Windows, with an experimental web version. Gameplay features include save states, cartridge save RAM and EEPROM support, turbo and slow modes, controller input, and VGM logging. Its integrated debugger can inspect and modify state, set conditional breakpoints, run scripts, and show visual VDP tools. Developers can use the GDB remote debug protocol for source-level debugging of SGDK and other C or C++ projects. The maker describes it as fast enough for older PCs and accurate enough for demanding demos. Most Sega CD and 32X games are playable, but compatibility is not perfect. Yamaha Copera emulation is incomplete: games generally lack music, though Copera-specific ADPCM samples play. The listed macOS download is x86-64 and not notarized; the page directs ARM users to Homebrew.