BizHawk vs Panda3DS
BizHawk
tasvideos.org
Panda3DS
panda3ds.comSide by side
| Figure | BizHawk | Panda3DS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Game Console Emulators | 7.7 (#20) | 8.3 (#8) |
| License | The repository says the BizHawk team's original work is provided under the MIT License, while warning that repository licensing is heterogeneous and advising users to contact the team about licensing details. | The emulator is licensed under GPLv3, while the website is under the MIT License. |
| Product | BizHawk is an emulation project whose EmuHawk app is a multi-system emulator written in C#. | Panda3DS is an emulator for the Nintendo 3DS. |
| Purpose | BizHawk is an emulation project whose EmuHawk app is a multi-system emulator with recording, playback, and debugging tools. | It lets fans play Nintendo 3DS games with enhancements and other features on computers and portable devices. |
| Scripting | The frontend and cores can be controlled programmatically with Lua or C#.NET. | The project supports Lua scripting. |
| Support | The project directs users to its TASVideos subforum, Discord channels, GitHub issue tracker, and README troubleshooting information. | Users can ask for support or submit ideas through the Discord server, or submit an issue on GitHub. |
Plans
In their own words
BizHawk
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.
Panda3DS
Panda3DS is a free, open-source emulator for Nintendo 3DS games on computers and portable devices. It supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android, with Lua scripting, cheats, controller input, support for some system apps, and work-in-progress amiibo support. The project offers automatically updated nightly builds and manually updated stable builds released every few weeks. Desktop builds include an SDL frontend without a GUI and an experimental Qt frontend with a user interface. Panda3DS is still in early development: many games boot, while many do not, and graphics, audio, and usability features can be incomplete. Compatibility information may not always be up to date, and not all games have been tested. Android is also early in development, so compatibility and performance may differ from desktop. Audio support is experimental; the configuration menu is still being developed, and settings must be changed by editing config.toml in a text editor. The emulator is licensed under GPLv3.