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SPECIFICTION
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bsnes vs higan

bsnes

github.com

higan

github.com

Side by side

Figurebsneshigan
Price fromFreeFree
Free planYesYes
Free trial——
Open source——
WindowsYesYes
macOSYesYes
LinuxYesYes
Plans published11
Spec score · SNES Emulators8.2 (#6)7.8 (#12)
LicenseThe program is free software under the GNU General Public License version 3 or any later version, with no warranty stated in the license.The program is free software under the GNU General Public License version 3 or any later version.

Plans

bsnes

  • FreeFree

bsnes pricing →

higan

  • Free softwareFree

higan pricing →

In their own words

bsnes

bsnes is a free, open-source emulator for Super Nintendo and Super Famicom games, with support for Super Game Boy and Satellaview. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Graphics options include HD Mode 7 with optional supersampling, a multi-threaded PPU renderer, and OpenGL multi-pass pixel shaders. The emulator also provides low-level emulation for SNES coprocessors such as DSP-n, ST-01n, and Cx4. It accepts standard ROM files, optional higan game folders, and 7-zip decompression, and can apply BPS and IPS soft patches. Its games database has thousands of entries, and its cheat database covers hundreds of popular games. Save states can include screenshot previews and names, with undo and redo. Other tools include rewind, frame advance, cheat code search, movie recording and playback, and screenshots. Speed settings are 50%, 75%, 100%, 150%, and 200%, with smooth audio output retained. The project lists nightly builds for Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD.

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higan

higan is a free, standalone multi-system emulator for Windows, macOS, Ubuntu Linux and FreeBSD. It focuses on accuracy, preservation and configurability, and emulates systems including Famicom, Super Famicom, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Mega Drive, PC Engine, MSX, ColecoVision, Neo Geo Pocket and WonderSwan. Official releases are available through the project’s GitHub releases page. Automated nightly builds are also listed for Windows, macOS, Ubuntu Linux and FreeBSD, but those builds are untested. The distribution includes icarus, a game library importer, along with the libco, nall, ruby and hiro components. The project was originally developed by Near. higan is free software under the GNU General Public License version 3 or a later version. The license states that the software comes without warranty. For community support, the project links to a discussion forum and a Discord chat. Its standalone format is listed as an emulation format, and the supported desktop systems include more than the general Linux, macOS and Windows platform listing.

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