crater vs Provenance
crater
github.com
Provenance
provenance-emu.comSide by side
| Figure | crater | Provenance |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $3.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · Game Gear Emulators | 8.4 (#6) | 8.4 (#7) |
| Build requirements | Building crater requires a modern C11 compiler and SDL 2; the project says only OS X and Linux are tested. | Building from source requires macOS 13.5 or later, Xcode 15 or later, iOS/tvOS 16 SDKs and an Apple Developer account. |
| Maker | GitHub identifies the repository owner as Ben Kurtovic and lists New York City as his location. | Joseph Mattiello is identified as Provenance's creator and lead developer. |
| Purpose | Crater is a Sega Game Gear emulator with an included Z80 assembler and disassembler, written in C. | Provenance is a free, open-source multi-system retro game emulator frontend for Apple platforms. |
| Save states | Save states are not yet supported. | The emulator provides save states with visual thumbnail previews and a screenshot browser. |
Plans
Provenance
- FreeFree
- Monthly$3.99 a month
- Annual$39.99 a year
- Lifetime$99.99, paid once
In their own words
crater
crater is a free Sega Game Gear emulator written in C, with a Z80 assembler and disassembler included. Games can be loaded from the roms directory or from a command-line path. Display controls include fullscreen mode, integer scaling in a window, and an option to force square pixels. Keyboard and joystick or controller input are supported; SDL controller mappings can be defined in gamecontrollerdb.txt. Compatible games can save cartridge RAM to a .sav file, with custom save locations or saving disabled. Save states and custom keyboard mappings are not supported. The assembler converts Z80 source into a Game Gear ROM image and is described as complete. The disassembler attempts to produce assembly but cannot distinguish code from data. Most games are described as playable with minor bugs, while audio, some uncommon CPU instructions, and advanced graphics features are missing. Building requires a modern C11 compiler and SDL 2; OS X and Linux are the tested systems.
Provenance
Provenance is a free, open-source retro game emulator frontend for Apple platforms, available for iOS and macOS. It supports more than 38 console systems, including systems from Atari, Nintendo, Sega, and Sony. Its library can display automatically downloaded box art, screenshots, release details, ratings, and scanned manuals. Listed emulation features include save states, cheats, fast forward, shaders, visual filters, controller support, RetroAchievements, and multiplayer. Apple integration includes native tvOS, Apple TV TopShelf, Siri Remote, Spotlight search, Siri shortcuts, and iCloud sync; Apple TV supports MFi, Xbox, and PlayStation gamepads. Nearly all CD-based cores support CHD disc images, and the native Mednafen core has a custom CHD implementation. The source is published on GitHub under the BSD license. Installation options include the App Store, sideloading with AltStore or SideStore, and building from source. The free plan includes emulation features when sideloaded or built from source. Plus adds iCloud sync and priority support.