crater vs Retropa

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.

Retropa is an emulator for handheld and arcade games on iPhone and iPad, with Mac listed among its supported platforms. It covers 14 handheld and console systems plus arcade families; listed systems include GBA, Nintendo DS, NES, Super NES, Genesis, WonderSwan, Neo Geo Pocket, and Master System. The free plan costs nothing and includes handheld and console systems, imports, controller templates, Delta skin import, save states, and rewind. Games and BIOS files are not supplied, so users import content they are entitled to use through Files, AirDrop, a browser, a local Wi-Fi Portal, or the Homebrew catalog. Compatible external controllers and ready-made templates are supported. Retropa Plus adds arcade families, premium skins, console mode, advanced save workflows, adaptive touch controls with five styles, and 64 listed display filters. Saves can be backed up and restored with iCloud Drive. Game files stay on the device, and no account is needed to play. iPhone and iPad require iOS 18 or later.