DuckStation vs Mesen
DuckStation
duckstation.orgMesen
mesen.caSide by side
| Figure | DuckStation | Mesen |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Emulator Software | 8.8 (#4) | 7.6 (#27) |
| Spec score · Game Console Emulators | 8.9 (#4) | 7.7 (#21) |
| License | The maker describes the project as distributed under CC-BY-NC-ND terms and says modified versions may not be published. | Mesen is available under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later. |
| Windows requirement | Windows requires version 1809 or newer, and the maker says Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 are unsupported. | The official site lists Windows 10 or later as the Windows requirement. |
Plans
In their own words
DuckStation
DuckStation is a free emulator for Sony PlayStation games, available for Android, Linux, macOS and Windows. Its hardware renderer supports D3D11, D3D12, OpenGL, Vulkan and Metal, with upscaling, texture filtering and 24-bit color among the graphics options. Enhancements include PGXP geometry precision, texture replacement, adaptive downsampling and post-processing shader chains. Play options include save states, rewind, runahead, CPU overclocking and multi-disc support, along with memory-card editing and save importing. DuckStation supports RetroAchievements and Discord Rich Presence. It accepts digital and analog controllers, rumble, and up to eight devices through multitap; GunCon and Justifier lightguns can be simulated with a mouse. Supported formats include bin/cue, MAME CHD, single-track ECM, MDS/MDF, CCD and unencrypted PBP. A PS1 or PS2 BIOS image is required but not supplied, and games are not provided. The maker says users should dump a BIOS from their own console. Desktop requirements include Windows 10/11 and macOS 13.3 or newer.