OS X Targeted 'OpenEmu' to Deliver Native Mac Interface to Console Emulators

[MacRumors]

There are few great emulator options for OS X, but that is set to change in the near future as multi-source system emulator OpenEmu prepares for an official launch.

Open Emu is an open source project to bring game emulation to OS X as a first class citizen, leveraging modern OS X technologies such as Cocoa, Core Animation and Quartz, and 3rd party libraries like Sparkle for auto-updating. Open Emu is based on a modular architecture, allowing for game-engine plugins, this means Open Emu can support a host of different emulation engines and back-ends while retaining a familiar OS X native front-end.

OpenEmu, which has been in beta for quite some time, is able to emulate the hardware of several different consoles. Version 1.0 of the software will include support for several 16-bit systems, including the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Gear, NeoGeo Pocket, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo, among others.

Support for additional systems like the Nintendo 64, the Nintendo DS, and the Sony PlayStation will be added in the future.

The emulator features a slick iTunes-style design, displaying downloaded ROMs in a menu organized by system. Designed from the ground up for OS X, it offers up a native OS X interface.

With full save state support, the software allows for multiple ROMs to be played at once and it also provides OpenGL scaling, multithreaded playback, and gamepad support.

At this point in time the team behind OpenEmu is working on polishing the app and adding final artwork, but the release is "close."

OpenEmu was previously available as a beta download and the beta version of the application can still be acquired by downloading and compiling the source code via Xcode. A full set of instructions is available here.

Article Link: OS X Targeted 'OpenEmu' to Deliver Native Mac Interface to Console Emulators

[farmermac]

wow would love to see the original Mario on NES ROMs in a legit easy to use marketplace.

[Baumpie]

Oh yeah! Mario Kart, let em come!

[nepalisherpa]

Good thing I can download 3rd party applications on my Mac without "jailbreaking"!

[UnfetteredMind]

OMG! Road Rash for Sega Genesis would be awesome. Been a loooooooong time since I've flown around corners in the air at over 100mph while beating someone else with a club!

[solaris7]

Cannot wait for the PS support, been looking for a good mac emulator for a while now....

[jrswizzle]

This looks absolutely awesome....hopefully just in time for my 2013 13" Haswell-MBA

[No Pain No Gain]

Will be playing Tanks ASAP.

[slffl]

WoW! This looks amazing! This will have a great home on my old mac mini.

[jhsfosho]

This looks awesome! Are there adaptors/drivers for using actual console controllers instead of the keyboard?

[ugahairydawgs]

That is pretty cool. Don't have much time for that these days, but playing Mario Kart on my laptop was how I chugged through some of the more boring classes in college.

Would be nice to have this available to play some Mario Kart or Super Mario again down the road.

[Heymbit]

Will this allow me to play Pokemon red and blue at the same time, with linkage, allowing me to collect all 150 without cheat codes? Cause I'd pay for that...

[Dwalls90]

This.Is.Epic!

[Dimwhit]

If the add Atari 2600 support, I'm all in!

[cclloyd]

I hope they open source it and merge it with other projects like Dolphin.

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Not to be a downer but wouldn't old games coded for SD television either look native in a small window (720 x 525 or less) or show a fair amount of pixelation/jaggies scaled up to- say- an iMac (full) screen? I don't think at least some of those old consoles were using much vector back then; I though bit map graphics was most of THE way back in those days.

Nevertheless, sentimental joys could be upon us again.

[Semester]

Skeumorphism!!!

[pancakedrawer]

Sold

[finkmacunix]

Originally Posted by Heymbit

Will this allow me to play Pokemon red and blue at the same time, with linkage, allowing me to collect all 150 without cheat codes? Cause I'd pay for that...

Sadly, no… For that, you need Windows… And "TGB Dual"…

[purehektik]

Is there a way to get notified when it launches?

[pgiguere1]

Originally Posted by jhsfosho

This looks awesome! Are there adaptors/drivers for using actual console controllers instead of the keyboard?

I just bought this Xbox 360 controller wireless receiver and use it with those drivers and everything works perfectly with my rMBP and Mountain Lion. I've been using Snes9X and Dolphin so far.

[chirpie]

Originally Posted by HobeSoundDarryl

Not to be a downer but wouldn't old games coded for SD television either look native in a small window (720 x 525 or less) or show a fair amount of pixelation/jaggies scaled up to- say- an iMac (full) screen? I don't think at least some of those old consoles were using much vector back then; I though bit map graphics was most of THE way back in those days.

Nevertheless, sentimental joys could be upon us again.

Give me my sharp jagged pixels on as large a display as possible. I love it! Any attempt to "smooth" them will be met with as much animosity as I can muster for 3:45 on a Tuesday! Garrrrrhhhhh!

[TouchMint.com]

Looking forward to this too. I wonder how controller input will be. I have some great emulators on PC where I can use real controllers through usb links. Hopefully I can use real controllers through usb links on this mac program too.

[OrangeSVTguy]

Originally Posted by solaris7

Cannot wait for the PS support, been looking for a good mac emulator for a while now....

PCSX seems to work for the most part pretty good. Seems to always crash when you reset or want to load up another game.

[Small White Car]

Originally Posted by HobeSoundDarryl

Not to be a downer but wouldn't old games coded for SD television either look native in a small window (720 x 525 or less) or show a fair amount of pixelation/jaggies scaled up to- say- an iMac (full) screen?

Much less. Original NES games were designed at 256x254.