Emulation refers to the duplication of functions of one system using a different system. Specifically, an emulator is software specifically written to emulate aspects of the original console or computer, primarily the CPU, I/O and memory system.
This article focuses on selecting the best software which enables a Linux machine to emulate classic video consoles, such as the GameBoy, Nintendo 64, Megadrive, PlayStation 1 & 2, and many others. Please be aware that although all of the software featured in this article is free to download, some of the emulators are not open source.
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