# OpenEmu/OpenEmu

🕹 Retro video game emulation for macOS

Repository: https://github.com/OpenEmu/OpenEmu
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/openemu
Homepage: https://openemu.org
Language: Swift
License Family: other
Topics: openemu, objective-c, macos, emulation, emulator, retrogaming
Last push: 2025-10-22T21:39:10+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 44/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 48, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5735, "days_push": 315, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 17726, forks 1354 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:20.234778+00:00)

## What it is
OpenEmu is an open-source retro video game emulator for macOS that unifies multiple emulation engine backends behind a native Cocoa front end. It organizes ROMs into a unified games library with box art and supports gamepads via a modular plugin architecture.

## Use cases
- play retro console games on mac
- emulate NES SNES Genesis on macOS
- organize a retro game ROM library with box art
- use a USB or Bluetooth gamepad with an emulator
- one emulator app for many consoles
- play Game Boy and Nintendo DS games on Mac

## When to choose
- you are on macOS and want a polished, native multi-console emulator
- you want automatic library organization and box art for your ROMs
- you want plug-and-play gamepad support across many systems

## When to avoid
- you need emulation on Windows or Linux
- you need advanced per-core configuration or netplay that dedicated emulators offer
- you need a console not listed among its supported cores

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: game-engine, gui, plugin-system
- domain: gaming-tools, operating-systems, entertainment
- platform: -
- tags: retro-gaming, emulation, game-emulator, rom-library, gamepad-support, objective-c, swift, macos, desktop

## Member repositories
- OpenEmu/OpenEmu (main) score 44

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:20.234778+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:02:28.724891+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/OpenEmu/OpenEmu (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:20.234778+00:00, sha af0b1a744b53)
  - homepage: https://openemu.org (fetched 2026-08-29T08:00:35.405648+00:00, sha c7d820298555)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.