Masquerade-Emulator
So, what’s masquerade ?
A multi-system emulator supporting classic gaming consoles and simulators.
Version
Current Version: 0.7x
🚧 Beta Notice
Masquerade is currently in beta. All versions before 1.0 are under active development and may contain bugs, incomplete features, or breaking changes.🔄 Frequent Updates
Releases may be frequent as development progresses rapidly.⚠️ Breaking Changes
Backward compatibility is not guaranteed between versions. Save states, configs, or behaviors may change without notice.Stability, accuracy, and performance will continue improving toward the 1.x stable release.
Supported Systems
- Game Boy Advance (GBA)
- Game Boy Color (GBC)
- Game Boy (GB)
- Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
- Ms Pac-Man
- Pac-Man (Midway and Namco variants)
- Space Invaders
- XO-CHIP
- S-CHIP
- CHIP-8
- Game of Life
Getting Started
Quick Access
- Try Web Version - Play directly in your browser
- Download Desktop Build - Available for Windows
Gameplay Gallery
P0052: ImGui + SDL3 + OpenGL3 (Recommended)
User Interface
Pokémon Crystal, Pokémon Emerald and Pokémon Blue
P0010: OLC (Deprecated)
User Interface
Pokémon Ruby, Emerald, and Sapphire
Game Boy Advance - Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green
Game Boy Color - Donkey Kong Country and Pokémon Crystal
Game Boy - Multiple Palette Examples
Prehistorik Man in BGB Palette, Pinball Deluxe in Gearboy Palette and Altered Space in Sameboy Palette
Nintendo Entertainment System - Super Mario Bros 3 and Zelda II
Nintendo Entertainment System - Super Mario Bros and Kong Classic
Pac-Man
Ms Pac-Man
Space Invaders
CHIP-8 - Pong
Game of Life - Toroidal Mode
Detailed System Information
Game Boy Advance (GBA)
Features
- Supports GBA BIOS
- Supports all 5 PPU modes
- Supports all APU channels
Test Results
- Passes jsmolka/alyosha-tas’s arm.gba, thumb.gba, memory.gba, flash and PPU tests
- Passes FuzzARM.gba
- Passes all tests within the AGB aging catridge test suite except:
- Prefetch Buffer
- Passes all mgba-suite tests except for few test-cases within the following tests:
- GamePAK prefetch related timing tests
- Few timer count-up tests
- Few timer IRQ tests
- Few SIO tests
- Few MISC edge case tests
- Passes CPU subtests of AGBEEG aging catridge test suite (still fails the Catridge and DMA subtests)
- Passes all tests in tonc’s test suite
- Passes all belogic’s audio tests
Known Issues (other than the ones mentioned above)
- No audio issue while running GBS
- Minor visual artifacts top left corner in Mode 3 for some video ROMs like Pokemon
- Some undesired audio artifacts (expected fix in P0152 variant)
- Low end devices still need PGOs to run at full speed (expected fix in P0152 variant)
Game Boy / Game Boy Color (GB / GBC)
Features
- Supports GB and GBC BIOS
- Implements Pixel-Fetcher/Pixel-FIFO
- GBC supports GB mode
- Supports multiple palettes on GB
- Supports GameGenie and GameShark cheats
- Supports BESS specification for save/load states
- Supports GBVideoPlayer2 video ROMs with audio
- GBC supports color correction closely matching real hardware
- Supports following Memory Bank Controllers:
- NO MBC
- MBC1
- MBC1M
- MBC2
- MBC3
- MBC5
- MBC6
- MBC7
- M161
- MBC30
- HuC-1
- HuC-3
- MMM01
- WISDOM TREE
Test Results
- Completely passes Tom Harte’s SingleStepTests (official and unofficial opcodes) for SM83
- Passes all Blargg test suite except:
- oam_bug.gb
- Passes Moon Eye tests except:
- unused_hwio-C.gb
- boot_hwio-C.gb
- boot_div-cgbABCDE.gb
- Passes all Wilbert Pol’s tests
- Passes Daid’s GBEmulatorShootout tests except:
- ppu_scanline_bgp.gb
- Passes PeachyHardwareAbuse tests including ctf.gb
- Passes MMIO_exec_1.gb
- Passes DMG Aging Cartridge test
- Passes ax6’s rtc3test suite
- APU plays ISSOtm’s smooth-player.gb
- Passes all Hacktix’s tests except:
- strikethrough.gb
- Passes TurtleTests
- Passes MagenTests
- Passes mbc3-tester
- Fails some same-suite tests:
- apu
- sgb
Known Issues (other than the ones mentioned above)
- Fails cgb-acid-hell
- Fails some age-test-roms
- Fails some of the Mealybug Tearoom tests
- Fails many docboy-test-suite’s APU and CGB tests
- Link Cable not supported
- Multiple CGB-specific quirks remain unimplemented
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Features
- 6502 CPU passes Klaus Dormann’s 6502_65C02_functional_tests including BCD tests
- Supports mappers:
- NROM (000)
- MMC1 (001)
- SEROM
- SHROM
- SH1ROM
- SUROM
- SOROM
- SNROM
- SXROM
- UxROM (002)
- CNROM (003)
- MMC3 (004)
- MMC5 (005)
- MMC6
- iNES Mapper 6 (006)
- AxROM (007)
- MMC2 (009)
- MMC4 (010)
- Color Dreams (011)
- CPROM (013)
- Bandai FCG (016)
- LZ93D50 + 24C01 EEPROM
- FCG-1 / FCG-2
- LZ93D50 + 24C02 EEPROM
- Jaleco SS88006 (018)
- Namco 163 (019)
- Konami VRC4 (021)
- VRC4ac
- Konami VRC2 (022)
- VRC2a
- Konami VRC2 / VRC4 (023)
- VRC2b
- VRC2c
- VRC4e
- Konami VRC6 (024)
- VRC6a
- Konami VRC2 / VRC4 (025)
- VRC4b
- VRC4c
- VRC4d
- VRC4f
- Konami VRC6 (026)
- VRC6b
- iNES Mapper 34 (034)
- NINA-001
- BNROM
- iNES Mapper 37 (037)
- iNES Mapper 47 (047)
- RAMBO-1 (064)
- GxROM (066)
- iNES Mapper 67 (067)
- Sunsoft-4 (068)
- Sunsoft FME-7 (069)
- iNES Mapper 70 (070)
- J87 (087)
- iNES Mapper 105 (105)
- iNES Mapper 118 (118)
- MMC3 + RAMBO-1 (119)
- iNES Mapper 152 (152)
- iNES Mapper 155 (155)
- iNES Mapper 158 (158)
- Nanjing FC-001 (163)
- iNES Mapper 180 (180)
- Namco 175 / Namco 340 (210)
- Namco 175
- Namco 340
- Supports Game Genie cheats
- Supports Zapper in Port 2 (mouse clicks)
Test Results
- Passes Nestest (official and unofficial opcodes)
- Completely passes Tom Harte’s SingleStepTests for NES6502
- Passes Blargg CPU tests (official and unofficial opcodes)
- Passes Blargg CPU timing tests
- Passes Blargg CPU dummy read/write tests
- Passes NES Dev Wiki CPU tests
- Passes blargg_ppu_tests_2005.09.15b
- Passes blargg_apu_2005.07.30
- Passes Blargg sprite_overflow_test suite
- Passes Blargg sprite_hit_tests_2005.10.05
- Passes all APU tests including DMC
- Passes Blargg vbl_nmi_timing and ppu_vbl_nmi tests
- Passes Blargg cpu_interrupt_v2 tests
- Passes OAM stress tests
- Passes Blargg and Bisqwit’s ppu_open_bus tests
- Passes Bisqwit’s cpu_exec_space tests
- Passes Blargg mmc3_irq_tests suite except:
- 4-scanline_timing.nes
Known Issues (other than the ones mentioned above)
- PAL timings are not supported (only NTSC is supported as of now)
- Fails many of the DMC tests
- Fails many of the Accuracy coin tests
Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man
Features
- Z80 CPU emulation
- Passes Tom Harte’s SingleStepTests for Z80 (official and unofficial opcodes)
- Passes zexdoc and zexall tests
- Supports both Midway and Namco variants
Supported Pac-Man Boot-legs
- Hangly Man
- Uniprom Variant
- Baracuda
- NewPuc
- After Dark
- Snatcher Set 1 and 2
Planned Support (Pac-Man Boot-legs)
- Streaking
- Titan
- Caterpillar
- Abscam
- Joyman
- Piranha
- Galaxian Hardware Variant
Supported Ms Pac-Man Boot-legs (planned/partial)
- MsPacPlus
- After Dark
- MsPacAttackNew
- MsPacAtackOld
Space Invaders
Features
- Supports color overlays
CHIP-8 / S-CHIP / XO-CHIP
Supported Variants
- CHIP-8
- S-Chip Legacy
- S-Chip Modern
- XO-Chip (supporting audio and up to 4 planes)
Features
- Completely passes Timendus’s chip8-test-suite v4.2
- Completely passes CubeChip test suite
- Supports ROM database auto-detection of:
- Variants
- Quirks
- Recommended palettes
- Recommended keybindings
- Recommended execution rate
Game of Life
Supported Modes
- Normal Mode
- Toroidal Mode
Planned Support
- Pan/Zoom support planned
CPUs
- Passes extensive test ROM suites for:
- 8080 (official and unofficial opcodes)
- Z80 (official and unofficial opcodes)
- SM83 (official and unofficial opcodes)
- Ricoh 2A03 (NES-6502) (official and unofficial opcodes)
- ARM7TDMI (ARMv4T instruction set)
Additional
- Supports Save States and Load States
- Supports OTA updates
- Supports dynamic drag and drop of ROMs including multiple ROMs for Space Invaders and Pacman/MsPacman
Variants
Masquerade is available in two variants, differing in their underlying libraries:
P0052: ImGui + SDL3 + OpenGL3 (Recommended)
Modern UI framework with enhanced features and performance.
Technology Stack:
- ImGui for interface
- SDL3 for windowing and input
- OpenGL3 for rendering
- nativefiledialog-extended for file dialogs
P0010: OLC (Deprecated)
Legacy variant based on One Lone Coder’s Pixel Game Engine.
Note: P0010 is no longer supported. Users should migrate to P0052 for latest features and updates.
Technology Stack (Legacy):
- Forked version of One Lone Coder’s Pixel Game Engine
- One Lone Coder’s Sound Wave Engine
Automated Test Reports
- Game Boy / Game Boy Color (GB/GBC) : GB Emulator Shootout
Credits and Acknowledgments
Documentation and References
Game Boy / Game Boy Color
- GB Pandocs - Comprehensive Game Boy documentation
- GB Dev Wiki - Memory Bank Controller documentation
- Codeslinger’s Blog - Game Boy emulation guide
- Night Shade’s Audio Implementation - Audio emulation guide
- The Ultimate Gameboy Talk - Technical reference
- Antonio’s Technical Documentation - Game Boy Advance technical guide
Game Boy Advance
- GBATEK - Comprehensive GBA reference
- TONC - GBA programming tutorials
- NBA HW Docs - Hardware documentation
- GBA Docs - GBA development documentation
- Dillonb’s Cartridge Guide - Flash cartridge implementation
- GBA PPU Access Pattern - PPU timing documentation
Nintendo Entertainment System
- NES Dev Wiki - Comprehensive NES documentation
- AprNes Accuracy Coin Guide - Comprehensive accuracy coin Test guide
- NES Database - ROM Database for NES ROMs
CHIP-8 Family
- Chip8 Database - ROM Database for CHIP-8 family
Reference Emulators
- Gearboy - GB/GBC testing
- gbmulator - GB/GBC testing
- Emulicious - GB/GBC testing
- Sameboy - GB/GBC testing
- NBA - GBA testing
- SkyEmu - UI theme inspiration
- Dillonb’s GBA Emulator - CLI logger/debugger inspiration
- Mesen2 - NES testing
- Hhugboy - For information in Poke2in1 Mapper
Test Suites and Test ROMs
- Tom Harte’s SingleStepTests for 6502 and SM83 CPU testing
- Blargg test ROMs for GB, GBC, and NES
- Little Things GB test suite for GB and GBC
- jsmolka and alyosha-tas test ROMs for GBA
- AGS Test Suite
- MGBA test suite for GBA
- Tonc test suite for GBA
- Moon Eye and Wilbert Pol’s test suite for GB/GBC
- Mealybug Tearoom Tests for GB/GBC
- Accuracy Coin test suite for NES
- Little Things NES test suite for NES
- And all other tests suites mentioned in previous sections…
Community
- Emulator Development Discord - Active community support and development discussions
- Special thanks to ScottNash042 for the extensive testing and hence in ironing out some major issues
License
See the repository for license information.
| Web Version | Downloads | Report Issues |