There are many alternatives to EmulationStation for Linux and since it's discontinued a lot of people are looking for a replacement. The best Linux alternative is RetroArch, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to EmulationStation and 16 are available for Linux so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Linux alternatives to EmulationStation are Lakka, Batocera.linux, Mame and Pegasus.
A fast, modular emulator frontend offering portability and extensive support for systems from arcade consoles to mobile platforms, featuring game engines like Doom and Quake, and capabilities for real-time rewinding and shader support on a variety of devices.
Lakka is the official Linux distribution of RetroArch and the libretro ecosystem. Each game system is implemented as a libretro core, while the frontend RetroArch takes care of inputs and display.
Batocera.linux is an operating system specialized in retrogaming available for your pc and different nano computers like the Raspberry and the Odroids.
MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. When used in conjunction with images of the original arcade game's ROM and disk data, MAME attempts to reproduce that game as faithfully as possible on a more modern general-purpose computer.
Pegasus is a graphical frontend for browsing your game library (especially retro games) and launching them from one place. It's focusing on customizability, cross platform support (including embedded devices) and high performance.
RetroPie allows you to turn your Raspberry Pi or PC into a retro-gaming machine. It builds upon Raspbian, EmulationStation, RetroArch and many other projects to enable you to play your favourite classic games with the minimum set-up.
Recalbox is a light embedded system created to run on the raspberryPi ,raspberryPI 2 and others!
Mednafen is a portable, utilizing OpenGL and SDL, argument(command-line)-driven multi-system emulator with many advanced features. The Atari Lynx, GameBoy (Color), GameBoy Advance, NES, PC Engine (TurboGrafx 16), SuperGrafx, Neo Geo Pocket (Color), PC-FX, and WonderSwan (Color)...
A front-end or user interface (UI) is the presentation and interaction layer of an app or website. Most modern emulator apps have basic game list UIs that you can interact with using a mouse/keyboard but not a game controller.
![Dolphin (Wii, Gamecube, Virtual Console) [Linux, macOS, & Windows]](https://img.alternativeto.net/s/618x394/avif/bottlenose_980398_full.png)
![Cemu (Wii U) [Windows & Linux* using Wine]](https://img.alternativeto.net/s/618x394/avif/bottlenose_762210_full.png)
![Yuzu (Switch) [Linux & Windows]](https://img.alternativeto.net/s/618x394/avif/bottlenose_785449_full.png)
![Citra (3DS) [Linux, macOS, & Windows]](https://img.alternativeto.net/s/618x394/avif/bottlenose_509961_full.png)
MESS emulates portable and console gaming systems, computer platforms and calculators. The project strives for accuracy and portability and therefore is not always the fastest emulator for any one particular system.
Retro gaming on the Raspberry Pi and includes RetroArchievements.org support, HDMI-CEC and PS3/XBOX 360 control pad support.
Feature rich gaming front-end for MAME, GameBase, Daphne, PC Games and all command line based game emulators, along with being a complete Home Theatre PC solution or plug in for windows media center.
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RetroArch is core (emulator) but emulationStation is like a interface or GUI.