JTOP's Emu Station

What it does

Pick a console from the home screen and it “switches on”: its real startup plays (from the BIOS where there is one), then a menu made to look like that console’s own, and games run inside the shell’s window in the right emulator.

Set it up

Download the latest release and extract it anywhere. Emu Station doesn’t come with any emulators, games or BIOS files: install the emulators you want and bring your own games and BIOS files, then open EmuStation.exe and it finds them for you.

Features

• Real startups: the PS2 towers, GameCube cube, Dreamcast swirl, and PlayStation and Saturn logos, played from the BIOS.
• Menu sounds and music recorded from the real console menus.
• Box art downloaded once from the libretro thumbnails collection and cached.
• About each game: a page per game with its description, release date, developer, publisher, genre, players and rating, from the LaunchBox Games Database.
• In-game menu with Resume, Save State, Load State, Next Disc, Settings and Quit Game.
• Picture settings for each console, including screen shape and resolution, and a Screen Filter (scanlines, CRT TV, LCD grid or the handheld’s own screen) for the retro consoles.
• RetroAchievements: sign in once in the shell and it signs in six emulators, covering the PlayStation, PS2, GameCube, Wii, PSP, Dreamcast and every RetroArch console. Each console has achievement pages with your progress and badges, also in the in-game menu.
• PS3 trophies: a Trophy Collection in the XMB, as on the console, and the running game’s trophies in the in-game menu.
• 60 FPS for PlayStation and PS2 games that have a 60 FPS patch in the emulator’s collection.
• Frame Generation with Lossless Scaling for the PlayStation, PS2, PS3 and GameCube / Wii: only the frames a game is missing are made, so a 30 FPS game is shown at 60 and a 60 FPS one is left alone.
• Multi-disc games are found automatically and listed once.
• Syncthing Installed: All game saves from all emulators can be used on Steam Deck or PC and sync with each other

Xbox 360: a modified Xenia

The Xbox 360 runs my own fork of the Xenia emulator (jtop-emu-station branch), made for my own setup: these aren’t part of the download, and the music player plays from my home Music Assistant server.

• Embedding: Xenia runs inside the shell’s window, and turning it off returns to the shell.
• The guide: an Xbox 360 dashboard-style overlay, opened with the controller’s Guide button over the running game.
• A music player in the guide’s Music tab: Xenia joins a Music Assistant server as a player of its own, and the tab browses the library and plays from it, with Now Playing and artwork.
• In-game soundtracks: games that play their music through the Xbox 360’s title playlist API (such as Burnout Revenge) now actually play it, decoded from the game’s WMA files.

Consoles

Console	Emulator	Menu
PlayStation	DuckStation	The PlayStation’s BIOS menu
PlayStation 2	PCSX2	The PS2’s browser and system configuration
PlayStation 3	RPCS3	The XMB
GameCube	Dolphin	The GameCube’s cube menu
Wii	Dolphin	The Wii Menu’s channel grid
Dreamcast	Flycast	The Dreamcast’s menu, with VMU saves
Genesis	RetroArch	Styled after its game boxes
Super Nintendo	RetroArch	Styled after the console
Nintendo 64	RetroArch	Styled after the console
Saturn	RetroArch	Styled after the console
Xbox 360	Xenia (modified)	Xenia’s own interface, embedded, with an Xbox 360-style guide and music player
PSP	PPSSPP	The XMB (the PS3’s, with the PSP’s games and settings)
Game Boy Color	RetroArch	Styled after the handheld
Game Boy Advance	RetroArch	Styled after the handheld
Xbox	xemu	The dashboard’s orb and green pods, with Games added
Game Gear	RetroArch	Styled after the handheld
Game Boy	RetroArch	Styled after the handheld
NES	RetroArch	Styled after the console
PS Vita	Vita3K	The home screen’s bubbles, and each game’s LiveArea
Nintendo Switch	Citron	The HOME Menu, with its lock screen
PlayStation 4	shadPS4	The home screen’s row of tiles over each game’s background, with game versions and update downloads
PlayStation 5	None (games converted to Windows programs by AnyPS5)	The home screen’s row of rounded tiles over each game’s picture
Custom PC	None (fan games, ports and recompilations such as Lost Odyssey Recomp)	The shell’s own launcher: a row of covers under the chosen game’s title and background

Emu Station is a fan-made project. It isn’t affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sega, Valve or the makers of any emulator it starts. The consoles’ names and the menus’ looks belong to their owners.