Virtualization & Emulation
Virtualization & Emulation
Running other operating systems, other architectures and other consoles on a Mac, without buying any of them.
Five of these emulate the Switch, which is more than the rest of the consoles combined and not a sign of health. Nintendo’s 2024 action against Yuzu scattered the effort into forks and continuations, each hosting itself somewhere different; the group below is best read as one project’s wreckage rather than as a field of competitors.
Apple Silicon complicates this: native virtualization is fast but ARM-only, and anything x86 has to be emulated instead. UTM covers both paths, Parallels covers Windows properly, and the rest of the list emulates consoles rather than computers.
Virtual machines on macOS, built on QEMU.
Commercial VMs with tight macOS integration.
Build a Windows installer ISO on macOS.
One Mac-native front end over dozens of emulator cores.
Libretro front end — every core, one interface.
GameCube and Wii emulator, mature and native.
Wii U emulator, open source since 2022.
Nintendo Switch emulator written in C#.
Switch emulator continuing the Yuzu codebase.
Switch emulator built for Apple Silicon Macs.
Switch emulator in C++, Windows only.
Shut down in 2024, and why the rest look like this.
Nintendo DS and DSi emulator focused on accuracy.
PlayStation 2 emulator, native on Apple Silicon.
PSP emulator, fast and near-complete.
PlayStation 1 emulator with accurate timing.
Every emulator here needs software you supply. Emulation itself is lawful in most jurisdictions; obtaining a console’s BIOS, firmware or games from anywhere other than hardware and media you own is not, and none of these projects ship any of it. The Switch is the unsettled case — Yuzu is what happened when it was tested in court.