A multi-system emulator written in C#. As well as quality-of-life features for casual players, it also has recording/playback and debugging tools, making it the first choice for TASers (Tool-Assisted Speedrunners).
[](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/issues)
Click `BizHawk-<version>.zip` to download it. Also note the changelog, the full version of which is [here at TASVideos](http://tasvideos.org/Bizhawk/ReleaseHistory.html).
Extract it anywhere, but **don't mix different versions** of BizHawk, keep each version in its own folder. You may move or rename the folder containing `EmuHawk.exe`, even to another drive — as long as you keep all the files together, and the prerequisites are installed when you go to run it.
Run `EmuHawk.exe` to start. If startup is blocked by a Windows SmartScreen dialog, click "More Info" to reveal the override button. Third-party antivirus may also block startup. There are some command-line arguments you can use: see [*Passing command-line arguments*](#passing-command-line-arguments).
EmuHawk does have some prerequisites which it can't work without (it will let you know if they're missing). The list is [here](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk-Prereqs/blob/master/README), and we've made an all-in-one installer which you can get [here](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk-Prereqs/releases/latest).
We will be following Microsoft in dropping support for old versions of Windows, that is, we reserve the right to ignore your problems unless you've updated to at least Win11 21H2 (initial release), Win10 20H2, or Win8.1 KB5007247. Read more on [MSDN](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/faq/windows).
A "backport" release, [1.13.2](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/releases/tag/1.13.2), is available for users of Windows XP, 7, or 8.1 32-bit. It has many bugs that will never be fixed and it doesn't have all the features of the later versions.
**Note**: There's only one dev working on Linux (@YoshiRulz)! Please have patience, and try not to bother everyone else.
Install the listed package with your package manager (some buttons are links to the relevant package). The changelog can be found [on TASVideos](http://tasvideos.org/Bizhawk/ReleaseHistory.html).
[](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/releases/latest)
If you download BizHawk this way, **don't mix different versions**, keep each version in its own folder. The runtime dependencies are glibc, Mono "complete", OpenAL, and `lsb_release`. .NET Core is **not** a runtime dependency, only Mono. WINE is also **not** a runtime dependency.
Run `EmuHawkMono.sh` to start EmuHawk—you can run it from anywhere, so creating a `.desktop` file to wrap the script is fine. The shell script should print an error if it fails, otherwise it's safe to ignore console output. It takes mostly the same command-line arguments as on Windows: see [*Passing command-line arguments*](#passing-command-line-arguments).
Most features and cores work, a notable omission being Mupen64Plus (N64). See the Linux thread, [#1430](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/issues/1430), for a more detailed breakdown.
Lua support is new in 2.7, and it requires Mono >= 6.12.0.151 (unreleased as of 2022-01). Comment on [#2951](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/issues/2951) if you run into any problems with it.
EmuHawk depends on certain libraries for graphics, and these don't work on macOS. Users on macOS have three options:
* Use another machine with Windows or Linux, or install either in a VM (WINE is not a VM).
* Use an older 1.x release which was ported to macOS by @Sappharad (with replacements for the missing libraries). Links and more details are in [this TASVideos forum thread](http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12659) (jump to last page for latest binaries).
* For the technically-minded, download the [source](https://github.com/Sappharad/BizHawk/tree/MacUnixMonoCompat) of an older 2.x release. @Sappharad put a lot of work into it but ultimately decided to stop.
[to top](#bizhawk)
### Development builds
Development builds are made automatically whenever someone contributes. Because of this, we recommend using a release for work that requires stability (such as TASing), and only switching to a dev build if there's a specific change or addition you need.
[](https://gitlab.com/TASVideos/BizHawk/pipelines)
[](https://gitlab.com/TASVideos/BizHawk/pipelines/master/latest)
Click one of the buttons above to download a dev build (they're also at the top of this readme). AppVeyor uses Windows and GitLab CI uses Linux, but they work all the same.
* On the GitLab CI page for a Pipeline, click "Jobs", then the download button on the right under the heading "Package". (On the Pipelines list page, there's also a download button on each Pipeline—choose `package_devbuild_*:archive` there.)
To find the dev builds for a specific commit, you can click the green checkmark next to it (in the [commit history](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/commits/master), for example) for a dropdown, then click either "Details" link to go to AppVeyor/GitLab.
Before you can build, you'll need the .NET 6 SDK or later (comes with VS2022, or can be manually installed beside VS2019, see [full instructions](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/dotnet/core/install/windows)).
For anything more complicated than just building, you'll need an IDE like [VS Community 2019](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community), currently the best free C# IDE (you may prefer Rider, VS Code, or something else).
Open the `/BizHawk.sln` solution file in your IDE.
With VS, start the build by choosing the `BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk` executable in the toolbar (in either the `Debug` or `Release` configuration) and clicking the launch button beside it.
Before you can build, you'll need the .NET 6 SDK or later (package name is usually `dotnet-sdk-6.0`, see [full instructions](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/dotnet/core/install/linux)). Once it's installed, run:
The assemblies are put in the `/output` dir, so if you have the runtime dependencies (see [*Installing*](#unix)) you can call `/output/EmuHawkMono.sh`.
EmuHawk takes some command-line options which aren't well-documented; you might be able to figure them out from [the source](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/blob/78daf4913d4c8e47d24fc14d84ca33ddef913ed4/src/BizHawk.Client.Common/ArgParser.cs).
On Windows 8.1/10, it's easiest to use PowerShell for this. For example, to pass `--lua=C:\path\to\script.lua` as the first argument and `C:\path\to\rom.n64` as the second, navigate to the BizHawk install folder and run:
On Linux, you can pass arguments to `EmuHawkMono.sh` as expected and they will be forwarded to `mono`. (You can also `export` env. vars.) All the arguments work as on Windows, with some caveats:
* file paths must be absolute (or relative to the install dir, `EmuHawkMono.sh` changes the CWD to there);
*`--mono-no-redirect`: if you pass this flag *as the first argument*, it will be eaten by the script itself, and stdout/stderr will *not* be redirected to a file. (It's redirected by default.)
Put all your dumped firmware files in the `/Firmware` folder and everything will be automatically detected and loaded when you try to load a game (filenames and subfolders aren't enforced, you can just throw them in there). If you're missing required or optional firmware, you will see a "You are missing the needed firmware files [...]" dialog.
If you want to customise firmware (when there are alternative firmwares, for example) go to `Config` > `Firmwares...`, right-click the line of the firmware you want to change, click "Set Customization", and open the file.
You can change where EmuHawk looks for firmware by going to `Config` > `Paths...` and changing "Firmware" in the "Global" tab to the new location. This allows multiple installs to use the same folder.
There are two keybind windows, `Config` > `Controllers...` and `Config` > `Hotkeys...`. These let you bind your keyboard/mouse and gamepads to virtual gamepads, and to frontend functions, respectively.
Using them is simple, click in a box next to an action and press the button (or bump the axis) you want bound to that action.
If the "Auto Tab" checkbox at the bottom of the window is checked, the next box will be selected automatically and whatever button you press will be bound to *that* action, and so on down the list. If "Auto Tab" is unchecked, clicking a filled box will let you bind another button to the same action. Keep in mind there are multiple tabs of actions.
To change which core is used where multiple cores emulate the same system (currently: NES, SNES, GB/C, SGB, and PCE/TG-16), look under `Config` > `Cores`. Under that menu, you'll also find the `GB in SGB` checkbox. When checked, GB/C games will be loaded using the chosen SGB core instead of the chosen GB core.
Cores have their own settings, which you can find in various windows under the system-specific menu (between `Tools` and `Help` when a rom is loaded). Some cores, like Mupen64Plus, have a labyrinth of menus while others have one.
Go to `Tools` > `Lua Console`. The opened window has two parts, the loaded script list and the console output. The buttons below the menubar are shortcuts for items in the menus, hover over them to see what they do.
Any script you load is added to the list, and will start running immediately. Instead of using "Open script", you can drag-and-drop .lua files onto the console or game windows.
Running scripts have a "▶️" beside their name, and stopped scripts (manually or due to an error) have a "⏹️" beside them. Using "Pause or Resume", you can temporarily pause scripts, those have a "⏸️".
"Toggle script" does just that (paused scripts are stopped). "Reload script" stops it and loads changes to the file, running scripts are then started again. "Remove script" stops it and removes it from the list.
Games often have a "save progress" feature, which writes some save data on the cart or some sort of memory card. (Not to be confused with EmuHawk's savestates.)
But when EmuHawk emulates this process, the in-game saves remain *in the host system's memory (RAM)* along with the rest of the virtual system, meaning it's not really saved. The save data needs to be copied to a file on disk (on the host), which we call "SaveRAM flushing".
You can simply use `File` > `Save RAM` > `Flush Save Ram` (default hotkey: `Ctrl+S`) to make EmuHawk save properly. The `.SaveRAM` files are in system-specific subfolders of the BizHawk install folder (configurable) for if you want to make backups, which you should.
The `File` > `Save RAM` menu is printed in **bold** when the virtual system does a save, which usually corresponds to pushing a "save progress" button in-game. Note that some games use SRAM for miscellaneous tasks, so it may not be strictly necessary to flush the SaveRAM every time it's changed. Can't hurt though.
EmuHawk can also flush automatically, which you can configure with `Config` > `Customize...` > `Advanced` > `AutoSaveRAM`. When closing or switching roms, EmuHawk may also try to flush SaveRAM. **A disclaimer: Automatic flushing is extremely unreliable and not being maintained. It may corrupt your previous saves!**
More disclaimers: Develop a habit to always flush saves manually every time you save in the game, and make backups of the flushed save files! If you don't flush saves manually and something breaks, you're on your own. If your save has been corrupted and you didn't make a backup, there's nothing we can do about it.
~~This section refers to BizHawk specifically. For resources on TASing in general, see [Welcome to TASVideos](http://tasvideos.org/WelcomeToTASVideos.html).~~ This section hasn't been written yet.
For now, the best way to learn how to TAS is to browse pages like [BasicTools](http://tasvideos.org/TasingGuide/BasicTools.html) on TASVideos and watch tutorials like [The8bitbeast's](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlJzD6wWmoXmihK13itZJ-mzjK3SD1EaM) and [Sand_Knight and dwangoAC's](https://youtu.be/6tJniMaR2Ps).
Creating a GUI with Lua scripts is fiddly. If you know some C# (or another .NET language), you can replace your Lua script with an *external tool*. See the [ext. tools wiki](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk-ExternalTools/wiki) for more details.
We're looking to create [a catalog](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk-ExternalTools/wiki/Catalog) of tools made by the community, share yours on IRC/Discord (links [below](#support-and-troubleshooting)).
A *core* is what we call the smaller bits of software that emulate just one system or family of systems, e.g. NesHawk for NES/Famicom. For the most part, we have one core per system, but sometimes you have the choice between speed (in terms of CPU usage) and accuracy.
In the table below, core names in **bold** are accuracy-focused and acceptable on TASVideos. The -*Hawk* cores are part of the BizHawk project. All other cores are ported, mainly from the Mednafen project.
A short [FAQ](http://tasvideos.org/Bizhawk/FAQ.html) is provided on the [BizHawk wiki](http://tasvideos.org/Bizhawk.html). If your problem is one of the many not answered there, and you can't find it in the [issue tracker search](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/issues?q=is%3Aissue+PUT_ISSUE_KEYWORDS_HERE), you can try:
*`#emulation` on [the TASVideos Discord](https://discordapp.com/invite/GySG2b6) (also the more specialised channels `#tas-production` and `#scripting`, and [the ApiHawk server](https://discord.gg/UPhN4um3px))
You can [open a new issue](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/issues/new) at any time if you're logged in to GitHub. Please **at the very least read the issue templates**, we tend to ask the same questions for every one-line issue that's opened.
Do you want your name next to [these fine people](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/graphs/contributors)? Fork the repo and work on one of our [many open issues](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/issues).
If you ask on IRC/Discord (see above), you might get more info about the problem—or you might find someone else is also working on it. It's especially important to ask about adding new features.
All the source code for EmuHawk is in `/src`. The project file, `/src/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk/BizHawk.Client.EmuHawk.csproj`, includes the other projects [in a tree](https://gitlab.com/TASVideos/BizHawk/snippets/1886666).
When opening a PR:
* Consider making changes over multiple commits instead of one large commit. Bonus points if each commit is a working build.
* Rebase instead of merging when pulling changes.
* Don't use the `master` branch of your fork! Using another branch makes rebasing so much easier.
* Our test suite is small, but it's still worth running. Build the executable project `BizHawk.Tests`.
* If you fork on GitLab, the tests will run in CI.
* For the time being, code style is checked manually. Please use CRLF, tabs, and [Allman braces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentation_style#Allman_style) in new files.
* Static code analysis is configured but disabled—build with `-p:MachineRunAnalyzersDuringBuild=true`.
* If you fork on GitLab, the Analyzers will run in CI if you use `git push -o ci.variable="BIZHAWKBUILD_USE_ANALYZERS=true"` (or otherwise set that env. var for the pipeline).
We're not particularly interested in PRs adding cores out-of-the-blue, but if you have experience in emulator development please get in touch on IRC/Discord.
[to top](#bizhawk)
### Testing/QA
Not a programmer? You can still be helpful by grabbing a recent [dev build](#development-builds) and reproducing old bugs, i.e. checking if they've been fixed or not.
EmuHawk and DiscoHawk can be used by anyone for any purpose allowed by the permissive *MIT License* (Expat). The [full text](https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/blob/master/LICENSE) is very short.
Any developers looking to re-use code from BizHawk in their own work should understand which files the license applies to. It's included in the text, but tl;dr: anything outside `/src` isn't ours and we can't give you permission to share, use, or sell it. That means not all the files included with BizHawk *releases or dev builds* are free to share, either.
Disclaimer time! Can't have emulation software without a disclaimer...
> Following the terms of our license does not make you immune from other contracts or laws.
> Some or all of the following may be illegal where you live: creating a copy of non-free software for backup purposes ("dumping" or "ripping"); distributing copies of non-free software; soliciting pirated copies of software; knowingly posessing pirated copies of software; importing software from the USA (GitHub and TASVideos are American entities); using a backup copy of non-free software without the original.
> For obvious reasons, **we cannot and will not distribute dumped games or firmware that is under copyright**.
Emulators for other systems can be found on the [EmulatorResources page](http://tasvideos.org/EmulatorResources.html) at TASVideos. The [TASEmulators GitHub page](https://github.com/TASEmulators) also holds copies of other emulators and plugins where development happens sometimes, their upstreams may be of use.
