OpenEmu is an open source video game emulation app for Mac that aims to bring all your favourite consoles to you in a single gorgeous app. The app uses a dark theme throughout and has a beautiful retro icon that is reminiscent of an arcade controller. I’ve been looking for a way to play the Game Boy Advance version of Final Fantasy IV on my Mac and downloaded OpenEmu on Mikhail’s recommendation.

OpenEmu is about to change the world of video game emulation. One console at a time. For the first time, the 'It just works' philosophy now extends to open source video game emulation on the Mac. With OpenEmu, it is extremely easy to add, browse, organize and with a compatible gamepad, play those favorite games (ROMs) you already own. Running the OpenEmu startup wizard for the first time Launch OpenEmu on your Mac. Click Next on the welcome screen. Select or de-select any and all emulator cores you want to be able to download and use. File Name: OpenEmu2.0.6.1.zip File Size: 41.48 MB System: Multiple Systems Version: 2.0.6.1 Downloads: 619,887 Requires OS X 10.11 or higher. An all-in-one emulator. OpenEmu is an open source video game emulation app for Mac that aims to bring all your favourite consoles to you in a single gorgeous app. The app uses a dark theme throughout and has a beautiful retro icon that is reminiscent of an arcade controller. OpenEmu is about to change the world of video game emulation. For the first time, the 'it just works' philosophy now extends to open source video game emulation on the Mac. With OpenEmu, it is easy to add, browse, organize and with a compatible gamepad, play those favorite games (ROMs) you already own.

When I first opened the app, I wasn’t expecting it to be very good-looking. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the attention to detail. The dark colour scheme in OpenEmu fits really well with the app and I absolutely love the mini console icons used in the app’s side bar. The preference pane of the app uses delightful icons and has amazingly well made versions of every supported console’s controller. Apart from just looking good, OpenEmu is very simple to use. The app comes pre-packaged with several console emulators and gives you the option to install them just by checking on which ones you want. OpenEmu uses open source cores for emulating consoles such as the Nintendo DS, NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Sega 32X, Game Gear and more.

The app even gives you a Game (ROM) Starter Pack through their website to get you going. You can add your own games to the app via ROMs simply by dragging them in. If you already have some ROMs on your Mac, OpenEmu finds them automagically and adds them to your collection. If this wasn’t enough, the app also adds each game’s original box art to your library. You can organise your games as collections which show up in the side bar under your installed console emulators. Viewing your game library as a collection of boxes in cover-flow feels awesome.

Starting a game is as simple as double clicking on a ROM. The emulation begins almost instantly and everything I’ve tried so far has worked well. OpenEmu can integrate with hardware controllers and has provided a list of supported controllers on their GitHub page along with other useful information. You can configure the controller through the slick Controls tab in the Preferences menu or just use the keyboard instead. During gameplay, you can save your game at anytime by clicking the ‘save’ button in the emulator, something I found extremely useful while playing FF IV. If you exit the emulation during gameplay, OpenEmu remembers where you left off and starts the game from there the next time you launch it.

I only faced one issue while saving a game in OpenEmu. Attempting to overwrite a save file by tapping on it causes the emulation to begin from the previous save point instead of overwriting. It’s better to create a new save file. If you’re like me and want to play some of your favourite old games (ROMs) on your Mac, you should definitely check out OpenEmu, you won’t regret it. It’s available for Free on the OpenEmu website.

The path I took to realizing I could just play any old retro video game right here on my old 2009 iMac was a bit more convoluted than it needed to be, but, hey, sometimes life is a bit more convoluted than it needs to be. For example, it wasn’t until I won a flat screen tv while watching the 2020 Super Bowl at my local pub that I started thinking about maybe getting an old video game system to hook up to our first tv in years, which led to me discovering that they now make mini consoles that come loaded with a bunch of games, which led to me discovering that you could also hack those mini consoles to add any games you want, which led to me ordering a Sega Mini right before the global pandemic kicked in and we all went into quarantine mode, which led to me going deep into the rabbit holes of mini console hacking and retro video game Youtube, which led to me writing blog posts about how to hack a Sega Mini and creating lists of games that I find enjoyable to play as an old millennial in the 2020s.

Openemu Mac Games

And because hacking my Sega Mini involved me getting a whole sh*t tonne of roms on my computer + getting a USB controller that could work for PS1/PSP and below consoles — I eventually got around to wondering if/how I could play these games on my Mac (although, I first wondered a lot about if it was possible to somehow hook my Sega Mini up to my iMac as an external monitor, because I am an idiot).

Openemu Mac Keyboard Not Working

As you can see, sometimes blog posts can be a bit more convoluted than they need to be too, because, in order to play retro video games on your Mac, all you need to do is download and install OpenEmu, and, like with all retro video game figure-out-ery, you can find Youtube videos like this one below that’ll walk you thru all the easy steps: