3D Arcade / Emulaxian is a very complete and fully skinnable and rotable frontend that can launch just about anything. It features powerful and fully customizable search and filter functions to find games fast. What makes it unique besides the sheer number of media that it supports to make your skins are the menu styles it can use. Besides the normal listbox with screenshots/cab layout you have a game like menu were you shoot at sprites to select menu items. And then there are the two virtual arcade interfaces were you can walk around in rooms filled with 3d models of cabs, select mp3's on a working jukebox and watch some movies on a movie screen. These arcades are also fully customizable...create your own personal arcade!
Aldo's Play is a very simple frontend that works with most emulators. Simply copy the executable (Play.exe) to the emulator folder and click. Select your rom directory and your good to go. Aldo states that Aldo's Play can rename roms, remove duplicated roms, has snapshots support, and uses quick find.
Attract-Mode is a graphical front-end for command line emulators such as MAME, MESS and Nestopia. It hides the underlying operating system and is intended to be controlled with a joystick, gamepad or spin dial, making it ideal for use in arcade cabinet setups. Attract-Mode is open source and runs on Linux, Mac OS-X and Windows.
With just a few clicks a database with all your C64 files is created. Then you can easily view your programs in the Hex-Basic-Editor, try them out in various emulators, or simply organize them further with other tools:
Cabrio is a graphical front end for emulators, specifically designed for use in arcade cabinets. It allows you to select games via an intuitive, attractive interface which is easy to use with limited controls, such as a joystick.
Emu Loader is a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for many arcade, console, computer, handheld emulators
From the maker of Emu Loader comes EmuCon. As the name implies this frontend is geared towards console emulators. Quite attractive and easy to use.
emuControlCenter is a Console/Computer Rom-Manager & Frontend for various older and newer consoles/handheld/computer games and is build for people who want to play games quick 'n' easy without searching to much. ECC uses rom-related meta and has extended search functions built-in, it supports bookmarks, ratings and a history for roms. You can also add images and preview them directly in the 'Resultview'. There is also a 'ImageCenter' build-in for a full size preview of screens and covers.
EmulationStation Desktop Edition (ES-DE) is a frontend application for browsing and launching games from your multi-platform game collection.It comes preconfigured for use with RetroArch and a number of standalone emulators. It's also fully customizable so you can easily expand it to include emulators or applications not covered by the bundled configuration.
EmulationStation Desktop Edition (ES-DE) is a frontend application for browsing and launching games from your multi-platform game collection.
It comes preconfigured for use with RetroArch and a number of standalone emulators. It's also fully customizable so you can easily expand it to include emulators or applications not covered by the bundled configuration.
Emulator Organizer is an emulator frontend which will launch games from a central location even if they require an emulator. It’s capable of adding box art, title screens, screen shots, movies, and many other features to improve the user experience. This software is extremely customizable and is updated frequently.
FEEL is a front-end for videogame emulators, especially designed for usage on a home cabinet, highly customizable, ideal for integrating any emulation system (MAME/MESS, Daphne, Fusion, ZSNes, WinVice, virtually any other).Its user interface is designed for being controlled by arcade controls (joystick, buttons, spinners, trackballs), and hides Windows completely to the end-user. This makes it perfect to start automatically at Windows boot in an arcade-pc.
FRI is a very simple yet complete frontend for just about any command line emulator. Easy to use and setup.
GameBase can support virtually any game for any emulator. It features an advanced database searching/filtering system to help you sort and find the games you want quickly and easily. Setting up GameBase to run your emulators is not a simple task. You pretty much need to learn a scripting language. There is however detailed information on how to do this. You will also need to create a database. This can be simplified by using RomCenter or ClrMame Pro Datafiles. There is also the ability to add a picture and detailed information to each game. If your willing to take the time this is an excellent frontend that will allow you to run all your emulators from one program. Visit the GameBase website to find GameBases built by others. Some of these are SNES, NES, VIC20, AMY, GameBase64, Atari Lynx, ZX Project, and a many others.
GFuel is a simple yet functional frontend for your emulation needs.
The entire program can be controlled from a gamepad and custom backgrounds are an option.
HyperSpin is an animated arcade frontend for Windows for use on Home Arcade Machines. HyperSpin allows you to create custom menu systems to run most executables with that arcade look and feel.
HyperSpin has a very attractive design and is by far one of the best applications of its kind.
LaunchBox was originally built as an attractive frontend to DOSBox, but has since expanded to support both modern PC games and emulated console platforms. DOSBox will continue to be a main focus for LaunchBox, as will emulation and PC gaming. LaunchBox aims to be the one-stop shop for gaming on your computer, for both modern and historical games.
I love this Frontend. LusSpace has support for all popular emulators as well as tons of features and extras.
Metropolis Launcher has been created to be a great old-school launcher, emulation front-end and an extensive offline database of video game metadata thanks to MobyGames and their strong user base.
mGalaxy is the best launcher (also called ‘frontend’) for arcade, console and computer games.Relive the fun of playing all those retro games from your childhood (but also current games) with a stylish interface!More than 60 game platforms are recognized!mGalaxy is not only the most stylish frontend, it’s also the most accessible and the easiest to implement!
mGalaxy is the best launcher (also called ‘frontend’) for arcade, console and computer games.
Relive the fun of playing all those retro games from your childhood (but also current games) with a stylish interface!
More than 60 game platforms are recognized!
mGalaxy is not only the most stylish frontend, it’s also the most accessible and the easiest to implement!
Nostlan is a game launcher for retro and current gen video game emulators! Available on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Systems supported: Arcade, DS, 3DS, GBA, N64, PS2, PS3, PSP, SNES, SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis, Switch, Wii, Wii U, and Xbox 360.Emulators supported:bsnes, Cemu, Citra, Cxbx-Reloaded, Dolphin, DeSmuME, DS Player, em-fceux, MAME, melonDS, mesen, mupen64plus, mGBA, PCSX2, PPSSPP, RPCS3, Ryujinx, Ryujinx-LDN, snes9x, VBA, webretro, xemu, Xenia, and Yuzu.
Nostlan is a game launcher for retro and current gen video game emulators! Available on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Systems supported: Arcade, DS, 3DS, GBA, N64, PS2, PS3, PSP, SNES, SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis, Switch, Wii, Wii U, and Xbox 360.
Emulators supported:bsnes, Cemu, Citra, Cxbx-Reloaded, Dolphin, DeSmuME, DS Player, em-fceux, MAME, melonDS, mesen, mupen64plus, mGBA, PCSX2, PPSSPP, RPCS3, Ryujinx, Ryujinx-LDN, snes9x, VBA, webretro, xemu, Xenia, and Yuzu.
A cross platform, customizable graphical frontend for launching emulators and managing your game collection.
Pegasus automatically imports GOG and Steam games. Setting up emulators is a bit more tricky. I would recommend watching the video below.
Playnite is an open source video game library manager with one simple goal: To provide a unified interface for all of your games.
QuickPlay is a powerful universal emulator frontend, which has support for countless emulators and systems.
RetroHub is a frontend application, allowing you to manage and launch your retro-gaming library. It is designed to be user-friendly and easy to use, yet packed with features and highly customizable.RetroHub leverages the Godot engine to provide a powerful 2D and 3D game engine for theme developers. This way, themes can be very versatile and unique, creating a platform of endless possibilities for customizing your gaming setup.
RetroHub is a frontend application, allowing you to manage and launch your retro-gaming library. It is designed to be user-friendly and easy to use, yet packed with features and highly customizable.
RetroHub leverages the Godot engine to provide a powerful 2D and 3D game engine for theme developers. This way, themes can be very versatile and unique, creating a platform of endless possibilities for customizing your gaming setup.
Retrom is a centralized game library management service that allows you to host your games on a single device, and connect clients on any amount of other devices to (un)install/download and play them when and where you want to! Think of it as a sort of self-hosted Steam for your DRM-free game library.
As the name implies, SimpleLaunches is a basic frontend that supports the majority of console and arcade emulators. As with most frontends, setup is a bit time consuming but not too difficult.