Atari Jaguar, everywhere RetroArch runs.

The open-source Atari Jaguar emulator: a core for RetroArch and a standalone desktop app. Cartridges, Jaguar CD, every controller, link play. The core is prebuilt for 24 targets: desktop, Raspberry Pi, iOS, tvOS, Android, web, Switch and Vita.

Download Desktop app Compatibility Enhancements

Doom An outdoor courtyard on E1M1 with a green-floored pit; ammo 50, health 100%. 2x internal resolution, true colour, Accurate blitter.
Tempest 2000 crt-lottes The claw at the rim of a flat lane web, flippers climbing toward it. Shader: crt-lottes.
Alien vs Predator An Alien's claw in a corridor facing a chevron-panelled door. 2x internal resolution, true colour, Accurate blitter.
Wolfenstein 3D A guard in a blue-stone corridor; 100 health, 23 ammo. 2x internal resolution, true colour, Accurate blitter.
Raiden crt-aperture Over forest and beach, a red fighter below a large craft and an explosion. Shader: crt-aperture.
Missile Command 3D Two fireballs and an impact flash over a desert base, a missile coming down. 2x internal resolution, true colour, Accurate blitter.
Iron Soldier The teal mech firing a rifle. 2x internal resolution, true colour, Accurate blitter.
Defender 2000 crt-easymode The ship firing a laser over desert mountains: “Catch that humanoid!” Shader: crt-easymode.
Atari Karts Race start on a purple alien plain, lap 1 of 5. 2x internal resolution, true colour, Accurate blitter.
Skyhammer Cockpit view facing a red BREW sign. 2x internal resolution, true colour, Accurate blitter.
Cybermorph A fireball beside the ship; 18 pods remaining. 2x internal resolution, true colour, Accurate blitter.
Ultra Vortek crt-royale A gold-armoured fighter against a stone-skinned opponent in a gothic hall. Shader: crt-royale.
Super Burnout Fourth place at about 115 mph, a city skyline ahead. 2x internal resolution, true colour, Accurate blitter.
Hover Strike Cockpit over a cratered moonscape with Earth on the horizon. 2x internal resolution, true colour, Accurate blitter.
Checkered Flag A red open-wheel car, fourth of six on lap 1. 2x internal resolution, true colour, Accurate blitter.
Iron Soldier The Manipulator mech cockpit over city blocks and snowy mountains. 2x internal resolution, true colour, Accurate blitter.

Real core frames at 2x internal resolution with true colour and the Accurate blitter; four go through a RetroArch CRT shader in the desktop app. Click one to enlarge.

Two ways to play

The RetroArch core runs inside RetroArch and any other libretro frontend, on every platform above. The app (new in v3.9.0) is a standalone program for macOS, Windows and Linux, built on the same core, so options and save states behave the same.

Game library with box art, favorites, recents and save-state thumbnails
RetroArch .slangp shader presets (librashader), cheats, controller remapping, a Netplay window for LAN link play
RetroAchievements (softcore or hardcore, login kept in the system keychain) and Discord Rich Presence
Light and dark themes, a theme editor and a choice of interface font
Debug tools: memory viewer, cheat scanner, Object Processor list, blitter log, texture browser, audio scope, and a 68000, GPU and DSP debugger with breakpoints

See the app

Get it

Direct links for every platform are on the Download page ({{LATEST_LINK}}), or let the installer do it. It installs the RetroArch core, the standalone app, or both, checks every download against the release's SHA256SUMS.txt (and that list's own signature or build attestation), and the same command updates whichever you already have. For the core it finds your RetroArch, backs up the core it replaces and checks that the new one loads.

macOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi

curl -fsSL {{RAW_URL}}/tools/install.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell)

irm {{RAW_URL}}/tools/install.ps1 | iex

Installer options

Both ask what to install when run in a terminal. To skip the question, add --what core, --what app or --what both: curl -fsSL {{RAW_URL}}/tools/install.sh | sh -s -- --what both. On Windows, iex cannot take arguments, so set $env:VJ_WHAT = 'both' first, or run & ([scriptblock]::Create((irm {{RAW_URL}}/tools/install.ps1))) -What both.

install.sh (Linux, Raspberry Pi, macOS) and install.ps1 (Windows) take --dry-run / -DryRun to print the plan and change nothing, and --channel nightly / -Channel nightly. The app goes to /Applications on macOS, ~/.local/bin as an AppImage on Linux (--app-format deb for the package) and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\VirtualJaguar on Windows. On a Pi the core installer reads the word size from the RetroArch binary, not the kernel, because the core must match RetroArch (rpi4 is 32-bit, rpi4_64 is 64-bit). Nightlies build from develop (currently v{{CORE_VERSION}}) and are gated on compiling, not on the test suite.

Manual: libretro docs, with core options and controls. No BIOS files are required (README: BIOS). Wondering whether your game works? See Compatibility.

What ships

Jaguar CD

CUE/BIN, CDI and CHD. Boots through an HLE CD BIOS (default) or the real BIOS on emulated BUTCH hardware. Audio CDs and the Virtual Light Machine work. With no content loaded, the core starts at the CD BIOS insert-disc screen. A disc swap restarts the console. HLE CD titles are deterministic under run-ahead and rollback, and a state saved mid-load resumes the load. CHD needs a session-aware chdman; every release attaches one.

compatibility · v3.7.0 notes · v3.8.0 notes

Controllers

ST and Amiga mouse, the Tempest 2000 rotary, TR10 analog and driving, the port-1 lightgun, the Team Tap, the Pro Controller and the 6D flight stick. Dead zone, offset and response are tunable per axis. The 6D stick is a best attempt: no software that uses it is known.

input guide · v3.5.0 notes

Link play

JagLink and CatBox serial, at register level. Automatic mode rides a RetroArch netplay session with nothing to type. Direct TCP finds LAN hosts by UDP beacon. Doom deathmatch is validated, and since v3.8.0 it no longer drops to 30 fps. Ultra Vortek dials the emulated Voice Modem (press 911 at the title screen), and voice chat carries speech over it.

user guide · voice-modem.md

Savestates and run-ahead

Byte-identical replay under RetroArch’s run-ahead loop, checked by a harness. The format is v17. Older states still load, but older cores cannot read v17.

PR #327 · savestate-compat.md

RetroAchievements

Memory maps and achievement support, asserted in CI against the rcheevos mapping.

test_memory_map.c · test_rcheevos_e2e.sh · v3.9.1 notes

GameDrive and Memory Track

GameDrive 16 MB bank switching against RetroHQ’s GDBIOS bindings; GD-locked homebrew boots, and since v3.8.0 GameDrive software can read and write an SD card backed by a host folder. The CD unit’s Memory Track save cartridge is emulated, so CD saves persist.

GameDrive notes · memory-track.md

HD textures

Dump every unique blit source as a hashed PNG, redraw it, drop it in a pack directory. Replacement is presentation only, so savestates and netplay stay bit-identical with or without a pack.

details · texture-dump.md

Patches, cheats and hooks

The frontend applies cartridge softpatches (IPS and friends). CD images are not softpatched. Your own vj_hooks.txt patches load behind a core option.

patching-a-game.md · rom-patches.md

Debugging

A GDB remote stub exposes the 68K, GPU and DSP as threads. A crash watchdog writes the failing subsystem into your frontend log. Series K and Model M boot ROMs are embedded, and a custom image is identified by checksum.

GDB stub · app debug tools · crash_detect.c

Source

GPLv3, descended from Shamus Hammons’ Virtual Jaguar. Hardware-referenced tests gate CI.

licence · why this core

Atari Jaguar, everywhere RetroArch runs.

Two ways to play

Get it

What ships

Release log

Help and feedback