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97 open-source game launchers and emulators

Open Source Game Launchers & Emulators

The most popular open-source game launchers and emulators for Windows, macOS and Linux on GitHub are Godot Engine, shadPS4 and Mindustry. appsgit lists 97, including free alternatives to GOG Galaxy, Unity and GameMaker, each with its platforms, license and install commands.

Updated Oct 28, 2026

Open Source Game Launchers & Emulators

Showing 1-48 of 97 by GitHub stars. All desktop apps A to Z · JSON API

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What are the best open-source game launchers and emulators?

By GitHub stars, Godot Engine is the most popular (119,187 stars), followed by shadPS4 and Mindustry. People often use these instead of GOG Galaxy, Unity and GameMaker. Each page lists the platforms, license and last commit.

Which of these run on Windows, Mac and Linux?

80 of the 97 open-source game launchers and emulators listed here run on Windows, 69 on macOS and 78 on Linux; on a Mac, the most starred is Godot Engine. 34 can be installed with a package manager such as Flathub, Homebrew, winget or Chocolatey.

Are these open-source game launchers and emulators free?

Yes. All 97 use an open-source license (OSI-approved or FSF-free), so you can use, copy and change them for free.

How are these open-source game launchers and emulators chosen?

Apps come from desktop awesome lists (Awesome Linux Software, awesome-mac, awesome-windows, awesome-electron and the media and file sections of awesome-cli-apps), more than 70 GitHub topics such as desktop-app, electron-app, tauri-app, gtk, qt, macos-app, pdf-editor, cad and remote-desktop, and a hand-picked list of flagship apps. An app is listed only if it has a license (one GitHub detects, or one appsgit checked by hand), a README and a commit in the last six months, is not archived or a fork, and has 1000+ GitHub stars (topics), 500+ (awesome lists) or 100+ (hand-picked). It must also be an end-user application with a desktop signal: installers in its releases, install instructions for Windows, macOS or Linux, or a Flathub, Homebrew, winget, Chocolatey, Snap or AUR package. Libraries, frameworks, themes, plugins and servers are left out, and source-available apps are labelled as such.