The GPD Win is great not only for playing games, but also retro gaming with emulators. This How To article lists popular gaming services and highlights a number of emulators from the early Atari 2600 up to the more recent Nintendo Wii.
Windows 10 Gaming Services
Click to jump to the service:
Retrogaming with Emulators
Click to jump to the emulator:
- Atari 2600
- ZX Spectrum
- NES
- Master System
- Gameboy
- Amiga 500
- Mega Drive / Genesis
- Super Nintendo / Super Famicom
- Neo Geo
- PC Engine / Turbo Graffx 16
- Arcade
- Nintendo 64
- PlayStation
- Gameboy Advance
- Dreamcast
- Wii
Where to download emulator ROM’s
Please note that you should only download ROM’s for the games you legally own.
Emuparadise – https://www.emuparadise.me/
Free ROMs – http://www.freeroms.com/
Planet Emu – http://www.planetemu.net/
Windows 10 Gaming
Steam
Homepage: http://store.steampowered.com/
Steam is the largest and most popular digital distribution service with millions of users around the world. Here you can purchase the latest Windows 10 games as well as older ones going back over ten years. Every PC gamer should have a Steam account, especially during the Summer and Winter sales where you can buy games at very low prices.
Origin
Homepage: https://www.origin.com/
Origin is a digital distribution service run by EA. Here you can find all the EA games which are now exclusive to Origin as well as a fair number of games from other companies. Around once a month, Origin make available a game free to download. They are usually older games which should work great on your GPD Win.
Good Old Games (GoG)
Homepage: https://www.gog.com/
Good Old Games (GoG for short) is a DRM-free digital distribution service. If you like playing games without having to be constantly connected to the internet because of DRM, then GoG is the place to go for your games. You can find a massive back catalogue of older games and bundles which should work very well with the GPD Win.
Emulators
Atari 2600
Emulator: Stella – https://stella-emu.github.io/
Stella has been in development for just over 20 years! It is the best Atari 2600 emulator and runs great on the GPD Win. For a console that for many was their first experience in gaming, it has all the classics to play such as Pac-Man, Pitfall, Space Invaders and many more.
ZX Spectrum
Emulator: Fuse – http://fuse-emulator.sourceforge.net/
If you did not have a ZX Spectrum back in the day, then you probably had a C64 (or Amstrad CPC) and your friend had one instead. The immensely popular speccy had thousands of games to play which came on cassette tape and took forever to load. With an emulator, it takes around as long to load as reading this sentence. The GPD Win built-in keyboard means you don’t have to carry around a USB keyboard and you can play great games such as Chuckie Egg, Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner wherever you go.
NES
Emulator: Nestopia UE – http://0ldsk00l.ca/nestopia/
In the USA and Japan, the NES was the console of choice for many gamers, selling over 50 million units worldwide. It featured a wide range of games and accessories suitable for all ages. My suggested games to play are Super Mario Bros 3, The Legend of Zelda and Mega Man 2. We won’t mention the Power Glove…
Master System
Emulator: MEKA – http://www.smspower.org/meka/
The SEGA Master System was very popular in Europe and for many it was the console of choice over the NES. With great arcade conversions including Outrun, Golden Axe and Shinobi you could get some practise in before throwing your 10p’s into the arcade cabinet and beat your friends high scores.
Gameboy
Emulator: VistualBoy Advance M – http://vba-m.com/
The Gameboy was and still is in my opinion the greatest handheld console and as you guess, it works perfectly on the GPD Win. The Gameboy was so popular even your mum would have to fight you off for another go on Tetris. This is a must try system with classics such as Tetris, the Pokémon series and The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening.
Amiga 500
Emulator: WinUAE – http://www.winuae.net/
The Amiga 500 was a great home computer that every kid told their parents they could write their homework on it, but all they really wanted to do was play games on it. With games such as The Secret of Monkey Island, Snbow Islands and Sensible Soccer there was no time for homework! Though you could install Wordperfect if you really must…
Mega Drive / Genesis
Emulator: Kega Fusion – http://www.carpeludum.com/kega-fusion/
Much like the Master System, the Mega Drive (Genesis) was incredibly popular in Europe. Later in the consoles life saw the release of the Mega CD which loaded games from a CD ROM, and the 32x addon which boosted the power. The Mega Drive launched the career of Sonic The Hedgehog, the amazing Streets of Rage series and the wacky Toejam and Earl.
Super Nintendo / Super Famicom
Emulator: Snes9x – http://www.snes9x.com/
The Super Nintendo was Nintendo’s answer to the Mega Drive and enjoyed global success thanks to its mascots Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong and many more. This generation saw the release of Street Fighter II, arguably one of the greatest arcade games ever (I spent a small fortune importing it for SNES from Japan!). The SNES alone is worth it for Street Fighter II, but of course classics including The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past, Star Fox and Chrono Trigger.
Neo Geo
Emulator: WinKawaks – http://www.winkawaks.org/
The Neo Geo, a console everyone wanted but few could afford. The Neo Geo was essentially an arcade machine for the home with the games being an exact arcade copy of the boards costing around £200 in the early 90’s! If like many, you missed out on this console the first time around, you can now play games such as the classic Metal Slug series, King Of Fighters and Fatal Fury.
PC Engine / Turbo Graffx 16
Emulator: Mednafen – https://mednafen.github.io/
While not strictly a 16-bit console (8-bit CPU and 16-bit graphics), the PC Engine fits in this era of games consoles and featured a decent selection of games which often saw impressive arcade conversions such as Splatterhouse, Strider and an extreme pinball simulator called Devil’s Crush.
Arcade
Emulators: MAME – http://mamedev.org/ and Final Burn https://www.fbalpha.com/
Arcade machines have spanned all older generations of gaming but we have included it in this era to cover everything as the games start from 1970’s up to more recent years. There are a number of Arcade emulators each with their benefits and disadvantages. We can recommend MAME for most arcade, and for systems such as CPS we recommend Final Burn. There are thousands of games to try, everything from Space Invaders, Donkey Kong and Simpsons.
Nintendo 64
Emulators: Project64 – http://www.pj64-emu.com/
The Nintendo 64 followed on from the popularity of the SNES with all its usual mascots featuring in their own games. These included great titles such as Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time plus many many more. Perhaps everyone’s top game (well it was mine) was the up to four player split screen shooter GoldenEye 007.
PlayStation
Emulator: ePSXe – http://www.epsxe.com/
The Sony PlayStation came at just the right time and in my opinion made gaming cool, bringing the console into the living room from the bedroom. Thanks to a wide variety of games for all ages and tastes, as well as being CD based so you could play your music CD’s, it was a massively popular console. Where to start with the games…. Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid are three you should definitely check out, but there are so many we could go on all day about them!
Gameboy Advance
Emulator: VBA-M – http://vba-m.com/
If you wanted true gaming on the go, you went for the Gameboy Advance. It was small enough to fit easily in your pocket and came in a few different models over the years. Considering the GPD Win is not much larger than the GBA but many many more times powerful you can really see how technology has progressed in such a short space of time. Great games to play include Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Advance Wars and Final Fantasy VI Advance.
Dreamcast
Emulators: nullDC (faster) – http://github.com/skmp/nulldc, Reicast (Slower but more up-to-date) – http://reicast.com
The SEGA Dreamcast was sadly SEGA’s final console, while the PlayStation was by far the more popular console the Dreamcast can still hold it’s head up high with a fair number of games and arcade conversions of SEGA’s catalogue such as Crazy Taxi. Other great games you should check out are Shenmue, Sonic Adventure and Soul Calibur.
Wii
Homepage: Dolphin – https://dolphin-emu.org/
The Nintendo Wii was immensely popular thanks to its Wiimotes, though with that came many Wiimote related injuries. Personally I was not a big fan of the Wii, but there are some extremely fun games suitable for all ages. Not every game works great on the GPD Win, but from what I tested, the games are more than playable which means you can check out New Super Mario Bros. Donkey Kong Country Returns and Kirby’s Epic Yarn while on the move.
