Skip to content

Licenses

There is software behind RetroArch and Lakka that is protected by Non-Commercial licenses.

It is important to respect the wishes of the developers and people behind the respective projects.

See below for a summary of the licenses behind RetroArch and its cores:

Non-commercial

SOFTWARE LISTED IN THE TABLE BELOW ARE PROTECTED BY NON-COMMERCIAL LICENSES. EVERY ENTRY HAS A HYPERLINK FOR PROOF OF THE SOFTWARE'S LICENSE

SOFTWARE LISTED IN THE TABLE BELOW MAY NOT BE SOLD, NOR MAY THEY BE USED IN A COMMERCIAL PRODUCT OR ACTIVITY WITHOUT COPYRIGHT HOLDERS' APPROVAL.

Software License Non-commercial
Lakka Non-commercial Non-commercial
Opera Non-commercial Non-commercial
AmiArcadia Non-commercial Non-commercial
Cannonball Non-commercial Non-commercial
Dinothawr Non-commercial Non-commercial
FB Alpha Non-commercial Non-commercial
FB Alpha 2012 Non-commercial Non-commercial
FB Alpha 2012 CPS-1 Non-commercial Non-commercial
FB Alpha 2012 CPS-2 Non-commercial Non-commercial
FB Alpha 2012 CPS-3 Non-commercial Non-commercial
FB Alpha 2012 Neo Geo Non-commercial Non-commercial
fMSX Non-commercial Non-commercial
Genesis Plus GX Non-commercial Non-commercial
MAME 2000 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2003 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2003 Midway MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2003-Plus MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2009 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2010 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2014 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MESS 2014 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
PicoDrive MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
Snes9x Non-commercial Non-commercial
Snes9x 2002 Non-commercial Non-commercial
Snes9x 2005 Non-commercial Non-commercial
Snes9x 2005 Plus Non-commercial Non-commercial
Snes9x 2010 Non-commercial Non-commercial
UME 2014 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial

Libretro

Libretro License Non-commercial
LibRetro API MIT
RetroArch GPLv3
Lakka Non-commercial Non-commercial
libretro/docs MIT
libretro/retroarch-assets Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Cores

Core License Non-commercial
3D Engine GPLv3
2048 Public Domain
Anarch CC0
Ardens MIT
AmiArcadia Non-commercial Non-commercial
Atari800 GPLv2
Beetle bsnes GPLv2
Beetle Cygne GPLv2
Beetle GBA GPLv2
Beetle Lynx zlib, GPLv2
Beetle NeoPop GPLv2
Beetle PC-FX GPLv2
Beetle PCE FAST GPLv2
Beetle PSX GPLv2
Beetle PSX HW GPLv2
Beetle Saturn GPLv2
Beetle SGX GPLv2
Beetle VB GPLv2
blueMSX GPLv2
bnes GPLv3
bsnes-mercury Accuracy GPLv3
bsnes-mercury Balanced GPLv3
bsnes-mercury Performance GPLv3
bsnes Accuracy GPLv3
bsnes Balanced GPLv3
bsnes C++98 (v085) GPLv3
bsnes Performance GPLv3
Caprice32 GPLv2
ChaiLove MIT
Citra GPLv2
Citra Canary/Experimental GPLv2
ClownMDEmu AGPLv3
Craft MIT
CrocoDS MIT
DeSmuME 2015 GPLv2
DeSmuME GPLv2
DICE GPLv3
Dinothawr Non-commercial Non-commercial
Dolphin GPLv2
DOSBox GPLv2
DOSBox Pure GPLv2
doukutsu-rs MIT
Dummy Core MIT
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup GPLv2+
EasyRPG GPLv3
EightyOne GPLv3
Elektronika - BK-0010/BK-0011 HPND
EmuSCV GPLv2
Emux CHIP-8 GPLv2
Emux GB GPLv2
Emux NES GPLv2
Emux SMS GPLv2
ep128emu GPLv2
FB Alpha Non-commercial Non-commercial
FB Alpha 2012 Non-commercial Non-commercial
FB Alpha 2012 CPS-1 Non-commercial Non-commercial
FB Alpha 2012 CPS-2 Non-commercial Non-commercial
FB Alpha 2012 CPS-3 Non-commercial Non-commercial
FB Alpha 2012 Neo Geo Non-commercial Non-commercial
FCEUmm GPLv2
FFmpeg LGPLv2, GPLv2
Flycast GPLv2
fMSX Non-commercial Non-commercial
FreeIntv GPLv2+
FreeJ2ME GPLv3
Frodo GPLv2
Fuse GPLv3
GAM4980 GPLv3
Gambatte GPLv2
Game Music Emu GPLv3
Gearboy GPLv3
Gearcoleco GPLv3
Geargrafx GPLv3
Gearlynx GPLv3
Gearsystem GPLv3
Genesis Plus GX Non-commercial Non-commercial
Geolith BSD-3-Clause, MIT
gpSP GPLv2
GW zlib
Handy zlib
Holani GPLv3
Hatari GPLv2
higan Accuracy GPLv3
Imageviewer MIT
JollyCV BSD-3-Clause, MIT
Kronos GPLv2
LowRES NX zlib
Lutro MIT
M2000 GPLv3
MAME BSD-3-Clause & GNU GPLv2
MAME 2000 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2003 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2003 Midway MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2003-Plus MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2009 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2010 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2014 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
MAME 2016 BSD-3-Clause & GNU GPLv2
melonDS 2021 GPLv3
melonDS DS GPLv3
Mesen GPLv3
Mesen-S GPLv3
MESS 2014 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
Meteor GPLv3
mGBA MPLv2.0
MicroW8 Unlicense
mkxp-z GPLv2
mpv GPLv3
Mr.Boom MIT
Mupen64Plus GPLv3
Mupen64Plus GLES3 GPLv3
Native32Emu BSD-3-Clause
Neko Project II
Neko Project II Kai MIT
Nestopia GPLv2
Numero GPLv2
nSide Balanced GPLv3
NXEngine GPLv3
O2EM Artistic License
OpenLara BSD-2-Clause
Opera Non-commercial
P-UAE GPLv2
ParaLLEl N64 GPLv3
PCem GPLv2
PCSX ReARMed GPLv2
PCSX ReARMed [Interpreter] GPLv2
PD777 MIT
PicoDrive MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
PocketCDG MIT
PokeMini GPLv3
PPSSPP GPLv2
PrBoom GPLv2
ProSystem GPLv2
PX68k kero_src.txt
QuickNES GPLv2
Redream (libretro fork) GPLv3
REminiscence GPLv3
RemoteJoy GPLv2
Remote RetroPad MIT
RVVM GPLv3, MPLv2.0
SameBoy MIT
SameDuck MIT
SAME_CDI GPLv2
ScummVM GPLv2
Snes9x Non-commercial Non-commercial
Snes9x 2002 Non-commercial Non-commercial
Snes9x 2005 Non-commercial Non-commercial
Snes9x 2005 Plus Non-commercial Non-commercial
Snes9x 2010 Non-commercial Non-commercial
Stella GPLv2
TempGBA GPLv2
TGB Dual GPLv2
The Powder Toy GPLv3
Theodore GPLv3
TyrQuake GPLv2
UME 2014 MAME (Non-commercial) Non-commercial
Uzem GPLv3
VaporSpec MIT
VBA-M GPLv2
VBA Next GPLv2
vecx GPLv3
VeMUlator GPLv3
VICE C64 GPLv2
VICE C128 GPLv2
VICE PLUS4 GPLv2
VICE VIC20 GPLv2
Video Processor BSD-2-Clause
Vircon32 BSD-3-Clause
Virtual Jaguar GPLv3
VirtualXT zlib
XRick GPLv3
YabaSanshiro GPLv2
Yabause GPLv2