z26

z26 is an open source Atari 2600 emulator developed mainly by John Saeger, with help from various other contributors over the years. In its time it was regarded as a very high quality emulator. Development ended in 2011.

Older versions of z26 used the SDL library to draw graphics. The final versions switched to an OpenGL renderer and added support for Mac OS X, but dropped Linux support.

z26 emulates the Atari 2600 well, but it is more complicated to set up than most emulators, so expect to spend some time adjusting its settings before you get started.

As z26 is no longer developed, we recommend Stella, which is actively maintained.