People cannot forget the NES. They spent so many years playing Donkey Kong, Zelda, and the like that they are always looking for new ways to recreate those experiences today. But rather than buying used NES consoles, which are somewhat difficult to come by these days, you are better off downloading and installing Nintendulator.
What is Nintendulator?
Nintendulator is a relatively accurate NES emulator. To some people, it is one of the most accurate emulators, capable of playing most, if not all NES games. The open-source program was designed to emulate the kinds of hardware quirks that other emulators neglect.

It isn’t perfect or precise and the accuracy of its emulation has a price. You need a 1.5GHz processor. When Nintendulator first came out, this was a problem. The emulator’s processing requirements were much higher than those of its rivals at the time.
But that is no longer the case. Modern machines can run this program without a challenge. Some people argue that Nintendulator sacrificed speed for accuracy but that was only true at the start.
While it was first introduced, the emulator was slow. But it underwent several changes over the years. The developers rewrote the PPU and CPU, allowing the emulator to execute instructions with greater accuracy.
The program was initially written in C++ but it was changed to plain C. The result was an emulator with decent speed and accuracy. It is compatible with .UNIF .FDS .NES and. NSF files.
While it is marketed as an NES emulator, non-gamers can use it to test NES code.
Features Nintendulator
- It Supports Game Genie Cheats
- You Can Configure and Customize Controllers
- Input Video Recording
- AVI Capturing
- Debugger
- It Can Run on Windows Vista and 7
How To Install Nintendulator?
Nintendulator isn’t complicated. Like many NES emulators, this one doesn’t require an installer. It comes in a compressed folder. If you can extract the file, you can launch Nintendulator immediately.
You don’t have to navigate installation wizards. This is a standalone program. It is ready to go the moment you download it. The only hurdle is finding a safe resource with a secure download. These days, it is far too easy to fall prey to malware.
But if you can find a source you can trust, Nintendulator won’t present any challenges. It doesn’t consume enough resources to strain older machines.
Download Nintendulator
Emulator (Current Version) – Unicode Binaries
- Date: July, 24, 2018
- Size: 459KB
- Platform: Windows
- License: Freeware
How To Use Nintendulator?
To use the emulator, you have to load NES games. Because the emulator runs on your computer, you cannot use NES cartridges. You have to download ROM files.
Technically, downloading ROM files is legal but only if you already own the video games in question. Once you have your ROM files, loading a game is a simple matter of going to ‘File’ and then ‘Open’.
Conclusion
Nintendulator is not necessarily a household name. While it is accurate and efficient, it doesn’t bring anything extraordinary to the table, which is why it is often overlooked. But that doesn’t make the emulator any less attractive.
The open-source Win32 program has a litany of impressive features, including a debugger, customizable controllers, and the ability to record your gameplay.