Case study

LaiNES: cycle-level NES hardware emulation

LaiNES reconstructs NES console behavior in a cycle-level emulator. Its implementation models the 6502 CPU, PPU, audio hardware and common cartridge mappers, while technical notes describe timing the PPU at three steps per CPU cycle.

Targets: Firmware
Category: Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
Sources reviewed: 2026-11-06

Stars: 1.5k
Last commit: 2025-11-06
Language: C++
License (GitHub): BSD-2-Clause

GitHub data as of 2026-11-09

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Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: Building requires SCons, a C++14 compiler, SDL2, SDL2-ttf and SDL2-image on a compatible Unix system.
Limits: Mapper compatibility is limited to the listed implementations.
License: Licensed under BSD-2-Clause.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{laines-nes-emulation-case,
  title = {{LaiNES: cycle-level NES hardware emulation}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/AndreaOrru/LaiNES}},
  url = {https://github.com/AndreaOrru/LaiNES},
  urldate = {2026-11-06},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/laines-nes-emulation-case/}}
}

Plain text

LaiNES: cycle-level NES hardware emulation. https://github.com/AndreaOrru/LaiNES (accessed 2026-11-06). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/laines-nes-emulation-case/

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · AndreaOrru/LaiNES · Revision 1f3d126