Skip to content

Game · Consoles, homebrew & emulation

Stella

Stella is a console and retro computer emulator, available on Windows and Linux.

  • Completely free
  • Windows and Linux
  • Open source
  • No account

At a glance

Stella is completely free: it is open source software, and every feature is available without paying or subscribing.

Its licence (GPL-2.0) is a copyleft open source licence: you may use, study, modify and redistribute it, including commercially; modified versions must keep the same licence.

Strengths

  • Open source code
  • No account needed
  • Commercial use allowed

About

The Atari 2600 Video Computer System (VCS), introduced in 1977, was the most popular home video game system of the early 1980's. Now you can enjoy all of your favorite Atari 2600 games on your PC thanks to Stella! Stella is a multi-platform Atari 2600 VCS emulator released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Stella was originally developed for Linux by Bradford W. Mott, and is currently maintained by Stephen Anthony. Since its original release several people have joined the development team to port Stella to other operating systems such as AcornOS, AmigaOS, DOS, FreeBSD, IRIX, Linux, OS/2, MacOS, Unix, and Windows. The development team is working hard to perfect the emulator and we hope you enjoy our effort.

Description from Flathub — AppStream (Flathub)

Sources and checks

  • Facts collected from Flathub (credit card, source code, publisher, licence, free status, platforms, commercial use, version) —
  • Facts collected from Winget (Windows Package Manager) (credit card, account, source code, publisher, licence, free status, platforms, commercial use, version) —
  • Last technical check: 7 November 2026
  • Description from Flathub — AppStream (Flathub)

How listings are built →

Do you develop Stella?

Correct this listing with the report form, or cite it with this optional badge (it shows the verified free status and changes nothing in the ranking):

<a href="https://licitpro.fr/en/resource/stella"><img src="https://licitpro.fr/badge/stella.svg?l=en" alt="Listed on LicitPro" height="20"></a>

Developers and publishers →

In the same category

Bottles

Software · Open source

Run Windows software.

Completely freeLinux

RetroArch

Game · Open source

Frontend for emulators, game engines and media players.

Free, with trade-offsWinMacLinuxAndroidiOS

Dolphin Emulator

Game · Open source

Dolphin Emulator is a console and retro computer emulator, available on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android: mod support.

Completely freeWinMacLinuxAndroid

PPSSPP

Game · Open source

PPSSPP is a console and retro computer emulator, available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

Completely freeWinMacLinuxAndroidiOS

melonDS

Game · Open source

Nintendo DS and DSi emulator.

Completely freeWinLinux

xemu

Game · Open source

Original Xbox Emulator.

Completely freeWinMacLinux