When you use a Raspberry Pi, youre probably using Raspberry Pi OS or some other Linux-based operating system.
Whether it is Kodi, or a retro gaming suite, there is an underlying Linux OS.
Emulation is particularly sneaky here.
But what if it was possible to run emulators on the Raspberry Pi without an operating system.
Well, it is.
Heres everything you oughta know to get started with bare metal emulation on the Raspberry Pi.
What Is an Emulator?
The internet is full of explanation as to what an emulator is (and what it is not).
At its simplest, an emulator is software that runs programs written for one platform on another.
So, for example, you might want to runAndroid software on Windows.
This requires an Android emulator.
Many different emulators are available.
The majority of computers, consoles, and arcade systems can be emulated on computers including the Raspberry Pi.
These are available in systems like RetroPie, Recalbox, and Lakka.
What these tools have in common is that the emulators all run on Linux.
What Is a Bare Metal Emulator?
Like a standard emulator, a bare metal emulator runs programs intended for one system on another.
In this case, that computer would be a Raspberry Pi.
Why Would You Use a Bare Metal Emulator on the Raspberry Pi?
This can result in latency, slowing emulation down.
With a bare metal emulator, latency is minimal as there is no operating system.
5 Raspberry Pi Bare Metal Emulators
Several bare metal emulators have been developed for the Raspberry Pi.
These are largely from the 8-bit computing era.
Bare metal emulators should be downloaded and copied to a microSD card.
Specific instructions for each tool can be found in the corresponding download links.
Note that in most cases the Raspberry Pi can be simply powered down while using a bare metal emulator.
Also, hot swapping USB devices is usually not supported, so connect devices before powering up.
This software provides a couple of useful additional screens.
Learn more in our guide tosetting up ZX Baremulator on a Raspberry Pi.
Download:ZX Baremulator(Free)
2.
It will emulate 8086 and 80186 instruction sets, and has PC speaker, Adlib, and Soundblaster emulation.
In short, Faux86 should run anything written for an IBM-compatible PC up to the mid 1990s.
If it runs on MS-DOS, it should run on this.
Note that the Faux86 bare metal emulator has no support for large storage.
The developer recommends: use a small capacity SD card and flash the image as a 32MB card.
Download:Faux86(Free)
3.
(Interestingly, many Raspberry Pis are also assembled in Wales).
Despite that name of its hardware brethren, however, many Dragon 32 games play in monochrome.
A single keyboard command (F1) launches the emulators ROM and CAS file manager.
Download:Dragon-32-Rpi-Bare-Metal(Free)
4.
BMC64 (Commodore 64 Emulator)
Fans of the Commodore 64 home computer might be more interested in BMC64.
Note that BMC64 is only compatible with Raspberry Pi 2, 3, and Zero models.
Download:BMC64(Free)
5.
I recommend you check the notes on this project, including the attributions.
A GitHub search of bare metal Raspberry Pi reveals all manner of projects.
If you havent looked beyond that yet, now is the time to really push your Raspberry Pi.
