Requirements¶

Runtime libraries¶

kat5200 depends on the following at run time:

SDL3 — windowing, input, audio, and rendering. The desktop renderer uses SDL's GPU API (Vulkan / Metal / Direct3D 12) with precompiled shader bundles; there is no longer an OpenGL dependency on the desktop. (Only the Android build links GLES.)
SDL3_image — image loading (screenshots, UI assets).
zlib — compressed (zip) ROM support.
libm — math library.
ROM-set download backend (optional) — used by the in-app 5200 ROM-set downloader. The backend is per-platform: libcurl on Linux/macOS (only if found at configure time), WinHTTP on Windows (a system component), and a JNI backend on Android. If the backend is unavailable the emulator still builds and runs; only the download feature is affected.

Build tools¶

To build from source you will additionally need:

A C compiler (GCC or Clang).
CMake 3.16 or newer (the Android Gradle build pins CMake 3.22.1).
SDL3 and SDL3_image, found via CMake's CONFIG mode.
Development headers (-dev / -devel packages) for the libraries above.

See Installation for per-platform build instructions.

ROM and BIOS images¶

kat5200 does not ship with copyrighted BIOS or game ROMs. To run software you will need:

A 5200 BIOS image (for Atari 5200 emulation).
OS / BASIC ROM images for the 8-bit computers (an OS ROM is required; BASIC is optional and per-title).
Cartridge, floppy, cassette, or executable images for the software you want to run.

The Setup window can scan your system for BIOS and ROM files and assign the best matches automatically.

Recommended¶

Any reasonably modern PC will run kat5200 at full speed.
A USB gamepad or joystick is recommended for the 5200, whose analog controllers are central to many games.

Android devices¶

The Android APK supports phones, tablets, Android TV / Google TV, and Fire TV devices with OpenGL ES 2.0 or newer. Native libraries are packaged for arm64-v8a, armeabi-v7a, and x86_64; x86_64 is primarily for Android emulator images.