Emulator Compatibility Levels Explained
Across emulator compatibility lists, labels such as Perfect, Playable, Ingame, Intro, Loadable, and Nothing all answer the same question: how far does the game get, and can you realistically play it? This guide explains what those levels usually mean across the emulator ecosystem, then shows how EmuRank applies them on game pages.
Most players are really asking what Playable means and whether Ingame is good enough to finish. In practical terms, Perfect and Playable usually mean a game is worth playing, Ingame means it reaches real gameplay but is not reliably finishable, Intro and Loadable mean it boots without becoming meaningfully playable, and Nothing means it does not initialize successfully.
Some projects use near-equivalent labels such as Runs, Starts, Intro/Menu, Loads, Broken, or Unplayable. The wording changes, but the progression is usually the same: flawless, finishable, partly working, boots only, or does not boot.
The Six Compatibility Levels
Listed from best to worst. Each level represents how far a game progresses when run on an emulator.
Perfect Compatibility
Definition: Runs flawlessly with no visual glitches, audio issues, or performance problems. Indistinguishable from native hardware.
What players can usually do: Players should expect to boot, play, save, and finish the game normally with no meaningful caveats. If a project uses Perfect, it should feel essentially complete from a player perspective.
Typical blockers: No typical blockers — the game behaves as it would on original hardware.
Playable Compatibility
Definition: Completable from start to finish with only minor issues that do not meaningfully affect the experience.
What players can usually do: Players should expect to finish the game, even if there are small glitches, short slowdowns, or minor audiovisual issues. This is still a green-light result for most players.
Typical blockers: Minor graphical glitches, slight audio imperfections, or occasional short slowdowns that do not block progress.
In-Game Compatibility
Definition: Runs past the title screen but has significant issues, frequent crashes, or insufficient performance to be completed.
What players can usually do: Players can usually reach real gameplay and test mechanics, areas, or early progression, but should not assume a reliable full playthrough. Typical blockers are crashes, severe glitches, softlocks, broken progression, or major performance problems.
Typical blockers: Crashes, softlocks, severe graphical corruption, broken progression triggers, or major performance drops that prevent reaching or sustaining late-game content.
Intro Compatibility
Definition: Boots and may show the intro sequence or main menu, but cannot progress any further.
What players can usually do: Players can usually confirm that the game boots and may reach logos, intro video, title screen, or menus, but not real stable gameplay. This is useful for tracking boot progress, not for recommending the game as playable.
Typical blockers: Crash or freeze before reaching controllable gameplay. The game does not progress past the intro or menu stage.
Loadable Compatibility
Definition: Appears to start loading and the emulator shows activity, but no playable content is rendered.
What players can usually do: Players may see a loading screen, black screen with activity, or other signs of initialization, but they should not expect usable menus or gameplay. This is effectively a pre-boot state rather than a playable result.
Typical blockers: The game fails before rendering any meaningful UI. Output may be a black screen with audio, a stuck loading indicator, or emulator-level initialization activity without visual game content.
Nothing Compatibility
Definition: Fails to initialize at all. The emulator crashes or produces no output.
What players can usually do: Players should expect no practical in-game progress. The title currently does not boot successfully in that state, or the emulator fails before meaningful output appears.
Typical blockers: The emulator crashes on launch, produces no output, or fails before the game binary is loaded.
Equivalent Labels on Other Compatibility Lists
Different emulator projects use slightly different names, but most public compatibility lists describe the same broad ladder from flawless to non-booting.
| EmuRank label | Common near-equivalents | Meaning family |
|---|---|---|
| Perfect | Perfect | Essentially native-quality or issue-free play |
| Playable | Playable | Finishable with only minor issues |
| Ingame | Ingame, Runs, Starts | Reaches gameplay but is not reliably finishable |
| Intro | Intro, Intro/Menu | Reaches logos, menus, or intro but not true gameplay |
| Loadable | Loadable, Loads | Shows loading or initialization activity without becoming playable |
| Nothing | Nothing, Broken, Unplayable | Fails to boot or initialize successfully |
Projects such as RPCS3, shadPS4, Cemu, and Dolphin all publish their own compatibility databases. Cemu uses labels like Runs, Loads, and Unplayable, Dolphin uses Starts and Intro/Menu, and shadPS4 currently uses Menus and Boots, so the wording shifts even when the core boot-to-play ladder is similar.
These are approximate families of labels, not guaranteed one-to-one mappings. Always read the notes on the specific emulator project when detailed per-game notes are available.
How EmuRank Uses These Levels
Each report submitted to EmuRank is assigned one of these six compatibility levels by the reporter, based on their direct testing experience.
EmuRank groups reports by emulator, ranks them by relevance, and derives a game's public compatibility from the winning emulator's aggregated result rather than from one representative report. This means a game's displayed compatibility reflects the weight of evidence across multiple reports, not a single person's observation.
The playable percentage shown in emulator and platform statistics counts only Perfect and Playable results. Ingame, Intro, Loadable, and Nothing are excluded from that count because they do not represent games a player can reliably complete.
Untested is separate from the six compatibility levels. It means EmuRank does not yet have enough compatibility data for that game or game-emulator combination — not that the game has been tested and found non-functional.
After you understand the labels, compare current coverage on the Stats page or browse emulator rankings to see where playable evidence is strongest right now.
How EmuRank Adds Confidence
Compatibility and confidence are separate signals on EmuRank.
Compatibility answers how well the game currently runs. Confidence answers how much evidence backs that conclusion on EmuRank.
A game can have a strong compatibility label with limited evidence, or a weaker compatibility label with strong evidence that many reports agree on the limitation. Confidence helps readers understand whether the displayed label reflects a single report or a well-established consensus.
Confidence is specific to EmuRank. It is not a universal emulator-industry rating label in the same way that Playable or Ingame are.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do emulator compatibility levels mean?
Compatibility levels describe how far a game gets when run on an emulator.
From best to worst, the common ladder is Perfect, Playable, Ingame, Intro, Loadable, and Nothing.
Perfect and Playable are generally finishable, Ingame reaches real gameplay but not dependable completion, Intro and Loadable are boot-progress states, and Nothing does not initialize successfully.
What can I actually do at each compatibility level?
Perfect and Playable are generally finishable: you can boot, play, save, and complete the game.
Ingame reaches real gameplay, but crashes, softlocks, severe glitches, or bad performance still prevent a dependable full playthrough.
Intro and Loadable confirm some boot progress without meaningful play, while Nothing does not boot at all.
What does Playable mean, and can you finish the game?
Playable usually means the game can be completed from start to finish.
Small graphical glitches, brief slowdowns, or minor audiovisual issues may still exist, but they should not materially block progress.
What does Ingame mean on emulator compatibility lists?
Ingame means real gameplay is reachable, so you can test mechanics, explore areas, or progress through early sections.
It is not a green light for completion because crashes, softlocks, severe glitches, or major performance problems still block a reliable full playthrough.
What can you do if a game is only Intro or Loadable?
At Intro, you can usually reach logos, intro video, title screen, or menus, but not stable gameplay.
At Loadable, you may only see loading activity or other signs of initialization without usable menus or gameplay.
Both levels are useful for tracking boot progress, not for recommending the game as playable.
Why do some emulator sites say Runs, Starts, Intro/Menu, Loads, Broken, or Unplayable instead?
Different emulator projects use slightly different names for a very similar progression.
Runs or Starts roughly correspond to Ingame, Intro/Menu to Intro, Loads to Loadable, and Broken or Unplayable to Nothing.
The wording differs, but the ladder from flawless to non-booting is usually comparable across projects.
Does Nothing mean the same as Untested?
No. Nothing means the game was tested and found to fail to initialize successfully.
Untested means EmuRank does not yet have enough compatibility data for that game or game-emulator combination.
How does EmuRank add confidence to compatibility data?
On EmuRank, confidence measures the strength of evidence behind a compatibility label.
A game can have a strong label with limited evidence or a weaker label backed by many agreeing reports.
Confidence is specific to EmuRank, not a universal emulator-industry rating like Playable or Ingame.
Help Improve Compatibility Data On EmuRank
Compatibility data gets better when players share real setups, emulator versions, operating systems, and notes. If your game or hardware is underrepresented, submitting a report helps improve the public recommendation for everyone.