ROM set
86Box relies on a set of ROM dumps gathered from physical hardware to emulate it. This includes the system BIOS, as well as any option ROMs used by expansion cards.
The ROM set is organized into several directories for each device type, each of which contains futher subdirectories for each machine or device model or category.
Note
The expected file names of the ROM dumps and their locations within the set are hardcoded in the emulator. If you rename them or add your own dumps with different file names, the emulator will not be able to make use of them.
Search path
The emulator utilizes a search path mechanism to locate ROMs. By default, the following locations are considered:
roms
subdirectory in the VM pathroms
subdirectory in the same directory as the emulator executablePlatform-specific locations
A custom location can be specified by using the -R
or --rompath
command line argument, which then precedes any other considered locations.
Windows
The following locations are searched on Windows:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\86Box\roms
%PROGRAMDATA%\86Box\roms
Unix
86Box honors the XDG base directory specification on Linux and other Unix-compatible platforms. The following locations are searched:
$XDG_DATA_HOME/86Box/roms
86Box/roms
subdirectory in each path listed in$XDG_DATA_DIRS
This usually resolves to ~/.local/share/86Box/roms
, /usr/local/share/86Box/roms
and /usr/share/86Box/roms
(in order).
macOS
The following locations are searched on macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/net.86box.86Box/roms
/Library/Application Support/net.86box.86Box/roms
Tip
The list of all paths searched when loading ROMs is printed to the log and standard output when 86Box starts.