Overnight, your Apple TV may have become one of the best retro gaming devices available

RetroArch is a frontend for emulators
RetroArch is a frontend for emulators

RetroArch on tvOS delivers 78 – yes, seventy-eight! – emulators to Apple TV, making Apple’s set-top box one of the best retro gaming devices available.

Christopher Grant for Polygon:

The RetroArch video game emulation frontend was released on the iOS App Store yesterday, alongside popular PSP emulator PPSSPP (itself a core available in RetroArch).

While the popular and more elegant Delta emulator emulates six Nintendo consoles for iOS at the moment, RetroArch’s somewhat unwieldy UI brings support for a wild 78 (!) emulators covering a wide range of console and computer systems. But it also brings one other notable feature: It’s the first emulator to be released for Apple’s tvOS App Store, as spotted by MacStories’ Sigmund Judge.

https://www.threads.net/@sigjudge/post/C7AYptfofLI?xmt=AQGzSp1b9_tuY-QFomEkSrAWToewUugarLBBnNPM2x-IeqI

With RetroArch, you’ll be able to play games from classic Sega systems like the Master System, Genesis and Saturn, as well as more obscure consoles like the Watara Supervision.

You can find RetroArch, Delta, and PPSSPP on the App Store today.

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MacDailyNews Note: RetroArch’s 78 emulators:

  • 2048
  • Amstrad – CPC (CrocoDS)
  • Amstrad – CPC/GX4000 (Caprice32)
  • Arcade (FinalBurn Neo)
  • Atari – 2600 (Stella 2014)
  • Atari – 2600 (Stella)
  • Atari – 5200 (Atari800)
  • Atari – 5200 (a5200)
  • Atari – 7800 (ProSystem)
  • Atari – Lynx (Handy)
  • Bandai – WonderSwan/Color (Beetle Cygne)
  • Commodore – Amiga (PUAE)
  • Commodore – C128 (VICE x128)
  • Commodore – C64 (VICE x64, fast)
  • Commodore – C64 (VICE x64sc, accurate)
  • Commodore – C64 SuperCPU (VICE xscpu64)
  • Commodore – CBM-II 5×0 (VICE xcbm5x0)
  • Commodore – CBM-II 6×0/7×0 (VICE xcbm2)
  • Commodore – PET (VICE xpet)
  • Commodore – PLUS/4 (VICE xplus4)
  • Commodore – VIC-20 (VICE xvic)
  • Dinothawr
  • Fairchild ChannelF (FreeChaF)
  • GCE – Vectrex (vecx)
  • Game Music Emu
  • Handheld Electronic (GW)
  • MSX/SVI/ColecoVision/SG-1000 (blueMSX)
  • Mattel – Intellivision (FreeIntv)
  • NEC – PC Engine / CD (Beetle PCE FAST)
  • NEC – PC Engine / SuperGrafx / CD (Beetle PCE)
  • NEC – PC Engine SuperGrafx (Beetle SuperGrafx)
  • NEC – PC-98 (Neko Project II Kai)
  • Nintendo – DS (DeSmuME)
  • Nintendo – Game Boy / Color (Gambatte)
  • Nintendo – Game Boy / Color (Gearboy)
  • Nintendo – Game Boy / Color (SameBoy)
  • Nintendo – Game Boy / Color (TGB Dual)
  • Nintendo – Game Boy Advance (VBA Next)
  • Nintendo – Game Boy Advance (VBA-M)
  • Nintendo – Game Boy Advance (gpSP)
  • Nintendo – Game Boy Advance (mGBA)
  • Nintendo – NES / Famicom (FCEUmm)
  • Nintendo – NES / Famicom (Mesen)
  • Nintendo – NES / Famicom (Nestopia UE)
  • Nintendo – NES / Famicom (QuickNES)
  • Nintendo – Nintendo 64 (Mupen64Plus-Next)
  • Nintendo – SNES / SFC (Snes9x 2005)
  • Nintendo – SNES / SFC (Snes9x 2010)
  • Nintendo – SNES / SFC (Snes9x)
  • Nintendo – SNES / SFC (bsnes)
  • Nintendo – SNES / SFC (bsnes-hd beta)
  • Nintendo – SNES / SFC / Game Boy / Color (Mesen-S)
  • Nintendo – Virtual Boy (Beetle VB)
  • PocketCDG
  • Quake (TyrQuake)
  • Rick Dangerous (XRick)
  • SNK – Neo Geo AES/MVS (Geolith)
  • SNK – Neo Geo CD (NeoCD)
  • SNK – Neo Geo Pocket / Color (RACE)
  • ScummVM
  • Sega – MS/GG (SMS Plus GX)
  • Sega – MS/GG/MD/CD (Genesis Plus GX Wide)
  • Sega – MS/GG/MD/CD (Genesis Plus GX)
  • Sega – MS/GG/MD/CD/32X (PicoDrive)
  • Sega – MS/GG/SG-1000 (Gearsystem)
  • Sega – Saturn (Beetle Saturn)
  • Sharp – X68000 (PX68k)
  • Sinclair – ZX Spectrum (Fuse)
  • Sony – PlayStation (Beetle PSX HW)
  • Sony – PlayStation (Beetle PSX)
  • Sony – PlayStation (PCSX ReARMed)
  • Sony – PlayStation Portable (PPSSPP)
  • Texas Instruments TI-83 (Numero)
  • Thomson – MO/TO (Theodore)
  • Vircon32
  • VirtualXT
  • WASM-4
  • Watara – Supervision (Potator)

RetroArch supports a broad range of features, including:

  • Netplay
  • Soft patching
  • RetroAchievements
  • Save states
  • MFi controller support
  • Key remapping per core or per game
  • Gyro
  • Cheats
  • Custom overlays
  • Shaders
  • Fast forward and rewind
  • Game artwork
  • AI translations
  • Advanced latency management

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4 Comments

  1. 1) It’s cool, but there’s definite lag between the bluetooth controller and the game.
    2) NO IDEA how to exit a game and get back to the main menu.
    3) Setting up the “select” and “start” buttons on the controller mapping seem to be ignored on the NES emulator.

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