A free Android frontend for retro games and PC games, all in one place.
Made by Darren Glancy, built with a lot of help from AI (Claude). Tested on a Samsung Galaxy S22 as it went.
Status: beta (0.8.2). It works well for most systems, but it's still being tested on more devices. Feedback and bug reports are very welcome: open an issue.
- Plays games itself, nothing to set up. Everything up to PlayStation, N64, PSP, Dreamcast and 3DS, plus arcade (FinalBurn Neo, MAME, CPS), home computers (C64, Amiga, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum and more) and about 100 systems in all. Emulators download in the background.
- Uses your collection as it is. Point it at a RetroBat or ES-DE
romsfolder on the phone, an SD card or a shared folder on your PC, and it reads the titles, artwork, videos and manuals. It never changes your files. - PS3, PS4 and Switch, in RetroForge's own players. Each is a separate free app that RetroForge opens your games in, with no menus of its own: PS3 Player (built on RPCS3, with RPCN online sign-in and DLC from the game's page), Switch Player (built on Eden, with Play Online rooms on your Wi-Fi) and PS4 Player (built on shadPS4; an early preview, and most games are slow or don't start yet). You need your own games, keys and firmware from your own consoles.
- Network drives built in. Finds the PCs on your home network and lists their shared folders; no sign-in. Games stream straight from the PC, so even big disc games start at once.
- In the game: save states, fast-forward, cheats, screen shapes, CRT and LCD filters, upscaling (up to 10x for PSP), screenshots, an FPS counter, remappable buttons, keyboard and mouse for computers, dual-screen handhelds and Cardboard VR. Optional bezels in landscape from The Bezel Project, downloaded per system from their GitHub (not included in RetroForge; thanks to The Bezel Project for the artwork).
- PC games, built in (new, early): RetroForge's own PC player runs Windows games itself (Wine, FEX and DXVK, downloaded on first use), with Steam sign-in, Steam downloads, Steam Cloud saves, on-screen controls and LAN play. Plus streaming from your own PC (Moonlight/Sunshine built in) and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
- Looks: Bezel Project bezels round the game in landscape, and game lists as a list, a grid or a bookshelf of 3D game cases.
- Play together: netplay for up to 4 players on the same Wi-Fi, a virtual link cable for Game Boy trading and battles, Switch Play Online rooms, and tournaments for game nights.
- Your library: RetroAchievements, save states with pictures, playtime and a backlog, smart collections, a gaming passport, game notes and guides, kiosk mode with a child lock, and input profiles.
- Saves everywhere: save syncing through your PC's shared folder or a cloud app's folder, and a save importer for saves from other emulators.
- Free games: shareware, freeware and homebrew to download in one tap (Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Commander Keen and new games for old consoles).
- More ways to play: RetroArch and 21 standalone emulators (Dolphin, NetherSX2, Azahar, Eden and more) through Obtainium, PC ports of games you own, and Windows games through GameNative, Winlator or DroidDeck.
- ROM tools: a ROM hack patcher and catalogue, soft patches, a ROM Manager (identify against No-Intro and Redump, rename, fix headers, duplicates, CHD/RVZ/zip compression, multi-disc playlists, all undoable) and PlayStation memory card tools.
- Media: your films with posters, Plex and other media servers without signing in, 3D films. A Music tab for songs on the phone or your PC, with Now Playing visuals and an equaliser, and internet radio from around the world. Your music keeps playing while you play.
The full feature list is in each release.
- More testing of PS3, PS4 and Switch on more phones and handhelds, and faster PS4 games.
- More move lists for Moves and turbo, and more of them checked in the games.
Ideas and requests are welcome: open an issue.
Download the APK from Releases and open it on your Android device (Android 8 or newer). Then open RetroForge and follow Set up RetroForge.
- No games or BIOS files are included. Use your own legally obtained games and BIOS dumps.
- GameCube, Wii and PS2 in the built-in player are new: they play on Vulkan (tested on a Galaxy S22), but have had far less testing than the other systems. The Dolphin and NetherSX2/ARMSX2 apps are offered too.
- No accounts, no ads, no tracking. See SECURITY_AND_PRIVACY.
See BUILD_AND_INSTALL. In short: Android Studio, JDK 17, then
./gradlew :app:assembleFullDebug.
- User guide (the same guide as in the app)
- Emulator compatibility
- Playing your PS4 games: dumping your own games and system files, as for shadPS4
- Project status
- Third-party licences: the emulators RetroForge downloads are their own projects under their own licences.
RetroForge stands on the work of a lot of people:
- Windows games: GameNative, Winlator and DroidDeck.
- libretro and RetroArch: the libretro API and every core author whose emulator the built-in player runs.
- Standalone emulators: Dolphin, NetherSX2, ARMSX2, Azahar, Eden, M64Plus FZ, melonDS, MAME4droid, SkyEmu, NooDS, EX Emulators, aPS3e, J2ME Loader and the rest.
- PC ports and recomps: Ship of Harkinian, 2 Ship 2 Harkinian, Starship, SpaghettiKart, Ghostship, Zelda64Recomp, Unleashed Recompiled, OpenGOAL, DevilutionX, OpenMW, OpenBOR and everyone who brought them to Android.
- Collections: RetroBat and ES-DE; Obtainium and the Obtainium Emulation Pack; canvas-es by Siddy212.
- Artwork and data: SteamGridDB, ScreenScraper, libretro thumbnails, Romhacking.net and every hack author.
- GPU drivers: the Mesa Turnip developers, K11MCH1 and MrPurple.
- The community: the YouTube channels and sites in the app's Links tab.
RetroForge is free, with every feature included, and always will be. If you're enjoying it, a coffee helps pay for new features and bug fixes: buymeacoffee.com/darrenglant
RetroForge is free software under the GNU General Public License v3.0.