RETRO+STATION

Seven classic consoles in one page. Pick a system, load a game file from your iPad or computer, and play right here. No games are included — bring your own ROM or disc-image files, ideally dumped from cartridges and discs you own. Files are read locally in your browser; nothing is uploaded anywhere.

1. Pick a system

2. Load your game

Nintendo Entertainment System

Choose the game file for this system. It starts as soon as it loads.

Drop a game file here
…or use the file picker — Files app, iCloud, wherever your games live.
Genesis core

Two Genesis cores ship with the player. Standard is the accurate one; Light is a much cheaper core — if rapid button presses drag a game toward slow motion on Standard, reload and try Light.

Many PlayStation games need a BIOS file (commonly named scph5501.bin) dumped from a console you own. Without one, some games still boot — others won't.

3. Play

INSERT GAME

No game loaded yet. Pick a system in step 1, then choose a game file in step 2 — it will appear on this screen.

Now playing: nothing yet Use the on-screen buttons on iPad, or a keyboard / Bluetooth gamepad. Joystick: not connected yet — pair it, then press any button on it.

Good to know

Controls

  • Move: Arrow keys
  • Buttons: Z / X and A / S (varies by system)
  • Start: Enter · Select: Shift
  • On iPad, touch controls appear over the game; Bluetooth controllers work too.
  • Joystick runs the whole page, not just the game: the D-pad or left stick moves the highlight between the system cards, the file picker, and the buttons; A picks what's highlighted; B jumps back to the top; the right stick scrolls. While a game is running, the pad hands over to the game itself.
  • While a game is running with the joystick connected, the player's on-screen touch buttons hide themselves out of the way, so nothing extra is repainting over the game while you play. Disconnect the joystick and they come straight back.
  • Genesis offers two cores in step 2: Standard (Genesis Plus GX, most accurate) and Light (PicoDrive, much cheaper to run). If rapid button presses drag a Genesis game toward slow motion on Standard, reload and try Light. Genesis also runs with the player's VSync off, so a late frame drops instead of slowing the game down.
  • The player's menu (bottom of the screen) has save states, screenshots, and fullscreen.
  • The Full screen button under the screen blows the game up to fill the display. If the app won't allow true fullscreen, the station expands to fill the page instead — the same button (or Esc) shrinks it back.

N64 & PlayStation are experimental

These two push a web browser hard. Expect some games to stutter, glitch, or refuse to boot — especially on older iPads. The 8- and 16-bit systems above them run smoothly. PlayStation works best with a single-file image (.pbp, .chd, .iso, or .bin) plus its BIOS.

Your files stay yours

Games load straight from your device into the page — they are never sent to a server, and nothing is stored after you close this page. Save states live in the player's menu while the page is open.

If a second game won't start

Swapping games mid-visit occasionally stalls the player. Close and reopen this page for a clean start, then load the new game first thing.

Carry more, load faster

Carry more

  • Plug a USB-C flash drive or SSD into the iPad: it appears in the Files picker, so the whole game library can live on the drive instead of the iPad's storage, and games load straight from it.
  • PlayStation games are the big files: PBP or CHD versions weigh half or less than raw ISO/BIN images of the same game.
  • Cartridge games can stay zipped — the loader unzips them itself.

Load faster

  • Keep the game you are playing in “On My iPad” — iCloud placeholder files download first, local files open instantly.
  • The emulator core is cached by the browser after the first visit, so the station opens faster on later visits.