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RetroArch brings its free multisystem emulation to the iOS App Store

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Another emulator with tons of history and development, RetroArch, is now freely available on the iOS App Store today. This is great news for retro gaming fans with iPhones because it can emulate a truly eye-crossing number of retro consoles once installed.

In fact, there are too many to list here. But some notable emulation cores — the actual separately developed emulation software — included in this version of RetroArch are the NEC PC Engine, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Boy, Neo Geo Pocket, and even the PSP (using the same core that drives the PPSSPP app that went up today). You can see the list in full by clicking "more" on RetroArch's description in its App Store listing.

Just look at this glorious list of emulator cores.

Screen recording: RetroArch

Strictly speaking, RetroArch isn't an emulator but, rather, a front end that you can drop emulator cores into. So when you want to play a game, you need to load that game's core first (although if you try to load a game with the wrong core, it will try to suggest the proper one for you). The app also has features like online gameplay, remapping buttons or keys per emulation core or per game, fast-forward and rewind, and gyro control.

You'll need to be on iOS / iPadOS 14.2 to run the new version of RetroArch or own a Vision Pro. It's not available on the Mac version of the App Store, but that's not a problem since there's a macOS version (and versions for other operating systems as well) that you can easily download from the RetroArch website.

Update May 15th, 2024, 3:14PM ET: Added images and more detail.

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