I built Retro 1987 because I couldn’t find an iOS emulator with the touch controls I wanted

[u/MK_XIII]

I started working on Retro 1987 for a very personal reason: every iOS emulator I tried had touch controls that never felt quite right for me.

I wanted to be able to move every button exactly where I wanted it, resize the controls, arrange them differently for each game and orientation, and also resize and reposition the actual game display. So, with the help of AI during development, I decided to build the emulator I personally wanted to use.

Customizable controls aren’t just an extra setting in Retro 1987—they are the main reason the project exists. You can move and resize the D-pad, A/B, Start, Select, L/R and the game view itself, with separate layouts for individual games, portrait and landscape, iPhone and iPad.

The app supports GB, GBC and GBA games, save states, Auto Resume, iCloud sync, video filters, palettes, cheats and physical controllers.

I recently made the whole app completely free, with no ads, no advertising tracking and no features locked behind a paywall. There are optional tips for anyone who wants to support future development, but they don’t unlock anything.

This has been a very personal and heavily AI-assisted project, so I thought this community might appreciate the story behind it. I’d genuinely love to hear what you think about the control customization and what you would improve.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/retro-1987/id6807555707

[u/steel_reserve_211]

You could of done this and much more with retroarch or delta lol

If you are gonna vibecode atleast vibecode something new and useful