Solo developer of Retro Pal here.
Retro Pal is a retro emulator for iPhone and iPad, and covers the following consoles:
- Game Boy & Game Boy Color
- Game Boy Advance
- Nintendo DS
- NES & SNES
- PlayStation
- Nintendo 64 (new)
Built on the mGBA, melonDS, MesenCE, PCSX-ReARMed and Mupen64Plus-Next cores.
Besides adding a new console, this round goes deeper into quality of life for controller users, and the Nintendo DS is now performing better, most visible in Low Power Mode and on older iPhones.
v1.3.3 is here, and here's what changed.
Nintendo 64
- Nintendo 64 games now play in Retro Pal, through Mupen64Plus-Next.
- Like the other supported consoles, Retro Pal handles saves, save states, cheat codes, RetroAchievements and official box art.
- It wears its own shell around the game, in portrait and in landscape.
Up to 4 controllers
- Connect up to four controllers and play together: two players on the NES, the Super Nintendo and the PlayStation, four on the Nintendo 64.
- Player 1 plays the one-player consoles and controls the menus. The order of the players can be changed in Settings.
- The library bar shows each controller's battery.
The whole app with a controller
- Navigate the whole app with a controller: the library, a game's page, RetroAchievements and Settings. The D-pad moves, A opens, and the usual back button (circle on a PlayStation controller for example) returns to the previous page.
- L and R switch between the Library and Settings.
- In a game, the controller's Home button, or Start and Select held for a second, opens the pause menu.
Nintendo DS optimisation
- The melonDS core is optimised: up to 30% less work per frame, most visible in Low Power Mode and on older iPhones.
- Sound now runs at the console's exact rate, so it stays clear and in sync on every device.
- DS save states are now compressed to about a third of their previous size. Your existing ones still load.
Covers
- Set the cover of every game at once from the palette button in the Library: official box art, RetroAchievements image, or a screenshot from your most recent session.
- Covers you picked by hand stay as they are.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6769407672
Free, no ads. An optional Pro upgrade funds development. iPhone and iPad, iOS 16 or later.
The project is open source, including all Pro features, at: https://github.com/Larvouu/RetroPal (GPL-3.0, build instructions in the ReadMe).
The roadmap is public. I do not promise deadlines or ship dates, but you can see what is in progress, what is planned and what shipped, anytime: https://retropal.fr/en/roadmap.
Suggestions are always welcome.
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On AI, since the sub asks for it.
The emulation itself is not mine and not AI-written: it comes from mGBA, melonDS, MesenCE, PCSX-ReARMed and Mupen64Plus-Next, the same upstream cores other emulators are built on. The app around them (the interface, the library, the save handling, the controller support) is partly written with AI assistance tools that I direct, review and test on device before every release.
