# RetroArch — A frontend for emulators > Cross-platform frontend for emulators and game engines with extensive system support. (iPhone/iPad app by Libretro.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/retroarch/id6499539433 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Libretro](https://appshunter.io/developer/1209876090) - Category: Games, Entertainment - Price: Free - Rating: 4.31/5 from 1,762 App Store ratings · 1,459 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 9+ - Requires: iOS 12.0 · 652 MB - Languages: English - Released: 2024-05-15 - Data updated: 2026-09-13 - Monetization: free - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/retroarch/id6499539433/reviews.md ## What is RetroArch? RetroArch is a free, ad-free, open source, and cross platform frontend/framework for emulators, game engines, video games, media players, and other applications. Supported systems come in the form of libretro cores. The following systems are supported through various cores: * 2048 * Acorn - BBC Micro * Amstrad - CPC/GX4000 * Anarch * Arcade * Arduboy * Atari - 2600 * Atari - 5200 * Atari - 7800 * Atari - Jaguar * Atari - Lynx * Bandai - WonderSwan/Color * Cave Story * Coleco - ColecoVision * Commodore - Amiga * Commodore - C128 * Commodore - C64 * Commodore - C64 SuperCPU * Commodore - CBM-II 5x0 * Commodore - CBM-II 6x0/7x0 * Commodore - PET * Commodore - PLUS/4 * Commodore - VIC-20 * Dinothawr * Doom * DOS * Fairchild ChannelF * Flashback * GCE - Vectrex * Game Music Emu * Handheld Electronic * MSX/SVI/ColecoVision/SG-1000 * Mattel - Intellivision * Mega Duck / Cougar Boy * Mr.Boom * NEC - PC Engine / SuperGrafx / CD * NEC - PC-FX * NEC - PC-98 * Nintendo - DS * Nintendo - Game Boy / Color * Nintendo - Game Boy Advance * Nintendo - NES / Famicom * Nintendo - Nintendo 64 * Nintendo - Pokemon Mini * Nintendo - SNES / SFC * Nintendo - Virtual Boy * Palm OS * PocketCDG * Quake * Quake II * Rick Dangerous * SNK - Neo Geo AES/MVS * SNK - Neo Geo CD * SNK - Neo Geo Pocket / Color * ScummVM * Sega - MS/GG/MD/CD/32X * Sega - MS/GG/SG-1000 * Sega - Saturn * Sharp - X68000 * Sinclair - ZX Spectrum * Sony - PlayStation * Sony - PlayStation Portable * Texas Instruments TI-83 * The 3DO Company - 3DO * Thomson - MO/TO * Vircon32 * VirtualXT * WASM-4 * Watara - Supervision RetroArch supports a broad range of features, including: * Netplay * Soft patching * RetroAchievements * Save states * MFi controller support * Key remapping per core or per game * Gyro * Cheats * Custom overlays * Shaders * Fast forward and rewind * Game artwork * AI translations * Advanced latency management **RetroArch and Libretro are in no way affiliated with Nintendo. The name "Nintendo" and all associated game console names are registered trademarks of Nintendo Co., Ltd.** ## Key features - Supports numerous gaming systems via libretro cores - Netplay for multiplayer gaming - Save states and fast forward/rewind - Controller support and key remapping - Customizable shaders and overlays - RetroAchievements integration - AI translations for games ## What do users think of RetroArch? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Smooth emulation performance - 🎮 Wide range of supported systems - 🕹️ Controller support - 💯 Comprehensive emulation features - 🔓 No ads or tracking - 🎉 Brings retro gaming to iOS **Cons** - 🤯 Steep learning curve - 🤖 Unintuitive user interface - 🐛 Stability issues and crashes - 🔌 Slow loading times - 🤷‍♂️ Inconsistent core support - 🎮 Subpar touch controls **Commonly reported bugs** - N64 games not loading textures properly - Crashes when changing settings or cores - Bios files not being recognized - Inconsistent performance across devices - Saved settings not persisting **Most requested features** - Add support for PS2, GameCube, and 3DS emulation - Improve iCloud/cloud storage integration - Implement customizable button layouts - Add a more user-friendly setup wizard - Provide better documentation and tutorials ## Recent user reviews (10 of 1,459) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/retroarch/id6499539433/reviews.md ### 2/5 — Emulation works but auto save does not *2026-09-05, version 1.22.2* Auto save doesn’t work. It always loads slot 0 instead of auto. ### 5/5 — Why RetroArch is the best emulator app *2026-08-29, version 1.22.2* RetroArch has way better emulation than Delta, supports way more consoles, and even has arcade game support! And best of all, it’s completely free! ### 4/5 — Dreamcast gamecube/wii and ps2 support? *2026-08-15, version 1.22.2* The app is overall good and all, but for some reason the developers haven’t decided to add a flycast/dreamcast core and also a gamecube and wii core and a ps2 support. Also it hasn’t updated in a while? ### 4/5 — Copy & Paste Cheat Codes Please!!! *2026-08-14, version 1.22.2* Overall it runs DS games very well, but trying to put in a 74 line Action Replay code is basically impossible when you can’t see what you’re typing and you can’t copy & paste the code. Please find a way to make copy & paste functional in the app ### 5/5 — Peak emulator👍👍👍🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 *2026-08-13, version 1.22.2* Best emulator ### 1/5 — It doesn’t work *2026-08-05, version 1.22.2* Everytime I download my games onto this app, it never works and they have stupid puzzle games that are not Nintendo, sega, or Sony ### 1/5 — Genuinely why *2026-08-02, version 1.22.2* I just wanted to play super mario bros. special, right? NOPE! NORE SHARP X1 CORE! legitimately all i wanted to do was play that game in specific, BUT APPARENTLY I CANT! ### 1/5 — Crashes *2026-07-26, version 1.22.2* Crashes everything when turning on achievements ### 5/5 — Add pspp *2026-07-22, version 1.22.2* If pspp app say yes put it in ### 5/5 — This is a great emulator! *2026-07-16, version 1.22.2* I love this, i usually use it to play Mega Man games and Rayman and other stuff. Would love to see you guys add GameCube and PS2 emulators and maybe even PS Vita! (Yes a PS VITA emulator exists) ## Frequently asked questions about RetroArch ### What is RetroArch? RetroArch is a free, open-source, and cross-platform application that acts as a frontend for emulators and game engines. It allows users to play games from a vast number of classic systems by downloading specific 'cores' that emulate each console. ### What systems does RetroArch support? RetroArch supports a very extensive list of systems, including popular consoles like Nintendo (NES, SNES, N64, GBA, DS), Sega (Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast), Sony (PlayStation, PSP), Atari, and many more, all through its libretro core system. ### Is RetroArch free to use? Yes, RetroArch is completely free to download and use. It is also ad-free and open-source, meaning its code is publicly available and can be modified by the community. ### What are some key features of RetroArch? Key features include netplay for online multiplayer, save states to pause and resume games at any point, fast forward and rewind functionality, controller support with customizable key remapping, shaders for visual enhancements, and integration with RetroAchievements. ### Can I use controllers with RetroArch? Yes, RetroArch offers robust controller support, including MFi controller support for Apple devices. You can also remap keys per core or per game, and utilize features like gyro controls if your controller supports them. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.22.2 — 2025-11-18 - Siri and Shortcuts integration! Use the Shortcuts app to put shortcuts directly into your favorite game directly on your Home Screen. - Native Keyboard integration - iPad multitasking support - Configurable startup page - Main Menu, History, Playlists, and more - CoreAudio microphone driver - better integrated with RetroArch and with iOS than sdl2 - Removed the "Down Arrow" floating menu. All functionality has been integrated into the normal settings menus. - iCloud Drive cloud sync backend driver - Stronger, configurable rumble/haptics support - Refresh rate improvements (improved ProMotion support - runs at 120Hz) - Eight New Cores! * SameDuck (Mega Duck / Cougar Boy) * Gearcoleco (ColecoVision) * Geargrafx (NEC PC Engine / SuperGrafx / CD) * Virtual Jaguar (Atari Jaguar) * REminiscence (Flashback) * vitaQuake 2 (Quake II) * GAM4980 * ClownMDEmu (Sega - MD/CD) ### 1.21.0 — 2025-04-29 - Two new cores! b2 (Acorn - BBC Micro) and DICE (Arcade) - New Camera Driver (avfoundation), MIDI Driver (coremidi), and Location Driver (corelocation) - Screen orientation lock - Menu fixes - Overlay fixes ### 1.20.0 — 2025-01-09 - Ten new cores! Anarch, Ardens (Arduboy), Beetle PC-FX (NEC - PC-FX), bsnes-jg (Nintendo - SNES/SFC), Doukutsu-rs (Cave Story), Holani (Atari - Lynx), Mr.Boom, NooDS (Nintendo - DS), Opera (The 3DO Company - 3DO), and Yabause (Sega - Saturn) - The default overlay tries to adapt to the system for the content (e.g. the NES overlay looks like an NES controller). You can always override the overlay. - Microphone input using SDL2. Using the SDL2 microphone driver requires using the SDL2 audio driver. - Screen recording and streaming using ffmpeg - Cloud sync for saves can use iCloud as a backend. Also, there are new options to select what to sync. - Better external mouse and trackpad support - Improve some of the touch controls for the ozone menu driver. Ozone is now the default menu driver for iPad. - Fix the mupen64plus_next issue with the GLideN64 plugin that caused rendering issues on the second game loaded - More options for game viewport positioning (not just pinned to the top in portrait) ### 1.19.1 — 2024-06-06 - Fix a crash during scanning corrupt files - Change defaults to enable haptics Changing the defaults only affects new installations. Make sure to check out the Input settings for haptics to turn on vibrations on key presses. Enjoy! ### 1.19.0 — 2024-05-31 - New Core: DoubleCherryGB (Nintendo - Game Boy / Color)! - Fixed a few PPSSPP crashes ## Apps similar to RetroArch | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Retro game emulator - GBA, DS](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/retro-game-emulator-gba-ds/id6499280245) | 4.6 (1,370) | Free | Games | | [PPSSPP - PSP emulator](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ppsspp-psp-emulator/id6496972903) | 4.5 (2,700) | Free | Games | | [Gamma - PS 1 Game Emulator](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/gamma-ps-1-game-emulator/id6499106870) | 4.8 (10,559) | Free | Games | | [Sonic The Hedgehog Classic](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sonic-the-hedgehog-classic/id316025912) | 4.0 (16,438) | Free | Games | | [Pokémon GO](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pokemon-go/id1094591345) | 4.0 (651,997) | Free | Games | | [Survival RPG 2:Temple Ruins 2D](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/survival-rpg-2temple-ruins-2d/id1330199727) | 4.6 (1,665) | Free | Games | ## Related topics [retroarch](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/retroarch) · [genesis emulator](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/genesis-emulator) · [atari emulator](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/atari-emulator) · [sega genesis](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/sega-genesis) · [ignited emulator](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ignited-emulator) · [retro arch emulator](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/retro-arch-emulator) · [retroarchive](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/retroarchive) · [arcade emulator](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/arcade-emulator) · [emulator roms](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/emulator-roms) · [sega emulator](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/sega-emulator) · [dolphinios](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/dolphinios) · [delta emulator free](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/delta-emulator-free) · [sega genesis emulator](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/sega-genesis-emulator) · [snes9x](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/snes9x) · [yaba sanshiro 2](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/yaba-sanshiro-2) · [duckstation](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/duckstation) · [emulator with games](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/emulator-with-games) · [delta gameboy](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/delta-gameboy) · [game roms](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/game-roms) · [gamma game emulator](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/gamma-game-emulator) --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-13.*