GameLord

A modern, elegant emulation frontend built as a spiritual successor to OpenEmu, featuring superior UI/UX polish and advanced features. Built with Electron, React, TypeScript, and shadcn/ui.

Features

• 🎮 Multi-System Support - Powered by libretro cores for compatibility with multiple gaming systems
• 🎨 Beautiful Native UI - Built with shadcn/ui for a polished, macOS-native appearance
• 🚀 High Performance - WebGL rendering with shader effects and optimized frame timing
• 🎯 Library Management - Automatic ROM scanning with multi-system detection, metadata and cover art (coming soon)
• 🎛️ Keyboard Input - Configurable keyboard mapping for libretro joypad buttons, gamepad support (coming soon)
• 💾 Save State Management - Quick save/load with multiple slots and autosave on close
• 🌈 Visual Effects - CRT shaders, scanlines, and other retro visual enhancements via WebGL2
• 🔒 Secure Architecture - Context isolation with Electron preload scripts

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• pnpm 8+
• macOS 11+ (for development)

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/gamelord.git
cd gamelord

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Start development server
pnpm start

Development

# Run in development mode
pnpm start

# Build for production
pnpm run make

# Run tests
pnpm test

# Lint code
pnpm run lint

Project Structure

gamelord/
├── src/
│   ├── main/              # Main process code
│   │   ├── index.ts       # Main entry point
│   │   ├── core/          # Core management
│   │   └── ipc/           # IPC handlers
│   ├── renderer/          # Renderer process (React app)
│   │   ├── components/    # React components
│   │   ├── hooks/         # Custom React hooks
│   │   ├── stores/        # Zustand stores
│   │   ├── lib/           # Utilities
│   │   └── types/         # TypeScript types
│   └── preload/           # Preload scripts
├── assets/                # Static assets
├── forge.config.ts        # Electron Forge config
├── vite.*.config.ts       # Vite configurations
└── package.json

Configuration

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory:

# Apple Developer Credentials (for code signing)
APPLE_DEVELOPER_ID="Developer ID Application: Your Name (TEAMID)"
APPLE_ID="your-apple-id@example.com"
APPLE_ID_PASSWORD="app-specific-password"
APPLE_TEAM_ID="TEAMID"

Supported Systems

GameLord supports the following systems through libretro cores:

• Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
• Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
• Game Boy / Game Boy Color
• Game Boy Advance
• Nintendo 64
• Nintendo DS
• Sega Genesis / Mega Drive
• Sega Saturn
• Sony PlayStation
• And more...

Building

macOS

# Build for macOS
pnpm run make

# Build and sign for distribution
pnpm run publish

The built application will be available in the out directory.

Code Signing

For macOS distribution, you'll need:

1. An Apple Developer account
2. A valid Developer ID certificate
3. Notarization credentials

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details.

Development Guidelines

• Follow the existing code style
• Write tests for new features
• Update documentation as needed
• Create detailed pull requests

Roadmap

• Initial project setup with Electron Forge
• React + TypeScript integration
• shadcn/ui component library
• Core emulation integration
• ROM library management
• Game metadata service
• Save state system
• Controller configuration
• Shader effects
• Multi-language support

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.