Getting Started

Try it in the DevTools of your browser in this website

You can open the DevTools here (maybe Ctrl + Shift + J on Windows/Linux and ⌘ + ⌥ + J on macOS) and try Nostalgist.js with a global variable Nostalgist. No extra setup is required.

// Launch an NES game
await Nostalgist.nes('flappybird.nes')

// Launch a Sega Genesis game
await Nostalgist.megadrive('30yearsofnintendont.bin')

// Launch a GBA game
await Nostalgist.gba('eliminator.gba')

// Or choose a ROM file from your disk
await Nostalgist.nes(showOpenFilePicker)

Tip

Controls: D-Pad: ↑ ↓ ← → Start: Enter Select: Shift B: Z A: X Y: A X: S

Try it in online editors

You can also use some online editor to give it a try.

You can try Nostalgist.js in Stackblitz by hacking this example, a homebrew retro game list.

Build something more complex

If you want to use Nostalgist.js to build something cool, here are some choices to import it into your project.

Use a package manager

If you are building a modern frontend project, you can use npm or its alternatives to install it to your project.

npm

npm i nostalgist

yarn

yarn add nostalgist

pnpm

pnpm i nostalgist

bun

bun i nostalgist

Then you can import it and start hacking.

import { Nostalgist } from 'nostalgist'

await Nostalgist.nes('flappybird')

Use a CDN

Simply add a script tag with a CDN link to your HTML.

unpkg

<script src="https://unpkg.com/nostalgist"></script>

jsDelivr

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/nostalgist"></script>

Then you can use the global variable Nostalgist in your code and start hacking.

await Nostalgist.nes('flappybird')

You can also use the ESM version of Nostalgist.js with CDN.

esm.run

<script type="module">
import { Nostalgist } from 'https://esm.run/nostalgist'
</script>

skypack

<script type="module">
import { Nostalgist } from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/nostalgist'
</script>

Next steps

You may want to read the API reference.