# Aloshi/EmulationStation

A flexible emulator front-end supporting keyboardless navigation and custom system themes.

Repository: https://github.com/Aloshi/EmulationStation
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/emulationstation
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2024-07-15T10:00:14+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5159, "days_push": 779, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2293, forks 914 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:35.032702+00:00)

## What it is
EmulationStation is a cross-platform graphical front-end for retro game emulators, written in C++ with SDL2. It supports keyboardless controller navigation and customizable per-system themes, and is the front-end used by RetroPie on Raspberry Pi.

## Use cases
- launch retro game roms from a couch with a gamepad
- build a raspberry pi retro gaming console
- unified frontend for multiple emulators
- custom themed emulator menu for a living room pc
- boot a media device straight into a game launcher

## When to choose
- you want a controller-driven emulator launcher on Linux, Windows, or Raspberry Pi
- you use RetroPie or want a keyboardless arcade-style interface
- you need custom themes per emulated system

## When to avoid
- you need modern game launcher features like cloud saves or achievements
- you want an actively developed codebase with frequent updates
- you need emulator functionality itself - this only launches emulators

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: maintenance
- function: gui, game
- domain: gaming-tools, cross-platform, desktop-applications
- platform: windows, cross-platform
- tags: emulator-frontend, retro-gaming, controller-navigation, themes, raspberry-pi, retropie, linux, macos, desktop

## Member repositories
- Aloshi/EmulationStation (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:35.032702+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:40:26.469943+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Aloshi/EmulationStation (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:35.032702+00:00, sha 00273d7c05c3)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.