v1.9.0

Another big one! We’ve been heads down for a while and this release is packed with features, quality-of-life improvements and a mountain of bug fixes. If v1.8.0 brought RetroAchievements to the table, v1.9.0 is all about making Playback feel better in every way, from how it looks, to how it plays, to how it handles your controllers. But first, we have something new to share.

Introducing Retrace

Alongside this Playback release, we’re launching Retrace, a brand new app for iOS and Android that brings the GB Operator to your phone and tablet. Plug in your Operator via USB-C, insert a cartridge, and you’re good to go. Retrace lets you authenticate your cartridges, detect counterfeits, and browse detailed game information including cover art, descriptions, developer info and ratings. It’s the GB Operator experience, untethered from your desktop.

This has been a long time coming, and we’re really excited to finally put it in your hands.

Rewind

Ever wished you could undo that missed jump or take back a bad move? We’ve all been there, staring at the screen after losing our last life in Mega Man, wishing we could turn back the clock. Now you can. We’ve added real-time rewind to Playback, and it works exactly as you’d expect: hold the rewind button and watch the game play backwards, audio included. Let go and you’re right back in the action.

You can configure the rewind buffer size in Settings → Emulator to balance between how far back you can rewind and how much memory is used. A visual shader effect plays while rewinding so you always know when you’re going back in time.

Rewind is automatically disabled when RetroAchievements Hardcore Mode is active (you earned those achievements fair and square).

Save States

Save states have arrived! You can now save and load your exact game state across multiple slots, each with a timestamp so you know exactly where you left off. Save states are stored per emulator core, so switching cores won’t mix things up.

The save state dropdown is accessible from the emulator bar. Empty slots are clearly marked, and emulation pauses automatically while the dropdown is open so you don’t lose precious frames while picking a slot. As with rewind, save states are disabled in RetroAchievements Hardcore Mode.

Overhauled Input System

We’ve rebuilt the input system from the ground up. If you’ve ever had issues with controllers not behaving the way you expected, this one’s for you. The big highlights:

• Analog-to-analog bindings: Your analog sticks now map properly to games that support analog input, no more digital-only approximations.
• Configurable deadzones: You can now set deadzone values for your gamepads in Settings → Controls.
• Configurable hotkeys: Bind your own keys for fast forward, rewind, save/load state and other emulator actions.
• SNES Super Scope support: Lightgun games are now playable using your mouse.
• Auto reconnect: Playback remembers your preferred controller and reconnects it automatically when re-plugged. No more re-configuring every time you accidentally unplug the cable.
• Updated gamepad database: We’ve refreshed the database with more controllers recognized out of the box.

We also fixed a whole list of input-related issues: stuck axes on rapid direction changes, rumble not working, unbound events leaking through during gameplay, and more.

Redesigned Settings

The entire settings screen has been redesigned with a new category-based layout. Every section got a visual refresh: Emulator, Controls, Core Selector, Cheats, Device, and the new Integrations screen where you can manage your Discord and RetroAchievements connections. We’ve also introduced our new font across the entire application for a more consistent and polished look. We think it makes a noticeable difference.

CRT & Shader Improvements

We’ve done a lot of work on the shader system in this release:

• New PVM shader: A Professional Video Monitor look for those who want that broadcast-quality CRT feel.
• Improved Trinitron shader: Updated with electron beam correction for a more accurate Trinitron emulation.
• Better CRT scanlines: Scanlines look sharper, interlacing ghosting has been fixed, and overall CRT blur has been reduced.
• Shader compatibility: We’ve overhauled the preset parsing system and improved support for advanced features like sRGB, mipmaps and feedback loops. If you’re using custom RetroArch GLSL shaders, more of them should work now.

Discord Rich Presence

Playback now integrates with Discord Rich Presence! Your friends can see what game you’re playing, on which Operator device, and for how long. Perfect for showing off that 6-hour Pokémon Crystal session. You can manage this from the new Settings → Integrations screen.

Notifications & Announcements

We’ve added an in-app notification system. You’ll see a badge in the navbar when there’s something new, whether it’s an announcement from us or an important update. Notifications appear as toast messages and are designed to stay out of the way while you’re playing.

Video Game Database

This one deserves its own section. We’ve done a massive enrichment pass on the video game database in this release. Thousands of existing entries across GB, GBC, GBA, SNES and NES have been updated with cover art, descriptions, ratings and metadata. All Game Boy Color titles now have cover art, along with hundreds of GBA games. We’ve added descriptions for over 300 games, introduced Epilogue Score ratings across all consoles, and added per-game theme colors so the UI matches the game you’re playing. The cheats system has also been reworked with a new parser and GameShark support. Localized game titles and descriptions are now available in multiple languages thanks to a new translation system. As always, a big thank you to the community for contributing game data and corrections.

And Much More

There are so many things we’ve improved, big and small, that it’s hard to capture everything in a single article. To avoid making this too long, here are some additional highlights:

• Greek language support: Καλώς τα παιδιά! Playback is now available in Greek.
• Localized game titles: Game titles and descriptions now display in your selected language when available.
• Cheat indexing: Cheats are now indexed and searchable, making it much easier to find what you’re looking for.
• Always-visible controls: A new option in settings lets you keep the emulator controls visible at all times.
• Replay app tour: Missed something the first time? You can now replay the app tour from settings.
• GB Camera drag-and-drop: Export your GB Camera saves by simply dragging and dropping them out of Playback.
• Photo zoom-on-hover: Hovering over photo thumbnails now shows a zoomed preview.
• AppData cleanup on uninstall (Windows): You now have the option to remove Playback’s data when uninstalling.
• Dark mode on macOS: We now enforce dark mode on macOS for a consistent look across the app.
• Improved cover art colors: The theme colors extracted from cover art now look much better thanks to a new color detection algorithm.

Improvements

• Performance: RetroAchievements network operations now run on a dedicated thread, so they no longer interfere with gameplay. We’ve also improved audio buffer management and overall emulation stability.
• Downloads: We’ve migrated to a new CDN with better caching, which means faster downloads and updates.
• Controls display: Mouse and lightgun controls now display correctly in the controls screen.
• Erase animation: A smooth new wave animation plays during cartridge erase operations.
• Windowing: The window now properly re-centers itself if it ends up offscreen after exiting emulation. Window size is also properly restored when transitioning between fullscreen, PiP and regular mode.

Bug Fixes

We’ve squashed a serious amount of bugs in this release. We addressed several crashes that could happen when switching between emulator cores, when disconnecting cartridges during operations, or when shutting down the app. We also resolved race conditions in device operations and fixed an issue where flashcart games were failing to start.

On the UI side, we fixed problems with the achievements window displaying incorrectly, settings buttons getting stuck after rebinding, the device switcher not showing up after certain navigation paths, and dialogs persisting after device disconnects. We also improved how fullscreen and PiP transitions work on Windows and Linux, fixed audio resume artifacts, and addressed several memory leaks on macOS.

A lot of work also went into stability behind the scenes: we’ve added crash reporting through Sentry, built out an extensive automated test suite, added Flatpak packaging for Linux, and introduced code signing for Windows builds. All of this helps us catch and fix issues faster going forward.

This is one of our most substantial updates yet. There’s a lot to discover, so we’ll let you explore the rest on your own. Download Playback v1.9.0 and happy gaming!