RetroDB

If you have collected retro games for any length of time, you have a folder of thousands of files with names like smb3.zip and no idea what half of them are. RetroDB turns that into a proper library — with cover art, descriptions, release dates, ratings, and everything you have ever played tracked in one place.

It covers more than 150 platforms, from the Atari 2600 to the PS5.

What it does

RetroDB runs as a small web application on your own machine: you start it, open your browser, and point it at your ROM folders.

• Fills in the details automatically. It looks your games up across several metadata sources at once and merges what it finds — box art, screenshots, descriptions, genres, developers, release dates.
• Tracks achievements and trophies from RetroAchievements, Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation — including local RPCS3 trophies.
• Age ratings from eight countries (ESRB, PEGI, CERO, USK and more), mapped against each other so you can filter by whichever one you actually recognise.
• Organises the collection with tags, drag-and-drop lists, a wishlist, and collector trophies you unlock by hitting milestones.
• Fixes the files themselves. An archive scanner, a CHD converter and verifier, a duplicate finder, a multi-disc organiser, and reports that flag ROMs whose names break the standard conventions.
• Shows you what you have through a twelve-tab analytics dashboard with charts, leaderboards, and PNG or CSV export.
• Estimates how long each game takes to finish, so you can pick something that fits the evening you actually have.

There is also a Museum — an interactive encyclopedia of the consoles themselves — and seven themes to look at it all through, including Cyberpunk, Matrix and a vector starfield.

What you will need

RetroDB is free and needs Python 3.10 or newer. Extract it, run python install.py, start it, and a setup wizard walks you through the rest at http://localhost:5000.

One thing to know up front: the metadata scrapers, the achievement trackers and the AI features each need their own account or API key, which you create on that provider's site. RetroDB runs perfectly well without any of them — those specific features simply stay switched off until you supply the credential. Most keys are free; the AI providers charge by usage, and you pay them directly.

More than one person can use the same install, with admin, editor and viewer roles keeping them out of each other's way.

Where it stands

Live and in daily use, on Linux, Windows and macOS, with a launcher for each. It binds to your own machine by default — if you want to reach it from a phone or another computer, there is a guide for putting it behind a proper reverse proxy.

RetroDB does not distribute or host ROM files, and is not affiliated with any console manufacturer or publisher. MIT licensed.