For Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit. Both update themselves from inside the app.
Free, with paid services for licence holders
Everything works without a licence. A NostalgiApp licence adds the media service (box art, screenshots and details for your ROMs) and account sync, which keeps your favourites, playlists, play history and, in the beta, your saves the same on your PCs and Macs. One licence covers both: Personal covers one Mac and one PC, and Family covers five devices, Macs or PCs in any mix.
The sidebar's Platforms are a tree, as in LaunchBox: Computers, Consoles, Handhelds, Arcade, Stores and Other at the top, eXo's own nesting inside them (Computers ▸ Literature, MS-DOS ▸ its playlists) with eXo's icons, and long lists such as eXoIF's playlists in folded letter ranges (A–F, G–L…). Clicking a category shows all its platforms' games.
Games you hid in Steam stay hidden here too; Show Hidden Games shows them. It can be turned off in Settings ▸ Services ▸ Stores.
A playlist that came with a collection, eXo's or one made in LaunchBox, can be copied to your own playlists (right-click ▸ Copy to My Playlists…) to change and sync it.
Import Local Artwork and Import from ES-DE show the new covers straight away, in the list and the game's pictures, without a restart.
An update installs into the copy of NostalgiApp you started. With both a “just me” and an “all users” copy on a PC, it went into the other one and the same update was offered at every start.
Choosing a folder you named eXoDOS for the eXoDOS download puts the collection in it, not in eXoDOS\eXoDOS.
The welcome guide's card is no longer cut off at the bottom of a short window or with large text scaling.
0.1.22 October 20, 2026
Settings are grouped as on the Mac: General, Storage, Appearance (Theme, Music, Screensaver), Emulators, Services (Sync, Media Service, ScreenScraper, Achievements, WorthyPunks, Stores), Streaming, Licence, Updates and About.
Search in Settings (Ctrl+F) finds a setting by its name or by what it does, and takes you to it.
Licence: Personal covers one Mac and one PC, Family 5 devices in any mix.
From a community tester's notes on running every system's full set: games that need another core start in it (some Game Boy games in mGBA, Satellaview .bs files in bsnes, Sorcerer in DoubleCherryGB), Commodore CDTV and Neo Geo AES games get the core settings they need, and a game's page says when it needs a step to run (arcade first starts, sensor controls, MSX cassette commands and more).
WinAPE (Amstrad GX4000), Model 2 Emulator, NullDC (Dreamcast) and BigPEmu (Atari Jaguar, and the new Atari Jaguar CD platform) can be picked as standalone emulators in Settings ▸ Emulators.
Nichibutsu My Vision games start from their zips.
The window no longer freezes white or black at startup while a slow or sleeping drive answers.
Dropdown lists (sort, size, Plays in, Settings) no longer show white text on white, and the light System theme's submenus are no longer dark.
The blurred game background is dimmed for bright pictures, such as a text adventure's white screen.
A Windows program in a game's Extras now starts; a DOS one opens its folder.
A collection's playlists can be left out of the sidebar and TV mode, in Settings ▸ General ▸ Collections (eXoIF brings 144).
0.1.21 October 19, 2026
Save sync (beta): with account sync on, Settings ▸ General ▸ Sync ▸ Sync game saves keeps your saves the same on this PC, your Mac and your other PCs: eXo games' saved games, and RetroArch's cartridge saves and save states. Saves sync after each game and when NostalgiApp starts, never while a game runs. It is off until you turn it on, and comes with a NostalgiApp licence.
Up to 1 GB of saves per account, and the last 3 versions of each save are kept. Settings shows how much is used, with Sync Saves Now.
A save changed on two machines before they synced is never overwritten: Settings lists it with the machine and time of each side, and a button to keep either one.
A save state made with another version of its core still comes down, with a note on the game's page that it may not load.
Saves of games not installed on this PC wait until the game is installed.
Import Local Artwork: an imported cover now shows instead of the box art the media service or ScreenScraper fetched. With Replace off, games that already show box art keep it, and the summary says how many.
Media service: ROMs missing box art or a description are looked for even when they have other details, and only what is empty is filled. Settings ▸ Media Service names the platforms it does not cover yet.
0.1.20 October 18, 2026
18 more ROM platforms: Amstrad GX4000, Commodore CDTV, Fairchild Channel F, Nintendo 64DD, Pokémon Mini, Sega CD 32X, Sega Pico, Watara Supervision, Mega Duck, Sammy Atomiswave, Sega NAOMI and NAOMI 2, Sega System SP, Sega Model 2 and Model 3, MSX Turbo R, SAM Coupé and Nichibutsu My Vision. Model 3 plays in Supermodel and MSX Turbo R in openMSX, both downloadable in Settings ▸ General ▸ Emulators; SAM Coupé and My Vision play in MAME.
The media service has pictures and details for ten of them.
A game's Plays in menu marks the cores fetched when picked and the standalone emulators, and says what will run.
Games that need a BIOS say which files are missing, for every console that needs more than one.
A RetroArch core built for another processor than RetroArch's is caught with a message, instead of RetroArch closing at once; a 32-bit RetroArch gets 32-bit cores.
An eXoDOS game whose scripts are missing from its folder gets them back from eXo's own metadata before it starts.
0.1.19 October 17, 2026
Imported ROM names: Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ Library ▸ Imported ROM names shows ROMs by their game name (as ScreenScraper or the media service found them, or an arcade set's title) or by their file name. A name you typed yourself is always shown, and search finds a ROM by either name.
The media service now also looks up the names of ROMs that already have their pictures and details, once each.
0.1.18 October 17, 2026
Account sync: Settings no longer stays on "Syncing…" after a sync has finished; it shows when this PC last synced.
Signing in again on this PC replaces its earlier sign-in, so your account lists it once.
Manage Devices opens the device list in your WorthyPunks account settings.
0.1.17 October 17, 2026
Account sync (with a NostalgiApp licence): Settings ▸ General ▸ Sync keeps your favourites, hidden games, play counts and time, notes, ratings, progress, playlists and detail edits the same on this PC, your Mac and your other PCs, through your WorthyPunks account. Sign In with WorthyPunks… and approve this PC in the browser.
eXo's soundtracks: turn on Settings ▸ Appearance ▸ Background Music ▸ Show eXo's soundtracks in Soundtracks to list the Media Pack's soundtrack albums under your own, with covers. Click one for its track list; double-click or Play plays it in the music bar, fetched from the Media Pack when it isn't on this PC.
Settings ▸ Storage ▸ eXo Media Pack now also adds the soundtracks' list and covers to the library.
0.1.16 October 17, 2026
Import ROMs: with a NostalgiApp licence, the media service gives the new ROMs their pictures and details first, and ScreenScraper looks up only the ones it had no box art for. The import window says what will happen.
Arcade: the list of arcade sets now covers all of MAME (over 52,000 sets). BIOS and device sets, fruit machines, pinball and the computers and consoles in a full MAME set are no longer counted as "not found" or listed under Missing Media.
ZX Spectrum and other TOSEC-named ROMs find their pictures far more often.
"(NA)" in a ROM's name is read as North America.
Settings ▸ Media Service counts again after every run and never shows older numbers.
0.1.15 October 17, 2026
MAME installed under C:\Program Files keeps its saves (NVRAM, settings, save states, high scores) in NostalgiApp's own folder, so they are no longer lost.
Release notes and downloads are one click away: the update window, Settings ▸ Updates and Settings ▸ About link to this page.
0.1.14 October 14, 2026
A portable copy: a zip that keeps everything in its own folder and updates itself (see below).
GOG games uninstalled long ago no longer show a Play button.
The soundtrack screensaver shows only while music is playing, not when a soundtrack is merely loaded.
The screensaver started from Settings returns to the same Settings page when it closes.
0.1.13 October 14, 2026
The installer asks whether to install for you only (no admin rights, in your user folder) or for everyone (any folder, another drive too).
The setup screens scroll when the window is shorter than they are.
Media service: ROMs are also recognised by their No-Intro checksum when their file name doesn't match.
Settings ▸ About lists the credits: eXo, libretro-thumbnails, IGDB, No-Intro and the software NostalgiApp is built with.
0.1.12 October 12, 2026
A newer version is announced in a window of its own, with Install Now, Later and Skip This Version.
Media service: arcade clones use their parent game's pictures, both the MAME and FinalBurn Neo lists are searched, and BIOS sets are left out.
0.1.11 October 12, 2026
Media service: details for big ROM libraries are saved in one go (19,000 ROMs took hours before).
0.1.10 October 12, 2026
Media service (with a NostalgiApp licence): box art, screenshots and game details for your ROMs, with Settings ▸ General ▸ Media Service and a Missing Media collection.
A game's video stops when another game is selected, and while TV mode, the Museum, the screensaver or the reader covers it.
0.1.9 October 11, 2026
Removing ROMs from a collection's game list works: they are left out from then on.
GOG Galaxy games no longer drop out of the library while Galaxy is busy.
Dolphin and PPSSPP download from inside the app, like the other emulators.
The first start
NostalgiApp is not code-signed yet, so Windows may stop it the first time:
"Windows protected your PC" (SmartScreen): click More info, then Run anyway.
Microsoft Defender blocks or removes the installer: open Windows Security ▸ Virus & threat protection ▸ Protection history, select the item and choose Allow on device, then run it again.
The installer can install for you only or for everyone on the PC, and lets you choose the folder (another drive is fine).
The portable copy
Unzip it into any folder, for example on another drive or a USB stick, and run NostalgiApp.exe. The portable.txt file beside it makes NostalgiApp keep its settings, caches, logs, downloaded emulators and logins in a Data folder next to it, and nothing in your user folder or the registry.
Only one copy of NostalgiApp runs at a time: close an installed copy before starting the portable one.
Logins are encrypted for your Windows account. On another PC you sign in again.
To bring your favourites, playlists and play history from an installed copy: Settings ▸ General ▸ Back Up… there, then Restore… in the portable one.
Delete portable.txt to make it an ordinary copy that uses your user folder.
It needs Microsoft's WebView2 runtime, which Windows 10 and 11 already have. The installer brings it along if it is missing.
