A PS5-inspired home screen launcher for Android retro gaming handhelds
Features • Screenshots • Systems • Architecture • Building • License
RetroStation turns any Android-based retro handheld into a polished gaming console. It replaces the stock home screen with a sleek, controller-first UI — complete with cover art, sound effects, category browsing, and one-button game launch through RetroArch or Lemuroid.
Built as a single Android Activity with zero Gradle — the entire app compiles from raw javac → d8 → apksigner in seconds.
🎮 PS5-Style Interface — Horizontal card carousel with smooth CSS animations, glow effects, and category-colored gradients
🖼️ Auto-Generated Cover Art — Python script creates stylized, system-themed covers for every ROM on device (or bring your own art)
🔊 Spatial Sound Effects — Web Audio API synthesized navigation sounds: ticks, selects, category switches, and back tones
📂 Smart Categories — Games organized by system with L1/R1 shoulder button switching, plus "All Games" and "Recently Played" views
🕹️ Controller Status Bar — Live DualSense/gamepad detection with connection status, battery level, and charging indicator
⚡ Instant Launch — One button press to launch any game via RetroArch (with correct core auto-selected) or Lemuroid deep linking
🏪 Built-in Store — Kid-friendly ROM download page for adding games directly on the device
🚀 Boot Animation — Cinematic PS5-style splash screen with staggered text reveal on every launch
📱 Home Screen Replacement — Registers as the default Android launcher — press Home to return to RetroStation
 Boot splash screen |
 Recently Played |
All Games (245 titles) |
 Game Boy Advance |
 Nintendo (NES + SNES) |
 RetroStation Store |
| System | Core | Extensions |
|---|---|---|
| Game Boy | gambatte |
.gb |
| Game Boy Color | gambatte |
.gbc |
| Game Boy Advance | mGBA |
.gba |
| NES | FCEUmm |
.nes |
| SNES | Snes9x |
.sfc .smc |
| Sega Genesis | Genesis Plus GX |
.bin .md .gen |
| PlayStation 1 | PCSX ReARMed |
.iso .cso .pbp .chd .cue |
| Nintendo 64 | Mupen64Plus |
.n64 .z64 .v64 |
| PSP | PPSSPP |
.iso .cso |
| Dreamcast | Flycast |
.cdi .gdi .chd |
| Doom | PrBoom |
.wad |
| Arcade | FinalBurn Neo |
.zip |
ROMs are loaded from /sdcard/RetroHandheld/roms/<System>/ on the device.
RetroStation is intentionally minimal — 4 Java files, no dependencies, no Gradle.
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Android Host │
│ │
│ MainActivity.java │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ WebView (fullscreen) │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ LauncherHTML.java → PS5-style UI │ │
│ │ ┌──────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │ │
│ │ │ CSS Grid │ │ JS Engine │ │Web Audio │ │ │
│ │ │& Animate │ │ Navigate │ │ Sounds │ │ │
│ │ └──────────┘ └─────┬─────┘ └──────────┘ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ └──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┘ │
│ │ @JavascriptInterface │
│ ┌──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┐ │
│ │ ConsoleBridge.java │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ • ROM scanning • Game launching │ │
│ │ • Controller info • Battery status │ │
│ │ • Recent games • File downloads │ │
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ │ │
│ ┌──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┐ │
│ │ CoreMap.java — System → RetroArch core │ │
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌─────┴─────┐
│ RetroArch │
│ / Lemuroid│
└───────────┘
Why WebView? The UI is 100% HTML/CSS/JS rendered inside a fullscreen WebView. This makes the interface trivially hackable — edit the HTML, rebuild in 5 seconds, test instantly. The Java layer only handles what the browser can't: file system access, game launching, and hardware queries.
Why no Gradle? The app has a single Activity and zero library dependencies. The entire build is aapt2 → javac → d8 → zipalign → apksigner. It compiles in ~3 seconds.
- Android SDK with
build-tools/36.1.0andplatforms/android-34 - Java 17+ (JDK)
- A debug keystore (one is included, or generate your own)
# Build the APK
./build.sh
# Build and install to connected device
./build.sh installThat's it. No Gradle sync, no Android Studio, no waiting. The full build takes ~3 seconds.
The included Python script generates stylized cover art for all ROMs on a connected device:
pip install Pillow
python generate_covers.pyThen push the covers to the device:
adb push covers/ /sdcard/RetroHandheld/covers/-
Create the ROM directory structure on your device:
/sdcard/RetroHandheld/ ├── roms/ │ ├── GB/ │ ├── GBC/ │ ├── GBA/ │ ├── NES/ │ ├── SNES/ │ ├── Genesis/ │ ├── PS1/ │ ├── N64/ │ ├── PSP/ │ ├── Dreamcast/ │ ├── Doom/ │ └── Arcade/ └── covers/ ← generated cover art goes here -
Install RetroArch with the required cores (see table above)
-
Install RetroStation:
./build.sh install -
Set RetroStation as your default home launcher
launcher-app/
├── AndroidManifest.xml # App manifest — launcher intent, permissions
├── build.sh # Full build script (no Gradle!)
├── generate_covers.py # Procedural cover art generator
├── src/com/retrohandheld/launcher/
│ ├── MainActivity.java # Single Activity — WebView + input dispatch
│ ├── ConsoleBridge.java # Java↔JS bridge — ROMs, launch, hardware
│ ├── CoreMap.java # System → RetroArch core mapping
│ └── LauncherHTML.java # Complete PS5-style UI (HTML/CSS/JS)
├── res/
│ ├── mipmap-xxxhdpi/ # App icon
│ └── values/strings.xml # App name
├── covers/ # Generated cover art (247 images)
└── screenshots/ # Device screenshots for docs
Designed for handheld gaming devices with built-in controls:
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
| D-Pad | Navigate games & menus |
| A / Cross | Select / Launch game |
| B / Circle | Go back |
| L1 | Previous category |
| R1 | Next category |
| Start | Open menu |
| Y / Triangle | Show game info |
Contributions are welcome! This project is intentionally simple and hackable. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
MIT — do whatever you want with it.
Built with ❤️ for the retro gaming community