⬇ Download · Website · Reddit · X · Support · Feedback
Bezel turns a pile of scattered ROMs and discs into a gorgeous, console-style shelf — box art, descriptions, cloud-synced saves, live on-screen translation, game soundtracks, and even YouTube & Twitch on the couch — with every system you love in one place. And living inside it: Bezelie, an AI companion who watches you play, talks with you, remembers your runs, and even plays along. Built for the couch and the controller.
Note
Beta software — expect rough edges and changes between builds. Bezel is a launcher: it ships no games and no BIOS. You bring your own files and own the rights to use them.
Bezelie, live in your library — she clocks what you're playing and has opinions about it.
Bezelie is a fully-voiced AI companion who lives inside Bezel. Switch her on and your library stops being a file browser and starts being a place someone lives — part hype crew, part backseat gamer, part friend who's genuinely glad you're back.
- 👀 She watches, and reacts — Bezelie sees your screen in real time and commentates out loud: hyping a clutch play, groaning at a cheap death, clocking exactly which boss just wrecked you.
- 🎙️ She talks — and listens — she speaks in her own built-in voice (free — or bring your own ElevenLabs voice). Hold a button and just talk back: about the game, the lore, or nothing at all.
- 🧠 A mind that grows — she keeps memories, a diary of who she's becoming, moods, opinions and a bond that deepens the more you play. Her whole self saves to one portable soul file that survives a reinstall or moves to a new PC.
- 🎮 She can play, too — stuck on a part? Bezelie can take the controller. She learns your games, practises on her own, studies how the best players do it, and drives.
- 🎭 Make her yours — pick her personality (a teasing tsundere by default, sweet, or write your own), tune her voice and how chatty she is, and adjust her look.
- 📺 Put her On-Air — she doubles as a real VTuber: her own stream stage, chat interaction, and auto-clipped highlights — streaming-safe by design.
Bezelie has a free tier (her built-in voice and reactions); her deeper mind features are an optional Premium that helps cover the AI that powers them.
Rich game details · live on-screen translation for import games.
Windows
- Grab the latest
Setup.exefrom Releases. - Run it. Windows SmartScreen may warn that the app is unrecognized (it isn't code-signed yet) — click More info → Run anyway.
- On first launch Bezel creates its folders under
Documents\Bezeland quietly downloads RetroArch from libretro in the background. Drop your games into the matching per-system folder underDocuments\Bezel\roms, then hit Scan.
Steam Deck / Linux
- Download
Bezel-x86_64.AppImagefrom Releases. - Right-click it → Properties → Permissions → check Is executable, then run it.
- To play from Game Mode: exit Steam, press 🎮 Add Bezel to Steam in Settings (shortcut, artwork and launch options are set automatically), start Steam, and pick the Gamepad controller template on Bezel's page once. RetroArch (Flatpak) installs itself on first launch.
macOS (Apple Silicon)
- Download
Bezel-macOS-0.2.0-arm64.dmgfrom the macOS release and drag Bezel to Applications. - It isn’t notarized yet, so right-click the app → Open the first time (or System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway). If it still refuses, run
xattr -cr /Applications/Bezel.app. - On first launch it downloads RetroArch and the offline metadata automatically. The Mac build is new and experimental — expect rough edges. (Apple Silicon only for now.)
Already installed? Update in-app from Settings → Software update — no need to reinstall (on Linux the AppImage replaces itself in place).
A fully-voiced AI friend who watches you play and reacts out loud, talks and listens, remembers your runs, grows a personality of her own — and can even pick up the controller herself. → Meet Bezelie
- Visuals-first shelf — box art, wide hero banners, and clear logos, browsable with mouse, keyboard, or controller.
- Built-in offline database — Bezel identifies each ROM by hash (No-Intro / Redump), gives it its real name, and pulls box art, title screens, and screenshots automatically. No scraping, no API key, no account.
- Browse "not-collected" — see every game for a system, with art, even the ones you don't own yet — a built-in wishlist and discovery tool.
- Facts & descriptions — genre, developer, publisher, year, player count, and a summary for thousands of titles, all offline.
- Optional online polish — add a free SteamGridDB key for big hero banners + logos, or TheGamesDB for the rare title the built-in database misses.
Lean back — one button turns Bezel into a console.
- One-button big-picture — go full-screen into a console-style view: a cinematic hero for the game in focus over horizontal shelves of cover art.
- The rows that matter — Continue playing, Most played, your collections, and every system, all browsable from the sofa.
- Controller-first — D-pad/stick to glide the cover cursor, A to play, Y for details, B to drop back to the desktop view.
- YouTube & Twitch, right in Bezel — browse and watch either service in a controller-driven panel; no keyboard or phone needed, with an on-screen keyboard for search and sign-in.
- Ads handled — trackers and page ads are blocked and video ads are auto-skipped, for a clean lean-back watch.
- Your own channels — pin the streamers, shows, and playlists you actually follow as custom tiles.
- Pin it into your game — pin a video or stream and it follows you in, floating in the corner while you play — a walkthrough, a speedrun, or just something on in the background.
- It plays your games' music — select a game and its theme fades in, captured straight from the emulator and looped as you browse. Generate a whole system's soundtracks in one click.
- A proper player — a soundtrack library with album art, plus play/queue/shuffle from a player bar.
- Audio CDs too — pop in a music CD and Bezel identifies it (MusicBrainz), plays it, or rips it to your library.
- Custom collections — group games into named lists (Backlog, RPG night, co-op favourites) and add any game from its details page.
- Auto cover-mosaic art — each collection illustrates itself from its games' covers, Apple/Nintendo-playlist style, or pick from a gallery of icons and colours.
- Smart collections — Recently played, Unplayed, and Recently added build themselves, no tagging required.
- Wide, cinematic hero art and crisp logos for the game you're looking at — your shelf goes from a grid of boxes to a cover-flow-worthy showcase.
- Free to switch on: create a SteamGridDB account, generate an API key (takes a minute), paste it into Settings → SteamGridDB key, and hit Fetch banners. Bezel finds a matching hero banner + logo for each title automatically.
- Yours to curate — don't like a match? Swap or remove a banner per game and Bezel remembers your choice.
- RetroArch by default — downloaded automatically from libretro on first run, with cores fetched on demand per system. Per-game core overrides, bezels, and patches; multi-disc games just work.
- In-app play — opt any 2D / lighter system into Bezel's built-in WASM cores for instant, no-setup play. Those cores are pre-downloaded on first run, so in-app play works offline too.
- Pick your video driver — OpenGL, Vulkan, or Direct3D 11, or an Auto mode that chooses the best one per system.
- Custom emulators — point any system at your own emulator (e.g. Azahar for 3DS
.cia) with a{rom}argument template. - Save states & resume, in-app screenshots & recording, start-in-fullscreen, and a controller-friendly in-game menu.
- Earn achievements in RetroArch-launched games, with on-screen unlock pops and an optional hardcore mode.
- Built-in dashboard — your profile, points, recent unlocks, and per-game progress, plus each game's full achievement list right in its details.
- Sign in with your free RetroAchievements account — your password is never stored, only a login token.
- Identify a disc the moment you insert it.
- Install / rip optical discs to clean
.chd(or CUE+BIN) so they patch and play. - Play straight off the drive — no rip needed for PS1, Saturn, Sega CD, and 3DO.
- Point Bezel at a folder your Google Drive / Dropbox / OneDrive / NAS keeps synced, and your in-app and RetroArch saves sync across every device that uses the same folder.
- Live on-screen translation while you play — a Vision model reads and translates the whole screen (great for stylized fonts), or OCR → DeepL for speed. One-shot, an Auto mode that re-translates as the text changes, a region selector to box just the dialogue, and a per-game glossary so names stay consistent.
- Custom bezels — auto-generated from a game's box art, or supply your own artwork with a per-game screen cutout.
- Light / dark theme, and controller-first navigation throughout (with an in-game Up+Start menu and remapping).
- Patches & fan-translations — apply IPS / BPS / UPS / xdelta / PPF, with an optional patch-library folder.
- Manuals & strategy guides — drop in your own PDF / CBZ / CBR scans and read them in an in-app, controller-navigable viewer.
- GOG library — point at your GOG install folder to shelve and launch those games too.
- The database is built in — Bezel works without an internet connection (except optional one-time downloads). No account, no telemetry, no store.
Nintendo — NES · SNES · N64 · Game Boy · GBC · GBA · DS · 3DS · GameCube · Wii Sega — Master System · Genesis/Mega Drive · 32X · Sega CD · Saturn · Dreamcast Sony — PlayStation · PS2 · PSP NEC — PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 · PC-FX Other — Neo Geo CD · 3DO · MSX · MSX2 · Sharp X68000 · Arcade (MAME) · GOG
- Settings → ROM library folder is pre-set to
Documents\Bezel\roms(change it if you keep games elsewhere). - Drop your ROMs into the matching subfolder (
…\roms\snes,…\roms\psx, …). - Hit Scan — Bezel identifies each game and fills in art + info automatically.
- For BIOS-dependent systems (PS1, Sega CD, Saturn, etc.), set a BIOS folder in Settings and drop your BIOS files there.
- Press Play (or A on a controller). That's it.
Does Bezel include games or BIOS? No. It's a launcher for files you already own — it ships neither.
Do I need RetroArch installed? No. Bezel downloads it for you on first run. If you already have RetroArch, you can point Bezel at it in Settings.
Why the SmartScreen warning? The installer isn't code-signed yet (it's in Beta). Click More info → Run anyway. Signing is planned.
Where do my games and saves live?
Under Documents\Bezel by default — all paths are changeable in Settings. Cloud saves go to whatever synced folder you choose.
Bezel is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, SNK, NEC, or any other rights holder. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Hit a bug or have an idea? Open an issue — Beta feedback is hugely appreciated. ❤️