Roadmap

Roadmap

What we've shipped, what's next, and what we've ruled out. This page is the project's running ledger — when a candidate comes up, the answer is here.

The scope rule: 8-bit feel

Every shipped system has the feel of an 8-bit machine — sprite-based, chiptune, low-res. The test is the aesthetic, not the calendar year or strict CPU bit-width. (Updated 14/06/2026 from the earlier "8-bit era, ~1975-1990" framing.)

In: the classic 8-bit machines — Apple I/II, Atari 2600 / 400 / 800XL / 7800, BBC Micro / Master / Electron, Commodore PET / VIC-20 / MAX / 64 / 16 / Plus/4 / 128, MSX1 / MSX2, NES, Sega Master System, ColecoVision, Intellivision, ZX81 / Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Tandy CoCo / TRS-80, TI-99/4A — plus the 8-bit-feel handhelds: Game Boy / Game Boy Color, Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx.

Out: systems that defined the 16-bit GUI/console leap (Atari ST, Amiga, Macintosh, Archimedes, Sega Genesis, SNES, PC-Engine), and anything 32-bit+ (Saturn, N64, PlayStation, Neo Geo). The rule is about feel, not the calendar year — Genesis (1988) doesn't have the 8-bit feel and is out, while a late GBC game (2002) does and is in.

Intellivision (CP1610, 16-bit ALU) is the technical edge case the feel framing handles cleanly: Mattel marketed it as "the first 16-bit console", but it's universally grouped with 8-bit-era consoles (1979 launch, Atari 2600 contemporary). In.

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✅ Shipped (18 emulator engines, 32 sub-systems)

Category	Platform	Year	Dir	Engine	Notes
Console	Atari 2600	1977	stella/	EmulatorJS + Stella (stella2014)
Console	Magnavox Odyssey²	1978	odyssey2/	libretro-o2em → WASM + custom SDL2 frontend	EJS path dead; o2rom.bin BIOS bundled
Console	Intellivision	1979	intv/	jzIntv WASM (custom loader)	exec.bin + grom.bin BIOS bundled
Console	ColecoVision	1982	coleco/	EmulatorJS + gearcoleco	RetroPad → numpad keypad remap
Console	Sega Master System	1986	sms/	EmulatorJS + genesis_plus_gx	replaced the Vectrex 04/07/2026
Console	NES	1983	jsnes/	EmulatorJS + FCEUmm libretro	dir name predates migration
Console	Atari 7800	1986	js7800/	EmulatorJS + ProSystem	migrated from JS7800 for the bezel
Apple	Apple I	1976	apple1/	scullin/apple1js	10 tapes (Integer BASIC + 6502 asm)
Apple	Apple ][+	1977	apple2/	whscullin/apple2js (webpack)	URL rewrite ?game= → ?disk=
Acorn	BBC Micro	1981	bbcmicro/	mattgodbolt/jsbeeb	Model B
Acorn	Acorn Electron	1983	electron/	dmcoles/elkjs	row-doubling display fix
Acorn	BBC Master 128	1986	bbcmaster/	jsbeeb ?model=Master	full copy of the jsbeeb build
Atari	Atari 400	1979	atari400/	atari800 WASM (self-built)	boots OS-B
Atari	Atari 800XL	1983	atari800/	atari800 WASM (self-built)	boots OS-XL; full copy of the same build
Commodore	PET	1977	pet/	Thomas Skibo's pet2001 (vanilla JS)	PET 2001 / BASIC 2 / 32 K
Commodore	VIC-20	1980	vic20/	EmulatorJS + VICE xvic	memory_expansions='all'
Commodore	MAX Machine	1982	max/	EmulatorJS + VICE x64 (Ultimax mode)	Japan-only
Commodore	C64	1982	c64/	EmulatorJS + VICE x64
Commodore	C16	1984	c16/	EmulatorJS + VICE xplus4 (c16pal mode)	shares xplus4 core
Commodore	Plus/4	1984	plus4/	EmulatorJS + VICE xplus4
Commodore	C128	1985	c128/	EmulatorJS + VICE x128 (native mode, nightly core)	per-game VICII/VDC
MSX	MSX1	1983	msx1/	ppeccin/WebMSX	boots ?M=MSX1
MSX	MSX2	1986	msx2/	ppeccin/WebMSX	full copy; boots ?M=MSX2
Sinclair	ZX81	1981	jtyone/	Simon Holdsworth/JtyOne
Sinclair	ZX Spectrum	1982	jsspeccy/	gasman/JSSpeccy 3	WASM Z80
Amstrad	CPC	1984	cpc/	floooh/chips-test tiny8bit	sokol_args URL params
Tandy	Color Computer (CoCo)	1980	xroar/	Ciaran Anscomb/XRoar
Tandy	TRS-80 Model I	1977	trs80/	jengun/sdltrs (our WASM build)	10 .cmd games
TI	TI-99/4A	1981	js99er/	Rasmus-M/js99er (vanilla JS)	.rpk carts
Handheld	Game Boy / GBC	1989	gbc/	EmulatorJS + gambatte (nightly core)	GBC mode; classroom bezel
Handheld	Atari Lynx	1989	lynx/	EmulatorJS + handy	lynxboot.img BIOS bundled
Handheld	Sega Game Gear	1990	gamegear/	EmulatorJS + genesis_plus_gx	EJS_volume 1.5 (quiet PSG)

Shared infrastructure:

• _shared/ — controls.css, frame.css, NumLock JS, VICE softkeys, gamedocs link JS
• _shared-ejs/ — one EmulatorJS framework + 4 VICE cores + gearcoleco + FCEUmm + Stella + gambatte + handy + genesis_plus_gx + prosystem cores (14 bundles share; ~25 MB saved vs per-bundle copies)

See Emulators for the per-platform integration stories.

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⏳ Still to go

Plausible (8-bit feel, browser emulator exists, would need an integration pass)

• Sega Master System (genesis_plus_gx, same core as the shipped Game Gear) — 1985, Z80

Out of scope under the 8-bit-feel rule

Listed for clarity — these are the 16-bit/32-bit transition and beyond.

• NEC PC-Engine / TurboGrafx-16 — 16-bit-era console
• Nintendo SNES — 16-bit-era console
• Sega Saturn / Nintendo 64 / PlayStation / Neo Geo AES — 32-bit and beyond

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❌ Rejected (don't re-investigate without new information)

Quality / hosting / library size

• Sinclair QL (1984) — no turn-key bundle; sQLux build is ~4h project
• Sinclair ZX80 (1980) — re-investigated 07/06/2026. ROMs OK. JtyOne ZX80 mode is broken (display-sync state machine never fires the keyboard scan). zame-dev's js-zx8x works correctly but ships without an SPDX licence header. Door stays open if either gets fixed.
• Cambridge Z88 (1988) — OZvm is Java/C++ desktop only
• Sinclair NewBrain (1982) — MAME driver broken (VFD doesn't get data)
• Sinclair MK14 (1977) — MAME-only, very obscure (256-byte RAM kit)
• Microvision (1979) — split-CPU emulators don't pair with available ROMs
• Commodore CBM-II / B-series (1982-84) — VICE cores exist but the library is ~5 commercial games + business productivity. Not enough content for a 10-entry bundle.
• Acorn Atom — investigated, didn't meet quality bar.
• GCE / Milton Bradley Vectrex (1982) — shipped, then removed 04/07/2026 (replaced by the Sega Master System). The only browser core, jsvecx, has AY-3-8912 sound emulation that overruns tones and can't voice Spike's speech; confirmed against upstream jsvecx and the libretro vecx core, so it's the emulation lineage rather than a bundle bug, with no practical browser alternative. Fails the site's accuracy bar. Door reopens only if a browser Vectrex emulator with correct AY sound appears.

Out of scope (16-bit, removed)

• Macintosh Plus (macplus/) — removed 25/05/2026
• Acorn Archimedes (archimedes-live/) — removed 25/05/2026
• Atari ST (estyjs/) — removed 25/05/2026
• Commodore Amiga 500 (amiga/) — removed 25/05/2026
• Atari 5200 — removed from menu tree
• Sega Genesis (genesis/) — removed 05/06/2026; Motorola 68000 16-bit

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Maintenance threads (shipped systems, open follow-ups)

• Menu reformat sweep — ✅ done 05/06/2026. Every game menu is a 4-column # Title (Year) CODE layout, year-sorted ascending, alphabetical within year. All 609 echo rows across fs.js verify at exactly 45 chars.
• Per-game gamedocs pages — ✅ done 09/06/2026. 316 pages across all 32 sub-systems (Vectrex's 11 out, Master System's 10 in, 04/07/2026). The 20 gamedocs/jsbeeb/*.html (BBC Micro + Master) were briefly runtime orphans (jsbeeb launches keyless ?disc1= URLs and its Vite dist/index.html hardcodes the corner link to ../controls.html) — wired 11/06/2026 via a genx-gamedoc-link.js that maps the disc filename → gamedoc key and rewrites the link href on load. Keyless BASIC / blank-Master launches still fall through to controls.html. (The shared jsbeeb/ bundle was later split into bbcmicro/ + bbcmaster/, 25/06/2026, each with its own copy of that script and gamedoc dir.) All gamedoc controls re-verified against the original manuals / disassemblies (23/06/2026) and corrected platform-by-platform where keys had been guessed — every standalone-emulator bundle had errors, the EmulatorJS bundles were already accurate; see the CHANGELOG for the per-platform detail.
• Controls-link URL wiring — genx-controls-link.js reads the game key from the live URL params (?game= / ?tape= / ?rom=) when the deferred script runs. amstradcpc and jtyone rewrite their URL on load (stripping ?game=), but the rewrite sits behind an awaited fetch('games.json'), so the deferred link script reads the key before the rewrite lands — no extra plumbing needed. (There is no window._genxGameKey stash; earlier drafts of this page described one that was never implemented.) jsbeeb is the exception that doesn't fit this URL-param model — it has no game key in its URL at all, so it ships its own genx-gamedoc-link.js that maps the disc filename to the gamedoc key instead (see the gamedocs thread above).
• C128 indie dates — 4 of 7 homebrews (Phazer, Rockfall 128, Wumpus 2.0, World at War) have no internal version stamp anywhere; fall back to zimmers.net file mtimes (one definitive, one fuzzy).
• MAX Multimax-extracted carts — 7 games extracted from the MultiMax EasyFlash compilation. Remaining unknown banks (Sea Wolf, Le Mans, Avenger, etc.) lack identifiable strings; would need empirical VICE testing or menu-table decode to extract.
• PET: 3 games skipped — Microchess 2.0, 3D Star Trek, Cosmiads load at non-standard addresses VICE doesn't autostart. Recoverable with manual cleanup.
• CRT 4:3 bezels — every platform is now bezeled (completed 16/06/2026). The first seven wired by 13/06/2026: PC.png (DOS prompt, 09/06), Acorn.png (Electron, 10/06), Pet.png (PET, 10/06), Amstrad.png (CPC, 10/06), 80s.png (Atari 400/800, 11/06), 70s.png (Atari 2600 / Stella, 12/06 — the first bezel on an EmulatorJS bundle), and Commodore.png (the 1084S, across the whole VICE family — c64/c128/c16/plus4/vic20/max, one monitor + one hole, 13/06). The core recipe is a layered stack inside .bezel-wrap — black backdrop behind, canvas in the middle, the transparent-hole PNG on top — but the canvas-fill method varies by engine: the PC bezel uses non-uniform transform: scale on the canvas; the atari800 bezel tells the emulator itself to fill via -stretch full -fit-screen both -image-aspect none (its integer scaling made a CSS scale quantised and viewport-fragile); the EJS bundles put the EJS player (#game) in the hole and stretch the canvas to fill — Stella uses #game canvas { height: 100% !important; transform: translateX(-18px) scale(0.85) } and the VICE family (all six, C128 included) uses #game canvas { height: 100% !important; transform: scale(1.01) }. The rest were wired through 16/06/2026: Apple.png (Apple ][/I), the keyed nes.png (NES), 70s.png reused for ColecoVision / Intellivision / Odyssey², 80s.png for the Atari 7800, and Sinclair.png for the MSX, CoCo and TI-99/4A — so every platform now sits in a bezel. Source-verification note: the maintainer has adopted a no-graphic-provenance-tracking policy for bezels/wallpapers/textures, so wired bezels no longer carry per-image credit comments (the earlier PC/Acorn/Pet "open an issue" comments predate that policy; Amstrad.png keeps a real CC-BY-SA credit because it is genuinely source-cleared).
• Sitewide 70s wallpaper — ✅ landed 09/06/2026. systems/_shared/textures/70s-bg.png (seamless arrow-arch pattern) tiled at 220 px via the shared body rule. Suppressed on per-platform controls.html pages via a body.controls-page opt-out.