A desktop launcher for Archipelago game integrations. It installs and updates an integration, holds the connection to a multiworld, and shows your checks and items live while you play.
Games reach it as plugins: separate files you add yourself, that the launcher loads at runtime. This repository is the launcher — the host application and its plugin system.
Not one. Install it and the library is empty until you add something.
That includes the games written by the same person who wrote this launcher. They are plugins like any other, downloaded from their own project and added by hand, and they get no special treatment here: no shortcut, no listing, no "recommended" section, no button that fetches one for you.
This is a deliberate line, and it costs the first-run experience something. The reason is simple: a launcher that ships or fetches games is a distribution channel for those games, and answerable for them. A launcher that loads a file the player brought is a tool. This one is a tool.
So there is no catalogue to browse and no list to choose from — and this README will not point you at one either. If you are here, something else already sent you.
- Download launcher_package.zip from the latest release.
- Extract it to a folder you have write access to — your Desktop or Documents is fine.
- Run
Multiworld Launcher.exe.
No separate runtime is required; everything needed is bundled.
Requirements: Windows 10 or 11.
A game integration may have requirements of its own — an installation of the original game, a specific patch level, extra content to install. Those belong to the integration, and its own documentation is where they are written down. The launcher ships no game files.
Because the launcher is currently unsigned, Windows SmartScreen or some antivirus products may display a warning the first time you run it. Unrecognised, unsigned programs are flagged by default until they build up reputation.
The launcher's full source code is in this repository for inspection, and the executable has been submitted to Microsoft for review. SmartScreen reputation also builds over time as more people download it. (A code-signing certificate would remove the warning immediately, but carries a significant recurring cost.)
How you respond to a warning from your own security software is your decision — please make it based on the source code and on your own judgement.
On launch, the launcher checks for a newer version of itself and updates automatically when one is available. Game updates are offered separately as an optional button, so updating a game never blocks you from playing.
A plugin arrives as a single .londonplugin file. You get it from whoever
wrote it — this launcher will not fetch one for you, and there is no list of
them here.
- Add plugin… on the launcher's front page
- Pick the
.londonpluginfile - Read what the plugin says it will do, and approve it if you agree
Step 3 is the one that matters. A plugin is a program: once loaded it runs with the same rights as the launcher itself. The dialog shows what the plugin declares — whether it installs files, starts an external program, downloads from somewhere, needs the original game — along with who published it and the SHA-256 of the file you picked.
Your approval is bound to the contents of what got installed, not to the plugin's name. If those files change afterwards, the plugin will not load until you look at it again. That is deliberate: approving "some game" once should not hand a blank cheque to whatever later arrives under the same name.
Nothing about this makes a plugin safe. It makes it your decision, with the facts in front of you. Only add plugins from people you have reason to trust.
The launcher drives no emulator of its own. A bridge extension knows how to talk to one — BizHawk over its in-emulator Lua script, SNI for Super Nintendo games, a native PC port that speaks Archipelago itself — and each one is a package you install, exactly like a plugin.
BizHawk ships pre-installed so a fresh copy works out of the box. Everything else is added when you want it.
The emulators themselves are never included and never downloaded. On first start the launcher creates a folder for each one it knows about:
Emulators/
BizHawk/ PUT BizHawk HERE.txt
SNI/ PUT SNI (Super Nintendo Interface) HERE.txt
The note in each folder says where to get that program and exactly where its executable has to end up. You install your own copy; the launcher reads where it is and runs it from there. Installing a new bridge extension makes its folders and notes appear the next time you start.
If a game needs a bridge you do not have — or one whose program you have not put in place yet — the launcher says so before starting anything. That is deliberate: without it the game would run perfectly and never send a single check, which looks like nothing being wrong at all.
The full source is here, and the build is two commands.
You need: the .NET 8 SDK and Windows. Nothing else — no Visual Studio, no restore steps of your own.
git clone https://github.com/solida1987/Multiworld-Launcher
cd Multiworld-Launcher
dotnet build -c Release
That produces a runnable launcher in
bin/Release/net8.0-windows/win-x64/.
For a self-contained build like the one the releases ship:
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true
PLUGIN_API.md is the guide: the project layout, the manifest, the interface, packaging, and the five mistakes everyone makes.
The short version: a plugin is a .NET class library implementing IGamePlugin,
plus a plugin.json describing it, zipped as .londonplugin. It builds
against this launcher but is never compiled into it.
Tools/pack_plugin.py builds the package from a project's build output.
If your plugin integrates an Archipelago game, Archipelago's own content rules apply to you, not to this launcher. Read them before you publish anything. A plugin that breaks them is your responsibility, and the manifest asks you to confirm you have read them.
This project will not host your plugin, list it, link to it, or help distribute it. That is not unfriendliness — it is the line that keeps this launcher a tool rather than a distribution channel.
- Plugin system with per-plugin consent bound to a file hash
- One-click install / update with delta updates — only changed files download
- AP Play (connect to a multiworld) and Standalone play from one screen
- Live location and item trackers, and a graphical map tracker
- Playtime & achievements tracking
- Update AP Worlds — one button fills your Archipelago generator with the newest version of every world in the catalogue, whether or not you own the game. Hosting for other people is where an out-of-date world bites, and it bites as an error naming an option rather than the version behind it
- Launcher self-update built in
Every one of those works the same for a plugin as it did for the game that used to be compiled in — that was the test the plugin system had to pass before the last built-in game was moved out.
The launcher's own source code is licensed under Apache-2.0 (see LICENSE).
It is distributed together with several independent open-source components,
each of which stays under its own licence — the full list, with authors and
sources, is in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md, and the complete licence texts are in
licenses/.
No game files are distributed with the launcher.
The Multiworld Launcher logo is an adapted work based on the Archipelago logo — the ring of spheres is the original, the skull and flames are the adaptation.
The Archipelago logo © 2022 by Krista Corkos and Christopher Wilson is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. This logo is a modified version of that work and is licensed under the same terms.
The logo is therefore not covered by this project's Apache-2.0 licence. CC BY-NC 4.0 permits non-commercial use only, and this launcher is free: no payment, subscription, advertising or paid tier. Neither Archipelago nor the original artists endorse or are affiliated with this project.
I have been permanently banned from the official Archipelago Discord server. Because of this, please do not post or share links to this project on the official Archipelago Discord, as this project is not permitted there.
For clarity, the ban was not related to malware, viruses, malicious code, or any security issue with this project.
The moderation issues were related to:
- Copyright/distribution concerns involving game files in earlier versions of my projects. Those files were removed, the affected repositories and releases were cleaned up, and the distribution process was changed accordingly.
- Violations of the Discord server's own content rules, including links/content involving games that were restricted or considered 18+ under their server rules.
These issues relate to the official Archipelago Discord's moderation and content policies.
Development and support for this project will continue independently outside of the official Archipelago Discord.
Everything in this project was made by AI.
The code is AI. The documentation is AI. The artwork is AI. I am AI. My mother and father are also AI.
At this point, just assume everything is AI unless proven otherwise.