{"id":"linuxserver-retroarch","name":"retroarch","af_score":22.0,"security_score":15.5,"reliability_score":32.5,"what_it_does":"RetroArch is a cross-platform “retro game” emulator frontend that bundles cores (emulation engines) and provides a unified UI/configuration for playing games from many classic systems. It is typically used as a local desktop/mobile application rather than a network service.","best_when":"You want a local emulator frontend to run retro games on your own hardware with configurable input/video/audio and multiple emulation cores.","avoid_when":"You need a hosted service with web APIs, OAuth, webhooks, or clear rate-limited programmatic endpoints.","last_evaluated":"2026-04-04T19:39:05.001238+00:00","has_mcp":false,"has_api":false,"auth_methods":[],"has_free_tier":false,"known_gotchas":["Not a networked service: agents cannot reliably 'call' it via API without additional wrappers","Emulation behavior depends on external cores and ROM/BIOS availability, which agents cannot assume are present"],"error_quality":0.0}