EmuReady: How One Developer Rebuilt Emulator Compatibility from the Ground Up
When it comes to retro gaming and emulation, one of the biggest frustrations users face isn’t just tweaking settings or getting games to launch. It’s knowing where to start. With hundreds of emulators, what feels like thousands of devices, and a sea of Google Sheets filled with community reports, it’s easy to get lost. And worse: you still might not get your game running smoothly.
That’s the problem EmuReady set out to fix.
Launched as a fully open-source, community-driven platform, EmuReady lets users share, browse, and vote on compatibility reports for emulators across a huge range of devices. It's smart, searchable, filterable, and already home to over 1,000 verified reports.
And the most surprising part? The developer behind it never considered himself much of a gamer... until pretty recently.
The Origin Story: From Elden Ring to Emulator Reports
“This might sound weird,” Producdevity, the developer behind EmuReady, told me, “but I have never been into gaming.”
That changed a couple of years ago when he tried Elden Ring. Not exactly a beginner’s game (and one I have abandoned 5 times now, because it is way too hard for me) but it sparked something. “It really showed me the art of games and storytelling,” he said. “After discovering the world of gaming, I felt like I had missed out on so much, especially the games from my childhood that somehow never interested me back then.”
That led him to the world of retro games and emulation, where things quickly got messy.
Like many others, he noticed that the scene relied heavily on scattered Google Sheets (yuck) separate ones for each emulator, each device, each handheld. “They’re not easily searchable. Everyone and their dog has their own version. There's no archive, no way to verify info. Useful stuff just gets lost.”
That’s when the idea clicked: maybe it was time for something better.
“So I started building EmuReady. Being pretty new to this community, I asked around and received a lot of useful feedback. In particular, Ryan Retro’s community and Ryan himself have been very helpful.”
Not for Himself, but for the Community
Despite being the creator, EmuReady wasn’t something he built for personal use.
“I never intended to use it myself, which may sound weird. I actually enjoy the tinkering process — it may even be more fun than playing the games themselves.”
But it was obvious that many in the community didn’t share that view. “Reddit is filled with people asking for help regarding emulation,” he said. “It’s clear that not everyone enjoys the tinkering process. Some people just want to enjoy their games.”
So he focused on building something that others could use, balancing simplicity with real technical depth. As it turns out, he had a knack for understanding the target audience, even if he wasn’t quite part of it yet.
How EmuReady Works
At its core, EmuReady is designed to help people figure out what works (and what doesn’t, which is a LOT most of the time!) across different emulators and devices. The platform allows users to:
- Submit detailed compatibility reports for specific game-emulator-device combinations
- Include exact emulator settings, so others can replicate success
- Vote on the accuracy of other reports, helping prioritize the most reliable info
- Filter results based on emulator, device, SoC, or console
- View performance ratings (from “Perfect” to “Potato Quality”)
- Browse with a clean light/dark mode and customize their profile for tailored results
But accuracy is the priority – and every single report goes through manual moderation before it appears on the site.
“There’s a lot of moderation work that needs to be done,” he told me. “I’m very grateful for the help I get from the community in this regard. A user by the name of Drackool has been a great help in moderating the site.”
After a report is approved, the community continues the vetting process: users can upvote or downvote based on their own experience. If a report receives enough support, or is verified by an emulator developer, it gets marked as “verified” and shown higher in search results.
“This way, EmuReady can prioritize the most accurate reports and make sure users find the most useful info first."
Building Trust, One Report at a Time
One of the most impactful additions to EmuReady so far is the Trust System, which allows the platform to gradually become more self-sustaining.
“It’s probably the most complex part of EmuReady,” the dev explained. “But it works by assigning reputation to users based on the quality and quantity of their contributions.”
The more a user helps, by submitting reports, verifying others, and engaging with the site, the more they’re trusted. Over time, trusted users gain permissions like editing reports or having their own submissions automatically verified.
This community-powered approach is already paying off. Reports are pouring in, with thousands of daily visitors, and the quality is steadily rising.
“It’s very exciting to see that we get 10k to 20k unique visitors a day,” he said. “As long as I can afford it, I will keep the site running and improving it.”
What’s New, And What’s Coming Next
The feature list is growing fast, but it’s being built deliberately. Everything added is something the community has asked for.
“I recently added support for PC games,” he told me, “even though I argued against it at first.”
He was worried about the sheer range of PC hardware configurations: that the info might be too unreliable. But demand was high. “I don’t see EmuReady as my platform anymore,” he said. “It’s a community platform, and with the amount of people asking for it, I decided to give it a try.”
While only 2% of usage currently involves traditional PC setups (compared to 98% handhelds like the Steam Deck and Retroid), he’s glad the option exists.
Some of these upcoming features include:
- A Steam Deck Decky Loader plugin
- A dedicated Android app (already in early development)
- Emulator integration — so you can launch games with optimal settings directly from a report
“The goal is to make emulation as easy and accessible as possible,” he said. “That anyone can enjoy their favorite games without having to worry about the technical details.”
He's already collaborating with the teams behind Eden and Winlator to test out single-click launch support.
Who’s Behind It All?
Producdevity is the developer, one who’s been a software engineer for over 15 years, is surprisingly humble about the whole thing. “It’s not my first project,” he told me, “but it’s my first one related to gaming and emulation.”
He’s still catching up on games himself, too. His recent favorites include Elden Ring, Portal 1 & 2, Subnautica, Hollow Knight, Undertale, Cyberpunk 2077. And when it comes to retro or handheld classics: The Minish Cap, GTA San Andreas, Soul Reaver, Gravity Rush, Hotline Miami, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario 64.
“Don’t tell my wife,” he joked, “but I have a few handhelds.”
His current collection includes the Anbernic RG35XX series, the Retroid Pocket 5, the PSP and Vita, and a Steam Deck OLED.
How You Can Help
There’s no flashy monetization strategy here. No ads. No paywalls. Just a Ko-Fi link to cover the ever-growing server bill.
If you want to support EmuReady, the dev suggests two things:
- Use the site! Even just browsing and checking compatibility reports helps shape what people see
- Vote! If you’ve had a similar experience with a report, upvote or downvote it to help surface the best info
- If you’re technical? Check out the GitHub and maybe contribute a fix or a new feature
“I am not interested in making money off this,” he said. “I’ll pay for hosting as long as I can.”
EmuReady is still very young, but it's already proving indispensable for retro handheld users, emulator tinkerers, and newcomers who just want their game to work. Whether you’re playing on a Deck, Vita, or Android handheld, it’s quickly becoming an amazingly simple way to get your emulated library running smooth. Before I ended up with my Steam Deck, I went through so many of these SBC (single board computer) retro handhelds. Like Producdevity I loved the tinkering, but I think something like this is a nice way to make things far easier than they are without it!
Explore the site at EmuReady.com
Contribute or follow along at GitHub