NES Game Player

A self-hosted retro NES game player powered by EmulatorJS, with password authentication, ROM upload, and automatic HTTPS via Caddy.

Features

• Browser-based NES emulator — play games directly in your browser
• Password protected — simple password auth (no username required)
• Upload & Play — upload .nes ROMs through the web UI, saved permanently on the server
• Searchable game library — instant search filtering across all games
• Alphabetical listing — games sorted A-Z in a clean row-based layout
• Lazy loading — shows 50 games at a time, loads more on scroll
• Automatic HTTPS — Caddy reverse proxy with free Let's Encrypt SSL
• Docker-based — single docker compose up -d to run everything

Quick Start

1. Prerequisites (Ubuntu 24)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker.io docker-compose-v2
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
# Log out and back in

2. Clone and Deploy

git clone https://github.com/PBhadoo/retro.git
cd retro

3. Configure Domain (Optional)

Edit Caddyfile and replace the placeholder with your domain:

retro.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy emulatorjs:80
}

For IP-only access (no domain), keep the default:

:80, :443 {
    reverse_proxy emulatorjs:80
}

4. Start

sudo docker compose up -d

5. Open

• With domain: https://retro.yourdomain.com
• Without domain: http://YOUR_SERVER_IP

Password: bhadoo

Usage

Playing Games

1. Enter the password on the login page
2. Browse the game library or use the search bar
3. Click any game to play instantly in your browser

Uploading New Games

1. Click Upload & Play to upload and immediately play a .nes ROM
2. Click Upload Only to save a ROM to the server without playing
3. Uploaded games appear at the top of index.json and are sorted alphabetically on the page

File Structure

.
├── docker-compose.yml      # Docker services (Node.js app + Caddy)
├── Caddyfile               # Caddy reverse proxy config (HTTPS)
├── server.js               # Node.js server (auth, upload, static files)
├── web/
│   └── index.html          # Game player frontend
└── roms/
    ├── index.json           # Game list (auto-updated on upload)
    └── *.nes                # ROM files

Architecture

• Caddy — reverse proxy on ports 80/443, handles HTTPS/SSL automatically
• Node.js — internal HTTP server serving the web UI, handling uploads, and managing ROMs
• EmulatorJS — loaded from CDN (cdn.emulatorjs.org), runs the NES emulator in the browser

Configuration

Setting	Location	Default
Password	server.js → PASSWORD	bhadoo
Games per page	web/index.html → PAGE_SIZE	50
Domain	Caddyfile	:80, :443
External ports	docker-compose.yml	80, 443

Firewall

sudo ufw allow 80/tcp
sudo ufw allow 443/tcp

Management

# View logs
sudo docker compose logs -f

# Restart
sudo docker compose restart

# Stop
sudo docker compose down

# Rebuild after changes
sudo docker compose down && sudo docker compose up -d

Logout

Visit /logout to clear your session.

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Built and Hosted by Parveen Bhadoo ❤