Arcadia // Dreamshell
A downloadable dreamshell interface
A Linux-native emulation ecosystem that unifies your ROM libraries, emulators, saves, metadata, and achievements into one cohesive experience. Arcadia is the conductor, not the orchestra — it never replaces your emulators, it orchestrates them. A world of playable memories, unified.
Arcadia is not another emulator. It is a unified management layer that sits above your emulators, package managers, controllers, and save systems — respecting the Linux tooling you already use instead of fighting it.
Arcadia orchestrates existing systems — discovery, launching, indexing, sync, visualization. Emulation, save formats, and drivers stay with the tools that already do them well.
Respects pacman, yay, Flatpak, and AppImage ownership. If a package manager installed it, that manager owns updates — Arcadia only informs, never silently escalates.
Saves and savestates are discovered in place and shown uniformly across every emulator. Files are backed up and versioned — never parsed, rewritten, or lost to last-writer-wins.
Every emulator gets a native Rust adapter that reports capabilities instead of assuming them. Unsupported features simply hide themselves in the interface.
One front end — Dreamshell — three modes. Console and Deck share a layout engine; Studio is the desktop power surface. Every screen is operable by mouse, keyboard, controller, and touch from the first prototype.
- Console Mode — Controller-first fullscreen couch experience. Dreamcast-inspired — think Steam Big Picture for emulation.
- Studio Mode — Desktop power-user management for library, metadata, saves, registry, plugins, and themes. Steam + Plex + VSCode.
- Deck Mode — A 1280×800 Steam Deck profile of Console Mode — not separate code. Power, suspend, and overlay aware.
- ROM Index & Library Graph
- Save & State Discovery
- Metadata Graph
- Emulator Registry
- Sync Layer
Arcadia ships in milestones. The MVP is a real launcher; v0.5 and v1.0 layer management and ecosystem features on top — never reimplementing what the emulators already do.
| MODULE | FUNCTION | MILESTONE |
|---|---|---|
| Emulator Registry | Tracks installs, versions, install sources, and reported capabilities. | v0.1 |
| ROM Library | Indexes 10,000+ games on SQLite without slowdown. | v0.1 |
| Metadata Engine | Cover art, screenshots, and descriptions via pluggable providers. | v0.1 |
| Statistics Engine | Playtime, launch counts, and an always-on “Year in Review.” | v0.5 |
| Save Management | Discovers and versions saves; keep-both on conflict, snapshot before overwrite. | v0.5 |
| Screenshot Service | View, tag, favorite, export, and sync captures from emulator folders. | v0.5 |
| Achievement Hub | Aggregates RetroAchievements and emulator unlocks into one view. | v1.0 |
| Controller Center | Maps SDL, evdev, and Steam Input ecosystems into one interface. | v1.0 |
| Cloud Sync | Syncthing and Nextcloud first. Optional, never forced. | v1.0 |
| Plugin System | Sandboxed WASM plugins for metadata, sync, themes, and importers. | v1.0 |
| Preservation Engine | Verifies ROM hashes, detects duplicates and corruption, flags missing art. | v1.0 |
Adapters span one libretro frontend plus a roster of standalone emulators — covering 2D retro through current-gen emulation. Bring your own installs from pacman, Flatpak, or AppImage; Arcadia detects and orchestrates them.
Arcadia indexes the files you already have. It never bundles, downloads, or distributes ROMs or BIOS — and it never phones home.
- Index Only — Arcadia points at your existing ROM and save folders and reads them in place. Your files are never moved or rewritten.
- Opt-In Telemetry — Analytics are off by default and clearly disclosed. We don't track your playtime, your deaths, or your hardware.
- Respects Your System — XDG Base Directory compliant. Package operations are shown, confirmed, and escalated via polkit — never a silent sudo.
- Yours to Keep — Offline-first, DRM-free, and GPL-friendly. Built for the Linux crowd, on Linux's terms.
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