There have been a few new frontends that have come to fruition recently, and one that has caught the attention of the retro gaming community, and myself, is one called DigiBitPlay, an Android-based frontend for emulators that puts a focus on box art, even allowing you to open them up to view the cartridge or disc, like you would in real life.
Heck, the developer even went as far as adding in physical manuals that have been scraped from open-source databases, allowing you to skim through the manual, again, like you would back in the day, creating this beautiful collection of digital retro games that have that visual appeal as if they were physical.
A couple of new features have been announced and are currently in development for this frontend. The latest build is currently behind a Patreon paywall, like many independently made applications these days, but there is a free version that you can access if you don't mind exploring older builds with a few bugs.
These features include the addition of customisable stickers for your 3D consoles. These consoles can be found in your library and used to "insert" the games from your ROM library, making it a pleasant visual experience for those who appreciate physical media. The developer has shown off two images of Pokemon stickers being added to the Nintendo DS visuals with a comment stating that he wants this to feel more like "your" collection rather than a generic image of a console/game.
There's even an upcoming update that allows you to create a shelf, adding your ROMs from a certain console onto it as if, again, it were your very own collection, allowing you to explore the beautiful box art as if it were your own. This is a trending feature in many frontends recently, and to no surprise, because it looks absolutely stunning. They are also working on adding RetroAchievements to the app, showing your progress on each game under the box, cartridge and disc, which is a highly requested feature from their community.
This is one to keep an eye on. You can join DigiBitPlay's Discord Server to keep updated, or support them further by joining their Patreon for free or paid to access their APK so you can enjoy this frontend yourself. It is worth noting, as I know some of you are against the use of AI, that this has been AI-assisted.
"I've primarily used AI for initial concepting and temporary visual ideas while focusing on frontend development, as well as assisting with repetitive coding tasks". "I have used AI for image editing to help concept what I want; later I'll contact a graphic designer". In the same message: "Other than that, I build everything myself, and work in 3D software to ensure the models function properly and fit what I need in the frontend". Take from that what you will.
