Glitch Server
Your personal retro gaming powerhouse. Install it, load your games, play anywhere.
Your personal retro gaming powerhouse. Install it, load your games, play anywhere.
Glitch Server is a self-hosted retro game streaming platform — your personal game streaming server. Install it on any computer, point it at your ROM collection, and instantly stream classic titles to any device with a web browser. There's no cloud dependency, no subscription lock-in, and no one else controlling your library. Your games, your hardware, your rules.
Under the hood, Glitch Server is built on Node.js and TypeScript, using the libretro emulator ecosystem through FFI bindings powered by koffi. When you launch a game, the server spins up the appropriate emulator core, captures the video output, encodes it in real time via FFmpeg to VP8, and delivers it over WebRTC — the same protocol that powers video calls. Audio streams through Opus, and your controller input travels back over a WebRTC data channel. The result is responsive, low-latency gameplay that feels like the emulator is running locally.
Self-hosting matters because you stay in control. Your save states live on your own hardware. Your game library isn't subject to licensing changes or platform shutdowns. You can play on your local network with zero configuration, or open it up for remote access through Glitch Pass. Whether you're running it on a beefy desktop, a NAS in the closet, or a cloud VM, Glitch Server adapts to your setup and just works.
Drop your ROMs into a folder and Glitch handles the rest. Games are automatically detected, matched to the correct emulator core, and organized by platform. No manual database editing, no XML files, no tedious setup wizards. Just drag, drop, and play.
Glitch streams gameplay directly through your browser using WebRTC — the same protocol behind Google Meet and Discord calls. No plugins, no Flash, no client app to install. VP8 video and Opus audio deliver a crisp, low-latency experience natively in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
Connect your Xbox controller, PlayStation DualSense, 8BitDo, or any standard HID gamepad. The browser's Gamepad API captures your inputs and sends them to the server over a WebRTC data channel with minimal latency. Button mapping is automatic for popular controllers.
Save your progress at any moment and resume exactly where you left off — even on a different device. Glitch Server stores save states alongside your library, so your progress is always safe. No more password systems or trying to reach the next checkpoint before dinner.
Powered by the libretro ecosystem, Glitch supports cores for NES, SNES, Game Boy, GBA, Genesis, N64, PlayStation, and many more. Each core is battle-tested by the RetroArch community, and Glitch loads them natively through FFI — no shelling out, no subprocess overhead.
On your local network, Glitch works instantly with zero configuration — just open the server URL in any browser. For remote access outside your home, Glitch Pass provides secure, encrypted tunneling so you can play from anywhere without exposing ports or configuring your router.
Download and run the installer for macOS, Windows, or Linux. You can also deploy via Docker or install through Homebrew. The setup takes under two minutes and has no external dependencies beyond Node.js.
Tell Glitch where your ROMs live — a local folder, an external drive, or a network share. The server scans your collection, identifies each game, and automatically selects the right emulator core for every platform.
Navigate to your server's address on any device — laptop, phone, tablet, TV. Pick a game, connect a controller (or use touch controls), and start playing. No app install required. It just works.