In 2005, Microsoft introduced the Gamerscore system on the Xbox 360, bringing gamers into the brand new world of achievement hunting. Each retail game had an additional list of challenges to complete, dubbed “achievements”, granting Gamerscore points in the process. Beyond pride and joy, these points weren’t worth anything, but they did provide a nice dose of dopamine during gameplay sessions. Now, over 1 million players are earning achievements for their favorite retro games, thanks to RetroAchievements. So, what are RetroAchievements and how can you get involved? Let’s take a closer look at this exciting way to spice up your retro play!
The Rise of RetroAchievements
To put it plainly, RetroAchievements are exactly what they sound like: achievements for retro games. Tracked via the community website, RetroAchievements offers achievement lists for a wide variety of old-school consoles, all created by dedicated members of the community. In total, the site supports nearly 10,000 individual games across 50+ different consoles. This includes popular titles like The Legend of Zelda for Nintendo Entertainment System, but also rarer systems like the PC Engine, Atari Jaguar, and more. So, if you’ve ever dreamed of collecting every achievement in Super Mario 64, RetroAchievements has you covered.
Getting started with RetroAchievements is also pretty easy, as long as you’ve dabbled in the world of emulation. First, you’ll have to download one of many supported emulators, like RetroArch, Bizhawk, LibRetro, etc. After you’ve created a RetroAchievements account, you can then link your account to one of the emulators, and you’re pretty much ready to play. As long as the game you’re playing has an associated RetroAchievements list, you’ll start racking up points, climbing the leaderboards, and earn some cool badges to showcase your skill. Of course, you’ll need ROMs to play these games via emulators, and the only legal way to do so is to dump your ROMs from the games you own.
Lots of Ways to Achieve
As of January 2025, RetroAchievements boasts over 1 million members, who combined, have earned over 880 million RA points. Though the RetroAchievements website first launched in 2013, it’s seen significant growth in recent years, thanks to the pure variety of content available. Sure, you can earn achievements in your favorite retro games, but RetroAchievements offers much more than just that. For starters, new consoles are constantly being added, with the latest addition being the Nintendo GameCube. Often, RetroAchievements runs community events to coincide with seasonal holidays or big updates like this, bringing everyone together in fun and unique ways. Weekly challenges, monthly events, and much more are available on the RA forums and Discord, encouraging players to get social.
There’s one particularly cool thing that RetroAchievements offers that Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam do not: multiple achievement lists for one game. Super popular games, like Super Mario 64, offer several achievement lists to complete, including a base set, a set focused on collecting coins, a speedrun set, and many more. RetroAchievements also supports ROM hacks, and depending on the community, you might find dozens of hacks for one game alone. Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, and others have dozens of different ROM hacks to enjoy, along with some truly standout experiences. In this way, you can have a blast with RetroAchievements even if you only play a handful of titles, with leaderboards and events to boot.
RetroAchievements has been around for over a decade, and even though they’ve already got 1 million gamers on board, it still feels wildly underrated. If you have been searching for a bit of extra motivation to play through those nostalgic classics, RetroAchievements is exactly what you’ve been looking for. It doesn’t matter if you’re an 8-bit loyalist, an arcade fiend, or a PlayStation 2 pro, RA adds a significant amount of entertainment to whatever retro title you’re playing. I highly recommend you check out this awesome addition to retro gaming, as it’s a must-try for anyone who considers themselves a retro gamer.
