Apollo Classic help

NES and Famicom games, Classic's controls and music, custom themes, and where to find Apollo help.

Apollo Classic plays NES and Famicom cartridge games on Android 10 or later. No games are included. Add game files you own; no account is needed to play.

Games and controls

Open .nes game files, including games inside .zip or .7z archives. Disk System games and cartridges requiring VRC7 FM sound are not supported. Not every cartridge board or game is guaranteed to work.

Classic has a directional pad, A, B, Start and Select. It emulates gamepads; light guns and other special controllers are not offered. There are no game motion, light-sensor, camera or cartridge-rumble controls. You can move and resize touch controls separately upright and sideways, or use a controller or keyboard. The game picture is 256 × 240, with a different shape from Apollo Boy’s screens; layouts and shell artwork need to leave room for that picture.

See getting started, controls and library, and saves and backup for the shared steps.

Speed, music and extras

Play at 1×, 2× or 3× free; Pro adds 4×, 6×, 8×, 10× and 12×, plus Max ♪ and Max. Max ♪ finds a speed your device can sustain with music; Max runs without sound. The speed reached depends on the game and device.

Keeping music at its normal tempo and pitch depends on finding the game’s sound driver in play. The library’s MUSIC 1X badge appears after Classic learns it. It is not a promise for every game: without support, fast-forward uses ordinary sped-up, muted or normal-pitch sound instead. The Music page uses songs caught while you play; an unplayed game may not have songs ready yet. See speed and sound and music.

Pro cheats accept six- or eight-letter Game Genie codes and raw hexadecimal AAAA:VV or AAAA?CC:VV codes. Compare codes are supported on NROM, CNROM, UxROM, AxROM, BNROM, GxROM, Color Dreams, MMC1 and MMC3 boards; the comparison is ignored on other boards. Cheats are off during multiplayer.

RetroAchievements is optional and free, using your RetroAchievements account. Classic offers softcore achievements only, for supported NES game versions. Its achievement memory support covers system RAM and the first 8 KiB of cartridge work RAM; not every achievement set has been verified. See achievements.

For two-player games, read Classic multiplayer.

Custom shells

Pro supports custom themes: .apollotheme files, or .zip files containing theme.json and the pictures it names. Both portrait and landscape shell pictures are required. Older shell.json packs are not supported. See making a shell for the shared format and import steps.

A template drawn around Apollo Boy’s screen and buttons is not a Classic layout template. Leave space for Classic’s 256 × 240 picture and its A/B, Start/Select and directional controls; check both orientations and your device’s screen shape. Themes do not carry button layouts. Classic style exports use .apolloclassic-style; style files exported by other Apollo apps are not compatible.

Help and policies

Help and support explains how to contact us. Classic’s privacy policy, terms and data deletion instructions remain app-specific.

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