A port of the Nofrendo NES emulator to the Panic® Playdate®. Plays NES games (and homebrew). Mostly full speed, with a few slowdowns and minor glitches on demanding games.
ROMs are not included.
- Download
FamiCrank.pdxfrom this page. - Sideload via play.date/account.
- Launch FamiCrank once. If you have no ROMs yet, you'll see a message with the folder path. The folder has been created.
- Connect your Playdate to your computer via USB.
- On the Playdate, go to Settings → System → Reboot into Data Disk Mode. The device mounts as a USB drive on your computer.
- Copy your
.nesROM files into theGames/Shared/Emulation/nes/games/folder on the mounted drive. - Eject the drive and reboot the Playdate.
Your progress is saved automatically when you switch games or quit the app. Save files are stored in Games/Shared/Emulation/nes/saves/ on your Playdate.
| Playdate | NES |
|---|---|
| D-pad | D-pad |
| A | A |
| B | B |
| Crank forward | Start |
| Crank backward | Select |
- Frameskip:
Auto(default) keeps things as smooth as possible and adjusts on its own. You can also pick a fixed amount if you prefer.
- Nofrendo core: Matthew Conte (1998–2000).
- NumWorks port: nwagyu.
- Playdate port: Giorgio Pomettini.
- Graphical assets: Noemi Frulio.
Source code, roadmap and dev notes: github.com/pomettini/nofrendo.
GPLv3. See LICENSE inside the .pdx bundle.
FamiCrank for Playdate is a fan project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Nintendo® Co., Ltd. Nintendo® and Nintendo Entertainment System® are trademarks of Nintendo; all rights belong to their respective owners. Playdate® is a registered trademark of Panic® Inc., with whom this project is also unaffiliated.
This Playdate port was developed with assistance from generative AI, specifically Claude Code. Use of generative AI in the upstream Nofrendo emulator has not been disclosed.