Qortium Emulator

Qortium Emulator is a static QDN app based on QDNES. It runs EmulatorJS while using Qortium Home bridge actions to browse and launch Qortal-hosted game metadata, ROMs, BIOS files, and core bundles. Those Qortal labels are technical: the resources being consumed are hosted on Qortal even though this launcher is a Qortium app.

Runtime behavior

Home 2 uses generic read actions on qortalRequest, which selects Qortal:

• SEARCH_QDN_RESOURCES
• GET_QDN_RESOURCE_STATUS
• FETCH_QDN_RESOURCE
• GET_QDN_RESOURCE_URL

When qortalRequest is absent, Home 1 compatibility uses the corresponding SEARCH_QORTAL_RESOURCES, GET_QORTAL_RESOURCE_STATUS, FETCH_QORTAL_RESOURCE, and GET_QORTAL_RESOURCE_URL actions on qdnRequest. The bridge checks the app window, then readable parent/top windows. A host rejection stays visible; it never switches networks or bypasses Home with HTTP.

Only when both bridge functions are absent does the standalone browser use https://ext-node.qortal.link. Override that read-only endpoint with window.EMULATOR_QORTAL_API_URL or window.QORTIUM_EMULATOR_QORTAL_API_URL before the bridge script loads.

Bundled asset probes retry a ranged GET when a host rejects HEAD with 403, 405, or 501, and cancel the unused body. Missing assets and HTML fallbacks are still rejected. This accommodates Android Home's render proxy without changing resource authorization or external-core selection.

The launcher and player follow Home theme, accent, language, text-size, and UI style messages. Classic, Modern, and Fun styles are all implemented; Fun uses the bundled Comic Neue and Fredoka fonts. Display-setting changes are relayed into the player iframe while a game is running.

Developers workspace

The launcher includes a first-class, read-only Developers reference reachable from the topbar or the ?view=developers URL (aliases developer and reference are normalized to the canonical value). Sections are selected with ?section=<id> from a fixed, whitelisted list. Opening, closing, or switching sections in this workspace never reloads the app, never touches the active player iframe or a running game, and never overloads the URL fragment — every other query key, the host fragment, and the exact browser history state are preserved across that navigation. The workspace body always renders in English (lang="en" dir="ltr") regardless of the active Home language, since it documents implemented contracts rather than end-user UI.

Launcher home, system, and linked-ROM selections are represented in the app URL. Deliberate navigation adds browser-history entries, so Qortium Home and the browser Back/Forward controls can traverse them. Restoring launcher pages does not reload an active player, and returning to the exact same linked ROM, file, and core reuses the running game.

EmulatorJS fullscreen state is bridged back to the launcher. The launcher can expand the player surface when native iframe fullscreen is not sufficient, and it exposes an Exit Fullscreen button; Escape also leaves that fallback mode.

Before startup, the player samples the display refresh rate. It reports a warning below about 45 Hz and a note below 55 Hz because 60 FPS systems can feel uneven. For selected heavy cores, a startup failure can retry a configured performance-oriented fallback core.

After a ROM is loaded, Run Diagnostics samples the current, capped, and expanded player surfaces. It records frame timing, canvas and viewport details, runtime state, graphics support, and core information, then exposes JSON and Markdown reports. These diagnostics help separate canvas-scaling/compositing cost from core, ROM, runtime, or host throttling.

QAVS

The app is at QAVS 1.4.2: 1.4 is its minimum Qortium platform level and the patch number is the app release. scripts/build-dist.sh reads package.json, injects the visible version into dist/index.html, and writes dist/qortium-app.json with the name Emulator and current version.

Development, checks, and build

npm run dev      # serve the source tree at http://localhost:5178
npm run check    # JavaScript syntax checks
npm test         # routing, Developers, display and bridge compatibility checks
npm run build    # stage the publishable app in dist/
npm run preview  # serve dist/ at http://localhost:4178

The normal build bundles only the fceumm core to keep the APP resource small. Other systems use the external Qortal FILES/QDNES/cores bundle configured by the player. Select more local cores when required:

QORTIUM_EMULATOR_BUNDLED_CORES=fceumm,snes9x npm run build
scripts/build-dist.sh --all-cores
scripts/build-dist.sh --list-cores

npm run qdn:package creates dist.zip with all installed cores by default. That archive is a separate full package and can be substantially larger than the normal QDN APP build.

Emulator smoke checks

There is no automated ROM compatibility suite. Before publishing, run npm run check, build, and preview the result, then manually verify:

• an NES ROM with the bundled fceumm core;
• at least one system that loads its core from FILES/QDNES/cores;
• a BIOS-dependent system when the release changes BIOS handling;
• Home and plain-browser resource loading, fullscreen entry/exit, audio/input, refresh-rate messages, and a generated diagnostics report.

Core and ROM compatibility varies, and accuracy-focused cores can be much more demanding than performance-oriented choices. A successful launcher load does not by itself prove that every EmulatorJS core or game works on every device.

Previewnet publish

npm run check
npm run build
npm run qdn:publish

The publisher uploads dist/ as qdn://APP/Emulator/Emulator through the local Core at http://127.0.0.1:24891. It defaults to ~/qortium/git/qortium-core/preview/secrets/initial-minting-accounts.json. Overrides use the QORTIUM_EMULATOR_ prefix.

The render URL is http://127.0.0.1:24891/render/APP/Emulator/Emulator. The publisher waits for /arbitrary/resource/status/APP/Emulator/Emulator?build=true to report READY.