About Matrix Picks

Matrix Picks exists to answer one question: what should I play next? Retro gaming has an enormous back catalog, and most recommendation lists repeat the same handful of famous titles. We wanted a tool that respects your mood, your schedule and the people on your couch, and that surfaces great games you may never have heard of.

What's in the matrix

The database currently covers 12,817 games across 30 systems, from the Atari 2600 (1977) and Commodore 64 through the PlayStation, Dreamcast and Nintendo DS, including the Game Boy family and other handhelds. We include games released in the West, plus import titles that have their own English Wikipedia article. Prototypes, unlicensed bootlegs, hacks, demos and educational software are left out.

Where the information comes from

• The libretro database: an open, community-maintained catalog of genres, developers, publishers, release years and player counts.
• Wikidata: the free knowledge base behind Wikipedia, released under CC0. We use it for genres, game modes, release dates and links to Wikipedia articles.
• libretro-thumbnails: a community archive of box art and screenshots, used to help you recognise each game.
• Cheat codes: Game Genie, Action Replay, GameShark and other codes from the libretro-database community collection, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Guide links: links to GameFAQs, StrategyWiki, HowLongToBeat, speedrun.com, The Cutting Room Floor and MobyGames come from Wikidata. We link to walkthroughs rather than copying them, because they belong to their authors.

Each game page combines these facts with our own guides to every genre and system, written to help you decide whether a game is right for you. Data can contain mistakes; if you spot one, please tell us and we'll fix it.

How picks are made

The quiz maps your answers to tags in the database: your mood selects a family of genres, your time budget favors games with a matching typical play length, and your player count filters out games that can't support your group. There's no AI and no personal profiling. The same answers can give you different picks on each re-roll, because a little randomness keeps discovery fun.

What is the legacy score?

The legacy score counts how many Wikipedia language editions and sister projects document a game, adjusted down for ports of older games. It's a measure of cultural footprint, not a review score: a high number means a game is widely known and discussed around the world. Games with a modest legacy score but a documented history are tagged as deep cuts.

Play time estimates

"Commitment" labels (quick session, an evening, a weekend project, an epic journey) are typical ranges for each type of game on each system. They're meant as a quick guide, not a stopwatch measurement.

Our sister project

Matrix Picks is made by the team behind Rec0m88, a free cross-platform retro emulator with built-in online netplay and a browser arcade. Matrix Picks links to Rec0m88 where it's useful, and we're upfront about that relationship. Neither site hosts or links to copyrighted ROMs; emulator users are responsible for using their own legally obtained game backups.

Contact

Questions, corrections or ideas? Visit the contact page.