Menu reference¶

The desktop frontend frames the NES image with an always-on menu bar across the top and a status bar along the bottom, both always present (unless you hide the menu bar with M or View → Show Menu Bar). Debugger and tool panels open directly as windows from the Tools and Debug menus — there is no overlay to switch on first. The ` key toggles the status-bar RetroAchievements read-out, not the debugger.

Every menu entry shows its keyboard accelerator on the right where one exists; the hotkey and the menu item do exactly the same thing.

File¶

Item	Key	Notes
Open ROM…	`F12`	Native file picker for a `.nes` / `.fds` ROM
Open Recent ▸		The recently-opened ROMs; missing files are greyed out. "Clear Recent" empties the list
Swap Disk Side	`F9`	FDS only — cycle the inserted disk side
Save State	`F1`	Save to the active slot
Load State	`F4`	Load from the active slot
Save Slot ▸		Pick the active slot (0–9) used by `F1` / `F4`
Save to Slot ▸		Save directly to a chosen slot (0–9)
Load from Slot ▸		Load directly from a chosen slot (0–9)
Save States…		Open the Save-States manager: a grid of slots, each with a thumbnail of the saved frame and its timestamp (or "Empty"), with per-slot Save / Load; the active slot is highlighted (native only)
Take Screenshot		Write a PNG of the current frame (native only)
Copy Screenshot to Clipboard		Copy the current frame to the system clipboard (native only)
Quit	`Esc`	Close the window cleanly

Emulation¶

Item	Key	Notes
Pause / Resume	`Space`	Toggle emulation; disabled while a netplay session is active
Reset	`F2`	Warm reset
Power Cycle	`F3`	Cold boot
Frame Advance	`\`	Step exactly one frame — meant for use while paused
Fast Forward (hold Tab)	`Tab`	Hint only — hold `Tab` to run unthrottled (audio muted); there is no toggle
Speed ▸	`=` / `-` / `0`	Pick an emulation-speed preset — 25% / 50% / 75% / 100% / 150% / 200% / 300% (the current one is checkmarked). `=` steps up, `-` steps down, `0` resets to 100%. The speed is transient (always launches at 100%); the status bar shows it when it is not 100%. Audio pitch-shifts naturally at non-100% speeds — distinct from the muted hold-`Tab` fast-forward
Run-Ahead ▸		Choose the run-ahead depth, 0–3 frames. Tools → Analysis → Latency Oracle can measure the depth this game actually needs
Region		Read-only NTSC / PAL / Dendy label
Vs. Insert Coin	`F10`	Vs. System games only — insert a coin into acceptor #1
Famicom Disk System ▸	`F9`	FDS games only — Swap Disk Side, plus direct side selection and Eject. `F9` works without opening the menu

Tools¶

These open as floating windows directly — you do not need the debugger overlay for them. On native, every one can be popped out into its own OS window; the web build always renders them docked.

Grouped by task since v2.3.6; the menu had grown to twenty flat entries.

Item	Key	Notes
Cheats…		Game Genie and raw RAM cheats. Kept at the top level as the most-used panel
Movies & Recording ▸	`F6` / `F7` / `F8`	Record / Play / Branch a TAS movie; import & export `.fm2` / `.bk2` and `.srt` subtitles; TAStudio; Replay / TAS; Record A/V…; Export Last 30s (`.rnm`)
Audio ▸		NSF Player (NSF / NSFe playback), Audio Mixer (per-channel balance, scopes, VU), Audio Provenance (what wrote each APU register, and the per-CPU-cycle mix trace) — see Analysis tools
Input ▸		Input Display (pads + every expansion peripheral), Virtual Pad (on-screen controller, native only)
Game Data ▸		ROM Info (read-only browser), ROM Database (per-game override editor)
Analysis ▸		Latency Oracle, Pixel Provenance, RAM Atlas, Divergence Lens, BasicBot — see Analysis tools
HD Pack ▸		Load / unload an HD pack, Pixel Inspector, Build HD Pack (native, opt-in feature)
Netplay…		Host or join a rollback session (native only)
RetroAchievements…		Login, achievements, leaderboards (native only, opt-in feature)

Netplay and RetroAchievements sit below a separator at the top level rather than in a submenu: they change what the session is, rather than being a tool you point at the game.

View¶

Item	Key	Notes
Settings…		Open the tabbed Settings window (Display / Audio / Input / Advanced)
Theme ▸		Light / Dark / System
8:7 Pixel Aspect		Toggle NES-native pixel-aspect correction (default off)
Hide Overscan		Crop the top and bottom 8 NES scanlines (the CRT-hidden overscan area); default off (`[graphics] hide_overscan`)
Fullscreen	`F11`	Toggle borderless fullscreen (native only)
Window Size ▸		Resize the window to an integer multiple of the NES resolution — 1x (100%) / 2x (200%) / 3x (300%) / 4x (400%) (native only)
Show FPS		Toggle the FPS readout in the status bar
Pause When Unfocused		Auto-pause emulation when the window loses focus, auto-resume when it regains focus (default off; never overrides a manual pause or a netplay session)
Show Menu Bar	`M`	Hide / show the menu bar itself

Debug¶

Grouped by what is being inspected since v2.3.6. Every entry opens its own window; there is no overlay to toggle first.

Item	Notes
Performance Monitor	Frame-timing, audio-queue and pacing telemetry
Chip State ▸	CPU, PPU, APU, OAM, Mapper — per-chip register and internal state
Memory ▸	Memory (live hex view), Memory Compare (RAM Search + RAM Watch)
Execution ▸	Trace Logger, Watch / Breakpoints, Event Viewer, Lua Script
Cartridge Info / Header Editor…	Inspect and edit a ROM header on disk (native only)
Symbols ▸	Load Symbols (`.sym` / `.mlb` / `.nl`), Clear Symbols (native only)

The old Show Debugger entry was removed in v1.7.1 when the debugger toolbar was retired — every panel now opens directly. The ` key toggles the status-bar RetroAchievements read-out, not the debugger.

Help¶

Item	Notes
Keyboard Shortcuts	The full default-bindings table
About	Version, license, and project link

Status bar¶

The bottom bar shows the current state at a glance:

the loaded ROM name (or "No ROM loaded"),
the detected region (NTSC / PAL / Dendy),
the mapper name,
the active run-ahead depth (when non-zero),
the run state — Running, Paused (yellow), or Netplay (blue),
the active emulation speed, shown only when it is not 100%, and
the FPS readout, right-aligned (hidden when View → Show FPS is off).

When emulation is paused the NES viewport dims (~40% black) with a large centered PAUSED label; the menu bar and status bar stay at normal brightness.

Settings window¶

View → Settings… opens a tabbed dialog:

Display — theme, 8:7 pixel-aspect, FPS readout, present mode, the NTSC filter, and the Hide Overscan toggle.
Audio — sample rate, audio latency (latency_ms), the dynamic-rate-control toggle, a master Volume slider (0–100%) and a Mute checkbox, and six per-channel mute checkboxes (Pulse 1, Pulse 2, Triangle, Noise, DMC, Mapper Audio), all on by default.
Input — the full rebind panel (the same one the debugger surfaces), plus an analog-stick deadzone slider (0.05–0.95) for the gamepads, applied live.
Advanced — run-ahead depth, rewind sizing, and other developer-facing toggles.

The Video / Audio / Advanced sections each have a Reset to Defaults button (two-click confirm) that restores that section's settings to their defaults and re-applies them live.

Changes to the theme, pixel-aspect, FPS, volume/mute, per-channel mutes, overscan, and deadzone apply live; the rest note where a restart is needed.

First-run Welcome¶

On a brand-new install (no config file yet) a one-time Welcome modal appears with a quick-start shortcut list. Dismiss it with Get Started, the close button, or by clicking away — it never re-appears once shown.