Look around

Where this is going

Cartmark publishes its plan: every release still to come, in the order it will be built, and why it sits where it does. A planned version is a target, not a promise, and the plan says so itself.

All In testing Planned Before 1.0 The track record

Live running on the production library today, 0.40.0.1. In testing built and running on a test server, not yet released. Planned not yet built; its season is a target, not a promise. The order is deliberate: anything that could lose data or leak a credential is built first, then noticing when data has gone bad, then anything that moves files, and features last, on top of a floor that has been proven.

In testing

  • The server's install VM

    In testing · target: late 2026

    A Windows game installed in a throwaway virtual machine on the server, scanned, and its clean result brought home to the library, never touching a person's PC. Off by default. QEMU can run in a container of its own or inside Cartmark's own service, and the setting sets out the risks and benefits of each.

  • A PC game proved genuine and versioned

    In testing · target: late 2026

    Every install's files fingerprinted and matched against GOG's own build lists, so a PC game shows its exact version, a checkmark for a current or an older build, a link to the exact manifest the check came from, and by name any file a repack replaced. The first step, the checkmark, is live in 0.39.0.13; the rest follows once the VM runs.

Planned

  • DLC and expansions on a game's page

    Planned · early 2027

    A game on a shelf shows every add-on the catalogue knows, from IGDB and from a store's own DLC list where the house owns the game there, each with its kind, its release date and whether it is held, with the same Add and monitor pill as a game. An add-on is never a game of its own: it is filed under its parent, and lending or copying a game brings its held add-ons. Patches and updates are kept with their game the same way, installed in version order, with an Update press for a PC that is behind.

  • A full Content-Security-Policy

    Planned · early 2027

    Every page is sent a policy today that is reported, not enforced: the browser tells Cartmark what it would have blocked. Enforcing it closes the last broad class of page injection.

  • A nightly watch for bit rot

    Planned · spring 2027

    Every night, files are read back and compared with the fingerprint taken at their last good boot. A file that has silently gone bad is marked Corrupted, its evidence kept, and tested again from the start. Your library tells you a disk is failing before you find out mid-game.

  • Downloads that can be moved and removed; hide and quarantine as real moves

    Planned · spring 2027

    The first widening of file operations, behind plan, apply and the recycle bin, after the audit and per-file provenance exist. Hiding a game will move it out of the menus' reach instead of only marking it, and a game that won't boot moves to its own quarantine folder with everything that belongs to it. Both reversible.

  • Import modes and the post-import chain

    Partly built · target: summer 2027

    Every import already passes the eight-step check; converting a disc image on arrival, and chaining the steps that follow as plug-ins, is still off.

  • Artwork and video previews, automatically

    Planned · summer 2027

    The moment a copy passes its boot test, Cartmark fetches its cover and pictures, and uses the boot test's own recording as the game's preview video. Your TV menu fills with art and moving previews of games you know work, with nothing for you to scrape. An attract-mode trial exists, off by default.

  • Folder games served as a zip; one-click install on Unraid

    Planned · summer 2027

    A game stored as a folder downloads as a single zip. A single container in Unraid's Community Apps, with private remote access built in; Tailscale already runs inside the container.

  • Codes on your phone from anywhere

    Planned · summer 2027

    Cartmark's own ntfy reached from outside the tailnet as well, through Tailscale's Funnel or the house's own proxy, each a switch you turn on yourself and each saying plainly who else sees the codes on that way; a person's card lists the ways, one per phone. The tailnet stays the default.

  • Catalogue review, nightly sync, Switch Online, RomM collections

    Planned · autumn 2027

    The catalogue refreshes itself nightly and a review page collects the few matches a person has to decide; the Nintendo Switch Online catalogue joins the subscription services; "Verified boots", "Needs work", "Re-acquire" and "Untested" appear as collections in a connected library manager, kept up to date from Cartmark's verdicts.

  • Machine states, the compatibility matrix, machine discovery, eviction

    Planned · autumn 2027

    The Status page shows each machine's state and each queue; every machine against every copy on the game page, at a glance; Cartmark looks for machines on your network that could join, only when you ask; a game copied to a machine is cleared out again under limits you set.

  • Play from the server, and install from the share

    Planned · early 2027

    A Windows installer run straight from the library share instead of copied to the PC first, so a PC needs room only for the installed game, wired PCs only. Then a Windows game kept installed on the shelf run on a PC straight from the share, on a connection measured good enough, each game tested once for running from a read-only folder.

  • A repack's own install options; a crack flagged by Defender let through for one install only

    Planned · late 2026

    A repack's optional and selective parts (voice languages, soundtrack, the 2K videos) listed with their sizes, so unticked parts are neither read nor copied. A file Defender labels in the crack family, which ClamAV reading the installer again agrees is only a note and which is byte for byte the server's copy, is allowed for that one install alone, off by default and switched on per household.

  • Challenge certification for PC games

    Planned · late 2027

    A run counts in a challenge only when the game's content matches the reference build of its version, nothing is cheating while it plays, and its saves add up. Every rule, threshold and reader is published on a methodology page anyone can read and argue with, every verdict names the rule version and the exact check that decided it, and a flagged player sees the evidence and can appeal. A player may mark a run as non-compete.

  • Discord by kind, a house Discord bot, email from Cartmark

    Planned · late 2027

    Several webhooks, each choosing the kinds of event it is sent; the owner's own private bot that checks who can see each private code channel; and an owner-configured mail sender for security notices and invites.

  • Installing on another drive, and a network drive at home

    Planned · 2028

    A second place on a PC for the games Cartmark puts there; then the household's own games and saves on a network drive the person has already mapped, never a loan, and never in place of the copy on the server.

  • A game copied between two machines of one household over the home network

    Planned · 2028

    Where a second PC or box borrows a game a first one in the same home already holds, it copies it from that machine instead of from the server, under a one-time permit and the server's checksum list, so a copy never fails for the peer. It never carries saves.

  • Smarter sale predictions; Twitch campaigns planned by each reward; usenet indexers added directly

    Planned · 2028

    A publisher pattern that speaks only when at least five games back it up, labelled as a pattern, not a promise. A campaign's rewards learned before its turn. Usenet indexers under Indexers, so usenet searching works without Prowlarr.

  • Play retro systems in the browser

    After 1.0

    An in-browser emulator in Cartmark's own pages for the light consoles and handhelds, streaming the ROM from the library, under the same household and sign-in rules.

Five goals that come before 1.0

Version 1.0 waits until each of these is met, whatever release it arrives in. They are about how people reach their games, and each is designed in full before it is built. They are built in this order.

  • Households

    Live 0.31.1.30

    Every person and machine in one household, run by its own household admin. More.

  • Who played

    Live 0.33

    Play on a shared machine counted to the member who played: by the machine's player, by their RetroAchievements sign-in, by saying "I'm playing", or by a guess that is marked as a guess and corrected in one tap. Each person may also choose up to five favourite genres, for suggestions.

  • Who's playing, on the machine's screen

    Live 0.38

    Each machine has a player; signing in to Windows makes you the player, switching needs a PIN, and a guest from another household scans the code on the screen to play and save as themselves. The Batocera box has no on-screen code yet: that part is still to come.

  • Saves that follow a person

    Live 0.38.3

    Each person's saves kept on the server, every version for good, and brought to whichever of their household's machines they play on, with per-player memory cards on the box. A household save for a game the whole household shares is still to come.

  • Android handhelds, and player machines at other houses

    Handhelds live 0.37.1 · other houses planned · 2027

    A person with an Android handheld borrows and plays games from the library on it, over Tailscale, keeps its saves where RetroArch keeps them, and the handheld updates itself. A machine at another house, playing from your library with small games streamed and big ones loaned, is designed and follows households, which it rests on.

Your library at a friend's house

The largest of the goals before 1.0 is designed: player machines. A person with an account sets up their own PC or TV box, at their own house, to play from your library.

  • Stream the small, borrow the big. Cartridge games and lighter disc systems play straight over the link, the whole shelf, no checking out. Large disc games are loaned: copied to the player's machine, three at a time for two weeks by default, and removed on return, the way loans already work for the house's own machines.
  • One installer. It asks which systems the person wants and installs only what those need, then signs the machine in from a QR code. Nobody edits a file.
  • Each machine has an owner. Remove the machine or the person and access ends at once, without touching anyone else.
  • Read-only, always. A player can never change or remove anything on the server.
  • Firmware on loan. A machine at another house is given firmware only with a loan, only while the owner has switched lending firmware on, and has it taken back when the loan ends. Keys are never lent.

Honest about it: loans are a fair lending system among people who trust each other, not copy protection. What may leave the house is the server owner's to decide.

Also on the list, not yet designed: credit for two people playing on one machine at once, and age and content limits a household admin sets for a member.

Why believe a roadmap: what has shipped

ReleasesWhat arrived
0.5 to 0.8: numbered releases begin; Grafana monitoring, alerts, play tracking
0.9: Twitch Drops, alerts on ntfy and Discord, the one-table deals view; three security passes
0.10 and 0.11: encrypted machine link, device keys, machines at another house, automatic Twitch claims
0.12 to 0.16: the full Twitch page, Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, proven backups, secrets out of the database, save protection
0.17 to 0.19: firmware and keys only from the owner, a separate admin password, hardware reports by consent
0.20 to 0.29: downloads that look after themselves, worker lanes, the eight-step import check, Tailscale built in, a game left running closed
0.30 and 0.31: Twitch deadlines, about fifty security fixes across the whole program, the phone app, the serial audit
0.31.1.0 to 0.31.1.29: the TV box's tests mended, the emulator's own words read, the super admin, BIOS Approved, search suggestions, the Connection card, machines assigned to people and their hardware
0.31.1.30 to 0.33: households, firmware and keys by household, a BIOS by its checksum, the jobs explained, franchises brought in, who played, upkeep on its own
0.34 to 0.37: every Windows download virus-scanned, PC installs from the installer, locks and private code channels, sign-ins from unusual places held, a partly scanned game held, Cartmark's own ntfy, Add… on a game's page, Android handhelds
0.38 to 0.38.3: the Windows tray, Steam-style notifications, who's playing, PINs, guests, achievements, every save version kept, per-player memory cards
0.39.0.0 to 0.39.0.19: imports that settle themselves, the arcade shelf, loans with a length and a limit, each system's Redump and No-Intro list, a PC game checked against GOG's builds
0.40.0.0 to 0.40.0.1: the new look on every page, a game's page with its own art and tabs, your own colours, Uninstall game in the tray, RPCS3's trophies with your saves, achievement progress on Home, each system's list filtered by franchise, Xbox games on the box with save sync on, a PC whose clock is set back keeps checking in

Every release keeps the upgrade guarantee: it upgrades in place from any earlier version with nothing lost and nothing to do by hand.

Showing 2 in testing, 16 planned, 5 goals