Retro Achievements is a website created by Scott Davies, a former programmer from Rare in 2012. It's a site that uses modified emulators for earning achievements. Each game has different points of achievements (originally 400 for every game, now different depending on the game) that can be earned by completing tasks each achievement has. Depending on how rare an achievement is, it may have different Retro Ratio, which can be a guideline on how difficult the game or its achievements is. There's also hardcore mode, which forbids using savestates and slow motion.
The site has certainly expanded since its inception, having over 200000 registered users. Achievements have also been split to main, ~Bonus~ and ~Multi~ sets. The ~Bonus~ sets are meant for the hardest achievements that need to be separate from the original sets due to their difficulty, while the ~Multi~ sets are for multiplayer modes. You can also earn achievements for ROM Hacks, demos and prototypes, and even homebrew games!
Visit it here
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Consoles supported:
- 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
- Amstrad CPC
- Apple ][
- Arcade Game
- Atari 2600
- Atari 7800
- Atari Jaguar
- Atari Lynx
- ColecoVision
- Fairchild Channel F
- Game Boy
- Game Boy Advance
- Game Boy Color
- Game Gear
- Magnavox Odyssey²
- MSX
- Neo Geo Pocket
- Nintendo 64
- Nintendo DS
- Nintendo Entertainment System
- PC-8000/8800
- PC-FX
- PlayStation
- PlayStation 2
- PlayStation Portable
- Pokémon mini
- Sega Dreamcast
- Sega Genesis (Plus Sega CD and Sega 32X)
- Sega Master System
- Sega Saturn
- Super Nintendo Entertainment System
- Supervision
- TurboGrafx-16
- Vectrex
- Virtual Boy
- WonderSwan
This site provides the following tropes:
- Achievement Mockery: Some achievements mock the player for even triggering them, or wasting so much time.
- Achievement System: The whole point of the site.
- Brutal Bonus Level: The ~Bonus~ sets are used for achievements that are just too hard to be put in the main set. And it shows. For instance, beating Mega Man without taking any damage.
- Easter Egg: Many games with these have achievements for finding them.
- Effortless Achievement: A few achievements for just starting a game are available, but they're generally discouraged.
- Similarly, some achievements are obtained by dying in particularly difficult games.
- Hard Mode Perks: Achievements earned in hardcore mode give double points and have a golden frame.
- Homage: The site's logo, until 7th September 2023, was based on the European Sega Mega Drive logo. The replacement and previously secondary logo is still based on Sega's, but now only reads RA.
- No-Damage Run: Some achievements are unlocked by defeating a boss, or more rarely a level, without taking any damage. No damage runs for bigger sections or even the whole game are usually reserved for ~Bonus~ sets due to difficulty concerns. Achievements for No Death Runs and No Continue Runs are also very common.
- No Fair Cheating: Can be done internally or externally. Internal protection covers in-game passwords and codes, while the external method is hardcore mode detailed above. Also, Game Genie is always disabled.
- Over 100% Completion: Beating a game on hardcore mode used to give a 200% complete message. Nowadays it just says the game is Mastered. If you're in Softcore mode, you'll only have Completed the game, not Mastered it.
- Unintentionally Unwinnable: Certain sets have still not been cleared by anyone, since coding errors prevent some of the achievements in them from triggering.
- Visible Silence: Used as the name for some of the achievements that are secrets, or are simply baffling.
