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Pocket Shelf vshelf-v0.6.0-beta.1 by fthdgn
Last Release: Nov 5, 2026
Downloads: 27
Last Release: Nov 5, 2026
Downloads: 27
Downloads: 27
Pocket Shelf is a launcher for the titles installed on the console. It lists Vita games, homebrew, PlayStation Mobile titles, PSP and PS1 games installed for Adrenaline (EBOOTs and ISO/CSO images), system applications, and the games in RetroArch's playlists, in tabs by kind of title, with one tab per RetroArch console. Users can add their own categories, and rename, reorder or hide any of them; "Last Played" and "Favorites" tabs fill themselves.
Titles are shown in five views (Home, Carousel, Grid, List and Cascade) at three detail levels, with each title's icon and backdrop, in six themes, one of which takes its colors from the selected title. A status bar shows the clock, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and battery.
PSP and PS1 games without a bubble start through Adrenaline with Pocket Shelf's own boot plugin, which the app adds to Adrenaline's plugin list only after the user confirms. RetroArch games start in the core their playlist entry names. Icons and backdrops can be looked up for one title or a whole category on SteamGridDB (with the user's own API key) or libretro's thumbnail server. Titles can be renamed, moved between categories, marked as favorites and searched. The app updates itself from its GitHub releases on a chosen channel, and is available in English, Turkish, German, French and Spanish.
Titles are shown in five views (Home, Carousel, Grid, List and Cascade) at three detail levels, with each title's icon and backdrop, in six themes, one of which takes its colors from the selected title. A status bar shows the clock, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and battery.
PSP and PS1 games without a bubble start through Adrenaline with Pocket Shelf's own boot plugin, which the app adds to Adrenaline's plugin list only after the user confirms. RetroArch games start in the core their playlist entry names. Icons and backdrops can be looked up for one title or a whole category on SteamGridDB (with the user's own API key) or libretro's thumbnail server. Titles can be renamed, moved between categories, marked as favorites and searched. The app updates itself from its GitHub releases on a chosen channel, and is available in English, Turkish, German, French and Spanish.
Pocket Shelf can now list the games in your own folders and start them in standalone emulators (DaedalusX64, DSVita, NooDS, Flycast, ScummVM and PCSX AwO) as well as RetroArch and Emu4Vita++, choose a game's core, and take box art and backdrops from any folder.
Install `pocket-shelf.vpk` with VitaShell, or update from SELECT ▸ System ▸ Updates on the Beta channel. Your settings, categories, title changes, artwork and game data carry over; no setting changes value.
## New
- **Folder categories** (SELECT ▸ Games ▸ Categories ▸ New folder category): pick a folder with **Use this folder** and name the tab. The tab lists the games in the folder and its subfolders that no RetroArch playlist lists. Each file's console is found from its extension, the files in a `.zip`, a disc image's header (PlayStation, Saturn, Mega-CD, a Mega Drive `.bin`, a PS1 `EBOOT.PBP`, through a `.cue` or `.m3u`) or its folders' names (`snes`, `psx`, `Mega Drive`…). The tracks a `.cue`, `.gdi` or `.m3u` names are not listed on their own, and a `disc.gdi` or `EBOOT.PBP` takes its folder's name. ○ on a folder category edits its folder and name; the manager shows each one's folder and number of games.
- **Rescan this tab** (SELECT, above Language): reads again only what fills the open tab — the installed apps for Games, Homebrew and System, the PSM titles, Adrenaline's games and the playlists for PSP and PSX, the playlists and emulator folders for a console's tab, a folder category's folder — and keeps the rest of the list. On Last Played, Favorites and your own categories it is a full rescan.
- **Standalone emulators**: games start in these when installed, straight into the game:
- DaedalusX64 (Nintendo 64), DSVita (Nintendo DS), NooDS (Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance), Flycast (Dreamcast), PCSX AwO (PlayStation).
- Their own game folders are read at each scan and their games join the console tabs: DaedalusX64's `Roms` folders and the folder set in its menu, DSVita's `ux0:data/dsvita`, Flycast's content folders, PCSX AwO's `ux0:data/pcsx-awo/roms` and its `rom_folders.txt`. NooDS keeps no folder: use a folder category.
- **ScummVM**: the games you added in ScummVM get a ScummVM tab, under ScummVM's names, and start with your ScummVM settings for them.
- A game several apps open offers them all in its editor's **Open with** (Triangle on a title); RetroArch's PlayStation playlist games offer PCSX AwO there too.
- **Core** (Triangle on a RetroArch or Emu4Vita++ game ▸ Core): the core it starts with in that app — Default, then **Recommended** (the core recommended for that console on the Vita, such as `snes9x2005_plus` for SNES or `gpsp` for GBA), then every installed core for its console.
- **Box art and backdrops from any folder** (Triangle on a title ▸ Box art or Backdrop ▸ Browse...): pick a PNG anywhere on the memory card. The title uses the file where it is, nothing is copied, and Browse opens next time on the folder you last used.
## Changed
- The category manager shows as many rows as fit (five), and its button hints wrap instead of running off the drawer (German at the larger text size).
## Fixed
- Saved files are written whole before they replace the old one, and a file with a leftover tail from an older write reads again; a write cut short no longer resets your settings.
- A line break in a note showed as a box in Browse.
New files in `ux0:/data/PocketShelf/`: `rom-folders.json` (your folder categories), `folders.json` (the folders Browse last used) and `cores.json` (the cores you chose). `titles.tsv` keeps folder and emulator games as new kinds of lines; an older release scans over such a list.
Confirmed on hardware: a Dreamcast game from a folder category starting in Flycast. **Not yet confirmed on hardware**: the other standalone emulators' launches, folder reading times on the memory card, per-game cores at launch, and the update from 0.5.2-beta.1; the rest was checked in tests, desktop renders and Vita3K (folder reading, tabs, Browse, the editor). Please report problems with `ux0:/data/PocketShelf/log.txt`; SELECT ▸ System ▸ Diagnostics shows what each folder reading found and left out.
## Verify
This release's VPK carries a signed build provenance: `gh attestation verify pocket-shelf.vpk -R fthdgn-gh/pocket-shelf`.
Install `pocket-shelf.vpk` with VitaShell, or update from SELECT ▸ System ▸ Updates on the Beta channel. Your settings, categories, title changes, artwork and game data carry over; no setting changes value.
## New
- **Folder categories** (SELECT ▸ Games ▸ Categories ▸ New folder category): pick a folder with **Use this folder** and name the tab. The tab lists the games in the folder and its subfolders that no RetroArch playlist lists. Each file's console is found from its extension, the files in a `.zip`, a disc image's header (PlayStation, Saturn, Mega-CD, a Mega Drive `.bin`, a PS1 `EBOOT.PBP`, through a `.cue` or `.m3u`) or its folders' names (`snes`, `psx`, `Mega Drive`…). The tracks a `.cue`, `.gdi` or `.m3u` names are not listed on their own, and a `disc.gdi` or `EBOOT.PBP` takes its folder's name. ○ on a folder category edits its folder and name; the manager shows each one's folder and number of games.
- **Rescan this tab** (SELECT, above Language): reads again only what fills the open tab — the installed apps for Games, Homebrew and System, the PSM titles, Adrenaline's games and the playlists for PSP and PSX, the playlists and emulator folders for a console's tab, a folder category's folder — and keeps the rest of the list. On Last Played, Favorites and your own categories it is a full rescan.
- **Standalone emulators**: games start in these when installed, straight into the game:
- DaedalusX64 (Nintendo 64), DSVita (Nintendo DS), NooDS (Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance), Flycast (Dreamcast), PCSX AwO (PlayStation).
- Their own game folders are read at each scan and their games join the console tabs: DaedalusX64's `Roms` folders and the folder set in its menu, DSVita's `ux0:data/dsvita`, Flycast's content folders, PCSX AwO's `ux0:data/pcsx-awo/roms` and its `rom_folders.txt`. NooDS keeps no folder: use a folder category.
- **ScummVM**: the games you added in ScummVM get a ScummVM tab, under ScummVM's names, and start with your ScummVM settings for them.
- A game several apps open offers them all in its editor's **Open with** (Triangle on a title); RetroArch's PlayStation playlist games offer PCSX AwO there too.
- **Core** (Triangle on a RetroArch or Emu4Vita++ game ▸ Core): the core it starts with in that app — Default, then **Recommended** (the core recommended for that console on the Vita, such as `snes9x2005_plus` for SNES or `gpsp` for GBA), then every installed core for its console.
- **Box art and backdrops from any folder** (Triangle on a title ▸ Box art or Backdrop ▸ Browse...): pick a PNG anywhere on the memory card. The title uses the file where it is, nothing is copied, and Browse opens next time on the folder you last used.
## Changed
- The category manager shows as many rows as fit (five), and its button hints wrap instead of running off the drawer (German at the larger text size).
## Fixed
- Saved files are written whole before they replace the old one, and a file with a leftover tail from an older write reads again; a write cut short no longer resets your settings.
- A line break in a note showed as a box in Browse.
New files in `ux0:/data/PocketShelf/`: `rom-folders.json` (your folder categories), `folders.json` (the folders Browse last used) and `cores.json` (the cores you chose). `titles.tsv` keeps folder and emulator games as new kinds of lines; an older release scans over such a list.
Confirmed on hardware: a Dreamcast game from a folder category starting in Flycast. **Not yet confirmed on hardware**: the other standalone emulators' launches, folder reading times on the memory card, per-game cores at launch, and the update from 0.5.2-beta.1; the rest was checked in tests, desktop renders and Vita3K (folder reading, tabs, Browse, the editor). Please report problems with `ux0:/data/PocketShelf/log.txt`; SELECT ▸ System ▸ Diagnostics shows what each folder reading found and left out.
## Verify
This release's VPK carries a signed build provenance: `gh attestation verify pocket-shelf.vpk -R fthdgn-gh/pocket-shelf`.
| Name | Version | Released | Hits | DL Link | QR |
| pocket-shelf.vpk | vshelf-v0.5.2-beta.1 | 11/05/26 | 1 | Download | QR |
| pocket-shelf.vpk | vshelf-v0.5.1-beta.1 | 11/05/26 | 1 | Download | QR |
| pocket-shelf.vpk | vshelf-v0.5.0-beta.1 | 11/04/26 | 4 | Download | QR |
| pocket-shelf.vpk | vshelf-v0.4.0-beta.1 | 11/01/26 | 6 | Download | QR |
| pocket-shelf.vpk | vshelf-v0.3.0-beta.1 | 10/30/26 | 5 | Download | QR |
| pocket-shelf.vpk | vshelf-v0.2.0-beta.3 | 10/27/26 | 9 | Download | QR |
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