a RomM client for Apple TV
a RomM client for Apple TV
Meet Channel 3, a beautiful native Apple TV client for your RomM library. Pair with a QR code, find a favorite from the couch, and press Play. Your games come from your server. Your saves go back to it. Assets like covers, bezels, screenshots, and video previews you've already collected in RomM show up automatically, so the library looks as good as it plays.
A familiar channel. A new way to play.
Built for Apple TV · Bring your own RomM 5+ server
Your library, made for the couch. Everything on screen comes from your RomM metadata. Screenshots show public-domain and licensed homebrew titles from a demo RomM library.
Channel 3 is a third-party client for RomM, the open-source ROM manager you host yourself. You'll need a server reachable from your Apple TV, your own game files, and a compatible controller for play. RomM versions before 5 are not supported.
Self-host RomM version 5 or newer on your NAS, home server, or homelab. New to RomM? Start with the official docs.
Channel 3 finds RomM on your network, then shows a QR code and a short code. Approve it from your phone or computer — your RomM password is never typed on the TV. See each requested RomM permission and why it is needed.
Pick a game, and Channel 3 fetches it from your server on demand. Channel 3 includes no games, no firmware, and no cloud — your library is entirely your own.
Channel 3 looks for RomM on your network, or you can enter your server address. Scan the QR code with your phone, approve the Apple TV in RomM, and your library is ready to browse.
RomM keeps your collection organized. Channel 3 makes it feel like a console.
Find your next game in Continue Playing, Recently Added, Favorites, platforms, and collections. Big artwork and simple navigation make your library easy to browse across the room.
Assets like cover art, bezels, descriptions, screenshots, and video clips already in RomM are used automatically. Focus a game and its preview plays; open it and the full page is there; press Play and it runs inside its bezel. Nothing to re-scrape or upload.
Press Play and Channel 3 fetches the game from RomM right then. No file copying, no sideloading, no juggling USB sticks.
tvOS play sessions are cleaned up automatically when you're done — no permanent ROM copies pile up on the box. Your server stays the single source of truth.
Pair a PlayStation, Xbox, or MFi controller and play the way the games were meant to be played. Menus stay navigable with the Siri Remote.
Supported games run locally on your Apple TV using bundled libretro emulator cores. Check the systems below to see how your collection fits.
Save states sync back to RomM, and Channel 3 can restore them when you pick a game up again. Progress follows your library — not one device. Unsynced saves are never treated as disposable.
No separate Channel 3 account and no ads. Your library stays on your server. Usage sharing is off until you opt in through Privacy & Legal. Read the privacy policy.
Every frame here is Channel 3 running against a RomM server. The covers, bezels, screenshots and clips are the ones RomM scraped; the games are free homebrew that their authors distribute themselves.
Every platform on your server, one focus-swipe away.
Each system opens to its own shelf of covers. Titles with a video clip in RomM play a short preview when focused.
RomM's metadata, artwork and screenshots, one press from Play.
Press Play and the game runs inside the bezel RomM scraped for it, on the system's own frame. Titles without one simply fill the screen.
Alter Ego by Shiru · Nintendo Entertainment System
Into the Blue by Jonas Fischbach · Game Boy
Oystron by Piero Cavina · Atari 2600 · attract mode
Super Boss Gaiden by Dieter von Laser & ChronoMoogle · Super Nintendo
Wolfling by Lazycow · Commodore 64 · attract mode
Captured from the Apple TV simulator against a demo RomM library of free, author-distributed homebrew. Bezels and artwork come from ScreenScraper through RomM; the platform names and marks they carry belong to their respective owners. Clips play only while on screen and stay still if your device asks for reduced motion.
Every game runs on a proven emulator core from the libretro ecosystem, compiled from pinned, audited source and bundled with the app — no emulator downloads are needed. These are the systems qualified in development today; the exact lineup is published with each release.
Every core above is licensed for commercial redistribution and built from pinned, audited source. Systems that need hardware GPU rendering — Nintendo 64 and PSP — are not supported. Sega CD, 32X, 3DO, and arcade cores carry non-commercial licenses and are left out. * These systems need additional software — a console BIOS — that Channel 3 does not ship. Upload it to RomM and make sure the game plays there first; Channel 3 then fetches it from your server. Huge thanks to the libretro project and every core's authors — each emulator above links to its source.
Every decision in Channel 3 is measured against three principles. They are simple to say and hard to keep, which is why we write them down.
Apps should work, then get out of the way. Channel 3 pairs in a minute, needs nothing beyond your server address, and ships with sane defaults so the first press of Play does what you expect. When something goes wrong, it says so plainly. You came to play a game, not to configure a client.
Your library deserves to look as good as it plays. Channel 3 should be a pleasure to look at, effortless to move through, and quiet enough that the artwork does the talking: big covers, real bezels, previews on focus, and navigation that feels native to the couch. Beauty is not decoration here. It is how a collection becomes a console.
Channel 3 stands on the shoulders of giants. RomM keeps the library, its EmulatorJS catalogue maps the systems, and libretro cores run the games. Beneath them sit the JavaScript, Swift, C, and assembly that generations of open-source authors wrote and gave away. So Channel 3 speaks RomM's documented API instead of working around it, keeps every core's license and credit intact, and will ship as free software under the GNU AGPL, so the next person can build on us the way we built on them.
Functional, beautiful, respectful. If a feature can't be all three, it waits.
Channel 3 is coming soon to the App Store for Apple TV. In the meantime, get your server ready at romm.app and check the requirements. You'll need RomM version 5 or newer, your own games, and a controller.
Want to know when it ships? Email support@channel3.games and we'll tell you — nothing else, ever.