ParlorAdding games
Parlor plays game files you already own. Bring them in through the file picker, the Files app, a drag from the Finder, or — on Apple TV — by sending them from your iPhone.
Supported files
| System | Extensions | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Game Boy | .gb | Four palettes; real-time clock preserved |
| Game Boy Color | .gbc | Color correction on by default |
| Game Boy Advance | .gba | No BIOS file needed |
| Nintendo DS | .nds | No BIOS or firmware file needed |
| Nintendo 3DS (iPhone and iPad only) | .3ds, .cci, .cia | Decrypted dumps only; not inside archives |
| Archives | .zip, .7z | Every playable game inside is imported |
A few rules the importer follows:
- Duplicates are skipped. Games are identified by the file's hash, not its name, so importing the same cartridge twice does nothing.
- A
.savnext to the game is adopted as its battery save, if the game has no save yet. Name it exactly like the game —Adventure.gbandAdventure.sav. - Archives are unpacked on import. Up to 200 games per archive; password-protected archives aren't supported.
- 3DS titles are imported loose, never from inside a .zip or .7z, and must be decrypted. An encrypted dump imports but stops at launch with a message saying so.
From cartridges you own, dumped with your own hardware. Parlor doesn't include commercial games and can't download them.
Import methods
The + button. Tap Add games (the + in the library toolbar). The picker lets you select several files at once from iCloud Drive, On My iPhone, or any file provider.
The Parlor folder in Files. Parlor shows up as a folder under On My iPhone (or On My iPad). Anything you copy there is imported the next time Parlor launches, and a banner reports what happened — imported, skipped as duplicate, or kept aside because a save already exists.
Open in Parlor. From any app's share sheet, or a long-press in Files, choose Parlor for a .gb, .gbc, .gba or .nds file.
Drag and drop. Drop game files or archives from the Finder anywhere onto the Parlor window.
Open. Press ⌘O or choose File → Open ROM….
The Mac app is sandboxed, so it only ever reads files you hand it this way.
Apple TV has no file picker. Games arrive from an iPhone or iPad on the same Wi-Fi network:
- On the Apple TV, choose Add from iPhone or iPad
It's at the top of the library. The screen shows a four-digit code.
- On the iPhone or iPad, pick the game
Long-press it in the library (or open Details) and choose Send to Apple TV…. Choose the TV from the list and enter the code.
- Wait for the transfer
Progress shows on both screens. The transfer is direct, device to device — nothing goes through iCloud. Saves and states for that game are already there, synced through iCloud.
See Apple TV for what happens after tvOS clears the app's storage.
Box art and names
After import, Parlor looks up each game's title and cover from a public catalog, matched by the file's hash (falling back to the cartridge's game code or header title). Games without a match get a generated tile in a stable color, labelled with the system. You can rename any game from its Details page; renaming never affects saves.
Box art is cached on each device and isn't synced. On a fresh device the covers fill in again over a few seconds.
Deleting a game
Open the game's Details page and choose Delete Game. Only the game file is removed. Its battery save and save states stay, keyed to the cartridge, so re-importing the same file later brings everything back.