Searching for an old cheat code remains one of the most familiar rituals of retro gaming.

Gamersmile starts there, organising codes, passwords, secrets and tips by game and platform, including Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, Sega, arcade machines and home computers. But it does not stop at building another reference database.

Its high-score system is particularly revealing. Retro games were rarely designed around permanent online rankings, while modern emulation introduced save states and rewind features that can radically change how a score is achieved.

Gamersmile therefore separates “Legit” rankings from Save State/Rewind performances. It is a practical acknowledgement that competition only makes sense when players understand the conditions under which a record was set.

The site also integrates Recalbox Online challenges: the same game is offered to everyone for a limited period, players get one credit per run, and Recalbox can automatically submit the result when the game ends.

A machine designed decades before online gaming can therefore acquire something it never had when it was released: a connected tournament.

Profiles extend that community aspect. Members can present their consoles, collections, gaming rooms, five favourite games, cult title, social accounts and results, while rearranging or hiding individual sections.

Gamersmile also offers timed quizzes, “Who am I?” games, live quiz sessions and challenges. Rather than treating retro gaming solely as a museum of nostalgia, the site continually asks visitors to do something with that history: play it, recognise it, beat a score or share knowledge.

Its guides also point towards official re-releases and services alongside Recalbox, Batocera and RetroArch, while explaining the distinction between emulation software and the games themselves.

Gamersmile has not invented social retro gaming. What it does offer is a coherent way of treating old games as living objects rather than archived ones.

Thirty years later, the essential question remains remarkably familiar.

Who can get the highest score?