NES Leads The Way
Hardcore RetroAchievements support has reached MiSTer FPGA faster than expected. As of Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at 1:15pm, NES games are the first to support hardcore achievements on the platform.
For now, that support is limited to NES titles. Developer Odelot is still working on other cores, so players hoping to bring the same stricter achievement rules to more systems will need to wait a little longer.
What RetroAchievements Brings
RetroAchievements is a free service that adds achievement hunting to many classic games, in a style familiar to anyone who has used modern console achievements. It already works with a wide range of emulators, including RetroArch.
That has made it a favorite for retro players who like an extra goal while replaying old games. But people who prefer FPGA hardware for a more hardware-faithful retro setup have mostly been left outside that world until now.
MiSTer Support Is Growing
Odelot has forked several MiSTer FPGA cores to add RetroAchievements support. The supported cores include NES, SNES, Genesis and Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, N64, PSX and Neo Geo.
The important catch is that most of this work currently supports softcore achievements only. Hardcore mode is the prized version because it removes modern assists such as save states and similar comforts, making the run closer to the old-school experience.
On Wednesday, April 22, 2026 at 9:25am, Wes Copeland, who handles the technical side of RetroAchievements, said his team was actively pursuing hardcore verification for MiSTer. Less than a week later, NES hardcore support was already here.
It is still early, but this is a promising step for MiSTer fans who enjoy chasing achievements without giving up the feel of FPGA play. Damien McFerran, who has written professionally about tech and games since 2007 and oversees Hookshot Media’s sites editorially, reported the update.
