Velocity Early Access: everything in v1.0
Velocity is available today in early access on Mac. Here's a complete rundown of what's in v1.0, what's not yet in but coming soon, and how to get started.
The game library
Velocity ships with a curated catalog of retro titles across four eras: Classic (pre-1985), 8-bit (1985–1994), 16-bit (1994–2001), and 3D Era (2001–2010). Every title is pre-configured — correct display settings, controller mappings, save state locations — so you don't need to touch an emulator config file. Open the app, click a game, play.
The library browser has search and era filter built in. We'll be adding genre and platform filters in v1.1.
GPTK launcher for Windows titles
Velocity integrates with Game Porting Toolkit 4 to let you launch Windows games you already own from Steam directly from the Velocity library. Add your Steam library path in Settings → Sources, and Velocity will scan it, match titles against our compatibility list, and surface them alongside the native catalog. Titles with a green "GPTK Verified" badge have been tested and run well on M-series Macs.
Cabinet Mode
Cabinet Mode is Velocity's most distinctive feature. Enable it in Settings → Cabinet Mode, and Velocity launches on startup, hides the menu bar and Dock, locks the display to the game output, and routes all controller input directly to the active game. The Mac mini ceases to look or behave like a computer — it becomes an arcade box. Exiting Cabinet Mode requires a keyboard shortcut or power cycle, which is intentional: you're building a dedicated cabinet, not a desktop PC that sometimes runs games.
See the full arcade cabinet build guide for Mac mini M4 hardware recommendations, cabinet options, and total cost breakdown.
What's not in v1.0
A few features are still in progress: cloud sync for save states, multiplayer netplay, and the Together Mode screen-share feature. These will land in v1.1 and v1.2 respectively. The core single-player library experience is complete and stable.
How to get started
Download Velocity from the link at the top of this page. It runs on any Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later). macOS Sequoia 15.3 or later is required for full GPTK 4 support.