If you've been waiting for your favorite retro console to get the Crowd Control treatment, the wait is over. Crowd Control is now semi-compatible with practically every classic system through the BizHawk emulator, opening up viewer interactions for games that were never built with any of this in mind.

Supported Systems

Crowd Control's BizHawk integration covers a huge range of retro hardware, including:

• NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance

• Master System, Mega Drive, Game Gear

• N64, DS, 3DS, Virtual Boy

• Commodore 64

• Atari 2600, 7800, Jaguar, and Lynx

• TurboGrafx and SuperGrafx

• 3DO, Amiga, Neo Geo Pocket, Apple II

• ColecoVision, Intellivision

• And yes, even the TI-83

If a game runs on BizHawk, there's a good chance Crowd Control can bring your chat into it.

What This Means: BizHawk and the BizHawk Shuffler

This update brings Crowd Control support to both the standard BizHawk emulator and the BizHawk Shuffler, so whether you're streaming one retro title or rotating through a shuffled rom set, viewer interactions can follow along.

How to Set It Up

1. Open the Games page in the Crowd Control app.

2. Select Custom BizHawk.

3. Install the emulator directly from the app.

4. Optionally enable the Shuffler if you're running a rotation.

5. Select the file or files you want to play.

6. Start your session.

That's the entire setup. No external downloads, no separate configuration tools. For the full walkthrough with screenshots, check out the BizHawk emulator guide.

What Viewers Can Do

Once you're live, viewers get access to effects built specifically for the emulation layer, not just the game itself:

• Change emulation speed

• Alter on-screen colors

• Apply filters to the display

• Send input-based effects that mess with gameplay directly

This opens the door to a totally different kind of chaos than modern games allow, since viewers aren't just triggering in-game events, they're messing with the emulation itself.

A Natural Fit for Twitch Plays-Style Streams

Several always-on and community-driven channels running "Twitch Plays" style formats have already started folding Crowd Control into their retro setups. If your channel runs anything in that style, BizHawk support is worth a look, it adds a new layer of interaction on top of the collaborative chaos those streams are built around.

Ready to bring your chat into your retro backlog? Head to the Games page in the Crowd Control app and select Custom BizHawk to get started.