ShaderStack
A community marketplace where retro gamers share, rate, and download custom shaders, overlays, and bezels matched to specific consoles and screens.
Retro gamers who care about CRT-accurate visuals on modern displays
- Browse shaders tagged by emulator, console, and screen size (Switch 720p, 4K TV, etc.)
- Side-by-side preview with your own ROM screenshot before downloading
- One-click install into DraStic, RetroArch, or PCSX2 shader folders
- Follow shader authors and get notified when they push updates
DrasticDS_nx ships 17 bundled shaders and exposes a /shaders/ folder, signalling that shader customization is now central to the homebrew Switch experience but discovery is still messy.
Real audience exists — RetroArch ships CRT shader presets natively, retrotechlab.com publishes buyer's-guide content, and CurseForge's Minecraft CRT shader alone has 54.7K+ downloads — but the specific 'per-console + per-screen matched overlay/bezel' subset within retro emulation is narrower than the general CRT-filter buzz.RetroArch Shaders - CRT Filters and Advanced Graphical Effects ↗Best CRT Filters and Shaders for Authentic Retro Gameplay ↗CRT Shader - Minecraft Shaders - CurseForge ↗
Whitespace is squeezed — RetroArch/libretro already operates a curated shader distribution pipeline (docs.libretro.com, buildbot slang presets, GitHub repos like carlosefr/retroarch-shaders), and Retropa PackHub has launched a 'Shader Gallery' with the same CRT/overlay concept, so ShaderStack would be entering an already-claimed position rather than a green field.CRT Shaders - crt - Libretro Docs ↗Shader Gallery | Retropa PackHub ↗Carlos' custom CRT shader presets for RetroArch - GitHub ↗
Willingness to pay looks weak — the ecosystem is overwhelmingly free/open-source (libretro repo, GitHub, CurseForge), the Minecraft CRT shader with 54.7K downloads is free, and no commercial shader marketplace surfaced; sponsorships/Patreon exist for top creators but a new marketplace would struggle to insert a paid layer.CRT Shader - Minecraft Shaders - CurseForge ↗Retro Shader Tools for Modding — BJs Game Vault ↗
Retro/emulation hobby is durable and CRT-accuracy discourse keeps resurfacing each new display generation, supporting multi-year relevance — though the DrasticDS_nx / Switch-specific hook is narrower and could fade as the homebrew scene migrates.Best CRT Filters and Shaders for Authentic Retro Gameplay ↗
A marketplace + rating UI is straightforward to build, but content-side friction is real — contributors already publish to GitHub and libretro's slang buildbot, and matching presets to 'specific screens' requires per-display calibration data that is hard to source at scale.GitHub - pcjtse/retroarch-crt ↗Carlos' custom CRT shader presets for RetroArch - GitHub ↗