Scan · Identify · Collect

Identify Any Retro Game
by Photo

Point the camera at a loose cart, a CIB box or a sealed grail. RetroBrain names the title, the console, the publisher and the year — then prices it four ways, because a Chrono Trigger with the box is not the same object as one without.

Loose, CIB, sealed & graded Atari 2600 through GameCube Repro check on seven signals
Get the App See how it works
Free To download
4 Prices Per game, side by side
1 Photo Per identification
Game matched Console · Publisher
Four tiers Loose to graded
Authenticate Genuine or repro
RetroBrain result screen for Chrono Trigger on SNES showing the match confidence, publisher, and prices for the loose, CIB, sealed and graded tiers
14
Consoles to browse
4
Completeness tiers
5
Angles per repro check
2
Languages in app
Four ways to own the same game

The cart is one price. The box is another.

Retro value lives in completeness, not just the title. RetroBrain shows all four tiers side by side so you can see what the box, the manual and the shrink wrap are actually worth.

Loose Cart or disc only — the version most people actually have
CIB Complete in box — cart, box and manual together
Sealed Factory sealed, never opened — where the money gets silly
Graded Slabbed and scored by a grading service, shown with its grade

Across fourteen consoles

  • NES
  • SNES
  • N64
  • GameCube
  • Game Boy
  • Game Boy Color
  • Game Boy Advance
  • Genesis
  • Sega Saturn
  • Dreamcast
  • PS1
  • PS2
  • Atari 2600
  • TurboGrafx-16
How it works

Three steps, one game at a time

No price guide open in another tab, no scrolling completed listings. Hold the game up and take the picture.

1

Photograph the game

Fit the cart, disc or box inside the frame. Shoot the front, or turn it over for the back — you can also pick a photo you already have instead of taking a new one.

2

Read the four prices

Title, console, publisher and year, with a match confidence — then loose, CIB, sealed and graded prices side by side, a market trend and the last recorded sale.

3

Put it on a shelf

Save it to a shelf you named yourself, with its condition and value alongside — and a running total for the whole collection.

Everything in the box

More than an identifier — a collector's desk

Scanning is the front door. What keeps collectors in the app is everything that happens to the game afterwards.

Scan without a daily quota

No per-day allowance to ration across a box of carts from the loft. There is a fair-use ceiling to keep the service up, but ordinary collecting never reaches it.

Tell a repro from the real thing

Photograph five angles — front label, back label, end label, the PCB inside the shell, and the box or seal — and get a 0-to-10 confidence that the copy is genuine, with every signal listed one by one.

Four prices, not one

Loose, CIB, sealed and graded shown together, with a 30-day change and monthly volume beside them.

Shelves & collection value

Sort games onto shelves you name yourself and watch the collection total move as values change.

Ask RetroBrain

Label worn off, or no clean shot? Answer five questions — console family, completeness, region, era and condition — and the catalogue narrows itself down.

Photo enhancer

Clean up a dim or glare-heavy shot before it goes to the identifier — better input, better match.

Browse & search

Look a game up by name, or filter the catalogue by console, and open the same detail page a scan gives you.

Scan history

Everything you have identified stays in recent scans — re-open a game without photographing it twice.

Illustrative data cannot reach a shipped build

The authenticity screen carries a walkable mock for development, and release builds refuse to render it — a missing verdict shows an error instead. A guess never gets to look like a result.

Completeness

The same game, four different objects

Ask what a retro game is worth and the honest answer is a question back: worth in what state? A loose cart, the same cart with its box and manual, a sealed copy and a slabbed one are four separate markets. RetroBrain shows you all four at once.

  • Loose, CIB, sealed, graded Priced side by side, so the gap between them is the answer.
  • Trend and volume, not just a number A 30-day change and how many copies moved in a month.
  • Where the figure comes from A breakdown of the market sources behind the price, on the same page.
  • A grading disclaimer on the page itself The app says out loud where an automated read stops and a grader begins.
Game detail screen showing the match confidence, console and publisher, the four completeness prices and the Quick Facts grid
Authenticate

Reproductions are very good now

A convincing repro cart costs a few pounds and sits happily in a collection for years. The tells are physical and specific, and they are exactly what a five-angle capture is for.

  • Five angles, in order Front label, back label, end label, the PCB inside the shell, then box or seal.
  • Signal by signal Label print and substrate, PCB and chips, shell screws, the security bit, region and part codes, box and seal.
  • A score, and the concerns behind it A 0-to-10 confidence that the copy is genuine, plus what gave it pause.
  • It tells you what it could not see Skip the shell shot and the result says so rather than scoring the angle anyway.
RetroBrain camera view with an NES cartridge inside the scan frame
A quick tour

Straight from inside the app

Real screens: frame the cart, then read what came back.

Camera view with a cartridge inside the scan frame
Frame it Cart, disc or box, inside the frame.
Game detail screen with the four completeness prices and Quick Facts
Read it Console, publisher and all four prices.

Taken from the RetroBrain App Store screenshots. Game titles and figures shown are examples — what the app reports depends on the copy and its condition.

The subscription

What you get with RetroBrain

RetroBrain is a subscription app: the download is free, and full access comes with the subscription. Where your store offers an introductory free trial, the purchase screen shows it before you commit.

Start with the app

Price, any introductory offer and renewal terms are set by the App Store or Google Play and are shown on the purchase screen in your region before you buy. If a trial is offered it converts to a paid subscription unless you cancel beforehand, and you can cancel any time from your store subscription settings.

  • Game scans without a daily quota Carts, discs and boxes across fourteen consoles.
  • Loose / CIB / sealed / graded pricing All four completeness tiers, side by side.
  • Authenticity checks Five angles, seven signals, one confidence score.
  • Shelf tracker Shelves and a running total for the whole collection.
  • Ask RetroBrain Five questions when a photo will not do it.
FAQ

Questions, answered

The things collectors ask us before they download.

Fourteen you can browse directly: NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Genesis, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, Atari 2600 and TurboGrafx-16. The catalogue groups them under Nintendo, Sony PlayStation and Sega, and you never have to pick a console before scanning — the app works it out.
Because a retro game is not one object. A loose cart, the same cart complete in box with its manual, a factory-sealed copy and a professionally graded one trade in four separate markets, and the spread between them is often larger than the base price. Showing one number would hide the only thing you actually needed to know.
It walks you through five captures in order — front label, back label, end label, the PCB inside the shell, and the box or seal — then returns a confidence from 0 to 10 that the copy is genuine, broken down signal by signal: label print and substrate, PCB and chips, shell screws, the security bit, region and part codes, and the box or seal. Angles you skip are reported as not pictured rather than quietly scored.
No, and it says so on the page itself. It shows a condition read and, for a slabbed copy, the graded tier price — but it does not assign your game a grade, and it is not affiliated with WATA, VGA or any other grading service. The authenticity check tells you whether a copy looks genuine and how presentable it is; deciding whether it is worth submitting is still yours.
Every match comes back with a confidence score and, where the photo is ambiguous, several candidates rather than one answer. Identification is AI-assisted, so verify anything that matters — regional variants, later print runs and reproduction labels are exactly where a photograph can mislead. If a scan will not land, Ask RetroBrain narrows it down through five questions instead.
From the app's catalogue pricing, shown with a 30-day change, monthly volume and a breakdown of the sources behind the figure. Retro prices move fast and sealed prices move fastest, so treat every number as a guide rather than an offer. Where a game has not been priced yet, the app shows nothing instead of inventing a figure.
Yes — an account is what lets your shelves, collection and scan history follow you to a new phone. You can sign up with an email address, or continue with Google or Apple.
The app is free to download and full access comes with a subscription. Prices, any introductory offer and renewal terms are set and billed by the App Store or Google Play, so the exact figures are always the ones shown on the purchase screen in your region. Cancel any time from Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions on iOS, or Play Store → Subscriptions on Android.
English and Spanish today, switchable from Settings → Language. More languages are added as the app grows.
Download RetroBrain

Find out what is in the loft

Free to download. Dig out the box of carts, photograph the first one, and see which of the four prices you are actually holding.

Coming soon on Google Play Soon Coming to the App Store Soon
Free to download Cancel any time Loose to sealed