Assistant, knowledge and videos¶
These features are optional. The AI uses your own keys, and each use is billed to your account by the provider (except a local model, which is free). The knowledge the assistant reads is fetched without AI.
| Settings tab | What it is for | Uses the AI |
|---|---|---|
| Assistant | The game assistant, the AI that runs it, and what this AI can also write on request | Yes |
| Knowledge | Wikipedia and StrategyWiki pages of each game, read by the assistant | No |
| Videos | YouTube trailers | No |
Game assistant¶
The Assistant bubble, at the bottom right of every page, answers your questions:
- Library: find a game among yours, compare two, ask how to use the app ("A two-player game in my library?", "How do I add games?");
- One game: when a game's page is open or a game is running, it offers to talk about that game ("You are looking at … Talk about this game?"): controls, goals, a hard part, a secret. For "I'm stuck, a hint?", it gives a hint first, then Give me the full solution on request.
It answers with the AI set in Settings → Assistant, the game's page and the knowledge fetched for the game, and cites its sources. It only talks about your games and ROMKADE Manager, never helps find games, ROMs or BIOS files to download, and stops after 20 questions per conversation (Clear the conversation to start again). Each answer is marked "AI, can be wrong", with the service used ("local model: nothing leaves this computer").
Assistant's AI¶
Settings → Assistant → Assistant's AI sets the AI. A light shows the state: Connected (green), not connected yet, or cannot connect, with what to fix. The connection is checked automatically; Check runs the check again, Disconnect removes the AI.
The same AI also writes, on request only:
- game descriptions, lower on the same tab;
- game controls, with Ask the AI on a game's page.
Online service, with an API key¶
No key yet? Create an API key explains, service by service, how to get one.
| Service | Notes |
|---|---|
| Claude (Anthropic) | Descriptions go as a batch, at half price, with the estimated cost shown before starting |
| ChatGPT (OpenAI), Mistral AI, Gemini (Google) | Billed per use |
- Choose Online service, with an API key, then the service.
- Paste your API key (Create a … key links to the provider's page). The model is suggested and the connection checked automatically; Change picks another model from the list returned by the provider.
Keys are stored in the system keychain (installation from the source code) or in the data volume (Docker): see
Data and privacy. From the source code, if no key is saved, ROMKADE Manager uses the provider's
environment variable if it exists (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, MISTRAL_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY).
Local model or OpenAI-compatible service¶
First time? Install a local AI explains everything, step by step, on Mac, Windows and Linux.
An open-weight model on your computer or on your network, with Ollama or LM Studio: free and private, but slower and a bit less accurate than a large online model.
-
Install Ollama or LM Studio and start its server. Download a model that handles French and Spanish well, for example:
ollama pull qwen2.5:7b -
In Settings → Assistant, choose Local model or OpenAI-compatible service, then the service address:
ROMKADE Manager runs… Ollama LM Studio with Docker http://host.docker.internal:11434/v1http://host.docker.internal:1234/v1from the source code http://localhost:11434/v1http://localhost:1234/v1 -
Pick the model in the list.
Docker on Linux
The provided compose.yaml declares host.docker.internal, but Ollama only listens on the computer itself by
default. Make it listen for containers too, then restart it:
sudo systemctl edit ollama # add: [Service] Environment="OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0:11434"
sudo systemctl restart ollama
Any other service speaking the OpenAI protocol works too: enter its address (usually ending in /v1) and, if it asks
for one, its API key under Does the service need an API key?. If the model answers but not in the expected format,
try a larger model.
Game descriptions, written by the AI¶
At the bottom of Settings → Assistant, the AI writes a description for each game in the three languages: it translates known summaries and writes the others. For a game it barely knows, it only writes what is certain. Texts are marked "by AI" on the game's page.
- With Claude, descriptions go as a batch (half price); the estimated cost is shown on the button. Results usually arrive within an hour.
- With another provider or a local model, games are described one by one in the background. It stops after 5 failures in a row and can be resumed; games already described are kept.
You can keep using the app meanwhile; the page updates by itself.
Game controls¶
On a game's page, Controls shows which console button does what. Ask the AI fills the list in the three languages, using the default mapping between the original controller and the console's buttons. Edit or Write them myself replaces it with your own text. Answers are stored and shared by the editions of the same game.
Knowledge¶
Settings → Knowledge fetches, for each game, its Wikipedia page (English, French, Spanish) and its StrategyWiki guide when they exist. No AI is involved: the game is identified through Wikidata (title and console), the pages are cut into passages and indexed in the search engine. The assistant reads these passages to answer, and cites them.
- Fetch for the N remaining games runs in the background, one request at a time; Stop pauses it.
- Fetch automatically for new games, after each sync keeps the knowledge up to date.
- One game: pick a game, then Fetch. This really saves its pages, like the full batch: it is not just a trial. Show the passages found only reads: it shows what the assistant would receive for a test question.
Sources: Wikipedia and StrategyWiki (CC BY-SA 4.0), cited in the assistant's answers.
YouTube trailers¶
Settings → Videos sets the YouTube API key used by ▶ on covers.
- On the Google Cloud console, create a project and enable YouTube Data API v3.
- Create an API key under Credentials (it usually starts with
AIza). - Paste it in YouTube API key and save.
The free quota allows about 100 new searches a day. A trailer is searched on the first click, then cached. Without a key, ▶ opens the search on youtube.com.