Retro metal hurry: which consoles are on the App Store, and what’s coming

iPhone emulators
Apple has allowed emulators in the App Store. Here’s a list of what’s new and what’s coming soon to play your favorite retro-style games on your iPhone. This list was updated on August 27, with information on more in development emulators that are yet to be released. The App Store Review Guidelines were updated in early April to reverse a rule that effectively banned emulators. After the rule was removed it was expected that a rush of emulators would be submitted to Apple in order to be included in the digital storefront. Since a long time, iPhone emulators have been available as side-loadable apps outside the App Store. Apple’s new changes have allowed some projects to make the transition and gain more traction. Delta is one of the emulators that has already made the transition, but there are many more on the way. There are more options to emulate older consoles with more emulators. Here are some of the games that could be added to the App Store soon for retro gamers. This post is current up to August 27, 2024. Delta Delta was among the first emulators that made it to the App store. It was a Nintendo-centric emulation that supported many consoles. Subscribe to AppleInsider YouTube. The list included the GameBoy Advance and GameBoy Color as well as Nintendo DS, NES Super NES and Nintendo 64. Two elements are still in the works. The Alt Store will release a major update for Delta on July 11, which includes a number of iPad-based features, including native iPad compatibility. Previously, the iOS app could be used on iPad as an app that was zoomed in. Skins will be redesigned to make it easier for users to play with touch controls. The iPad also supports full-screen games, as well as multiple windows, Stage manager and Split View and Handoff. The update introduced other changes including improved Nintendo DS compatibility, GBA Dual-Slot, gestures to perform common actions, as well as a variety app icons. Apple rejected the first submission for the update. Apple cited problems with in-app purchase, as well as Apple’s review teams’ favorite thing to dislike — spam. On July 13, the 1.6 update of the emulator with iPad support received the green light to be included in the App Store. eNES eNES : NES Emulator Retro Emu, to give it its full name is a lightweight NES Retro emulator by Mattia La Spina. It is especially lightweight as it is less than 2MB. It is available for free in the App Store and has automatic saving capabilities, including an auto-loading function. It supports two external controllers, has an on-screen skin controller, audio filtering and scanline visualization. It also automatically opens and imports.nes files. . Emu64 XL Emu64 XL, a Commodore 64 Emulator by Raffaele Amuso. It is based on Vice, the Versatile Commodore Emulator. It includes a variety programs written in CBM64 Basic and allows users to create their very own. It can also load.T64 and.D64 file types as virtual floppy discs. The keyboard has the same layout as that of the original machine. Emu64 XL, which supports iPhone, iPad and Mac, is available for free on the App Store. Folium Folium can emulate games for Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS. Support for the PlayStation 1 & PlayStation 2 as well as Sega Genesis is currently in development. Subscribe to AppleInsider YouTubeIn a post on X, the developer confirmed it had been tested on TestFlight and hoped that it would be included in the App Store soon. It was priced at $4.99 as of June 4. Gamma Gamma, an emulator, was released on the iOS and iPadOS App Stores May 11th. It is a completely free download, with no in-app purchase. Gamma is a single-console emulator that can playback games created for the original Sony PlayStation or PS1. Its features include save state, save synchronization to the cloud, hardware control support, and controller skins. Gamma is a free app, but there is a $4.99 option in-app to remove ads. Gamma will be updated in a series up to July 2 with new controller skins, analog control support, four-player multiplayer locally, and various fixes. iDOS is a complex story. iDOS was once available on the App Store but has since been removed. The iDOS emulator, an x86 emulation program, is designed to run DOS software and play games. In a blog post on April 14, it was explained that iDOS had been resubmitted to review after the policy change. Apple had blacklisted iDOS 2 and there were some issues with the submission. The submission was then performed under iDOS 3 after the problems. After a failed attempt to explain the situation and a rejection as “Design Spam” due to the fact that there were many recent submissions with the same design, the developer continues to fight the rejection. The developer continues to fight against the rejection, and is hopeful it will eventually proceed. Apple informed the developer in a June 15, 2015 update that iDOS was not a retro-console and therefore the rules would not apply. Apple said that changes could be made, and the game could be submitted to be re-reviewed. Apple’s representative was unable to explain what needed to be changed in order to make the software compliant. On August 12, Apple confirmed that iDOS 3 was approved for the App store. It’s free and requires iOS or iPadOS 12 (or later), an Apple Silicon Mac or Apple Vision Pro. The app, a front end for DOSBox includes iCloud Drive as well as a vector-based keyboard in place of a bitmap one. Ignited Ignited is a multi-core emulator that offers an emulator with a better UI than the core emulators. Subscribe to AppleInsider YouTubeIts support focuses primarily on Nintendo consoles, such as the NES and Super NES. It also supports the Game Boy, Game Boy Color Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. It also supports some Sega systems, such as the Genesis, Master System and Game Gear. Ignited has a TestFlight version in testing but it is only for patrons. As of August 27, the App Store still does not have it. iMSX2 iMSX2 allows you to play classic MSX or MSX2 games from your iPhone. Enrique Enguix published it and it can run both the games for these platforms as well as user’s BASIC programs. iMSX2 is currently priced at $1.99 on the App Store. It requires iOS 15.0 to run on an iPhone. It also includes support for Apple Vision Pro, and an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 12 or later. MAME4iOS MAME4iOS is the mobile counterpart to MAME, a well-known emulator. It focuses more on arcade games than console games. Harakari, the maintainer of the app, posted on Reddit that they had submitted the application to the App Store. It has not made any progress. Harakari claimed in Reddit comments that the App Store has been receiving submissions regularly, but they have not made any progress. The project appears to be running into a binary similarity problem, which can prevent the creation of an emulator if other binaries look like other released products due to the use identical core files. The idea of a TestFlight Group is intriguing, but the thought of managing users “seems a bit too much.” TestFlight is a difficult route to take because of the desire to avoid blocking access through donations or Patreon. uoYabause uoYabuse translates the Yaba Sanshiro Sega Saturn Emulator. It was originally designed for Android, but iOS versions are also available. A tweet from the Yaba Sanshiro developer on April 6, mentions that the emulator has been submitted to the App Store. On July 9, it was announced in a tweet that the emulator was being reviewed. By August 3, the developer had confirmed that Yaba Sanshiro 2 is available on the App Store. It costs $499. PPSSPP PPSSPP, as its name suggests is an emulator that specializes in Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) games. It is available on PC and Android. An “unofficial” guide is available to install it without App Store access. Subscribe to AppleInsider YouTubeA project blog from April 6 discussed Apple’s new emulator rules, but there was confusion about the lines where “links must be provided to all software that can be downloaded.” PPSSPP was released in the App Store on May 15. It is a free download that requires iOS 12.0, iPadOS 12.0 or an Apple Vision Pro. Provenance Provenance is another multi-emulator frontend that offers extensive support for many different game platforms. Nintendo is well represented, with the NES and Famicon Disk Sistem as well as Game Boy, SNES Game Boy Color, Virtual Boy Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance and Pokemon Mini. Sega consoles such as the Mega-CD and Saturn, Sony PlayStation, Bandai WonderSwan and NEC TurboGraphix, as well as Atari, Bandai and SNK are also supported. Provenance EMUThe emulator has already been released as a sideload, but is soon to be launched on the App Store. On April 19, the team announced that they were working on a release. In a Patreon post on April 23, the team confirmed that they were using TestFlight to test betas. However, there was no “exact” ETA due to the need to adhere to the App Store rules for the review. The team also planned on removing anything that could trigger an adverse reaction from Nintendo such as logos or system branding. In an update on May 28, the team discussed progress in converting C-based Cores to Swift as well as Metal View Controllers and OpenGL View Controllers. On X, the team explained that the coding is still ongoing for the AppStore release, but it’s to maintain the “same standards” as previously produced commercial work. “The release will take longer than I had originally hoped,” the X team added. As of July 27, the official X account stated that the emulator was still being developed and tested for iOS. Updates from August 14 and 15, show that Mac Catalyst versions are working, as well as a tvOS edition. RetroArch RetroArch is a frontend for emulators, game engines and handles emulation on a wide range of platforms. It can emulate as well as run on a wide range of platforms. There are sideloading downloads for iOS and Apple TV but no App Store compatible version. Hizzlekizzle, the developer of the emulator, confirmed on Reddit that it had been submitted for AppStore Review on May 7. Apple had not yet confirmed that the emulator was approved. Retroarch was released as a free app on the App Store on May 15. Retroman Retroman, published by Konstantinos papadakis is an 8-bit emulator for NES games. It is available as a free download on iPhone and iPad. A Pro version costs $1.99. It includes full NES emulation mapping support, as well as customizable video and audio settings and iCloud save game synchronization. SameBoy, SameBoy is an emulator by Lior Halphon for the Game Boy Color and Game Boy from Nintendo. It’s open source and user-friendly, and is free on the App Store. It’s described as having the “world’s most accurate Game Boy emulator core” with Rumble support, save state support with gestures, a variety of scaling filters and MFi hardware. It can even emulate a Game Boy Camera if required. ScummVM ScummVM is a niche emulator that is designed to play classic point and click adventure games. For example, the “Day of the Tentacle”, or the “Monkey Island”, series. It’s available for free on the App Store. MAME MAME, one of the most popular names in emulation software, will not be available for iOS anytime soon. Reddit confirmed that the team had been receiving rejections due to spam, and that appeals were not working. The “binary similarity of arcade “drivers”, used by the software, is the best guess as to why the software was rejected. If Capcom, for example, submitted a game and used the MAME drivers in their own iOS application, MAME could be flagged as the same piece software. The team has not been deterred, and they say that “we’re trying to find the best way forward.” UTM SE UTM SE is different from other emulators because it’s a retro PC emulator. UTM SE emulates the computer and then runs the software on top. The emulator can run pre-built machines for Windows XP and Mac OS 9.2.1. It also supports FreeDos, Debian 11 and ArchLinux. The emulator can also emulate x86 and PPC architectures, as well as terminal-based and VGA modes. Apple rejected the emulator because it violated its Just In Time (JIT), compilation rules. Turing Software (the company behind UTM SE) implemented the QEMU-TCTI emulator in order to circumvent the JIT restrictions. It was released on the App Store July 14th. UTM SE can be downloaded for free from the App Store. It requires iOS 14 or higher on iPhone or iPad or an Apple Vision Pro. VirtualFriend Nintendo’s Virtual Boy is a headset-based console that is very rare due to its commercial failure. There are still communities of gamers who love the headset that played games in black and red. VirtualFriend is an emulator that’s free for the iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro. This last one is a good choice, since the Virtual Boy was an actual headset that you could use with the Apple Vision Pro. Users can browse the entire Virtual Boy library and homebrew titles, complete with 3D screen title screens. The original color scheme was red and black, but users can choose from a variety of preset colors or even select their own. Not all emulators Although the rule changes have opened up the possibility for more emulators to arrive in the App Store, they don’t allow each type of emulator to appear. Apple’s recent ban on Just In Time compilation (JIT) is one of the problems. This is the compilation code while the program is running rather than before it is first run. Apple considers it a security problem, despite the fact that Safari uses this feature. Apple’s restriction means that some emulators can’t be submitted to the App store for review because they fail automatically. DolphiniOS, which emulates Nintendo Wii and Nintendo Gamecube, requires JIT because it has to translate PowerPC code in order to run on Apple’s ARM chips.