The first gaming emulators are now appearing in the iOS App Store
We knew this would happen, and now it’s happening: the first game emulators are appearing in the iOS App Store, after Apple responded to mounting regulatory pressure by relaxing the rules on the types of apps it would accept.
As noted by AppleInsider, we already have Emu64 XL (for the Commodore 64) and iGBA (for the Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color). Both are free to install for the iPhone and iPad and contain no in-app purchases.
That means you can point the emulators to compatible disk files, which then run as the original games would have done on the original hardware. It’s likely that more emulators will follow these two as well.
A word of caution: in most parts of the world, the only way to legally use these emulators is to rip the code from the original discs or cartridges you’ve already paid for. Otherwise you might end up on the wrong side of the world. the law.
Changes in the App Store
These emulators are widely available on Android, but have not been seen before on iOS. Apple made the change to its app review guidelines earlier this month – and while Apple hasn’t said so explicitly, that’s likely because of increasing scrutiny in the US and EU over the third-party software running on its devices may run. devices.
However, the change comes with some caveats. Emulators are held responsible for any software that can be loaded into the apps and must comply with “all applicable laws” in the regions in which they are used – which brings us back to the rather gray area of emulator legality.
The success of these emulators may have to do with the attitude of the manufacturers who created the devices they emulate. Nintendo has traditionally been very strict in blocking emulation software, for example.
Where there is demand, the apps will follow: as 9to5Mac points out that the iGBA app mentioned above is actually a copy of an open source emulator, with ads embedded in it. We can expect that it will take some time for this new arrangement to come into its own.