PlayStation and SEGA Emulator for iPhone and Apple TV Coming to App Store [Updated]

[erikkfi]

Get bent, Nintendo. Emulation is fully legal unless it involves bluntly sharing copyrighted encryption keys, and even then there are legal workarounds.

Maybe if you weren't slovenly pursuing a subscription service for playing old games, you'd be able to compete. "Piracy is a service problem."

 

[Blackstick]

If a lawyer thinks he can make money from it they will try.

Blood from a stone, most likely. They might sue the ROM site and get it taken offline -- meanwhile another will spring up the same week... but as far as individual downloaders? That goes nowhere.

 

[Blackstick]

Just get an Android man, come on. All this walled garden crap Apple is doing needs to be called out. Until they let you use your own device how you want to, just get an Android.

ROMs were probably the last common reason to even bother with Android for most casual users.

 

[coachgq]

They who?

Apple. For the Arcade.

 

[scorpio vega]

Nah the game companies will start suing users, it'll be fun to watch

I’m looking forward to it honestly.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Oh yes ...
Yes... yes... YES!

 

[scorpio vega]

Just get an Android man, come on. All this walled garden crap Apple is doing needs to be called out. Until they let you use your own device how you want to, just get an Android.

Lmao the walled garden you call it is precisely why I and millions others love apple. A consistent user experience vs the Wild West haphazardness of lagdroid and its poor ecosystem.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I do sort of wonder how much money Nintendo could be making if they'd go all in on supporting emulators + games in an official way on iOS

Yes they want to sell hardware, but the target market size of potential iOS users / buyers is orders of magnitude higher than that of folks who want to buy, have and deal with the always older/slower first party Nintendo hardware.

Go all in Nintendo!
Our VISA cards are ready!

 

[klasma]

I get the excitement of seeing ROM emulators hitting the Apple TV (Finally!). What I don't get is why don't these game companies just start putting the games up themselves, for $0.99 each. I'd buy a gazillion of the games that I grew up with, and I don't even play games today. This is such a no brainer to me... it's such low hanging fruit.

For many old games, the copyright situation is unclear, in the sense that nobody knows who exactly inherited the IP rights, when the original companies are defunct or some part of the IP rests with individual creators or was licensed from other companies (e.g. movie-based games, music rights). It’s a hot mess.

 

[Luna Murasaki]

It's a shame none of this stuff is available for the iPad. I feel like the iPad would offer a much better experience for these titles because of the larger and more immersive screen. Playing the phone version on an iPad would not translate well because of problems with aspect ratio and button size/positioning.

Seeing how the iPad is just being silently omitted from all of this without complaint, combined with the angry vitriol that comes up here whenever the iPad is mentioned makes me think the entire iPad line is on its way out soon. I've always loved the iPad because it's a way for me to tap into the modern mobile app ecosystem without having to squint at everything through a tiny screen. So this is pretty worrying and disappointing for me.

 

[LavaLevel]

Just get an Android man, come on. All this walled garden crap Apple is doing needs to be called out. Until they let you use your own device how you want to, just get an Android.

1. It has been called out.
2. I like my walled garden thank you very much.
3. You're right. Get a PC/Android if you want Malware.

 

[LavaLevel]

Barring 1st party franchises, sooooo many of these ancient games were made by studios that don't exist any more -- or they've been acquired by larger studios, who were then acquired by another, and another, and then another. A one-off Gameboy title that was released in 1989 by some tiny little studio? Not exactly Tears of the Kingdom...

Some of these games, the trail has gone cold. There's nobody around who even remembers working on them, let alone can prove a legal or ownership interest. Some of the ROM files have dates of 1996 on them. They've been sitting around as a 20 kilobyte file for almost 30 years.

I made many Sega, Nintendo, Sony games. I even had a Gameboy Advance Launch title.

When you make(made) a game for Nintendo, Sony, etc. You are not the property owners of that version of the games. Nintendo, Sony, etc own EVERY title. You are licensing through them.

 

[klasma]

Seeing how the iPad is just being silently omitted from all of this without complaint, combined with the angry vitriol that comes up here whenever the iPad is mentioned makes me think the entire iPad line is on its way out soon. I've always loved the iPad because it's a way for me to tap into the modern mobile app ecosystem without having to squint at everything through a tiny screen. So this is pretty worrying and disappointing for me.

This also shows that Apple’s change of mind is only due to the new EU app store rules.

 

[JosephAW]

Apple eventually will have to walk all this back, it’s gonna be a mess.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Hopefully they will stick to the AppStore even in Europe, and don’t make us install a third party AppStore just for an emulator, like Delta dev did.

EDIT: actually I’m gonna reach the developer to ask him to please release the emulator on the AppStore here in Europe.

Small detail, but App Store is written as two words.

 

[gsurf123]

MAME (please!)

 

[TheColtr]

I get the excitement of seeing ROM emulators hitting the Apple TV (Finally!). What I don't get is why don't these game companies just start putting the games up themselves, for $0.99 each. I'd buy a gazillion of the games that I grew up with, and I don't even play games today. This is such a no brainer to me... it's such low hanging fruit.

If I was Nintendo, Sega, or Sony I would do exactly this. Take your old ROMs and put them in an emulator store (like iTunes) sell them for .99 or 1.99 and people could buy the roms. They aren’t making any money off the pirated one, or physical copies, so why not embrace emulation and make some. Money off of it.

Edit: imagine if these companies made their own emulator. Nintendo could make a emulator, make it only run DRM copies of ROMs from their game store, and people would go nuts, heck imagine being able to play all the games from a system for 5.99 a month.

 

[LavaLevel]

For many old games, the copyright situation is unclear, in the sense that nobody knows who exactly inherited the IP rights, when the original companies are defunct or some part of the IP rests with individual creators or was licensed from other companies (e.g. movie-based games, music rights). It’s a hot mess.

This is simply not true. Even Blizzard's Warcraft II on Sony PlayStation (yes, they made a Sony Plastation port) is licensed through Sony. The Sony version is still Sonys. If a court case came up about running it on an emulation, Sony would be the (C) holder of that particular version of the product, IP rights don't matter because they were signed over for that particular product, through the licensing. That is how console licensing works.

 

[pavelbure]

Great news. Can’t wait for some Atari 5200 action. I don’t know how they’ll handle loading of bio files on the Apple TV though.

One thing that concerns me is how this is going to shine a bright light on the emulation community. Nintendo sues anyone for even mentioning their name, they probably have a C&D drawn up to Macrumors over this news story.

It’s one thing for some nerds to download and play games, it’s a whole nother thing for the general population to be aware of things like this. Although they never went after companies like Analogue, from what I remember is that companies only have a 20 year claim on console patents. After that it’s fair game. Same would probably apply to emulators. 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[dba415]

Congratulations on being like 15 years behind Android lmao

 

[nfl46]

Wake me up when I can play Mike Tyson’s super punch out on my AppleTV! 😀

This game was sooooo damn good. Lol

 

[DFZD]

We need a Switch or PSP/PSV Emulator. Gotta give us something Apple so we can justify $1500 for the upcoming iPad Pros.

 

[GizmoDVD]

If I was Nintendo, Sega, or Sony I would do exactly this. Take your old ROMs and put them in an emulator store (like iTunes) sell them for .99 or 1.99 and people could buy the roms. They aren’t making any money off the pirated one, or physical copies, so why not embrace emulation and make some. Money off of it.

Edit: imagine if these companies made their own emulator. Nintendo could make a emulator, make it only run DRM copies of ROMs from their game store, and people would go nuts, heck imagine being able to play all the games from a system for 5.99 a month.

Nintendo has their own way of "selling" old games, which is their eShop. They don't devalue their products like Sony and MS tend to do.

 

[Zerlina]

give me super mario sunshine

 

[jekim]

MAME (please!)

This is the one I’ve been waiting for since Gridlee all those years ago