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

[terrapin_nation]

Can the ATV even manage a Gamecube and Wii emulator?

 

[aloysiusfreeman]

Huh. I wonder how this will work on AppleTV. There's no persistent user-accessible storage, so where will your ROMs go? Will you have to put them in Dropbox (or similar) and then enter a URL into the app so that it can download them on-demand?

I really wish Apple would let us use the storage space we paid for on our AppleTVs...

What can work is AirPlay from iPhone to AppleTV - fwiw

 

[Danorak81]

I’d love to see companies officially offer console-specific-emulators as a paid app for a small fee-that you can access across all your Apple devices. Then, allow you to access and pay for titles through their back catalogue-but not within the app, as a ROM download that’s in some way tied to your registered ID.

Sub. services are great, but when online services shut down (like the recent 3DS services) you lose it all from that console. I’d pay for older titles if I had access to the ROM file legally, so I could drop it on my iOS device, or Mac, or ATV. I think back to my Amiga days and games that were heavily dependant on the mouse, how awesome it’d be to be able to play stuff like that again-legally. Settlers, Theme Park, Alien Breed, SWOS…

Lots of discussions across the www pop up about not being able to play old legacy titles because of the legalities surrounding ROMS; and excellent, still really playable titles, being lost to the archives because there’s no legal way to get hold of them.

There is a huge market for this: if I could pay £5 for a 30 year old game, that I can then keep legally forever (no different to keeping a cartridge), so I can play forever, without having to rely on subscription sevices, I’d be all over it.

 

[Samplasion]

Lmao the walled garden you call it is precisely why I and millions others love apple

Friendly reminder that you don't speak for the millions of users and that most of the people you speak for think the walled garden is a literal garden for plants surrounded by stone walls.

 

[aloysiusfreeman]

I’d love to see companies officially offer console-specific-emulators as a paid app for a small fee-that you can access across all your Apple devices. Then, allow you to access and pay for titles through their back catalogue-but not within the app, as a ROM download that’s in some way tied to your registered ID.

Sub. services are great, but when online services shut down (like the recent 3DS services) you lose it all from that console. I’d pay for older titles if I had access to the ROM file legally, so I could drop it on my iOS device, or Mac, or ATV. I think back to my Amiga days and games that were heavily dependant on the mouse, how awesome it’d be to be able to play stuff like that again-legally. Settlers, Theme Park, Alien Breed, SWOS…

Lots of discussions across the www pop up about not being able to play old legacy titles because of the legalities surrounding ROMS; and excellent, still really playable titles, being lost to the archives because there’s no legal way to get hold of them.

There is a huge market for this: if I could pay £5 for a 30 year old game, that I can then keep legally forever (no different to keeping a cartridge), so I can play forever, without having to rely on subscription sevices, I’d be all over it.

One thing I would like to add - because this nails the consumer pitch for console companies to provide a retro service - is that emulators and roms do help with game preservation. While Nintendo could very well have an iOS app with all games and such, it is again beholden to them keeping it alive (which we've seen doesn't happen), so it's up to regular users to preserving games.

 

[scorpio vega]

Friendly reminder that you don't speak for the millions of users and that most of the people you speak for think the walled garden is a literal garden for plants surrounded by stone walls.

I don’t speak for the millions but you apparently speak for most of the ppl I was referencing.

Make it make sense, mate.

The average iPhone user literally doesn’t care about emulator. They are pretty much fine with the default settings and apps and the way apple does things.

If they weren’t, they would switch to the the 100s of lagdroid devices in the world. Lagdroid has been around for nearly 20 years.

Yes millions of people LIKE myself are happy just with how IOS is and hate what it is slowly turning into.

Yes there are ppl who want iOS to become more like lagdroid. That’s unfortunate. Why they don’t sikolt
Switch to lagdroid instead of trying to make iOS like it idk but I digress.

I came to iOS because it was not lagdroid and it’s slowly making me annoyed. I guess I’ll be one of those ppl when the time comes who never updates because they prefer older version. My friend still uses a 6s plus because he hates the newer IOS versions.

I’m now seeing why.

 

[Samplasion]

I don’t speak for the millions but you apparently speak for most of the ppl I was referencing.

I just chose a million of people I know don't know the walled garden. Axiom of choice

The average iPhone user literally doesn’t care about emulator. [...]

If this were a Google forum and a hypothetical Anti-EU were forcing them to close down the walled garden, would you say that the average Android user literally doesn't care about walled gardens and they like things the way they are?

I came to iOS because it was not lagdroid

Ok, what makes them different?

 

[TVreporter]

Can’t wait to show my kids the Atari 2600 classics!!

Kids, log off Fortnite and Roblox, come see some real games!! 🤣

 

[Jensend]

Apple might as well stop with Apple Arcade, this stuff is going to blow it out of the water as a free app. No wonder they wanted to block emulators for so long.

Most console games suck with touchscreen comtrols. Most people won't be carrying around physical controllers with their phones.

 

[Zest28]

So when is Apple going to allow Torrent Clients if this is allowed?

 

[turbineseaplane]

Most console games suck with touchscreen comtrols

Takes them right up to par with most Apple Arcade games, which suck no matter what control method

 

[LavaLevel]

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. 🤷🏼‍♂️

This is true for the hardware, this is why a lot of multi-use consoles came out in 2013+. Not necessarily the case for the actual code and assets despite them being ROMs

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

They can't. It is out of their control, it would cost far too much, they have no interest because it doesn't compete with their current products and they are not making $ off old cartridges and cd's anymore anyway. Any legal action is in the court of the console makers only (Nintendo, Sony, etc.) That's how console licensing works. And that would be done to the ROM distributors (like it has in the past) not the very end user d/l-ing them somewhere & running them off the emu.

 

[mithrandil]

Commodore on the big screen Apple tv. This is sick!

yeah bro ... you have that already today with these two home screen apps 😎

vAmigaWeb Amiga emulator iPad iPhone

cycle exact Amiga emulator in html5 / javascript. This Amiga emulator is compatible to the progressive-web-app (PWA) standard.

vAmigaWeb.github.io

vc64web C64 emulator iPad iPhone

C64 emulator iPad iPhone demo browser csdb. Compatible to the progressive-web-app (PWA) standard.

vc64web.github.io

 

[kc9hzn]

Apple updated its App Review Guidelines earlier this month to allow "retro game console emulator apps" on the App Store for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other devices. Earlier this week, Apple told us that emulators that can load games (ROMs) are permitted on the App Store, so long as the apps are emulating "retro console games" only. It is unclear if Apple will consider consoles like the GameCube and Wii to be "retro."

I hate to be THAT guy, but the GameCube is 20 years old (actually, 23) and the Wii is 18 years old. It doesn’t seem like it should be, but it is. (And while we’re at it, the iPhone itself turns 17 this year.)

Also, Delta supports the Nintendo DS, which is the same generation as the Wii (and the GBA is the same generation as the GameCube). I don’t think Apple actually would have a problem with the GameCube and Wii. 3DS might be pushing it (though, yes, it turns 13 this year) and currently supported consoles like the Switch (despite being 7 years old) are almost certainly verboten, but GameCube and Wii are probably both “retro” enough.

 

[TVreporter]

Any chance for some Tandy 1000 or Color Computer 3 (or prior with TRS-80) games too? Grew up on those as well.

 

[kc9hzn]

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. 🤷🏼‍♂️

ROM files in general, actually. tvOS and watchOS don’t have file browsing (unlike iOS/iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS), and tvOS specifically has storage capacity limitations for apps. While using an Apple TV as an emulation box (or a Vision Pro, for that matter) would be cool for people who already have them, I just don’t know how it would work on an Apple TV.

 

[kc9hzn]

Can the ATV even manage a Gamecube and Wii emulator?

Good question, the 4th Gen is running, what, an A9 and the 5th Gen 4k model an A10? That might be a tight squeeze, certainly a game like Metroid Prime would cause it to choke (while my iPhone 15 Pro could almost certainly handle it). Probably depends on the game and any speed up hacks available.

 

[dasmb]

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.

I have a Chinese made Android emulation device.

While emulators work well on it, it's not as though the underlying system offers a good user experience. There are multiple app stores installed on it and the one that most of the "built in" apps are installed from is not fully trusted by the current version of the OS. And I can see why -- it's constantly pushing likely fake versions of apps like Tik-Tok whenever I go to update the apps I have. There are full screen uninterruptible ads, dark patterns and bad UX everywhere in these app stores.

Management of apps on this emulation specific device is frankly fractured and bad -- so much so that I can't let my kids use my emulation computer without first making sure that everything is up to date, app installation is disabled and all notifications are turned off. Otherwise I'm certain this thing would be full of spyware, fake apps and other annoyances.

Frankly, I'd love to be able to move all my emulation activities to iOS -- where the CPU is better, the screen is better and the OS is actually good. I always assumed the grey market nature of this hobby would keep me from being able to.

 

[aloysiusfreeman]

So when is Apple going to allow Torrent Clients if this is allowed?

Why is this being drawn out to such a dramatic thing?

Takes them right up to par with most Apple Arcade games, which suck no matter what control method

I will say with dedication, Dead Cells is totally fine with touchscreen. N64 titles not being true ports are likely making controls just a tad bit janky

 

[ladodger5]

Glad I decided to get the 128GB Apple TV

 

[FlyingTexan]

Nintendo are going to be playing Whack-a-Mole shutting down ROM sites. Meanwhile, downloading ROMs is going to be like walking into a hospital at the height of COVID for your computer/device to not get infected with Malware. 😆

meh. I have every single nintendo, sega, super nintendo, and nintendo 64 title on my macbook right now with zero issues.

 

[DunedinD]

On the expectation that GameCube games will be reissued on Switch’s successor, I’m kinda expecting Nintendo will do something to stop the GameCube and Wii cores being available.

 

[DunedinD]

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.

Imagine that all you want, but also look at the low quantity of systems and games for each one that are available through the Switch Online subscription service. What you’re hoping for is something I’d like too – I miss the broader retro game collection that could be purchased on Wii’s Virtual Console – but it seems unlikely while Nintendo curates reissues so tightly.

 

[centauratlas]

I wouldn't mind an Apple ][ emulator. I am not sure what Apple would say about it though.

 

[RootinForGluten]

So when is Apple going to allow Torrent Clients if this is allowed?

Why wait for that? I'd just get a Real Debrid account instead. So much easier and secure.