Video shows MAME emulator in action on Apple's tvOS
A video posted to the Web on Monday shows a Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator running on Apple's tvOS, allowing developer Kevin Smith to play a number of old-school arcade titles with a paired Bluetooth gaming controller.
Smith, who was one of the few developers selected to receive an early fourth-generation Apple TV dev kit, said the app is based on Les Bird's iMAME4all Xcode project and is shown running on tvOS beta 2.
"I created a target for tvOS and set about getting the code to compile for arm64 (Mandatory for AppleTV), fixed a varierty [sic] of compiler and linker errors," Smith said in his video's description. "Removed code which was incompatible with tvOS frameworks and simplified code to work on tvOS."
The developer also modified the source code to support a 1080p display, Apple TV's maximum output resolution, and adjusted original MAME's original user interface to exit games using the pause button. A number of titles are supported including "1942," "1943," "Donkey Kong," "Metal Slug," "Street Fighter" and more.
As noted by MacRumors, it is highly unlikely that Smith's MAME version will appear as a legitimate purchase option on the upcoming tvOS App Store. Apple's stance on emulator software has been quite strict and while a few have snuck onto the iOS App Store, either through rare App Store review team mistakes or hidden within apps, they were quickly pulled.
Apple is expected to launch Apple TV in October, though a firm date has not been announced.
Smith, who was one of the few developers selected to receive an early fourth-generation Apple TV dev kit, said the app is based on Les Bird's iMAME4all Xcode project and is shown running on tvOS beta 2.
"I created a target for tvOS and set about getting the code to compile for arm64 (Mandatory for AppleTV), fixed a varierty [sic] of compiler and linker errors," Smith said in his video's description. "Removed code which was incompatible with tvOS frameworks and simplified code to work on tvOS."
The developer also modified the source code to support a 1080p display, Apple TV's maximum output resolution, and adjusted original MAME's original user interface to exit games using the pause button. A number of titles are supported including "1942," "1943," "Donkey Kong," "Metal Slug," "Street Fighter" and more.
As noted by MacRumors, it is highly unlikely that Smith's MAME version will appear as a legitimate purchase option on the upcoming tvOS App Store. Apple's stance on emulator software has been quite strict and while a few have snuck onto the iOS App Store, either through rare App Store review team mistakes or hidden within apps, they were quickly pulled.
Apple is expected to launch Apple TV in October, though a firm date has not been announced.
Comments
Galaga, Ikari Warriors and Spy Hunter, some of my all time favorite games. It would be great to have these available on the new ATV platform in a legal manner, but I don't expect that will happen.
Nice! These games bring back fond memories of my childhood.
That'll never get Apple approval.
That's pretty cool. Hopefully the developer releases this to the public.
I have no idea how hard that would be but doing it the right way and getting paid for seems like the best way to me. I love those games too but there is no way I'm going to purchase anything outside of the App Store or jailbreak any Apple device of mine.
They're not going to license their games to anyone, and Apple won't allow an unlicensed game on the App Store.
Who owns the rights to these games anyways and why wouldn't they license it to some iOS developer. Seems like it would be a big seller.
Every company with their names on the games owns them, if they are still around. If any are not around, could be creditors or IP holding companies which own the rights.
If only Apple would throw a ton of money at some of these companies. I mean, where and in what kinds of numbers can they be selling these titles?
I understand Nintendo's stance on licensing (to a point) but these games?
The problem comes in on how he's getting access to the ROMs. You see, there is no local storage allowed on the AppleTV. So, he basically included the ROMs in his project. Notice he doesn't explain any of it. For this to work in any reasonable fashion to be usable, some way has to be setup to load ROMs from a web source.
So this is what Kevin Smith does between making shitty movies and getting thrown off flights!
Yeah, what he did was fairly simple. Anybody can recompile the iMAME4all project and tweak it.
The problem comes in on how he's getting access to the ROMs. You see, there is no local storage allowed on the AppleTV. So, he basically included the ROMs in his project. Notice he doesn't explain any of it. For this to work in any reasonable fashion to be usable, some way has to be setup to load ROMs from a web source.
Why not just load it off your local network like you would a file or software; the TVOS API should allow you to access external resources.
It's a precious IP to them and you won't see a release on non Nintendo hardware anytime soon.
Why not just load it off your local network like you would a file or software; the TVOS API should allow you to access external resources.
Or Dropbox, OneDrive etc?
He also comes out in a comic book reality show called Comic Book Men on AMC.