Retro gold rush: which emulators are on the App Store, and what's coming
Apple is allowing emulators on App Store. Here's what's arrived, and what's on the way to play your favorite retro games on your iPhone, updated on May 16.
Emulators can bring retro gaming to the iPhone
The early April changes to the App Store Review Guidelines reversed a rule that practically banned emulators from the App Store. After the rule was removed, it was expected that there would be a sudden rush of emulators being submitted to Apple for inclusion in the digital storefront.
Emulators for the iPhone have existed for a while, but outside of the App Store as a side-loadable app. With Apple's changes, some of the projects are making the transition, and potentially gaining more traction from a larger user base in the process.
We've already seen the likes of Delta transition over, but there are a lot more emulators on the way. With more emulators, there are more potential options for users to emulate older consoles.
Here's what stands a chance of being included in the App Store for retro gamers to enjoy soon. This post is current as of May 16, 2024.
Delta
Delta was one of the first emulators to make it to the App Store. As a Nintendo-centric emulator, it offered support for many game consoles from the company.
The list included the GameBoy Advance, GameBoy Color, Nintendo DS, NES, Super NES, and Nintendo 64. However, there are two elements that are still on the way.
While the emulator doesn't have an iPad-specific version, that is on the way. And, Sega Genesis support is being tested in beta, which will get a wider release in the future.
Folium
Folium is an emulator that can play games for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo DS. Support for the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2, as well as the Sega Genesis are currently under development.
In an X post, the developer confirmed that it was tested on TestFlight, and hoped for imminent inclusion on the App Store itself.
Gamma
Gamma is an emulator that arrived on the iOS and iPadOS App Stores on May 11th. It is a free download with no in-app purchases.
A single-console emulator, Gamma can play back games made for the original Sony PlayStation, or PS1. Its features include save states, save synchronization with the cloud, hardware controller support, and controller skins.
iDOS
This is a complicated saga. iDOS existed once on the App Store, and was stricken from it. The iDOS emulator is an x86 emulation project, made to play games and run software that uses DOS.
In an April 14 blog post, it is explained that iDOS was resubmitted for review following the policy change. After some issues with the submission because Apple blacklisted iDOS 2, the submission has been performed under iDOS 3.
After an attempt was made to explain the situation, it was rejected again as "Design Spam," due to there being many recent submissions using the same design.
The developer is continuing to fight the rejection and is hopeful that it will proceed eventually.
Ignited
A multi-core emulator, Ignited provides an emulator that improves on the UI of each of the core emulators.
Its support is chiefly Nintendo-centric, including the NES, the Super NES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS. It also supports some Sega consoles, including the Genesis, Master System, and Game Gear.
Ignited is aiming for inclusion in the App Store, and does have a TestFlight build in testing, but only for patrons of the project.
iMSX2
iMSX2 is an emulator designed to play classic MSX and MSX2 games on an iPhone. Published by Enrique Enguix, it can run both games made for the platforms as well as a user's own BASIC programs.
The App Store currently lists iMSX2 as priced at $1.99. It requires iOS 15.0 or later, to run on an iPhone, with it also including support for Apple Vision Pro and an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 12.0 or later.
MAME4iOS
The mobile counterpart to the well-known MAME emulator, MAME4iOS focuses on arcade gaming, rather than home console games.
In a post to Reddit, maintainer Harakari said they have submitted the app to the App Store for review.
uoYabause
uoYabuse is a port of the Yaba Sanshiro Sega Saturn Emulator. It has historically been targeted at Android, but it also has iOS builds available.
A tweet by the Yaba Sanshiro emulator developer on April 6 mentions that the emulator was submitted to the App Store for review. However, there were no updates following the tweet.
PPSSPP
As the name suggests, PPSSPP is an emulator specializing in Sony PlayStation Portable games. It is already available on PC and Android, with an "unofficial" installation guide available to get it working without App Store access.
A project blog post from April 6 discused Apple's emulator rule changes, but there was confusion over lines where links "must be provided to all downloadable software."
On May 15, PPSSPP arrived in the App Store. A free download, it requires iOS 12.0 or iPadOS 12.0, or an Apple Vision Pro.
Provenance
Another multi-emulator frontend, Provenance offers extensive support for a wide variety of game platforms. The list includes many from Nintendo, including the NES, Famicon Disk Sistem, Game Boy, SNES, Game Boy Color, Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, and Pokemon mini.
There are also support for Sega consoles including the Genesis, Mega-CD, and Saturn, the Sony PlayStation, Bandai WonderSwan, NEC TurboGraphix systems, and others from Atari, Bandai, and SNK.
Provenance EMU
The emulator is already available as a side-load but it is planning to launch onto the App Store soon. On April 19, the team confirmed that it was working on a release.
In a Patreon update, the team discussed the use of TestFlight for betas, but also that there was no "exact ETA" due to needing to stay within the App Store's rules for the review process. The team also planned to remove anything that could trigger a reaction from Nintendo, such as logos and system branding.
RetroArch
A frontend for emulators and game engines, RetroArch handles emulation for a large number of platforms. Both what it can emulate and what it can run on.
For iOS and Apple TV, there are already downloads available to run games via sideloading, but not an App Store-compatible version yet.
Developer hizzlekizzle confirmed on Reddit that the emulator has been submitted for App Store Review. However, they had yet to hear back from Apple about it passing.
On May 15, Retroarch appeared on the App Store as a free emulator.
Not all emulators
While the rule changes did open up the possibility of more emulators arriving in the App Store in the future, it doesn't allow every type to appear.
One of the problem areas is Apple's recent prohibition of Just In Time (JIT) compilation. This is the compilation of code while a program is running, rather than before the software is run in the first place.
Apple considers this a security issue, despite using it for Safari itself. Due to Apple's limitation, some emulators cannot be submitted to the App Store for review, since they will fail automatically.
For example, the DolphiniOS emulator for emulating Nintendo Wii and Nintendo Gamecube games requires JIT, due to having to translate PowerPC code to run on Apple's ARM-based chips.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
I'm waiting for a nice Sega Genesis emulator.
With the safari share button you can install/add them both as iOS/iPadOS home screen apps.
https://vamigaweb.github.io/
https://vc64web.github.io/
vAmigaWeb and vc64web are sandboxed in WebKit, offline capable, no ads, no tracking, full featured, solely done by enthusiast :-)
That would be great!
https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=java
Java and Flash have been major sources of malware on desktops.
They allow Javascript code in the App Store. According to this, some apps convert to Javascript to get round this limitation with compilers:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5054732/is-it-prohibited-using-of-jitjust-in-time-compiled-code-in-ios-app-for-appstor
Some apps are getting round it in other ways like embedding scripting code inside binary files then extracting them at runtime. The reality is a lot of apps need runtime scripting and JIT compilation to work. Games are often using scripted languages for their missions.
Apple could ease up a bit on this rule for trusted app developers and provide a warning that the app contains some runtime code that could be malicious and to make sure to download files from trusted sources. As long as they avoid opening the system up to generic bytecode compilers like Java VM, it should be safe enough. Maybe they can have an extra restrictive sandbox for these apps.
The Dolphin emulator would be good to get running as it plays more modern Wii games:
There is zero chance of Nintendo licensing their first-party IP to some emulator. They make money for Switch Online which has a bunch of games from older Nintendo platforms. And Switch Online only had a small handful of these old titles. There are plenty of them which will never ever make it.
Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Pikmin, none of these are ever going to be licensed to Retroarch, Delta, Dolphin, Project64, whatever. Nintendo is even unenthusiastic about selling their first-party IP on the iOS App Store.
The legal way to do this is to purchase the Nintendo game and extract the software yourself. From a practical standpoint, they can't come after anyone who does that. They can (and have) gone after people who illegally distribute ROMs.