Emulators will appear on iPhone
A little over a week after Apple changed the rules allowing game emulators on the iPhone and iPad, hit the App Store for the first time.
In early April, Apple made a change to Rule 4.7 of the App Store Review Guidelines, removing the rule that effectively prohibited the submission of console emulators and classic games for iOS and iPadOS.
This is a change that allows applications to run “software not built into a binary”, with “retro game console emulator applications” included in the rule change's list of eligible applications.
On Saturday, AppleInsider discovered the presence of some emulator apps that have been verified by the App Store and can be downloaded from the App Store itself.
Emu64 XL is a Commodore 64 emulator designed for the iPad, but it can also run on other Apple hardware. Compatibility includes iOS or iPadOS 11 or later, M1 Macs running macOS 11.0 or later, and Apple Vision Pro.
Raffaele Amuso's VICE-based emulator is capable of loading .T64 and .D64 files as if they were floppy disks, and also offers various programs and source codes written in the CBM64 base language.
Another emulator aimed at the more mainstream gamer is iGBA, a Gameboy Advance and Gameboy Color emulator from Mattia La Spina that claims to accurately run Gameboy Color games with extensive customization options.
Again, the emulator can run on iPhones and iPads running iOS 12 or iPadOS 12, M1 Macs, and Apple Vision Pros.
Both apps are listed as free to download and without any in-app purchases.
Under Apple's policy changes, emulators must follow a number of rules, including adding ways to filter inappropriate content, complying with all privacy rules, and not sharing data or privacy permissions with other software. However, the nature of emulators makes it difficult to determine how Apple will enforce some of the rules at all.
The concept of emulation itself is legal, but in order to play games legally, it is generally accepted that users must own the original ROM files for the games they want to use. AppleInsider strongly encourages potential players to check their local laws to determine their specific legal requirements.
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