Another day, another great emulator that makes its way into the Apple Store for more users to enjoy. With Apple opening its store up to videogame emulators earlier this year, emulators didn't take long to start appearing into the official store, with the Delta emulator being the first one to pop up, and the PS1 emulator Gamma following up just a few days ago, and with the portability of emulator being a key factor, it was only a matter of time before we could start seeing more heavy-hitters in the emulation scene appear in the Apple Store.

The latest frontend for emulators to appear in it is none other than the famous RetroArch that operates with files called "cores", which are the emulators themselves, and users can switch between cores to select which device to emulate, be it from the old days of computer gaming from the 70s/80s, all the way up to games from a decade or-so go, including Colecovision, Commodore 64, NES, SNES, Master System, Genesis, PS1, N64, Game Boy and its variants, and many, many more. Not only does it offer cores for a wide variety of consoles, but it also offers options when it comes to what emulators to use for each console, like using VBA or mGBA for Game Boy Advance titles.

Users can also expect the usual features from such an emulation application, like native saves, save states, controller configurations and controller support, shaders, fast forward/rewind, cheats and netplay, to name a few, and RetroArch also has compatibility with RetroAchievements, which is a fan-made achievements system for everything retro-games.

Apple users can now download and install RetroArch through the official Apple Store, requiring iOS version 14.2 and above in order to play.

Source

 

[The Catboy]

Software, including emulators, when run via a jailbreak are not prevented from using JIT as that prohibition is an Apple policy, not something enforced by the OS. Go into the settings of your DS emulator and disable the JIT recompiler (if you can) and that is what it will be like with the App Store verison.

Do you actually own an iPhone? There is a browser-based DS emulator that’s been around for a hot minute now and runs DS games at a near-stable 60FPS. I am not using a jailbroken iPhone either and Delta has been running my games perfectly fine. Seriously, have you tried these emulators?

I have an iPhone 15 pro how do I set it up? I know you download the app from the store but how do I go about installing the rom etc.. to my iPhone to play it on the retroarch app I’m dying to try out Mario 64 on my iPhone

 

[Sl4sh]

it is also available for tvOS!

 

[ZenIsFluffy]

Incredible! Now I can play games with Retro Achievements

I didn't expect things to take off as well as they have with emulators being allowed on iOS but this is really cool to see.

Post automatically merged: May 16, 2024

Incredible! Now I can play games with Retro Achievements

I didn't expect things to take off as well as they have with emulators being allowed on iOS but this is really cool to see.

 

[Kioku]

I don't know why people are excited for emulators on iPhone. There are so many cheap emulator handhelds you can buy - they are more fun and easier to play than on a touchscreen.

Convenience. That's it. I'm not enticed to buy one of those "cheap emulator handhelds" when my phone is capable of running higher end emulators.

 

[Kraken_X]

good luck with having any actual battery on ur iphone. when it comes to convenience yes it would be nice to play video games on a singular device but apple uses shitty batteries and u always have to charge ur iphone/ipad if u use it a little bit. i can only imagine how many people cant take phone calls because their phone is dead because they played games on it for an hour or two.

and to those who say just carry around a power cell. well the power cell is about the same size as a cheap emulation device that i can get 4-6hrs of gaming out of without worrying about phone battery

I can quick charge my Android phone from 0% to 80% in about 30 minutes, and it's a 5 year old model. You do have to have both the charger and a good cable, which can be a bit expensive but it's worth it outside of gaming too. I've got a power brick that fast charges too.

For USB-A get a 2.4 amp or better charger. For USB-C, 25 watt should be enough for most phones, but with 60w or 100w, you can charge a lot of laptops too.

 

[Vetches]

Thank you TIm Apple, very cool.

 

[urbanman2004]

A/b gyatt damn time, Apple. I had RetroArch on a Wii and that was damn near 20 years ago

 

[retrospect]

Software, including emulators, when run via a jailbreak are not prevented from using JIT as that prohibition is an Apple policy, not something enforced by the OS. Go into the settings of your DS emulator and disable the JIT recompiler (if you can) and that is what it will be like with the App Store verison.

I read the change only affects iOS 17. Is that wrong? It's an App Store policy change and iOS 16 and 17 can both run JIT?

 

[Bladexdsl]

A/b gyatt damn time, Apple. I had RetroArch on a Wii and that was damn near 20 years ago

took them long enough

 

[grazhero]

On the one hand it's neat that Apple is finally allowing this, but on the other hand, it's hard for me not to notice that this situation has drawn so much attention to emulation in general that it likely is the straw that broke the camel's back and got Nintendo to DMCA the Citra and Yuzu devs. It's highly frustrating to me that people don't seem to have enough online etiquette nowadays to not openly discuss piracy and share links on sites like twitter.

 

[ShantaeFan123]

I love playing Sega Genesis on RetroArch! Just like how i would do it on my PC. Now to find out how to play Amiga and C64 (And Sega CD)

 

[naddel81]

but does it support JIT?

No? Then I will stay on the jailbroken version!

Post automatically merged: May 18, 2024

I read the change only affects iOS 17. Is that wrong? It's an App Store policy change and iOS 16 and 17 can both run JIT?

so how to get JIT on here?

 

[retrospect]

This isn't a topic I know much about, but some googling leads me to think:

1) Apps have to declare they use JIT in order to use it.
2) Apple won't allow emulators that declare JIT to be on the App Store.
3) On iOS 17, JIT is disabled system-wide, but can be enabled by a tether.

And maybe:
4) On iOS 17, apps that declare they use JIT still can't use it without the tether thing?

 

[Metoroid0]

Im so happy for for 1% of interested IOS people!

 

[Nincompoopdo]

Because we all have our phones in our pockets 24/7 and charged anyways, so there is a huge convenience factor there

It's not practical to always have a phone and a gaming handheld in your pockets - I feel like between keys, wallet and phone my pockets are pretty much already 100% utilized

Convenience. That's it. I'm not enticed to buy one of those "cheap emulator handhelds" when my phone is capable of running higher end emulators.

I own many of these emulation systems and a Steam Deck. All of them are great for days off, vacations, and other nonsense. But I prefer to keep them home when I working. I always have my phone on me, and I choose to keep my iPhone on me and leave my Android phones at home for backup. Since my iPhone is on me when I get off work and I am waiting for my wife, it's been nice to start up a DS emulator and play the last best generation of Pokemon (gen 5) while waiting for my wife.

I always have one of those pocketable emulation devices with me - like TrimUI Model S or Miyoo Mini. They are so small and won't drained precious battery from my phone. It's impossible to properly play games like Tetris with a touchscreen.

I did tried out all the available emulators on my iPhone, the only one useful to me is Delta - because it can emulate DS, which is best played on a touchscreen. However I found using finger very difficult to play with some precision touch games - you need a stylus for those type of games.

Later I installed Delta on my iPad, and found it perfectly playable with the dualscreens blown up to fill up the iPad screen. It's so fun playing Kirby Mass Attack and Zelda Phantom Hourglass using just a finger on my iPad!

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

For people wondering why this is happening, it's all about money. A lot of people that owned iPhones I would show them on a good Android phone what was possible and the difference in prices for paid apps... Many of them said they would switch to Android for their next phone. Android continues to improve and IOS is kind of just there. At one point in time IOS was the better OS and apps, things are vastly different now and there really isn't a reason to stay on IOS beyond as a status symbol. Yes they are still nice phones and if you like IOS you like IOS, me I like Android. My experiences using Apple products are it's almost always infuriating at some level. Apps I get on Android literally for free cost money on IOS... I still have an Apple TV 4K here somewhere and zero desire to dig it out.

 

[Tri-Z]

Oh sheeit now I can play Mickey egg catch without having to buy LR44 batteries. Came out almost one year b4 I was born and remember bull buying it new from a Sears when little. I can remember a birthday party I had sometime before 2nd grade my mom gave them out to the 5-6 neighborhood friends I had as party favors from my birthday. I wondered every now and then if any one of them has kept them after all these years. I remember my brother and dad had one too and I can remember my seeing my dad playing it when I was young often which surprised me. The only other thing he got and played was bases loaded II for NES. I have 2 of the hardware versions from childhood still I but unfortunately as children we’d take off the battery covers and lose them so when older I bought some other cheap game and watches just so I could take the battery cover to use on my Mickey egg catch. As a young’n before I was able to have money of my own and internet to find another game and watch for battery cover I had used a C clamp and a small pice of plastic to hold the batteries in so one of the systems I have is a bit marred up. With all the advanced games out in the world now I still enjoy playing this simple game and is gratifying to cross past 999 eggs caught. Like playing it on the official system from back in the day and my analogue pocket next but still neat to pull my phone out and have it. May have to carry around a joycon to use with iPhone.

 

[LexDG]

Out of curiosity, can someone explain what it is retroarch would have to give up in exchange for icloud sync of save files? I have other non apple apps that sync across icloud just fine so I know it isn’t just because apple wont allow non apple apps to do so.

 

[LexDG]

for anyone looking, I’ve found an easy, automatic, and reliable workaround to get actual icloud sync across your ios devices.

I set automations on my ipad and iphone to copy my saves from a saves folder in icloud to the saves folder in retroarch when l open the app. When i CLOSE the app I do it in reverse so the saves in retro arch arch are automatically copied to my icloud backup. For safety, at open I also auto backup my saves folder locally to a backup folder by date just in case something unexpected happens I can still access the newest save file.