These retro game emulators are headed to the App Store

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 April 26, 2024.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 discusses Apple’s emulator rule changes, but there was confusion over lines where links “must be provided to all downloadable software.”

If Apple’s interpretation of the rules allow for emulators with ISO or ROM pickers, it is said that an App Store submission will happen later in 2024.

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.

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 there is a version of RetroArch destined for the App Store. However, they declined to offer further detail, such as when it will arrive.

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.