With Apple having recently updated their guidelines for the App Store, iOS users have been left to speculate on specific wording and whether retro emulators as we know them would truly have a place in the great walled garden. Today it seems our questions have been answered with the arrival of what appears to be the first traditional emulator on the App Store: iGBA. Having downloaded it myself I can confirm it is a functional GBA and GBC emulator, so what’s the catch?

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Well to be blunt, this really just looks like the classic iOS emulator GBA4iOS, with unavoidable advertisements thrown in for good measure. This comes from a developer with an extensive library of apps ranging from barcode scanners to money trackers, all oddly four years old. It comes across as a quick cash in while there are no other accessible alternatives and it isn’t something that should be supported, especially as more feature-rich and actively developed emulators like Ignited have been rejected as spam.

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If you are interested in emulation on iOS I’d encourage you to look into sideloading, with apps like AltStore making the process surprisingly painless nowadays, and allowing you to install up to two other apps alongside AltStore itself. This comes with a caveat that you need to check in with a PC every seven days to keep your apps playable, but it’s a price worth paying when you consider you’re getting ad-free emulation. And ad-free emulation that supports both DS and N64 games with no issues.

Emulation on iOS can actually be pretty great!​

iGBA could yet be a positive sign of things to come, with this potentially demystifying Apple’s latest guidelines. It’s a space worth watching for any iOS users out there, even if the first to make it through isn’t quite what we’d hope to have seen.

Update: Other Emulators on the App Store
Note that outside of iGBA, other "emulators" have been appearing on the App Store. The ones I'm aware of are "My Boy! - GBA Emulator", "John GBA", and "DraStic DS Emulator 3D", all by Anas Zakarneh. These each cost £6.99 and and are not emulators. Scrolling through their screenshots reveal that they are cheap games trying to cash in on the emulation hype before the real apps hit the scene. Be cautious, do research, and don't get caught out.

 

[PopcornSweetie]

I'm not gonna act like I don't buy flagship $1000 phones, but at that price I expect my phone to do what I want it to do

Imagine buying a sports car that is locked to 60mph or less

I totally agree with this.

My current phone is €800 and it is a Android: Redmagic 9 Pro. I can do everything with it.

 

[Axido]

"This comes with a caveat that you need to check in with a PC every seven days to keep your apps playable"

"If you want to get around the 3 app limitation and 7 day limit you can buy a developer license for $100"

The absolute state of iPhone users

"If you got a problem, we recommend you our paid solution for that!"

Sadly, this is the standard for Apple products. With the price people pay for an iPhone they sure would rather shell out more money than admit that they got an overpriced piece of garbage. I mean, it works as long as you are paying up. Sure, other devices work just as well for a cheaper price, but how would someone in an Apple bubble ever know?

 

[Sono]

Just to be clear, the Apple ecosystem is probably not for the average user of this forum. It does actually work for the average user (as can be seen by the market share percentage), it's just that the Apple ecosystem is "throw more money at the problem until it or your money disappears", most of which the average user of this forum probably doesn't have. They either spent it on console shit, or they never had money in the first place.

Also yuck, I didn't know iOS apps can also be riddled with invasive ads like this one. I didn't see ads on iOS that are more invasive than this, until now. I thought it's standard Android practice to do permission spam to scrap user data. Don't know how or why can Apple grant entitlements like this...

 

[SylverReZ]

meanwhile on android you have full control of your apps and how many you can install

Just have to be careful not to get malicious versions of those apps.

"This comes with a caveat that you need to check in with a PC every seven days to keep your apps playable"

"If you want to get around the 3 app limitation and 7 day limit you can buy a developer license for $100"

The absolute state of iPhone users

Its more expensive mainly due to how its closed-source.

I totally agree with this.

My current phone is €800 and it is a Android: Redmagic 9 Pro. I can do everything with it.

Mine's a Smasnug and got it for cheap.

 

[Sono]

Yeah, definitely boycott this emulator until proper emulators get accepted (hopefully they do!).

(same post, different platform links)

https://x.com/VL2M_STUDIO/status/1779448524423204895
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@vl2m/112268982292701783

Edit: it's not really only about the ads. Many free emulators on Android are chockers full of ads and trackers. It's that they literally took GBA4iOS, and added their invasive ads to it, *that* is not cool!

 

[Jayro]

Some people will jump through so many hoops to try andd justify their shitty apple ecosystem, and it's hilarious.

If you're a boring person that just uses social media, then get an iPhone and enjoy paying out the ass for extremely restricted garbage.

If you want to play emulators or do anything productive, get a phone that runs Android.

 

[Maq47]

Just have to be careful not to get malicious versions of those apps.


Its more expensive mainly due to how its closed-source.


Mine's a Smasnug and got it for cheap.

OOOOH, Smasnug, my favorite brand!

Post automatically merged: Apr 14, 2024

@SylverReZ Just curious, do you have dyslexia? No offense intended, genuinely curious.

 

[ciaomao]

i've been using an ipod nano g6 for years and i'm still impressed with the design. the build quality, runtime, size paired with a display and touch were and probably still are impressive today. unfortunately, i hate the device just as much when it comes to managing the songs. itunes is a pain. i'd love to simply copy the songs using total commander. any other china player is certainly ahead in that respect. when choosing a phone, i was concerned with the external dimensions. there was simply no similarly small alternative to my SE. i would have loved to have chosen an android, but it ended up being an apple again. hopefully the trend will go back to smaller devices. normally i can replace my (work) phone every 2-3 years, but i always wait until the bitter end for reasons of sustainability. so i'm usually years behind the technology anyway, which is absolutely ok for me. but to finally get to the point, i don't really care that emulators are now allowed. if i game, it's on original hw, or the switch. mic drop!

 

[Marc_LFD]

I see so many Backbone One controllers for Apple on eBay and the likes so they might finally get some use now.

Post automatically merged: Apr 14, 2024

meanwhile on android you have full control of your apps and how many you can install

Sucks the SD card slot has been removed from newer phones. Great fucking idea.

Post automatically merged: Apr 14, 2024

I totally agree with this.

My current phone is €800 and it is a Android: Redmagic 9 Pro. I can do everything with it.

Headphone jack: Yes
Card slot: No

https://m.gsmarena.com/zte_nubia_red_magic_9_pro-12709.php

Damn, that was close.

 

[SDA]

I would imagine Steve Jobs' reaction over this if he were still alive.

 

[Bladexdsl]

Sucks the SD card slot has been removed from newer phones. Great fucking idea.

dont really need them i mean what are you trying to store on your phone that you need more space?

 

[Thejax]

Going off the “100 dollars” part for side loading, there are various sites that sell monthly or yearly packages that give you access to someone else’s account to sideload, I spent 35$ on mine for a lifetime pass, along with other software like “E-Sign” I got ignited, RetroArch, and PPSSPP. And you can get games that aren’t in the store anymore maybe with new servers, lime Forsaken AR

 

[aquova]

Of the people who are sideloading apps on iOS, I'm willing to bet the most popular use case by a wide margin is for emulators. I've had an iphone for a decade and it's the only thing I've even considered sideloading. Fortunately, those apps are finally allowed.

 

[Marc_LFD]

dont really need them i mean what are you trying to store on your phone that you need more space?

For emulators, music, movies, whatever. It makes the "You have full control of your phone" invalid.

You might not need it, but I and others would like to still have it.

Another thing removed is the headphone jack, now that I think of it, I'll need to buy a USB-C to Headphone Jack adapter to connect to the speakers.

Android phones had far more control and freedom over Apple phones and now they're trying to imitate with their restrictions.

Before, we used to be able to add/move content from and to Android's Data/OBB, now we can't.

Still better than Apple, sure.

 

[tech3475]

I'm wondering if this app will last, this wouldn't be the first time an app got published only to be removed/restricted later on e.g. C64 and BASIC. IIRC the guidelines do put enough restrictions in place that a 'free for all' emulator may not officially be allowed.

My two cents on Android vs iOS, personally, the main benefit iOS had was better mac integration, easier backups and 5+ years of support.

If it wasn't for Samsung coming close to matching/exceeding this, on Windows at least, I probably would have stuck with iOS since I'm not particularly interested in emulators, etc. on mobile.

The only reason I have to buy an Apple device as of now is maybe an Apple TV to replace my Shield TV (the latter is having issues and I'd like Dolby/lossless support on Apple Music for my Cinema 60 AVR).

dont really need them i mean what are you trying to store on your phone that you need more space?

Personally I prefer local storage over relying on streaming, especially when travelling. mSD can also be ALLOT cheaper to expand compared to internal storage and you can do so at a later date.

Going off the “100 dollars” part for side loading, there are various sites that sell monthly or yearly packages that give you access to someone else’s account to sideload, I spent 35$ on mine for a lifetime pass, along with other software like “E-Sign” I got ignited, RetroArch, and PPSSPP. And you can get games that aren’t in the store anymore maybe with new servers, lime Forsaken AR

IMO NEVER trust any service which claims to be "lifetime", especially when it isn't 'official', just hope you get enough value from it.

Once had a "lifetime" 1TB backup service which folded within a year (which at the price I paid meant I wasn't too annoyed).

 

[K3Nv2]

You'd have a funner time with a $50 Firestick.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

I had an old iPhone at one time, I didn't get it activated played with it for a few days and hated it. I had an iPod classic 40GB model that I liked but hated iTunes... I have an Apple TV 4K somewhere in a drawer.... I loved the video quality but I don't know if it was a temporary thing with Apple or their servers but for some reason once or twice a week it would force me to relog into my account... Then change my password and jump through some hoops. Was so annoying I just got a FireStick 4K Max and video is just as good and it "just works" unless I go into my Amazon account and change my password or something I never have to think about it.

 

[SaulFabre]

let's cross the fingers for see RetroArch also being avaliable on the Apple App Store in the future!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Just have to be careful not to get malicious versions of those apps.


Its more expensive mainly due to how its closed-source.


Mine's a Smasnug and got it for cheap.

A genuine Smasnug? I've never seen one of those in person

 

[Marc_LFD]

You'd have a funner time with a $50 Firestick.

Isn't Amazon trying to ditch using Android OS? People will surely want those sticks even more when they're discontinued.