NES emulator on the App Store? Not anymore.

TUAW loves our iPhones and we love our NES games. We've been convinced for some time now they are two great tastes that would no doubt taste great together. Tonight I settled in to write a post about how exciting it was that you could play old school public-domain and freeware Nintendo games on your iPhone now, thanks to Jonathan Zdziarski and Nescaline, the app he built to do just that. Ah, Kid Icarus and Ninja Gaiden and Zelda and Mario, all my old friends back again (if I had legal licenses to the ROM images, of course). I was excited to relive my pixelated past, but it was not to be. Jason updated his site this evening saying Nescaline had been pulled:

Nescaline was removed from the AppStore by Apple at 22:19 PST tonight. I haven't received anything from Apple as to why. I predict they've either proven to be a pushover to Nintendo, who has no valid claim against Nescaline, or decided they really didn't want the ability to play NES games in the AppStore. NESv3 continues to be available in Cydia. Apple's draconian and anti-competitive AppStore practices is [sic] sadly why jailbreaking will always remain a necessity.

I was all set to be indignant about this, but then I read the update again. Is it possible that Apple yanked it simply for being available on Cydia? Not being the person at my house who runs a jailbroken iPhone, I don't have any experience with anything being available through Cydia that is also available on the App Store. I know there are those who have been pulled from the App Store for one reason or another and made their way to Cydia, but I can't find any apps that seem to be available in both places.

I would like to think this is the issue Apple saw with Nescaline and that's why it vanished, since the "Nintendo's knickers are in a twist" reason seems more heavy-handed. Then again, there's also the "no un-vetted code running in emulation" rule that the C64 emulator ran afoul of previously, which might well be the issue.

Either way I'm disappointed: since my phone is not jailbroken I can't just get it from Cydia now that it's gone from the App Store. I do have a couple of long weekends coming though, and Google says it's pretty easy...

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Source: http://www.zdziarski.com/projects/nescaline/

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Gaming iPhone App Store iPod touch Jailbreak/pwnage

TUAW loves our iPhones and we love our NES games. We've been convinced for some time now they are two great tastes that would no doubt...

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Toby

This case highlights several problems with Apple's handling of the approval process. The most obvious one: why was the app ever approved if it violates their emulation and arbitrary execution clauses? To approve it, and then silently axe it, isn't just dictatorial, it's also sloppy.

December 22 2009 at 1:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

SeB

"Is it possible that Apple yanked it simply for being available on Cydia?"
Nah. The boxee remote app was (and I think still is) available in Cydia and the App Store.

When will they open up the app store? Or, at the very least, fix it? The approval process is broken, the update system is broken, the rating system is broken... it just doesn't work. If they don't fix it soon, they're going to see a lot of develeopers leave.
Think Different my ass. You know who "thinks different"? The jailbreakers. Google and Palm. The hackintosh community. But not Apple, oh no. Not anymore. What's happened to Apple?

December 22 2009 at 1:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to SeB's comment

KeynoteKen

The approval system works well enough to have hundreds of apps I'm interested in available, the update system works well enough for me to update the apps I've downloaded, the rating system... I've never trusted those ratings anyway, I do a google search for the app to see if I can find videos or if my favorite site has reviewed it. It just works.

As long as there are developers that, by some odd twist of fate, are able to create apps, are amazingly able to wade through the incomprehensible app requirements and, by a stroke of luck, are able to get approved, THEN sell and make money (Tap Tap almost 1 million a month) off the sales of said app, there will be developers.

December 22 2009 at 2:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dreamwriter

Here's the problem. It is illegal to download commercial ROM's, even if you own the game. You could make your own backup legally, but really, how many people have NES game copiers?

December 22 2009 at 12:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Scott Lawrence

Or perhaps it was yanked because it violates a few elements of the document that the developer agreed to, to get their software in the app store.

namely;
- icon uses trademarked graphic
- apps are not allowed to download code and run them in an interpreter [1]
- apps are not allowed to run interpreted code using any interpreter other than what apple provides

let alone the whole Cydia thing...

It's not rocket science, people. It's right there in the document you agreed to when you decided to sign on to develop for the app store. Apple isn't trying to shut down a developer, they're merely fulfilling their side of the agreement... something the developer didn't do. The developer likely tried to sneak it in, knowing these aspects of the agreement.

That all said, yes, of course i'd love to see this out there. I'd probably buy it.

The fact that this story and its comments are here here shows a few other things though;
- Apple is anything but consistent in the review process. How many other Cydia-also apps are in the store? How many other apps include trademarked/copyrighted materials that the developer has zero rights to?
- Apple seems to "allow in to the store, then kick out later" rather than "reject right away". How many apps were kicked out after being accepted?
- Apple's review process is remarkably opaque. It gives dark matter a run for its money. We (and the developer) really don't know exactly why it was rejected.

[1] this is the main reason the C=64 emulator won't let you download your own ROMs and disk images.

December 22 2009 at 11:15 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tim Rosencrans

The real question is who is getting fired for letting it get on the store in the first place. Apple is quite clear about the fact that there will be no app that can run ARBITRARY CODE.

The C64 only runs code from the developer. Nescaline can run code download from any URL. A clear and obvious violation.

There is absolutely nothing vague or "Draconian" about its removal.

December 22 2009 at 10:59 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jonathan

snapture is still available on both stores. as well as qik. qik is free on cydia, but both snapture and nesv3 are paid apps in cydia store.

i personally think it was the icon.

the c64 app is an emulator. not sure what zottd means by the sega emulation...i know sega has their own apps in the store...

December 22 2009 at 10:45 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to jonathan's comment

KeynoteKen

zottd is talking about the fact that Sega's games are emulators that only run ONE game, much unlike an emulator that runs many games that are accessed from outside the app store.

December 22 2009 at 11:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Hawkman

Shame, but it does violate at least two of the terms of the developer agreement (emulation, and distribution via non-Apple-approved methods). So I guess the real mystery is how it got approved in the first place?

December 22 2009 at 10:23 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

sterling

Has the developer contacted Apple? Has TUAW contacted Apple for comment? It could be as simple as Nintendo objecting to the icon, which looks very much like Nintendo intellectual property.

December 22 2009 at 10:19 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Smithrs101

Wow I saw this last night right before I went to bed. I'm glad I bought it while I could. I'm still using Netshare once a month or so too. That along with Ustream and iVideoRecorder are keeping me from jailbreaking. I would like Sling over my 3G signal though. I know I can do that through a jailbreak, but it seems like it may be right around the corner.

December 22 2009 at 10:03 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

zodttd

What is terrible about this is that Apple never even bothered to notify the author of this app about it being pulled from the store. That's beyond not giving a reason! Insane!

I really hope Apple changes their mind on this. I have a lot lined up in queue. :(

December 22 2009 at 9:51 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply