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c64 posts

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store

C64 emulator un-approved again

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Sep 8th, 2009

The first thing I thought when I saw that the C64 emulator we posted about the other day still had the BASIC interpreter hidden in it was, "Well that won't last." And unfortunately for fans of software emulation on the iPhone, I was right: the software got pulled from the App Store but quick. You can't really blame Apple here -- they've made it pretty clear that they don't actually want people running unlicensed, emulated code on the iPhone, so it's not hard to see why, when it was discovered you could still activate the interpreter, they cleared it out of the store.

The good news is that the emulator has been updated to delete the interpreter completely, and the owners of the software have resubmitted it yet again to the App Store. But as much as I enjoy seeing emulators on the iPhone (I've made it very clear I'd love to see an official NES arcade app), I can't say I'd blame Apple for just passing on this one outright. They've had to go through this app at least twice now, and especially since app approval is already taking so long, that's pretty much a waste of time. Mistakes like leaving the BASIC in the app (Edit: My mistake -- they intentionally left it in and hidden, with the expectation that Apple would later allow it. Doesn't seem very likely.) are making it much easier at this point for Apple to just say "no emulators, period," and move on. Hopefully this app will get re-approved, and that'll be the end of it.

Tags: app, app-store-approval, apple, approval, basic, c64, code, emulator, iphone

Filed under: Gaming, Multimedia, Software, Odds and ends, Apple, iPhone, App Store

C64 emulator approved for iPhone

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Sep 7th, 2009


Well how about that. A Commodore 64 emulator for iPhone is nothing new -- we covered the fact that one had been developed a little while ago. Here's what is new (and a little surprising, to be honest): Apple approved it. In an environment where Apple seems intent on rejecting anything that might encroach on their platform, even just a little bit, they have apparently allowed an emulator right there on the App Store.

There are catches, of course -- the emulator comes bundled with five officially licensed titles: Dragons Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Arctic Shipwreck and Jack Attack, and more will be available to purchase soon, so it'll all be above board and legit (and the flip side is that if you want to play classic titles like Elite or Ultima, you'll have to hope that whoever owns the rights to those will let them see release). The biggest catch is that the emulator doesn't come with BASIC support enabled by default (although, via Daring Fireball and the iPhone Blog, it's possible to get to it via a backdoor), so it's more of a C64 arcade emulator rather than an actual software emulator.

But of course this is a step in the right direction -- someday we may finally see official SNES or NES emulators running in full glory on the iPhone and approved and available to purchase on the App Store. This emulator, simply called C64, is available right now on the App Store for $4.99.

Update: This app has been removed from the App Store because it was possible to enable the BASIC program. Look for it to return without that functionality.

Tags: app-store, app-store-approval, apple, approved, c64, dragons-den, elite, emulator, iphone, jack-attack, jupiter-lander, le-mans, software

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Odds and ends, Apple, iPhone

C64 emulator for iPhone

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on May 9th, 2008

Unfortunately we don't have much more than a splash screen on this one, but Stuart Carnie sends word that he's used the Apple SDK to port a Commodore 64 emulator on to the iPhone. He has yet to put in a Save/Resume state mechanism, a way to browse for files and disks, or a virtual keyboard/joystiq to control it with, but the hard stuff is done, so by the time the App Store comes around, we may have a working C64 emu in there ready to go.

As long as it's ok with Apple. In point of fact, we have no idea how any emulators might work in the App Store -- actually, we have no idea how any apps will get in the App Store. Sure, it would be cool to play the original versions of Sim City or Maniac Mansion or Elite, but without Apple's OK to let any of those on the platform, we may not be able to do so without jailbreaking the thing anyway. We'll see -- if Carnie, once his work is done, can't get an official emulator in the App Store, maybe we'll be able to try it out and put it to use in some other, less official way.

Tags: app-store, apple, c64, commodore-64, emu, emulators, games, gatekeeper, maniac-mansion, save-states, sim-city

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