At the beginning of April 2024 Apple changed some App Store rules for developers and now they are also allowed Game emulators for iPhone and iPad. The novelty concerns paragraph 4.7 of the guidelines, with which Apple backtracks on the possibility of offering console emulators.
Among the emulators available there is Emu64 XL, Commodore 64 emulator for iPad and iPhoneusable – among other things – also on Macs with Apple Silicon chips (M1, M2, etc.).
Emu64 XL is based on the multi-platform emulator VICE (VersatIle Commodore Emulator) and allows you to load .T64 and .D64 files (archives similar to floppy disks). A different emulator is iGBA, which can emulateand Gameboy Advance And Gameboy Color with various customization possibilities, functions to save the state, customize the controls, protect the screen with AiPlay, etc. This can also be used on iPad, iPhone and Mac with Apple Silicon chip.
Both apps indicate the ability to download downloads without in-app purchases. According to the rules established by Apple, emulators must respect a series of guidelines, including the ability to filter objectionable content, follow specific privacy guidelines, and not share data related to user privacy with other software.
The concept of emulation is legal: it is software that replicates the hardware and software functions of a given system; a popular use of emulators is to allow the use of video games written for computers or consoles that are no longer on sale or difficult to find. What may not be legal is to launch software without having the original software/cartridge. Copies of ROMs and other similar files (essentially image files containing a copy of the data extracted from the original medium) found on the Internet are copyright material and their use may therefore be infringing (the material may still protected by copyright).
At this address we explain how to dust off old games on Mac with OpenEMU.
