At a high level, Slider Puzzle looks like a simple puzzle game. But it’s hiding a secret. Concealed underneath its unadorned surface sits a full-featured GBA/GBC emulator that allows you to play some of your favorite ROMS.
Now, this isn’t the first time an app like this has landed in the App Store. In fact, just last week we told you about an app with a hidden tethering feature. But we’re still talking about an emulator here, and it doesn’t require a jailbreak… Read More
Fans of legacy console video game systems rejoice! The well-known iOS emulator developer ZodTTD is back in action. Zod has been absent from the jailbreak scene for a while, but there’s been plenty of talk of him coming back to update N64iOS and other popular ports.
That speculation materialized last night, as the developer announced that he had created a Cydia repo where he would be posting public betas of his updated emulators. And he’s already seeded his first beta: gpSPhone v8.0.0, an emulator for Game Boy Advance ROMS… Read More
At first glance, there’s nothing suspicious about Awesome Baby Names, the innocently named $2 app for your iPhone which, as the name suggests, lets you create awesome baby names for your newborn child. On closer inspection, and provided you’re privy to a secret trick, developer Ian Jackson hid a Game Boy Advance emulator.
You can unlock it easily by employing a series of taps. Apple will no doubt remove this app as soon as its review team wakes up and finds out about the reports so download it now before it’s too late.
UPDATE: Wow, that was fast, Apple has just removed the app.
If you were quick enough to download it, your secret code is right after the break… Read More
A few days ago, we told you about PPSSPP — the first PSP emulator for iOS. While the initial screens and video looked promising, at the time, the frame-rate was really low due to some technical issues. Now, it appears that those technical issues — the lack of JIT compiling — have been ironed out, as new video has surfaced showing PPSSPP playing Wipeout pure at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second.
Check out the video above, which showcases Wipeout Pure running at a silky smooth rate. Again, thanks to our friends for the heads up. Again, be sure to visit the official PPSSPP website for more information.
PPSSPP is a PSP emulator that looks quite amazing. Yes, the framerate is slow, but that’s to be expected for an early build of a hardware emulator. The fact that this is running a PSP game (Wipeout Pure), and it looks almost exactly like it does on the PSP, is pretty incredible.
According to the audible YouTube commentary, the emulator is running so slow, because it’s using interpreter instead of Just In Time compilation (JIT), which would increase performance significantly. If the developer, Henrik Rydgard of Dolphin Emulator fame, and the rest of the development community can solve this issue, then we’ll have a pretty solid PSP emulator on our hands. Read More
If you’re an avid retro gamer like myself, you probably snagged the $1.99 preview build of n64iOS on Cydia, hoping to enjoy classic titles. Unfortunately, in it’s current state, the N64 emulator for iOS is more of a tech demo than a working emulator. Although games run at near-playable speeds on hardware as old as the iPhone 4, the many graphical glitches combined with the jumbled control scheme make most games unplayable.
Shortly after the emulator was last updated in May, ZodTTD posted on Twitter that there would be an update which would revamp the entire UI, including the ROM manager and the wonky controls. Since then, there has been no new release of n64iOS. That may be changing soon: According to a recent conversation with Will Strafach, ZodTTD is once again working on n64iOS. Read More
As we reported on Saturday, Gridlee is a freeware arcade game from 1982 which was re-released on the iTunes App Store by David Loureiro. This would have been unremarkable, if Gridlee was a straight port from the source code and if it wasn’t actually powered by an up-to-date and fully featured version of MAME4iOS Reloaded.
This means if you have a program capable of tunneling into the iOS file-system through USB, you can once again have a working version of MAME on a non-jailbroken device, complete with your own ROM images. As I can’t think of anyone who would legitimately want to play Gridlee on an iPad, this was likely an intentional attempt to sneak the emulator back into the App Store, so we’re guessing Apple won’t be hosting the file for too long. Grab it while you can… Read More
Good news old school gamers. Word has started spreading this afternoon that a MAME emulator has made its way into the App Store. It’s called Gridlee, named after an old arcade game that never made it to market, and it’s based on the MAME4iOS platform.
The app fronts as just a port of the aforementioned Gridlee arcade game. But similar to the iMAME app we saw pop up a little over a year ago, you can add your own MAME ROMs to the app’s subdirectory, turning it into a fully functional emulator… Read More
Want to play retro-style games on your Mac or PC, but don’t have a controller handy? While we wouldn’t recommend using touch screen controls for every game, if you’re in need of a quick retro fix you can download Joypad Legacy for your iPhone and quickly play retro games with ‘classic’ controls.
Joypad Legacy comes in two parts: the first part is the controller app for your iPhone that comes with layouts for NES, GBA, SNES, Genesis, and N64. You’ll also need a second piece of software called Joypad Connect, running on your Mac or PC. You can use Joypad Connect to build profiles for the games and emulators you want to play with Joypad Legacy… Read More
In the comments section of our article on Snes9x EX+’s release, one of our readers asked if there was a way to swap out the overlays for the on-screen buttons. I thought the question was interesting enough to answer in a full tutorial.
While there isn’t a built-in option for skinning Snes9x EX+, nor are there any themes for the app currently available on Cydia, with a jailbroken iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, it’s not too difficult to manually edit raster graphics used in any app. All you need to do is navigate to Snex9x EX+’s app directory and edit the overlay bitmap… Read More
Robert Broglia, the developer behind the free Snes9x EX jailbreak app, and a number of other commercial ‘.emu’ emulators for other consoles, just released Snes9x Ex+. Broglia’s latest branch of his popular iOS Super Nintendo emulator is based off of Snes9x version 1.53, which is the most recent available build of the PC software.
The more recent v1.53 codebase should provide near-complete emulation for a number of games, especially those that make heavy use of mode7 scaling or the Super FX co-processor… Read More
Nintendo hasn’t released games for its NES or Game Boy systems in more than 20 years, but that doesn’t mean people have forgotten about them. Emulators for old Nintendo games exist on nearly every platform imaginable — even iOS.
Until now, however, your iOS device had to be jailbroken to play these older games. That, or you had to snatch up one of the handful of emulator apps that popped in the App Store before Apple pulled them. But we’ve found another way… Read More
No surprise here. It appears that Apple has just pulled iMAME, the arcade game emulator we told you about a few days ago, shortly after it surfaced in the App Store.
Judging by Apple’s history with controversial apps, we figured it was only a matter of time before Apple removed it. Especially since iMAME can play illegally-downloaded arcade games… Read More
Yesterday we told you about iMAME, the free iOS emulator that somehow managed to sneak its way into the App Store. The app allows users to play classic arcade games by loading ROM [read only memory] files onto an iOS device.
iMAME comes with 10 classic arcade games, but is compatible with thousands more if you can figure out how to transfer ROMs onto your handset (or iPad). We put together this easy tutorial to show you how to do sideload retro game ROMs for iMAME. Read More
It would seem that the folks on Apple’s crack team of app approvers have been slipping a bit lately. Just the other day the company approved iTether, an unlimited tethering application for the iPhone. And now this.
Word has been spreading like wildfire this afternoon that Apple has admitted iMAME into the App Store. So, what’s the big deal? Well, we’re pretty sure the ROM-playing emulator doesn’t quite meet Apple’s strict app guidelines… Read More
There are a lot of Kickstarter projects out there, and this is by far one of the best. iEmu is a project started by Chris Wade, who also happens to be jailbreak developer. Apple currently provides an iDevice simulator to developers, but it is lacking in a lot of areas, including only being able to run apps developed by the developer that’s testing.
iEmu is an emulator that can emulate any iDevice, including the Apple TV. What makes iEmu so special is that it is cross-platform. This includes the Mac, PC, iOS, and even Android… Read More
Remember when we told you about the iCade? The retro iPad accessory lets you play select iOS games via a set of arcade-style controls, and its SDK just became available for 3rd party development. It looks like the jailbreak community struck first.
Engadget is reporting that the popular Cydia app known as iMAME4All was just updated to support the new tablet accessory. iMAME4All is an emulator that plays hundreds of retro titles, so needless to say it would be an awesome fit for the iCade… Read More
This video should bring up lots of memories to our older readers. TUAW found some footage of an Einstein Newton emulator running on what seems to be an iPhone 3G or 3GS. The thing is painfully slow but the developer said he’ll be working on it.
I love seeing those kind of useless hacks. I mean, realistically, no one will ever use that but it’s just great some people have the passion and the skills to make it happen. Video after the jump. Read More
Most of us with jailbroken iPhones are already familiar with the PlayStation, Game Boy, Nes and Super Nes emulators, those hacks that bring our favorite old games to the iPhone or iPod Touch.
Because bigger is better, now comes SNES (HD), a Super Nintendo emulator for iPad and controlled with an iPhone. Don’t need to read this previous sentence again because I’m going to repeat it for you: SNES (HD) is a Super Nintendo emulator for iPad that allows you to play any Super Nes game and control them with your iPhone.
SNES (HD) is an iPad port of the popular Super Nintendo emulator Snes9x. It is based on ZodTTD’s iPhone port snes4iphone but it has been rewritten for the iPad.
Step 1: Your iPad and iPhone must be jailbroken. If it’s not, jailbreak them. At the time this article is written, Spirit is the best way to jailbreak your iPad and iPhone.
Step 2: In Cydia, add the following source to your iPad and iPhone: http://wherethewoozlewasnt.com/cydia. SNES (HD) should be released in the ModMyI repo soon but for the moment, you will need to add this source manually.
Step 3: Once the source has been added, install SNES (HD) on your iPad and ControlPad on your iPhone.
Step 4: Now you need to add Super Nintendo ROMs to your iPad in /var/mobile/Media/ROMs/SNES. The best way to add ROMs is by using WinSCP for Windows or CyberDuck for Mac. If you don’t have any Super Nintendo ROMs in there, you obviously won’t be able to do anything. For legal reasons I cannot tell you where to find ROMs but a quick Google search with right keywords should get you what you’re looking for.
Step 5: Make sure bluetooth is enabled on both your iPhone and iPad. Launch SNES (HD) on your iPad and ControlPad on your iPhone.
Step 6: Your iPad and iPhone will start looking for each other. After about a minute, “Tap to Connect” will pop up on your iPhone. Tap on the entry for your iPad, and in a second the iPad will display an “Accept/Deny” screen. Hit “accept” and you’ll be connected.
Step 7: Select a ROM from the list of ROMs available (it depends on how many you added) and enjoy your Super Nes emulator for iPad.
100% credit for this goes to the developer of SNES (HD) and his blog Where the woozle wasn’t. I simply made the instructions clearer and easier.
This Super Nintendo emulator for iPad is free but the developer accepts donations. If you’re going to use SNES (HD) that’d be nice if you could send him a few bucks by visiting his site and hitting the “donate” button.
If you’re still on the fence about installing SNES (HD) on your iPad, watch this video.
