The App Store‘s vintage game emulation section was just added by Apple. One significant dispute has already arisen because the business removed the Game Boy emulator iGBA from the retail location. As it turned out, iGBA—which shot to the top of the download charts—was essentially an exact replica of an emulator that had been sent in for evaluation.
iGBA, according to GBA4iOS developer Riley Testut, is a “knock-off of GBA4iOS” that is crammed with trackers and advertisements. It turns out that the App Store currently offers Testut’s Delta—a replacement for GBA4iOS—for free.
The original emulator picked up some buzz a decade ago after Testut found a way for iPhone users to sideload the Game Boy Advance emulator without having to jailbreak their device. Apple eventually closed the iOS loophole and, of course, Nintendo was none too happy about the emulator. However, you can now download Delta free from the App Store directly without having to worry about sideloading.
Along with GBA titles, the app supports NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color and Nintendo DS games, with the promise of more platforms to come. The app supports third-party controllers, as well as quick saves, cheat codes and data syncing between devices using Google Drive or Dropbox. There’s even local multiplayer for up to four players, though you’ll probably want to use an iPad or mirror your phone to your TV in that case.
You’ll need to supply any games you want to play on the emulator. To stay on the right side of the law, you’ll need to dump games that you already own into ROM files.
While iPhone and iPad users outside of the EU can snag Delta from the App Store directly, the process is a little different for those who live in the bloc. Testut is also behind a third-party app marketplace called AltStore, which iPhone users in the EU can now more easily install a version of.
Europe’s coolest alternative app marketplace is HERE!
Introducing AltStore PAL — an Apple-approved version of AltStore exclusive to the EU
Download now from our website for just €1.50/year (+ VAT) 🇪🇺 https://t.co/3ZfYbq4QNU pic.twitter.com/D5cbkWhi7l
— AltStore.io (@altstoreio) April 17, 2024
AltStore PAL is an open-source marketplace that includes Delta as well as another app that Testut developed called Clip, which is a clipboard manager. The latter requires a small donation of at least one Euro to use. Testut noted that he and his business partner Shane Gill plan to open up AltStore PAL to other third-party apps after making sure that everything runs smoothly.
That said, AltStore PAL costs users €1.50 per year. That covers the Core Technology Fee Apple charges for each download of an app marketplace, as well as payment processing. Alternatively, you can use the previous version of AltStore, but you’ll still need to use a computer to sideload apps and refresh them once per week.
