Apple recently changed its App Store rules to allow retro gaming emulators to appear on its iOS devices, finally bringing the iPhone-like in line with Android devices, which have been able to play emulators since day one.
It didn’t take long for the emulator to shake things up in the App Store either; as reported by Mac Rumors, a Game Boy emulator called iGBA by a developer named Mattia La Spina has launched and climbed the charts, becoming one of the top free apps on Apple’s digital store.
The iGBA runs Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance ROMs, loaded by the user using the iOS Files app. Big problem? It looks like La Spina simply copied an existing emulator and put some ads and user tracking on it.
Riley Testut claimed that the iGBA was a copy of his open source GBA4iOS emulator. Additionally, Testut said his app uses the GNU GPLv2 license, and it has since been discovered that the iGBA does not list the license, potentially violating its terms. Meanwhile, Testut has switched to Delta, which will come to the iPhone via AltStore in Europe.
Shortly after its meteoric rise up the charts, the iGBA disappeared.
Mac Rumors subsequently confirmed that Apple had pulled the app for violating the company’s App Review Guidelines related to spam and copyright.
Testut took to social media to express his own concerns about the app. “So apparently Apple has approved a copy of GBA4iOS — the Delta predecessor I made in high school — in the App Store,” he said on Threads. “I didn’t give anyone permission to do this, but now it’s at the top of the charts (despite being filled with ads + tracking). I’ve been biting my tongue for the past month… but this is really frustrating me. I’m glad App Review exists anyway would protect consumers from such scams and scams.”
Testut was also published by The Verge with the following statement:
I’ve been working with Apple for over a month now to release AltStore as an alternative app market, and I’m disappointed to see that in that time they’ve approved a knockoff of AltStore’s main Delta app. However, we still plan to launch Delta as soon as possible, and we’ll have more to share with you soon.
As for La Spina, he was contacted by The Verge, and while he didn’t admit to using Testuto’s code, he said he “didn’t think the app would have such an impact, I’m really sorry,” before adding that he reached out to Testut via e-mail, apparently in an attempt to reconcile.
For his part, Testut said he is not angry with La Spino:
To be clear, I’m not mad at the developer. I’m angry that Apple took the time to change the App Store rules to allow emulators and then approve a copy of my own app.
Have you had a chance to download use iGBA? Let us know what you think about it in a comment below.