The first NES emulator for iPhone and iPad is now available in the App Store, following some recent changes to the App Review Guidelines made by Apple. Developed by Tom Salvo, the Bimmy launch was split into MacRumors forum as “a simple emulator to help develop and test homegrown games” as well as “play public domain ROMs”.
Key features of Bimmy include:
- CPU, APU, PPU emulation
- File integration
- Game Controller support
- Save on state support
The best part about this NES emulator for iPhone is that it costs nothing and also does not collect any data from users, unlike the previous two emulators available for iPhone: iGBA (which has since been removed) and Emu64 XL for Commodore 64.
Although the latter is still available, the iGBA was a ripoff of another Game Boy emulator called Delta. Over the weekend, Apple approved the app, then removed it after learning it was a clone. To MacRumorsthe company said that “emulators in the App Store are allowed to load ROMs downloaded from the web, as long as the app only emulates retro console games.”
That said, while I still think Nintendo should be the one to release game emulator apps for the iPhone, it’s interesting to see Apple finally embrace a market that the Google Play store has been a part of for over a decade. Although a significant portion of gamers use emulators to play ROMs of old games, there are ways to legally copy a physical cartridge to play a game you own on an emulator. There are also many home made games available for free.
We’ll keep track of all new emulators that hit the App Store. For now, we have this NES emulator for iPhone, Emu64 XL, and hopefully Delta will be available on the App Store soon. While Riley Testut hasn’t said when he expects to release his iPhone game emulator app, it’s possible that it will launch with his alternative app store, AltStore, for EU users.
BGR has reached out to Nintendo for comment about game emulator apps on the App Store.