SinceApple allowed emulatorsof retro game consoles in the App Store at the beginning of the month, there is uncertainty regarding several of them. Some emulators like iGBA quickly joined the App Storeafter Apple authorization,but were quickly removed,which probably caused others to take precautions.
For the Sony PSP for example, the creator of the PPSSPP emulatornot yet sure about joining the App Store. It's waiting to hear if users will be able to use their own game files, in which case it will join the App Store. Otherwise, he doesn't think it's worth it. However, today we think thatthe problem comes from elsewhere.On the side of the Provenance application, which emulates for examplePlaystation 1, SEGA Saturn, Nintendo Virtual Boy et GameCube, its creator must also study the new rules before submitting to the App Store.
If Provenance and PPSSPP are taking precautions, it was thought to be due to the sensitive nature of emulators in relation to intellectual property. However, this could instead be due to technology that Apple categorically refuses to support. This implies that there will probably never be a PSP, GameCube or Wii emulator in the App Store.
But why?
DolphiniOS, is a popular emulator that offers to emulate the GameCube or Wii, but the application encounters a technical obstacle. To properly emulate GameCube and Wii games, DolphiniOS needs to use a kind of processor code translator, called JIT. As the 9To5Mac report:
The GameCube and Wii contain a PowerPC-based processor. All modern Apple devices use an ARM-based processor. It is not possible to directly run PowerPC code on an ARM processor, and vice versa. Therefore, if we want to run a GameCube or Wii game on an iPhone, it is necessary to translate the game's PowerPC code to ARM so that the CPU can understand it.
Below, two videos to differentiate between Mario Kart run without JIT, then with JIT:
While we thought that the problem mainly concerned copyrights, it could ultimately be that what really slows down PPSSPP (PSP) and Provenance, is, in the same way as DolphiniOS, the refusal of JIT support by Apple. This could also be why Apple only allows "retro" emulators, and hasn't talked about other newer emulators, like the PSP and Wii, that need JIT for smooth operation.
No Delta in the French App Store?
For the moment, the only emulator to havesuccessfully entered the App Store seems to be Delta, but the application is not available in France. We thought this would happen soon, but the creator has just announced that the new pricing induced by the DMA is making the task more complicated. For now, the application isonly available in the AltStore.
i-nfo.fr - Official iPhon.fr app
By : Keleops AG
