Apple warns that developers are “responsible for all such software offered in your app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws.” This raises the question of whether anyone can release a game emulator or only the companies that own the rights to the games distributed for it.
A good move, and great for distribution, but this does look like it’s difficult to publish an emulator unless you could control the games too. I don’t see this clearly permitting a general purpose emulator. It’s possible, but knowing Apple, I would expect that this could let Nintendo publish an emulator but not necessarily an open source project.
I’m glad to see it, but this to me feels more like testing the water then jumping into the deep end.
Man that rule is such bullcrap. Imagine a photo editor that only allowed you to edit your own pictures and only those matching the app’s content rating.
which is why there are no browsers other than Safari
Wasn’t that explicitly forbidden? Browsers don’t need jit to be fast enough
Edit: was jit explicitly forbidden? Or is it that running dynamically loaded code was forbidden in general and jit falls under that category? If they’re letting emulators and other browser engines in that ban seems to be at least partially lifted
Browsers (were, still are in many regions) forbidden from using any engine other than the iOS provided webkit.
Dynamic recompilation is not possible on iOS because of how iOS does code signing. This basically blocks the entire concept of executing instructions that weren’t part of the original signed code.
you only get JIT by paying for a special developer license or using exploits on very specific iOS versions.
Actually Altstore has AltJIT which works on all iOS versions altstore supports but requires you to be connected to the same network as a computer running altstore.
run a VM or something
UTM (which is based on QEMU) is already available on iOS.
I was just pointing out that OPs list was incomplete. Also theoretically someone could include altjit in their app because the App Store guidelines don’t explicitly say you can’t (ofc this would most likely not work).
iOS natively supports JIT (by which we mean writable and executable memory) but Apple locks it down to only two use cases:
The JavaScript engine in Safari
Support for running a debugger
AltStore launches a debugger and connects it to your phone. Even though it’s not actually doing anything with a debugger, that’s enough to convince iOS to let your app use memory that’s both writable and executable (the key feature needed for JIT).
Without JIT you need to either resort to a slower form of emulation or do something creative.
Did they? I think I remember some authors no longer taking payment for them. Maybe some others took theirs down of their own accord. I don’t remember hearing about Google themselves taking anything down
No, I didn’t mean to say Google did that. Not like Google is a great company, but I’m saying there was a scare a bit ago from the emulator publishers themselves when that happened. At least I thought that’s why aesthersx got taken down, and I thought I remembered others as well. Obviously people seem to disagree
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Rules
1. Submissions have to be related to games
Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.
This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.
2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.
We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.
3. No excessive self-promotion
Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.
This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.
4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you’re submitting before posting to see if it’s already been posted.
We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.
5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW
Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.
No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.
6. No linking to piracy
Don’t share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.
We don’t want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.
deleted by creator
welcome to 2010s
5 B.E. (Before Enshittification)
A good move, and great for distribution, but this does look like it’s difficult to publish an emulator unless you could control the games too. I don’t see this clearly permitting a general purpose emulator. It’s possible, but knowing Apple, I would expect that this could let Nintendo publish an emulator but not necessarily an open source project.
I’m glad to see it, but this to me feels more like testing the water then jumping into the deep end.
Man that rule is such bullcrap. Imagine a photo editor that only allowed you to edit your own pictures and only those matching the app’s content rating.
I really don’t see Nintendo publishing an emulator that runs on hardware they didn’t make (yay unnecessary e-waste).
Didn’t know hell froze over.
This is app store competition does. Apple didn’t want an emulator-friendly app store to become super popular.
deleted by creator
Wasn’t that explicitly forbidden? Browsers don’t need jit to be fast enough
Edit: was jit explicitly forbidden? Or is it that running dynamically loaded code was forbidden in general and jit falls under that category? If they’re letting emulators and other browser engines in that ban seems to be at least partially lifted
Yes, op is a little confused.
Actually Altstore has AltJIT which works on all iOS versions altstore supports but requires you to be connected to the same network as a computer running altstore.
UTM (which is based on QEMU) is already available on iOS.
Sadly jail breaking is required after iOS 11
For what?
For for UTM
No I believe it also works with altstore (though I haven’t personally tried it).
Hmm. I’ll give that a shot.
deleted by creator
I was just pointing out that OPs list was incomplete. Also theoretically someone could include altjit in their app because the App Store guidelines don’t explicitly say you can’t (ofc this would most likely not work).
iOS natively supports JIT (by which we mean writable and executable memory) but Apple locks it down to only two use cases:
AltStore launches a debugger and connects it to your phone. Even though it’s not actually doing anything with a debugger, that’s enough to convince iOS to let your app use memory that’s both writable and executable (the key feature needed for JIT).
Without JIT you need to either resort to a slower form of emulation or do something creative.
deleted by creator
If that’s how you want to put it, sure.
deleted by creator
The GameCube also needs a JIT for decent performance. On a phone, that will especially hurt to emulate the CPU in software.
Android Market: hey we did that too!..in 2010.
Except they’ve been pulled recently after the Nintendo fiasco
deleted
Did they? I think I remember some authors no longer taking payment for them. Maybe some others took theirs down of their own accord. I don’t remember hearing about Google themselves taking anything down
No, I didn’t mean to say Google did that. Not like Google is a great company, but I’m saying there was a scare a bit ago from the emulator publishers themselves when that happened. At least I thought that’s why aesthersx got taken down, and I thought I remembered others as well. Obviously people seem to disagree
Is there any good game boy emulator ? I want to play Pokémon.
Drastic is a fantastic DS emulator for android, it recently became free. I bought it over a decade ago and has been a blast.
deleted by creator