Apple vs emulators, part 937,493: MAME4iOS vs Apple idiocy about ROMs

Arcade Mania icon in no sign

Last year, I argued that Apple never wanted emulators on the App Store. I suspected it felt strong-armed by EU regulators into allowing them, or was using them as a tool to blunt AltStore, which looked set to specialise in the kind of apps Apple wouldn’t approve. I also noted that MAME4iOS was in limbo. But the situation is in fact worse.

The developer had already renamed MAME4iOS to ArcadeMania, due to Apple raising concerns about ownership of the MAME brand. OK. I get that. But a couple of months back, the creator revealed (and I noted on Mastodon) that Apple rejected the app anyway because “they said it can only run ROMs owned by the developer”.

Still, this is app review, right? Mistakes happen. So the app was resubmitted. And computer said no:

The App Review Board evaluated your app and determined that the original rejection feedback is valid.

To address the 5.2.2 issue, please revise your app to only run ROM files created by you or that you specifically own.

We encourage you to review the previous rejection correspondence for this app, make the necessary changes to bring it into compliance with the App Review Guidelines, and resubmit it for review.

ArcadeMania’s creator adds: “I’m kind of at a loss of what to do at this point”. And, yeah, it’s easy to see why. Emulators, by definition, tend to run ROMs their creators don’t own. Apple’s demand is like mandating music player developers own every song users might add. And it’s a doubly baffling decision, given the existence of other emulators, including arcade emulators, on the App Store.

Apple isn’t serious about emulation. It never was. Right now, creating an emulator for iPhone, iPad or Apple TV is a waste of time, given that approval is a lottery with opaque rules Apple changes on a whim and does not apply evenly. And all this further damages the company’s gaming credibility. People who like emulators tend to really like games and they’re vocal. Right now, they continue to shout about Android.

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February 10, 2025. Read more in: News

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Weeknote: 30 November 2024 – retro gaming and cloud backups

“Evercade

Published stuff

I was immersed in ancient games this week for Stuff, reviewing the Evercade Alpha and The Spectrum. The common theme? I liked both of these gadgets a lot more than I expected to. Both delivered a neat blast of nostalgia and immediacy, while recognising that people like to load additional games on to gaming devices.

Elsewhere, RIP your wallet, due to my updating the best enormous Lego kits to buy. And Apple announced it will soon set fire to thousands of iCloud backups. So my column for Stuff warns: Don’t rely on cloud backups, because iCloud and Google won’t keep your stuff forever.

I also wrote a quick post about the dismal current state of app review on iOS when it comes to emulation. 

Upcoming stuff

The end of the year is blazing towards us all. Which means… retrospectives. Lots and lots of retrospectives. 2024 was a weird year in lots of ways. It’ll be interesting to see how it shakes out when I review it in terms of Apple and tech.

November 30, 2024. Read more in: News

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Weeknote: 9 November 2024 – iPhone gaming, the joy of carts, and post-X social networks

iPhone in games controller
Above: an iPhone in a GameSir G8 Galileo

Published stuff

After a long break, I returned to Wired this week, with a deep dive to ask: Is Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro good for games? I’ve long been an advocate for iPhone gaming, but Apple in recent years has made bold claims about its devices being suitable for AAA. I spent many hours separating fact from fiction and even exploring whether you could ‘consolise’ an iPhone, making any nearby Switch look on, aghast.

Speaking of the Switch, my Stuff column this week is: I hope Nintendo Switch 2 loves old game cartridges, not just old games. This is a response to the announcement from Nintendo that Switch software will run on the console’s successor. No mention of carts, mind. I also added Arc Search to the best free Android apps round-up.

This week for TapSmart, I wrote a deep dive on GarageBand. If you’ve ever fancied playing loops on your iPhone – or composing your own – have a read!

And for this blog, I wrote about the ongoing battle for vestibular accessibility on iPhone, on Android and beyond.

Other stuff

Apple released a bunch of new Macs this week. Some of the best coverage is over on Six Colors. I was particularly happy to see Jason Snell mentioning sustainability in his iMac review. You used to be able to use old iMacs as a display for another Mac. That went away long ago. It’s a feature Apple should bring back if it gives a damn about being green.

This week has seen another exodus from X. But I still see people worried about moving on – and a lot of folks getting angry about those who are sticking it out. I can understand why people remain on the site, but suspect there’s no saving what it once was. When an owner is so directly influential in a site, it becomes a reflection of them. Still, when I removed my presence there last summer, it was nonetheless gut-wrenching. I had amassed a wonderful collection of follows and followers over the years. But many of them have long gone now or, at most, shifted to ‘broadcast’ mode. So there’s no going back.

My take these days is there’s nothing that replaces X, but there are plenty of options online for those who’d like to have something broadly similar. I recall David Allen Green referring to Bluesky as Twitter cosplay, and that’s fair enough. But it is marrying familiarity with robust tools that improve the user experience in meaningful ways. Beyond that, Mastodon is chugging along, and there’s Threads for people who want to chat with Pizza Hut. 

Also, if you or someone you know is reluctant to leave X because it’s good for news, I’d caution against staying for that reason. The algorithm is too aggressive. Instead, look into RSS and create your own feed of sources you care about. This can include major news outlets, indie blogs and even accounts on the likes of Bluesky, Mastodon and YouTube. My favourite RSS reader is NetNewsWire, but there are many more. If you’d like to get started with NetNewsWire, my colleague Tom Rolfe wrote about that for TapSmart. And I wrote an iPhone toolkit for staying informed – without the need for X.

Incidentally, if you are looking for a new online home and head to one of those networks, do say hi. I’m active on BlueskyThreads and Mastodon.

November 9, 2024. Read more in: News

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Weeknote: 7 September 2024 – Home Screens, CDs and Mac chat

iOS 18 Home Screen

Published work

My column for Stuff this week is: The new iOS 18 Home Screen feature I’m most excited about is not the one you’d expect. It’s kind of a journey through my Home Screen, from an overly complex monster to something dead simple, which iOS will soon refine in a very good way.

Also, last week’s piece, Why I’m buying my first CD player in 20 years, went absolutely bonkers. I’ve had (positive) emails and messages all week about it, and it did silly numbers. Thanks to everyone who read it and those who got in touch with their tips about what CD player to buy.

Other stuff

An Apple event is looming, and so I imagine I’ll soon be further immersed in new kit. I’m interested to see how Apple moves its hardware on this year, with the iPhone rumoured to be a reasonably minor update but the Apple Watch getting more substantial changes. Personally, I’ll also be looking at software for Apple Watch – I’m still recovering from covid and so being able to pause my rings can’t come soon enough. (Although it won’t help this time. Still, at least I won’t have to complain about this basic missing feature again.)

Over on Threads, in a response to requests for writing tips, Scalzi suggested reading your work aloud to catch copy errors. This is an old trick, but one I always find many writers surprised by when you mention it. Similarly, relatively few realise you can get your Mac to read text back to you. I outline how on Threads.

September 7, 2024. Read more in: News

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Weeknote: 24 August 2024 – AI, distractions, new music and old covid

Sunflower close-up

Published stuff

Two AI articles this week. For Stuff, I wrote about smartphone photography and Halide’s new Process Zero in Why I’m excited about an anti-AI iPhone camera app that does less, not more. And for TapSmart, I looked at apps that give you AI on any iPhone or iPad right now.

Outside of AI, I wrote up an iPhone toolkit for minimising distractions, griped about the lack of sort options in the iOS 18 Home Screen, and checked out the best upcoming Lego sets

Other stuff: new music and old covid

Last week, I caught covid for the first time. I’m still isolating. Day nine now. I’ll take another test this afternoon, but still expect it to be positive. I’m… so over this. And it’s increasingly depressing to be away from my family and confined to a room. But it is what it is. At least neither my wife nor my daughter have caught covid from me. And isolation did spur me on to release a new piece of music for the first time in over a decade. You can listen to Where I Want To Be on YouTube. (I’m pretty happy with that bass line. A good reminder of why I need to write more music with actual instruments, rather than prodding at a screen. Anyway…)

If nothing else, catching covid has also been a reality check. My wife mentioned my covid to our elderly neighbour, who looked shocked and asked how I managed to catch it, as if I’d made a special effort to do so. Friends who’ve caught it recently say they’ve had similar responses from people. In the UK at least, it’s as if covid doesn’t exist, despite us just having had the biggest wave in a long time.

Worse, our medical service has no interest whatsoever in helping anyone who’s not ‘at risk’. So while I hear from people in the US and Switzerland who received medication and boosters in recent years, in the UK it’s a case of “take a couple of paracetamol and hope you can shake it off in a couple of weeks”. Oh, and no boosters again for the majority of the population this autumn either (unless you can find somewhere to buy one, for the first time), because the way to stop covid is still apparently to have people repeatedly catch covid. Bonkers.

Heaven help us if a more dangerous disease ever sweeps this country.

August 24, 2024. Read more in: News

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