Published stuff

My Stuff column this week was ‘They don’t make Olympic video games like they used to – which might be for the best’ – exploring classics from my childhood and comparing them to the horror inflicted on the masses for Paris 2024. I also wrote about the new BurgerTime Quarter Arcade and refreshed the best upcoming Lego sets round-up.

For TapSmart, I explored one of my favourite apps, with a deep dive of Soulver. I also recommended 10 great creativity apps for iPhone and wrote a HomePod buyer’s guide.

And for this blog, I covered my ongoing frustration with Apple’s approach to emulators in ‘Apple isn’t serious about retro game emulation on iPhone – nor level playing fields for developers’.

Other stuff

Curious rumours this week about Apple TV+ being scaled back. Would that make it just Apple TV? Or Apple TV-? The argument is that Apple has chucked loads of cash at its streaming service, but the numbers no longer justify it.

Right now, this is the only streaming service our household has running. The movies seem very hit and miss, but there are a lot of great shows. Will that still be the case in two years?

Today, Apple TV+ has a solid reputation – almost the HBO of streaming. But Apple Arcade initially had a run of being a ‘premium’ take in its sector. Apple’s since dumbed that down, filling it full of me-too casual fare and giving dozens of old App Store favourites another airing.

Is Apple about to do an ‘Apple Arcade’ with TV+? If so, what would that look like, and how would Apple differentiate the service from its rivals if it’s increasingly packed full of lowest-common denominator telly and bought-in series from elsewhere?

I recently wrote about iDOS for iPhone. In June, iDOS was rejected for not emulating a “retro game console”. This despite multiple emulators being approved for the App Store that don’t emulate retro game consoles. However, having initially rejected it, Apple subsequently approved UTM SE, essentially a PC emulator. Logically, then, you’d think Apple would change its mind regarding iDOS. Well, no. On 16 July, the app’s creator said his appeal had been rejected.

It’s surely now clear Apple isn’t serious about allowing emulators on the App Store. But worse: it’s not serious about level playing fields for apps either. Instead, it’s inviting emulator developers to coin-flip approvals, and perhaps (on the basis of the course of events we’ve so far witnessed) changing its mind when not doing so could cause regulatory problems, or when an app could threaten the App Store in some way by causing more people to look elsewhere. UTM, notably, was first rejected for an external app store, Apple sticking up a middle digit to EU regulation. And then when someone at Apple realised that was a very bad idea and UTM was finally approved, it was approved for the App Store as well, which dents any advantage the third-party store has.

However, that UTM is now allowed but iDOS is not is indefensible. They’re both PC emulators. Apple has been inconsistent in the past with App Store rules and approvals, but this pairing is especially stark and egregious. At this point, I wouldn’t spend a single second developing an emulator for iOS. Which is probably how Apple wants it anyway. If I were the iDOS developer, I’d lob the app at AltStore and see what happens. Or, you know, just give up, like so many other ex-iOS devs I hear from these days have already done.

What gets me is this is all so stupid and unnecessary. There’s clearly reluctance from somewhere senior in Apple about emulators. But then the company sort of changed its mind, yet provided no rules. It instead went for the developer-hostile “we’ll know it when we see it”. Only ‘it’ doesn’t mean anything specific. If it did, we wouldn’t currently have ZX81, C64 and MSX emulators on the App Store, given that they emulate hardware platforms that are not retro gaming consoles.

Another thing that’s also come under harsh criticism (and affects UTM’s performance) is Apple blocking support for JIT. This is essential for strong performance when emulating more modern systems and further hamstrings iPhone and iPad in this space. For once, I’m actually OK with this decision. And that’s because Apple has with this decision by accident ended up in a reasonably moral space regarding emulation, making it impossible to emulate modern systems that remain commercially viable. I’m very aware emulation as a whole is a grey area, but there’s a world of difference between firing up Drelbs on my iPhone and loading up a phone with Nintendo Switch titles.

So, frustrating as it might be to some people, that outcome (if not, perhaps, the mechanism) is defensible. But so much else surrounding Apple’s current approach to emulators is, at best, deeply cynical or horribly incompetent. Neither of those things is a great look.

Published stuff

Two new articles this week. For Stuff, I wrote Remixing old games is the perfect way to play NES and arcade classics. Purists might scream in horror at this take, but I like the notion of trying to freshen up old games by framing them in different ways. And then over at TapSmart, there’s my stargazing toolkit for iPhone.

Upcoming stuff

So many new operating systems! I’ll be writing up my usual tips on iPhone, iPad and Mac this autumn. But I’m also interested to see how all this stuff goes, given Apple’s initial steps into AI (with seemingly much reticence) and ongoing major issues with developers.

I also have a few really cracking classic app pieces in the pipe, which I really hope happen. And I’m looking at getting back into more app writing in general.

Other stuff

I’m far from the first to write about this, but tinyPod turns an old Apple Watch into a tiny iPod. Sort of. I really like the idea and absolutely want to buy one, but imagine it will sit in the same “at some point, meaning probably never” space as Playdate. (I love the idea of that console too. But I lack time for those I already own, and Playdate is a bit spendy.)

I re-read Scarlet Traces, by way of its Hachette partworks incarnation. I’ve always loved War of the Worlds, in all its versions, and so Ian Edginton and D’Israeli adaptation clicked on its release way back in the 2000s. I didn’t remember much about the follow-up series that ran in 2000 AD, and so was surprised by how much I enjoyed the second volume. It’s a properly cracking read – highly recommended.

And speaking of comics, Peter Hogan (co-creator of the superb Resident Alien) is running a Kiskstarter that should, frankly, have more than 245 backers. So if you’re into comics, you know what to do.

Published stuff

For TapSmart, I explore the best video camera apps, which AirPods to buy, and classic iPhone game Orbital.

My Stuff column this week is: Why I think auto-translate earbuds might be a bad thing. In short, people think they’re a Babel Fish. They are not a Babel Fish. 

I also wrote about the best emulators for iPhones and Android devices, which sparked a standalone piece for this blog: Apple vs emulation – three months of incoherence and idiocy.

As a fan of emulation and safeguarding gaming’s history, I find myself increasingly frustrated with Apple in this space. It has – either by intent or incompetence – created the circumstances in which iOS has a confused, messy, inconsistent emulator ecosystem.

There are some stars, such as Delta and PPSSPP. We have a cut-down RetroArch, because the creator is walking on eggshells. There’s the odd really interesting curio, like ZX81, but an awful lot of churn junk, such as terrible NES and C64 emulators.

The last of those things is in part down to Apple not providing clear direction and constantly changing the rules. It would be simple to clarify what’s allowed, but Apple never wanted emulators on the store in the first place, and only appeared to approve any to blunt AltStore’s chances and perhaps to avoid getting walloped by the EU.

App Store review is inconsistent at the best of times, but the situation with emulation is now beyond absurd. The MAME4iOS dev says their app has been rejected multiple times for ‘spam’. Apple might point to the iDOS rejection (‘iDOS is not a retro game console’) and argue MAME does not make the cut for the same reason. Yet there is a (fairly awful) Final Burn Neo arcade emulator available to download. Another error? Who knows? Either way, this doesn’t say good things about app review.

As for iDOS, that situation is now… fluid, given that Apple has approved PC emulator UTM SE. But who’s to say Apple won’t change its mind next week, depending on what it thinks it can get away with? And I do wonder what will happen if someone dares to submit an Apple II or Mac emulator for review. Perhaps they should submit it to AltStore first – that at least appears to make Apple rethink.

So three months in and, as predicted by me and others, emulation on iOS is an incoherent mess. Which probably suits Apple but further dents the platform’s credibility with a noisy contingent of gamers and makes it look inferior to Android. And Apple’s ridiculous review stance means great devs won’t bother making emulators for iPhone and iPad. Why would they? Why spend months polishing an emulator only for Apple to arbitrarily decide to reject it? (And, yes, this is the wider App Store in microcosm. Creators of other apps and games increasingly feel the same way.)