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[stranno]

I swear I never thought I'd see the day of iOS getting emulated.

Yesterday, a Swedish developer has published the first version of touchHLE, an iOS 2.x High-Level emulator focused on Super Monkey Ball. The idea is to expand the compatibility and also support iOS 3.x and 4.x. No plans whatsoever to support 64-bits and probably never OS versions.

Currently, only Super Monkey Ball is known to work. If you try other games and they show the splash screen, it doesn't mean anything. The splash screen is an OS level thing, non related to the game itself.

touchHLE

touchhle.org

It works fine on Deck, using Lutris, at around ~6 watts. Only Windows binaries are available right now, but it should support OSX and Linux as well. Android port possible, but not planned for now.

 

[Kilau]

Would this gem work?

 

[murmulis]

Mobile phone is probably the most useless platform to emulate. Pretty much all mobile games that are good are available on other platforms as well.

The Room series, Lara Croft GO, Hitman GO, Monument valley, etc.

 

[stranno]

Mobile phone is probably the most useless platform to emulate. Pretty much all mobile games that are good are available on other platforms as well.

The Room series, Lara Croft GO, Hitman GO, Monument valley, etc.

touchHLE is not going to emulate those games. We are talking about iOS 2.x, 3.x and 4.x, the first apps on iOS. Back then, iOS had TONS of exclusive games, not present in any other platform. And, of course, the quality of the games back then was infinite higher than modern games.

 

[murmulis]

touchHLE is not going to emulate those games. We are talking about iOS 2.x, 3.x and 4.x, the first apps on iOS. Back then, iOS had TONS of exclusive games, not present in any other platform. And, of course, the quality of the games back then was infinite higher than modern games.

Which of those games are good/notable enough? I have never owned an iPhone. Google's PlayStore has always been full of trash.

 

[deriks]

Mobile phone is probably the most useless platform to emulate. Pretty much all mobile games that are good are available on other platforms as well.

The Room series, Lara Croft GO, Hitman GO, Monument valley, etc.

Still, some games disappear from the stores and we need to preserve history. Devil May Cry 4 and Street Fighter IV are technical marvels back in the day for example. It's a shame that people sweat to create those and they just go. That's why emulation needs to exist

 

[TwiztidElf]

Consoles should have forever forward and backward compatibility, just like mobile phones.
/s

 

[Unknown Soldier]

People could finally play Infinity Blade again...

 

[Trunx81]

People could finally play Infinity Blade again...

And Bioshock! The removal still hurts today.

And why tf did they stop updating Puzzle Quest 1

 

[Manuscript Replica]

People could finally play Infinity Blade again...

I fucking loved that game.

 

[ReBurn]

Apple attempt at c&d when?

 

[Fuz]

Mobile phone is probably the most useless platform to emulate. Pretty much all mobile games that are good are available on other platforms as well.

The Room series, Lara Croft GO, Hitman GO, Monument valley, etc.

Not the point.

 

[Topher]

Apple attempt at c&d when?

 

[nush]

Mobile phone is probably the most useless platform to emulate.

Actually not if you go back, there was a sweet spot sometime that ended around 2013 before FTP micro transaction ridden trash that there were many games that were full games designed with being mobile and a touch interface that have been lost to time. They were not "Real" games from consoles ported to mobile. Think of them more like home micro games like Apple II, Spectrum or Commodore C64.

Many games I liked were taken from me becuse of IOS updates and the developers (If still in business) never updated so no longer worked.

Emulating older iOS would allow people to still play games they payed for on a mobile device.

I can get this back.

Emily's Flights

Emily's Flights for iPhone/iPad game reviews & Metacritic score: *******66% OFF - SALE EXTENDED******* This is a quick service game! It will take you to experience the flight attendant life! Become an airplane flight attenda...

www.metacritic.com

 

[Husky]

Will this be able to run Prey Invasion? It's an iOS Prey spinoff from 2009, been hoping I could give it a try sometime. If it can't, then the iOS 3 emulator surely should. How exciting!

 

[Drew1440]

This is great news, the early iOS games were pretty good for their time, and were a few unique ports that never made it to other mobile platforms.

Driver (Remake of the PS1 game)
Ridge Racer Accelerated
Dead Space
Metal Gear Solid Touch

 

[mrmustard]

I don't like Apple, but that would be a way to play Anthill again. Can't get it to work on Android anymore. Great game.

 

[stranno]

It works fine on Deck, by the way.

Which of those games are good/notable enough? I have never owned an iPhone. Google's PlayStore has always been full of trash.

Well, Super Monkey Ball was a pretty great exclusive game, to being with. And it was developed with the very first SDK of iPhone, since it was an App Store launch game.

Apple attempt at c&d when?

According to some devs over Discord, it is a cleanroom thing. So probably never.

 

[Utherellus]

Mobile phone is probably the most useless platform to emulate. Pretty much all mobile games that are good are available on other platforms as well.

The Room series, Lara Croft GO, Hitman GO, Monument valley, etc.

Yeah, no. Playing old mobile java games and Symbian exclusives on my android is a godsend. Literally my childhood memories and emotions are attached to them.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Man I swear I've been talking to a friend of mine about Apple iOS emulation for so long. And it's a shame that certain games that you might want to play like Fantasian get locked into that ecosystem.

It's like minute hell even if you could just plug in your Apple ID and play all your legitimate games and the thing just emulates that I would be okay with that and I would be inclined to actually buy the games that I want to play which aren't that many anyways but it's cool nonetheless.

We need more open platforms or things like this to preserve or not limit things as much especially when on phones and companies like apple they limit the age of the phone and things like that which is complete bs.

 

[ReBurn]

According to some devs over Discord, it is a cleanroom thing. So probably never.

Apple doesn't have to win in court to bankrupt the people working on projects like this.

 

[jimjonjimmy]

I might as well ask here. Does anyone remember or know of an old iOS game that had a look of geometry wars but there were levels and you could buy upgrades and other ships. The levels weren't just a square either they were full levels with proper exits and everything.

 

[BennyBlanco]

There are definitely some early iOS games i would play again



man this game was tight

 

[Doczu]

Mobile phone is probably the most useless platform to emulate. Pretty much all mobile games that are good are available on other platforms as well.

The Room series, Lara Croft GO, Hitman GO, Monument valley, etc.

Literally the best version of Wolfenstein RPG is locked on iOS.

 

[stranno]

Literally the best version of Wolfenstein RPG is locked on iOS.

You can play the BREW version on Android, using Melange. It is probably the same, since both ports are probably using a software renderer. The biggest issue is the vertical ratio and the lack of sound, since BREW sound containers are not documented (yet).

There was a longplay on Youtube using Melange, so it should be 100% playable.

 

[Doczu]

You can play the BREW version on Android, using Melange. It is probably the same, since both ports are probably using a software renderer. The biggest issue is the vertical ratio and the lack of sound, since BREW sound containers are not documented (yet).

There was a longplay on Youtube using Melange, so it should be 100% playable.

The game is virtually the same, but the iOS version uses a lot better assets for everything.
I'm not gonna go full DF Retro, but i'm still waiting for that version to be playable.

 

[Doczu]

Nevertheless, this is great, a lot of old iOS games were almost certain to be lost. So even if most of them are shitty, there is still enough titles to play cause they're good and don't forget emulation is preservation.

 

[Ozriel]

Which of those games are good/notable enough? I have never owned an iPhone. Google's PlayStore has always been full of trash.

I’d absolutely love to play Hector again…

 

[Killer8]

I'm glad that Metal Gear Solid Touch can finally be preserved.

 

[Doczu]

I'm glad that Metal Gear Solid Touch can finally be preserved.

I hope so too.

 

[stranno]

Hikari has pushed an update. touchHLE now supports the ipa directly, no need to extract the app package. It would be touchhle.exe "nameoftheipa.ipa".

Allow opening an IPA bundle file directly · touchHLE/touchHLE@32d12cc

High-level emulator for iPhone OS apps. This repo is used for issues, releases and CI. Submit patches at: https://review.gerrithub.io/admin/repos/touchHLE/touchHLE - Allow opening an IPA bundle file directly · touchHLE/touchHLE@32d12cc

github.com

 

[Spukc]

So ios games..

Doom rpg
Doom 2 rpg
Death space

 

[stranno]

Hikari has been making tons of changes this weekend, so I guess compatibility will improve greatly (from one game ) soon. Lots of stubs for APIs, new functions, new features, etc.

A build-bot would be welcome, tho.

Commits · touchHLE/touchHLE

High-level emulator for iPhone OS apps. This repo is used for issues, releases and CI. Submit patches at: https://review.gerrithub.io/admin/repos/touchHLE/touchHLE - Commits · touchHLE/touchHLE

github.com

 

[stranno]

Second 100% compatible game ready in the 0.1.1: Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D. Among more parameters, improvements and fixes. It should draw even less power on Steam Deck.

 

[Matt Frost]

Ocmo
1001 Attempts
Darkin
Infinity Blade
Worm Run
Sunshine
Cow Trouble
The first Rayman game
And so many other games... Lost forever

 

[Henry Panic]

To.be fair that was the time period where IOS had more games that were exclusive to it before Google's store took off like fireworks.

 

[Sleepwalker]

when dead space

 

[stranno]

To.be fair that was the time period where IOS had more games that were exclusive to it before Google's store took off like fireworks.

It wasn't about the popularity. Android was popular enough out of the box. Android was just a crappy system for developers (let's pretend to be surprised here) and it didn't even get OpenGL ES until September 09.

when dead space

You can already play the Xperia Play version on Vita, if you have one. Ported using the so Loader by TheFloW.

 

[LordOfChaos]

Interesting. It's a shame how many games got left as abandonware and hard to run in all the iOS and macOS support cutoffs.

What IS the easiest way to play Nanosaur 1 right now?

 

[stranno]

Interesting. It's a shame how many games got left as abandonware and hard to run in all the iOS and macOS support cutoffs.

What IS the easiest way to play Nanosaur 1 right now?

Windows version + DXWnd works perfectly fine. It is an OpenGL game, so you can also upscale the native resolution to whatever you want.

 

[Sleepwalker]

It wasn't about the popularity. Android was popular enough out of the box. Android was just a crappy system for developers (let's pretend to be surprised here) and it didn't even get OpenGL ES until September 09.


You can already play the Xperia Play version on Vita, if you have one. Ported using the so Loader by TheFloW.

No vita here sadly... only option is to try and get the apk from some shady site and pray it doesn't end up with my phone being hacked lmao

 

[stranno]

No vita here sadly... only option is to try and get the apk from some shady site and pray it doesn't end up with my phone being hacked lmao

It is probably not going to work anyway, the game is way too old.

Old Gameloft games were reverse engineered and updated by a Gameloft enthusiast, but these EA games are probably still broken.

 

[Henry Panic]

It wasn't about the popularity. Android was popular enough out of the box. Android was just a crappy system for developers (let's pretend to be surprised here) and it didn't even get OpenGL ES until September 09.


You can already play the Xperia Play version on Vita, if you have one. Ported using the so Loader by TheFloW.

Popularity definitely had something to do with it because some devs were concerned about returns and engagement. At least one of the bigger reasons.

 

[stranno]

Stop.. whatever, has made a video on the iOS emulation topic and interviewed Hikari.

 

[JC 1080P CRT]

Stop.. whatever, has made a video on the iOS emulation topic and interviewed Hikari.

Stop Skeletons From Fighting (SSFF). The main guy is Derek Alexander fka Happy Video Game Nerd (HVGN).
Anyhow, SSFF puts out good vids, does their research, and usually follows up if they need to correct a mistake. Hoping this vid is good too, the iOS emulation news completely slipped my radar.