Apple’s App Store approved Saturn emulator Yaba Sanshiro this month, marking the end of a four-month wait after developer Shinya “DevMiyax” Miyamoto applied in April.
“Finally, Yaba Sanshiro was released in the Apple App Store!” Miyamoto said on social media on Aug. 3. “You can play SEGA Saturn games on your iPhone or iPad or Mac. This version only includes basic features to facilitate approval. If there is demand, we will continue to expand it.”
The emulator costs US$4.99 and can be downloaded here. That price mirrors the Pro version for Android phones that’s been on the Google Play store for several years
Also similarly to the Play Store, there’s a free version with ads available on iPhone that released today. Called “Yaba Snashiro 2 Lite,” it displays advertisements and only allows users to install three games.
The paid Apple version already has gotten a couple updates, as just two days after launch, Miyamoto announced that he’d added a new game select screen, iOS 16 support, and the ability to change discs and reset a game.
And earlier today, a new version upgraded the emulation core, added support for more file formats — CUE/BIN, CCD/IMG and MDS/MDF — and added safe area support, which brings the user interface’s buttons away from the edges of the screen a bit.
Miyamoto submitted his emulator to the App Store just a day after Apple updated its submission guidelines to include rules for “game emulators” applying to the store. It said in part that “retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games” and developers “are responsible for all such software offered in your app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws.”
To maintain compliance with the law, Yaba Sanshiro does not include any games nor the Saturn’s BIOS — but unlike other emulators, it doesn’t need the BIOS to run.
Miyamoto created a video showing users how to rip their own Saturn games from original discs, convert them to CHD format and place them in the Yaba Sanshiro folder on their Apple devices. When the app launched just more than week ago, it only supported games using the CHD format.
While a Windows PC version exists, Miyamoto’s focus with Yaba Sanshiro has been on handheld platforms. It’s been available on Android as well as portable PCs running Linux for years, but Apple’s policy — and closed platforms — prevented it from being loaded on iOS.
Yaba Sanshiro began development in late 2015 as a fork of Yabause, an emulator that is no longer actively worked on, to bring it to Android devices. A PC version was released about a year later, seeing regular updates alongside the Android version, although its last update was in August 2022.
Its name was changed to Yaba Sanshiro 2 in April 2021 after Google blacklisted the original app for including Action Replay cheats.
A version of this story originally appeared on Sega Saturn SHIRO!