Developer hikari noyu me has just released the first iOS app emulator, for Windows and Mac. While at the moment, the game support is limited, this is a huge step forward in iOS game preservation and something that’s desperately needed in the mobile app world. SSFF just posted a great video discussing iOS app’s future, as well as the amazing work put into the emulator itself – Definitely check it out above!
Download touchHLE: https://touchhle.org/
As someone who’s been following and promoting software emulation since the 90’s, this really hits home. So much of the work I’ve been involved in, has been to preserve the experience classic games provide, however “classic” is relative – How many kids in the 2010’s grew up gaming on mobile devices? How many of those kids are now app developers, as a direct result of the *awesome game that showed them what was even possible on a mobile device?
Just because a game was released on a cellphone – or a crappy “Interactive Multimedia Unit” – should make no difference in how we treat it’s preservation. And as I always say, even bad games deserve to be remembered. So let’s hope more people step up to increase the compatibility of this emulator and allow more of the iOS library to be saved forever.
*With thousands of shovelware/clickbait/garbage apps on mobile platforms, it’s easy to forget there’s also great games available as well. From excellent ports of console games, to cellphone exclusives that provided a really unique perspective…there is great software on there and it’s important to look through the clutter and recognize those too.
