iPhone App Store Flirts With an NES Emulator, Briefly

By  |  Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 5:15 pm

For a brief period last night, iPhone owners without jailbroken phones had access to a fully-functional Nintendo emulator. I’m kicking myself for not spotting 9 to 5 Mac’s story sooner, but it looks like the app got pulled very shortly, maybe a couple hours, after the news broke.

The app was called Nescaline, and its creator is Jonathan Zdziarski, who wrote iPhone Forensics. The $7 app included several homebrew games, but also allowed users to download more games by pointing the app to the URLs of ROM files. On his Web site, Zdziarski says an Apple rep told him the app was removed because it was an emulator. “Ironically, Apple currently has several emulators in the AppStore, so I am going with the belief that someone (likely Nintendo) probably pressured them about this particular application,” he wrote.

He’s right about the App Store having other emulators, but it’s more complicated than that. Currently, it’s possible to purchase C64, which lets you play classic Commodore 64 games, but it only found permanent footing on the iPhone after some drama involving the app’s BASIC interpreter and the ability to hack into it. More importantly, C64 maker Manomio has the rights to the games it sells. Nescaline, by contrast, opened the door to illegal game downloads.

It’s certainly possible that Apple’s trying to avoid legal hot water — Nokia attracted some unwanted attention by advertising that capability on the N900 — but I also think Apple is inclined to reject NES emulators in order to protect the App Store’s business model. When you have games that can make $1 million per month, why give people a bountiful source of free, classic games?

Given that Apple and Nintendo are now competing, I think an official NES iPhone app is unlikely. As for why Nescaline was approved in the first place, I’m thinking it was a simple blunder. I doubt Zdziarski was the first developer to submit a Nintendo emulator.

 
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10 Comments For This Post

  1. Nike air max 90 lolololo Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 10:00 pm

    iPhone App Store Flirts With an NES Emulator, very interesting

  2. L1A Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 10:27 pm

    Don’t think Nintendo had anything to do with it, their NES patents/rights expired. You can buy many NES/SNES combo consoles in game shops that still support old school gaming for about $40. Don’t forget to get $20 gold Zelda NES cartridge.

  3. Jared Newman Says:
    December 23rd, 2009 at 12:08 am

    @L1A

    Console emulation isn’t the issue. It’s the games and their IP, to which Nintendo still holds the rights. While Nintendo may not care if someone’s playing homebrew NES ROMs on their iPhone, they won’t be too pleased if you can use the phone to download bootleg versions of classic Mario and Zelda.

  4. Marc Says:
    December 23rd, 2009 at 5:19 am

    It’s a shame Apple don’t allow legit emulators. But even then Nintendo I bet would rather we buy a DS than some legit emulator, even if they were allowed.

  5. iphone apps Says:
    April 27th, 2010 at 12:50 pm

    I just can’t see how Nintendo would ever allow this without their name being on the service, and their pockets getting filled by the sales. I am surprised that it was even allowed at all..it seems like it would have been shut down at the very first stage of app approval.

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    November 27th, 2010 at 9:11 am

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2 Trackbacks For This Post

  1. iPhone App Store Flirts With an NES Emulator, Briefly « Chicago Mac/PC Support Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 6:38 pm

    […] iPhone App Store Flirts With an NES Emulator, Briefly Interesting point of view about NES emulation on the iPhone.  Click here. […]

  2. iPhones and iPads Get a DOS Emulator Says:
    October 26th, 2010 at 11:35 am

    […] Arcade broke the news earlier today, and I initially figured it was a fluke, like the accidental approval of a Nintendo emulator last year. But for now, the app is still available, and I just downloaded it directly on my iPhone […]