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Emulation on iPhones/iPads


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Posted (edited)

Past month has seen a slew of emulators released for iOS (just-in-time systems won't be available in iOS), and per the agreement with Apple, they are all free.  You do not have to jailbreak your devices, these are apps available through the official iOS App Store.  Some of these emulators overlap one another, but usually the ones that are tailored to specific manufacturers can be better/smaller.

Delta (I've been using the hell out of this, and it's been solid)

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/delta-game-emulator/id1048524688

  • Nintendo Entertainment System
  • Super Nintendo Entertainment System
  • Nintendo 64
  • Game Boy (Color)
  • Game Boy Advance
  • Nintendo DS

 

Quote

Controller Support for Delta

  • • Nintendo Switch Pro controllers, Joy-Cons
  • • Nintendo Switch Online controllers (NES, SNES, N64)
  • • PS4, PS5
  • • Xbox One S, Xbox Series X
  • • MFi game controllers
  • • Bluetooth & wired keyboards

Save States

  • • Save and load save states for any game from the pause menu.
  • • Lock save states to prevent them from being accidentally overwritten.
  • • Automatically makes backup save states to ensure you never lose your progress.
  • • Support for “Quick Saves,” save states that can be quickly saved/loaded with a single button press (requires external controller).

Cheats

  • • Supports various types of cheat codes for each supported system:
  • • NES: Game Genie
  • • SNES: Game Genie, Pro Action Replay
  • • N64: GameShark
  • • GBC: Game Genie, GameShark
  • • GBA: Action Replay, Code Breaker, GameShark
  • • DS: Action Replay

Delta Sync

  • • Sync your games, game saves, save states, cheats, controller skins, and controller mappings between devices.
  • • View version histories of everything you sync and optionally restore them to earlier versions.
  • • Supports both Google Drive and Dropbox.
  • Custom Controller Skins
  • • Beautiful built-in controller skins for all systems.
  • • Import controller skins made by others, or even make your own to share with the world!
  • Hold Button
  • • Choose buttons for Delta to hold down on your behalf, freeing up your thumbs to press other buttons instead.
  • • Perfect for games that typically require one button be held down constantly (e.g. run button in Mario games, or the A button in Mario Kart).

Fast Forward

  • • Speed through slower parts of games by running the game much faster than normal.
  • • Easily enable or disable from the pause menu, or optionally with a mapped button on an external controller.
  • 3D/Haptic Touch
  • • Use 3D or Haptic Touch to “peek” at games, save states, and cheat codes.
  • • App icon shortcuts allow quick access to your most recently played games, or optionally customize the shortcuts to always include certain games.
  • Game Artwork
  • • Automatically displays appropriate box art for imported games.
  • • Change a game’s artwork to anything you want, or select from the built-in game artwork database.

Misc.

  • • Gyroscope support (WarioWare: Twisted! only)
  • • Microphone support (DS only)
  • • Support for delta:// URL scheme to jump directly into a specific game.

 

Edited by atomheartbevo
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 RetroArch was just added with dozens of platforms:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/retroarch/id6499539433

  • * 2048
  • * Amstrad - CPC (CrocoDS)
  • * Amstrad - CPC/GX4000 (Caprice32)
  • * Arcade (FinalBurn Neo)
  • * Atari - 2600 (Stella 2014)
  • * Atari - 2600 (Stella)
  • * Atari - 5200 (Atari800)
  • * Atari - 5200 (a5200)
  • * Atari - 7800 (ProSystem)
  • * Atari - Lynx (Handy)
  • * Bandai - WonderSwan/Color (Beetle Cygne)
  • * Commodore - Amiga (PUAE)
  • * Commodore - C128 (VICE x128)
  • * Commodore - C64 (VICE x64, fast)
  • * Commodore - C64 (VICE x64sc, accurate)
  • * Commodore - C64 SuperCPU (VICE xscpu64)
  • * Commodore - CBM-II 5x0 (VICE xcbm5x0)
  • * Commodore - CBM-II 6x0/7x0 (VICE xcbm2)
  • * Commodore - PET (VICE xpet)
  • * Commodore - PLUS/4 (VICE xplus4)
  • * Commodore - VIC-20 (VICE xvic)
  • * Dinothawr
  • * Fairchild ChannelF (FreeChaF)
  • * GCE - Vectrex (vecx)
  • * Game Music Emu
  • * Handheld Electronic (GW)
  • * MSX/SVI/ColecoVision/SG-1000 (blueMSX)
  • * Mattel - Intellivision (FreeIntv)
  • * NEC - PC Engine / CD (Beetle PCE FAST)
  • * NEC - PC Engine / SuperGrafx / CD (Beetle PCE)
  • * NEC - PC Engine SuperGrafx (Beetle SuperGrafx)
  • * NEC - PC-98 (Neko Project II Kai)
  • * Nintendo - DS (DeSmuME)
  • * Nintendo - DS (melonDS DS)
  • * Nintendo - Game Boy / Color (Gambatte)
  • * Nintendo - Game Boy / Color (Gearboy)
  • * Nintendo - Game Boy / Color (SameBoy)
  • * Nintendo - Game Boy / Color (TGB Dual)
  • * Nintendo - Game Boy Advance (VBA Next)
  • * Nintendo - Game Boy Advance (VBA-M)
  • * Nintendo - Game Boy Advance (gpSP)
  • * Nintendo - Game Boy Advance (mGBA)
  • * Nintendo - NES / Famicom (FCEUmm)
  • * Nintendo - NES / Famicom (Mesen)
  • * Nintendo - NES / Famicom (Nestopia UE)
  • * Nintendo - NES / Famicom (QuickNES)
  • * Nintendo - Nintendo 64 (Mupen64Plus-Next)
  • * Nintendo - SNES / SFC (Snes9x 2005)
  • * Nintendo - SNES / SFC (Snes9x 2010)
  • * Nintendo - SNES / SFC (Snes9x)
  • * Nintendo - SNES / SFC (bsnes)
  • * Nintendo - SNES / SFC (bsnes-hd beta)
  • * Nintendo - SNES / SFC / Game Boy / Color (Mesen-S)
  • * Nintendo - Virtual Boy (Beetle VB)
  • * PocketCDG
  • * Quake (TyrQuake)
  • * Rick Dangerous (XRick)
  • * SNK - Neo Geo AES/MVS (Geolith)
  • * SNK - Neo Geo CD (NeoCD)
  • * SNK - Neo Geo Pocket / Color (RACE)
  • * ScummVM
  • * Sega - MS/GG (SMS Plus GX)
  • * Sega - MS/GG/MD/CD (Genesis Plus GX Wide)
  • * Sega - MS/GG/MD/CD (Genesis Plus GX)
  • * Sega - MS/GG/MD/CD/32X (PicoDrive)
  • * Sega - MS/GG/SG-1000 (Gearsystem)
  • * Sega - Saturn (Beetle Saturn)
  • * Sharp - X68000 (PX68k)
  • * Sinclair - ZX Spectrum (Fuse)
  • * Sony - PlayStation (Beetle PSX HW)
  • * Sony - PlayStation (Beetle PSX)
  • * Sony - PlayStation (PCSX ReARMed)
  • * Sony - PlayStation Portable (PPSSPP)
  • * Texas Instruments TI-83 (Numero)
  • * Thomson - MO/TO (Theodore)
  • * Vircon32
  • * VirtualXT
  • * WASM-4
  • * Watara - Supervision (Potator)

RetroArch supports a broad range of features, including:

  • * Netplay
  • * Soft patching
  • * RetroAchievements
  • * Save states
  • * MFi controller support
  • * Key remapping per core or per game
  • * Gyro
  • * Cheats
  • * Custom overlays
  • * Shaders
  • * Fast forward and rewind
  • * Game artwork
  • * AI translations
  • * Advanced latency management

 

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7 hours ago, hornbri said:

I have being using delta to play gameboy on my iPhone and it plays really well. Lots of fun. 

On the one hand, impressed as hell at how well it plays.  On the other, it should play this well, given how powerful iPhones are compared to consoles from 20 years ago and earlier.

I've played a lot of old-school games on emulators over the years, but easily having them on my phone is amazing.

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On 5/21/2024 at 2:48 PM, Firemans4Horn said:

Dumb question amnesty….

so I downloaded Delta what is the best way to add games after that?

If you have a Mac, airdrop is easy enough. I believe you can load them from some cloud services like DropBoc (and if you have a Mac and use iCloud, iCloud shows up as just another drive, although I would copy it to the local files on your iPad or iPhone).

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RetroArch has added the following cores:

  • Cave Story (NXEngine)
  • Doom (PrBoom)
  • DOS (DOSBox-Pure) 👀
  • Nintendo - DS (melonDS DS)
  • Nintendo - Pokemon Mini (PokeMini)
  • Palm OS (Mu)
  • SNK - Neo Geo Pocket / Color (Beetle NeoPop)

DOSBox …l

Key And Peele Nfl GIF
 

Will be loading up all of my Sierra and LucasArts games that haven’t been ported to iOS. Maybe some old school flight sims.

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  • 1 month later...

I downloaded Delta and have had some fun playing Baseball Stars and Tecmo Super Bowl. You can find roms online that have updated Tecmo Bowl rosters. I downloaded the 2024 NFL rom and the 2023 college football rom. Pretty cool.

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  • 3 months later...

Maybe better for another thread but not sure we have one and I'm too lazy to keep looking:

Getting a Retroid Pocket 5 as my first emulation handheld. What the fuck do I do now (or in a month when it finally arrives)?

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On 10/30/2024 at 3:00 PM, elfenix said:

Maybe better for another thread but not sure we have one and I'm too lazy to keep looking:

Getting a Retroid Pocket 5 as my first emulation handheld. What the fuck do I do now (or in a month when it finally arrives)?

Comb through top-20 game lists of the platforms you’re interested in?

https://www.mobygames.com/platform/

Edited by atomheartbevo
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  • 3 weeks later...

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