Apple Will Now Allow ‘Retro Game Console Emulator Apps’ on Your iPhone

Apple has just made a small but significant change to its App Review Guidelines that should open the door to a whole new realm of console emulator apps that were previously forbidden on the App Store.

For years, developers of ‘emulator’ apps have been engaged in a constant battle with Apple. These developers, often walking a fine line, would see their apps briefly accepted on the App Store, only to be swiftly removed under rules that prohibited apps running external code downloaded from outside the app.

Put simply, Apple’s rules required an app to include all of its executable code in the app itself so that Apple could see what was there during the review process. Loading code from elsewhere potentially opened the door to all sorts of security problems that Apple didn’t want to deal with, so it issued a blanket prohibition early on.

Sadly, this closed the door on many useful emulator apps that could be used to relive the experience of the golden age of retro video games. Perhaps the most famous of these was Riley Testut’s GBA4iOS and its successor, Delta, which allowed iPhone users to play old Nintendo games. There was also the saga of iDOS, an iPhone app that emulated an old-school DOS-based PC, which has been on and off the App Store for years as the developer has tried to navigate the vagaries of Apple’s rules around such things.

To say Apple’s policies around this have been inconsistent would be an understatement, but it seems that Testut gave up years ago and launched his own AltStore instead. That was an awkward experience, but with it, he laid the groundwork for opening it as an alternative app marketplace under Apple’s more relaxed rules in the EU.

However, Nintendo fans outside of Europe may also soon be in luck, as Apple has officially added “retro game console emulator apps” to the list of things permitted on the App Store in its App Review Guidelines.

Apple announced the change this afternoon in an email update to developers, noting that it “Added games from retro game console emulator apps to the list of permitted software” in section 4.7.

While Section 4.7 used to apply only to HTML5-based games, with some other limits around them, it was revised significantly earlier this year as part of Apple’s about-face on cloud gaming services, adding allowances for mini apps, streaming games, chatbots, and plug-ins. However, other emulators were still left in limbo. With today’s update, they’re explicitly now on the list:

Apps may offer certain software that is not embedded in the binary, specifically HTML5 mini apps and mini games, streaming games, chatbots, and plug-ins. Additionally, retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games.

Apple still maintains that it will hold developers responsible for the software offered in their apps, but it’s unclear how it will enforce this or even what it means by “offered.” For example, emulators like Delta and iDOS let users download code from nearly anywhere, so they’re not technically “offering” this software in their apps.

Like Apple’s stance on cloud gaming services, this new policy applies to all developers globally, not just those in the European Union. Hopefully, Delta, iDOS, and others will soon make their official debuts on the App Store with Apple’s blessing.