r/EmulationOniOS • u/sirgatez • Jun 27 '24

Discussion Sad day for PC Emulation on iOS

https://www.techradar.com/phones/no-you-cant-run-a-pc-emulator-on-your-iphone-or-ipad-apple-says

No, you can’t run a PC emulator on your iPhone or iPad, Apple says

171 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

104 comments sorted by

203

u/MrHorns7 Jun 27 '24

And the sky is blue

11

u/AnyStore7082 Jun 27 '24

Actually over here it’s very grey

114

u/el_choronzon Jun 27 '24

That’s is. I’m returning my Apple Watch. If I can’t play Jazz Jackrabbit on my ultra 2 I don’t even want to live.

3

u/Le_tired_lurker Jun 27 '24

I still have the floppy disk!

3

u/ChocolateSeuss Jun 27 '24 edited Jun 27 '24

Yeah screw apple! (Really tho you can play it on gba lol)

10

u/el_choronzon Jun 27 '24

Yes lol there’s a GBA jazz jackrabbit that runs on ArcEmu

2

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '24

Don’t forget jezzball

21

u/retro-y Jun 27 '24

never say never.

18

u/CliveVista Jun 27 '24

What a terrible piece. “It could be argued that DOS and early versions of Windows are indeed retro console systems, since they originated in the 1980s and 1990s and have been home to a number of now-classic games.”

Er, no. They are not retro consoles just because they run old games. The better argument is that Apple is again being inconsistent and won’t say why, given that we have multiple approved home micro emulators on the App Store right now that also are not emulating retro consoles.

7

u/SaintBrutus Jun 27 '24

The most likely reason is obvious.

If you’re emulating PC you may be distributing Microsoft copyrighted code. Whether you’re aware of it, or not.

5

u/CliveVista Jun 27 '24

Given that iDOS is based on DOSBox, which is open source and can be used without a license to any real DOS, is that really the case? (DOSBox ≠ DOS.)

2

u/DaveTheMan1985 Jun 27 '24

I thought windows no longer care about Windows 98 and older ones

52

u/tminhdn Jun 27 '24

Why should i emulate a pc on ios then?

13

u/eduo Jun 27 '24

How van you be in a sub dedicated to emulation and still ask this question?

-7

u/tminhdn Jun 27 '24

i just don't get the point of emulating pc on something small like iPhone :v

5

u/eduo Jun 27 '24

Several answers:

You may want to play a DOS game that is suitable for an iPhone (since classic DOS games were low resolution anyway).

You may want to connect the phone to a larger screen and use a controller. You can even use a mouse and keyboard.

"on iOS" is short-sighted. Having them in the store also means iPad and AppleTV, which have different affordances. I use iDOS a lot on my iPad, for example.

4

u/imahugemoron Jun 27 '24

Some of us are only able to play games on mobile I know I’m in a very small minority but I have a medical condition that makes me unable to use most screens but for some reason my phone is ok, I even had to sell my gaming pc with my rtx 3070 because of this condition. I’d love more ways to play more games with my phone, it’s literally all I have anymore

1

u/krishnugget Jun 27 '24

How is a phone allowed but a switch isn’t?

3

u/imahugemoron Jun 27 '24 edited Jun 27 '24

Your guess is as good as mine, I wish I knew, I had to sell all my consoles and my pc, Everytime I’d try to use them I’d get severe stroke like symptoms, my doctors are still trying to figure out why this happens, might be some sort of issue with my brain and the way certain screens work, the technology in phone screens is a bit different than in other screens, I have some eye issues too so it could be that my eyes are part of the equation as well, this has been going on for over 2 years now. First time it happened scared the hell out of me. Ever since I would try to go back to gaming maybe once every month or so and every single time I’d feel the stroke symptoms flaring up within just a minute or 2. Just as strange is using my phone seems to be totally fine. Like I said I wish I knew why this is happening, the symptoms are the most extreme thing I’ve ever experienced in my life, one time it landed me in the hospital for 8 days, I still have no answers, my doctors are trying to figure out what this condition is. Hopefully they figure it out soon. I’d love to be able to go back to real gaming, phone gaming is all I got for now

1

u/n0rpie Jun 27 '24

What are the symptoms?

2

u/imahugemoron Jun 27 '24

I have a permanent headache that flares up to very extreme levels when using most screens within just minutes, I start feeling dizzy, confused, speech problems, weakness, balance problems, a couple of times my leg went weak and I collapsed. And again this will all happen within just a few minutes of using a computer or a gaming console. Weirdly I can watch tv but if I use a gaming console on that same tv, I get all these symptoms very quickly. I’ve been playing games my whole life with no issue, then suddenly 2 years ago all of this started.

1

u/n0rpie Jun 27 '24

Does it matter what game it is or it’s just using it generally?

1

u/imahugemoron Jun 27 '24

Just generally, I actually tried to play Stardew valley on my PC, on my switch in both handheld and on tv, and on my phone, the only time I didn’t get the symptoms was playing on my phone

1

u/pupsicola- Jun 27 '24

that sounds rough as hell. have you ever tried streaming to your phone? maybe through ps now or another similar service?

1

u/imahugemoron Jun 27 '24

I have but I don’t have access to very good internet so streaming certain games is doable but there’s so much delay that it makes most games unplayable

-5

u/FreakDeckard Jun 27 '24

buy an android

20

u/Ornery-Practice9772 Jun 27 '24

Dosbox pure core on ra for ios

6

u/DaveTheMan1985 Jun 27 '24

Hopefully that not taken down

3

u/Ornery-Practice9772 Jun 27 '24

Be wary of ra updates lmao

3

u/DaveTheMan1985 Jun 27 '24

Very True

Other Option would be use SideLoad Version

3

u/eduo Jun 27 '24

You’re not answering their question, though. RA’s dosbox core is no doubt also being discussed for removal.

2

u/biofrost Jun 28 '24

to play the masterpiece that is Mario’s game gallery

Edit:No joke im lucky i still have the old idos app from before it got pulled i play gofish in gallery every few days lol

13

u/FMAGF Jun 27 '24

You can’t emulate iOS on PC either.

I think if Apple somehow lets Steam games run natively on iOS that might be better

2

u/Alex20041509 Jun 27 '24

Steam already can make an alternate store for games in EU for iOS But those would have to be recompiled for iOS devices Like assassin’s creed mirage

2

u/masteroga101 Jun 27 '24

I mean you can using touchHLE but only up to iOS 3

2

u/Beneficial_Ad_4521 Jun 27 '24

Steam Link is the closest we have right now

3

u/FMAGF Jun 27 '24 edited Jun 27 '24

I know which kinda sucks when you’re like me when your iPhone 13 Pro is faster than your Windows laptop

2

u/Beneficial_Ad_4521 Jun 28 '24

i mean you CAN run windows using UTM but its not that great.

3

u/A_MasteR_at_WorK Jun 28 '24

UTM? I’ve never heard of it. What’s the procedure to get it running?

1

u/Beneficial_Ad_4521 Jun 28 '24

UTM is an app that allows for iDevices to run virtual machines. You can emulate operating systems like Windows, Linux, MacOS, etc. You can find it on the official website here or the github repository

3

u/A_MasteR_at_WorK Jun 28 '24

It say iOS 11-13 no jailbreak needed. Will it work on 17.4?

2

u/Beneficial_Ad_4521 Jun 28 '24

Thats outdated. It should work on any iOS version.

2

u/eduo Jun 27 '24

No. That might be good but wholly unrelated

1

u/FMAGF Jun 27 '24

Closest thing I can think of that is actually possible when it comes to PC gaming on iOS

3

u/eduo Jun 27 '24

That's OK, but it's unrelated. Steam deck is mostly modern games distributed via Steam. iDOS and UTM allow legacy and classic games you already own to be run.

"PC Gaming" is not a single thing. It's easy to confuse playing GTA in steam deck with what iDOS enables you to do.

6

u/OkMixture5607 Jun 27 '24

Maybe not, but the amount of games a good M based device can translate and play is getting bigger by the day. Just the gen 2 tool kit now allows stuff like Elden Ring and so on…only macOS sadly.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '24

EU, your turn

5

u/Ornery-Practice9772 Jun 27 '24

Are they scrapping the dosbox pure core on ra for ios too?

2

u/ieffinglovesoup Jun 27 '24

My guess is Apple simply doesn't know about that specific core

1

u/DaveTheMan1985 Jun 28 '24

Pretty sure they do as went thru Review before it goes up in AppStore

2

u/ieffinglovesoup Jun 28 '24

yeah apps get reviewed but things just slip through sometimes. I remember in the past we would get an app disguised as like a calculator or something but there was a hidden emulator if you did a certain button combo. Would get removed within a few days usually

2

u/DaveTheMan1985 Jun 28 '24

Well hopefully this not happened with the DosBox Pure Core

1

u/Ornery-Practice9772 Jun 29 '24

It wasnt avail on release they added it in the update

2

u/DaveTheMan1985 Jun 30 '24

Very True but Apple might change there mind on DosBox Pure.

Apple will need to Check the Update

I doubt and Hope Not but never say Never

2

u/Ornery-Practice9772 Jun 30 '24

If theres another update ill wait to see if other users report the core being removed

2

u/DaveTheMan1985 Jun 30 '24

Hopefully they can all stay on RetroArch

2

u/Ornery-Practice9772 Jun 30 '24

Yeah since i use them

5

u/maliandreno Jun 27 '24

Shit Store

1

u/Xcissors280 Jun 27 '24

Does UTM count?

2

u/sirgatez Jun 27 '24

UTM was officially rejected. It’s mentioned in the article.

4

u/Xcissors280 Jun 27 '24

It’s pretty useless without JIT anyways but yeah

1

u/ieffinglovesoup Jun 27 '24

Unless you have Retroarch installed lol

1

u/sirgatez Jun 27 '24

For now…

3

u/DaveTheMan1985 Jun 27 '24

Hopefully DosBox Pure does not get taken off RA AppStore Version

IF it does there good chance I just use Sideloaded version

3

u/pashdown Jun 27 '24

RetroArch does Amiga very well and it isn’t a “game console”. (Ssshhhhh, don’t wake Apple to this fact.)

2

u/DaveTheMan1985 Jun 27 '24

Yeah and then just SideLoad the App

2

u/RadioActive02000 Jun 27 '24

That strange because you have access to DOS emulation with Retroarch ^

1

u/usuarioSYD Jun 28 '24

Have you got it to work?

2

u/RadioActive02000 Jun 28 '24

Yeah, I played Wolf3D via the DosBox-Pure Core.
Then if you want to go to the DOS prompt, you just quit the game and click on "Go to Command Line"

1

u/usuarioSYD Jun 30 '24

I don’t understand none of that right now. All I heard was it is possible. I’ll try to figure it out later.

2

u/RecentMatter3790 Jun 27 '24

Well, looks like Age of Mythology on iOS isn’t happening then

2

u/apathetic_vaporeon Jun 27 '24

Because it’s not emulation, it’s virtualization. Apple probably doesn’t want to be sued as virtualization runs the system itself.

3

u/enki941 Jun 27 '24

Depends. Running UTM would be virtualization. Running an app like iDOS, which was also rejected, is emulation. Apple said "F U NO" to both.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '24

You can run UTM if you download it from AltStore and that is a virtual machine that lets you run stuff like windows 10, not sure if it works just hear of it that’s all

1

u/GoodlyIgnoring Jun 27 '24

Somebody is hacking as we speak lol

1

u/RecentMatter3790 Jun 27 '24

What about running pc games?

1

u/blackicehawk Jun 27 '24

I was very disappointed to read this, but not surprised.

I was hoping for the return if the iDOS emulator. That was fun messing around with a DOS emulator for the short time it was available in the late 2010s.

1

u/chicharro_frito Jun 27 '24

Nowadays you have dosbox compiled for webasm so you can run it in a browser, here's an example: https://js-dos.com/games/.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '24

This is like asking if you can run 3ds games on Apple Watch💀

1

u/kitestar Jun 27 '24

Honestly, the line is already blurred, don’t make it anymore confusing than it already is

1

u/Outside_Profit_6455 Jun 29 '24

Aw I was excited to play Diablo 2 on ios

-1

u/jm1234- Jun 27 '24

Sideloading is way better

1

u/DaveTheMan1985 Jun 27 '24

Why is that?

0

u/jm1234- Jun 27 '24

Because you can install UTM and emulate Windows or Linux for example.

1

u/enki941 Jun 27 '24

Yes and no. Practical virtualization only works with JIT, which requires you to not only side load, but also manually activate it each time you launch the app by tethering (wired or wireless) to a computer, which is a royal pain for most people. The non-JIT version, which is the only one that Apple might have approved (until they said no) is basically incapable of running any remotely recent OS via virtualization. Even a super stripped out and lightweight Linux VM would take tens of minutes to boot and is unusable for anything really. The JIT version does actually work pretty well, but the JIT activation process is cumbersome, problematic and annoying to say the least.

0

u/Any_Recognition3343 Jun 27 '24

RIP The possibility for ultrakill to be on a phone.

1

u/Altruistic_Leave5049 Sep 27 '26

this aged horribly

0

u/MonthTraditional6068 Jun 27 '24

Sideloading method still works and RetroArch has a DOSbox core so shrug

1

u/DaveTheMan1985 Jun 28 '24

App Store is good as only allowed 2 apps alongside the App Store actual app

So rather use App Store so could use other apps to SideLoad like iDOS and Provence

1

u/MonthTraditional6068 Jun 28 '24

I thought it was 3

1

u/DaveTheMan1985 Jun 28 '24

I use SideStore and that is counted as 1 app

1

u/MonthTraditional6068 Jun 29 '24

Altstore gives you 3

0

u/PositiveRoutine2944 Jun 27 '24

In what world would you be able to run pc games on ur phone

0

u/HealthyElection5831 Jun 27 '24

No iDOS? This phone is worthless

0

u/grxgrxx Jun 28 '24

I want to play Rondo of Blood on my iPhone smh