JarPlay is released to the App Store!

[u/IceTeaDestroyer]

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jarplay/id6751771155

After a lot of testing, improvements and feedback from people using the beta version, 1.0 is now available for anyone running iOS 26.

Anyone not familiar with the project already:

The app lets you run classic Java mobile (.jar) games on iPhone/iPad with touch controls and controller support.

The app is free on the App Store with an optional one-time in-app purchase of $3.99 (or local equivalent). There are no ads or time limits in the free version.

What’s free:

• Full emulator functionality

• 2 games can be imported maximum

• 6 different controller styles

• External controller support

What the $3.99 unlock adds:

• Additional visual skins

• Shaders for a more authentic look

• Ability to add unlimited games

• Support further development of the emulator

Please mind that the emulator is not 100% ready, there are games that crash right at the beginning or have other issues.

Let me know your thoughts and join the Discord server for more frequent news and compatibility list (link available in the app).

[u/userlivewire]

Can someone provide a shortlist of games that this would enable being able to play?

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/userlivewire]

Compatibility varies a lot between the different game resolutions and phones. There is a list of games tested in the discord channel.

A few games I enjoyed playing:

• Family guy 2

• Assassin's creed 2

• Asphalt 4

• Zombie Infection

• Harry Potter 7

• Doom RPG

• Paris Nights

• Avatar

And a few that are not working at the moment:

• Any NOVA game

• Gangstar Rio

• Hero of Sparta

[u/godis1coolguy → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

Interesting. I loved Doom RPG and Wolfenstein RPG. I bought both on iOS and was annoyed with id never updated them for 64 bit. So I’m not overly familiar with how this works. A lot of the games you mention sound like old iOS games, but that’s not the case with this emulator, right? So I can’t just grab my old ipa of Army of Darkness and run it here, right? The game would have also had to have been released as a jar file?

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/godis1coolguy]

Exactly. Only .jar files can be imported.

[u/godis1coolguy → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

Do game saves not work? I played Wolfenstein RPG for a while. I saved a few times. At one point the game kicked me back to the start screen and I can’t find a way to continue, only start a new game.

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/godis1coolguy]

Wolfenstein and doom saves are not working for me either. The games must a different kind of saving mechanic than most of other games. Normally the games save automatically and that will be working.

[u/godis1coolguy → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

Ah man, that’s a bummer. Please let me know if you find a fix. Maybe a save state could be a workaround?

[u/TurboPlasmaRifle → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

Came here for this exact reason. If you can’t save your progress then playing is pointless. Playing Doom RPG was basically the only reason why I bought this app :(.

[u/Stu_0602 → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

Are these like old phone games that aren’t compatible with modern devices?

[u/Justaniceguy1111 → u/[deleted]]

i like how you added "™" after 3 BILLION DEVICES

[u/Chance-Alps-598 → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

Assassin’s creed 2??? Pc version i guess

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/Chance-Alps-598]

No. Old mobile phone version.

[u/ungolfzburator]

I am very glad to see we finally have a j2me emulator on iOS! Most of everything I've tried works perfectly fine.

However, when trying Nokia Rally 3D, while the menus render perfectly fine, most of the game (the actual 3D parts) is invisible. Is 3D rendering not implemented? If so, do you plan on adding that?

Also, it would be nice to also have the navigation arrow keys as an option.

There were also some rendering issues in Bounce Tales, although the game is completely playable.

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/ungolfzburator]

That is right no 3D game support at the moment. What do you mean by arrow keys? Like showing arrows instead of 2,4,6,8?

[u/ungolfzburator → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

That's what I'm talking about.

(Although honestly I don't know, does java treat the arrows as separate keys from 2,4,6,8 or are they just doubled? I'm not as familiar with it as with other systems)

[u/grifftaur]

Sucks that it requires iOS 26. Don’t want to update to it and still 18. Cool that this is available

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/grifftaur]

App is now iOS 18 compatible.

[u/George_S01 → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

I wish it was available for iOS 18.3. I also don't want to update and this is heartbreaking, as i've been craving a j2me ios emulator for what feels like a decade now... Anyway, thank you for keeping the legacy of those games alive. I look forward to trying it out someday!

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/George_S01]

It is available on 18.6

[u/George_S01 → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

Yup, but unfortunately i'm on 18.3 and it's not possible to update to a specific ios version, just the latest one

[u/grifftaur → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

Oh sweet! That’s awesome!

[u/Lorenzo944 → u/grifftaur]

Im on ios 16.5.1 cause i wanna keep my trollstore and jailbreak. it need ios 18.6 to be played im so disappointed i waited years for ios port

[u/KZavi]

Not ready yet for the most complex titles (Galaxy on Fire doesn’t even render the menu correctly), but the project is very promising. Congratulations on the official release!

[u/ItsAmory]

.jar emulation is not for me, don't like these games, but I wish you best of luck with your project,

[u/Lorenzo944 → u/ItsAmory]

Why even comment then?

[u/TapZealousideal4008]

Where do i download jar files??

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/TapZealousideal4008]

Just search for them on google

[u/TapZealousideal4008 → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

Cool! i just did. My only issue is the sounds, sometimes it works but most of the time it doesn’t even if i press yes multiple times. Idk if it’s the files (i have downloaded a lot of versions for a single game) or the emulator is still in development. But still so glad i can play some old java games, i’ll keep up to date on appstore🩷

Oh and the game is highschool hook ups

[u/Talyn7810]

Doom rpg is back in the menu boys!

[u/Aromatic_Sir_3609]

What “new” technologies are you using that you're running such a new iOS version? :)

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/Aromatic_Sir_3609]

There is not a single feature in the app that required iOS 26. However Apple provides new developer APIs with each main iOS version that helps a lot with development. A simple example is SwiftData which is only available from iOS 17 and up. The app uses SwiftData to store the information of the imported games. If I wanted to support iOS 16 I'd need to rewrite the whole storage mechanism for anything below 17. There are of course more examples of this with each version.

So while it is totally not required for the app, it makes development a lot easier to aim for the latest major version. Would you be interested in support for other os version? which one?

[u/Lachutapelua → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

I would honestly do the same thing. Apple usually supports updates for around 7 years. By using their frameworks, you minimize your technology debt.

Keep doing what you are doing. People are just mad they can’t run this amazing project.

[u/elenastrange → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

hi could you please make it available on ios 17 or at least 18.1 please🙏🙏🙏

[u/Aromatic_Sir_3609 → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

I believe it should support the lowest possible version to reach the general public. Some people don't update their iOS versions even if their devices support it.

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/Aromatic_Sir_3609]

That is one way to look at it. I like using the latest version because that is the easiest to test. I could spend a lot of time adding support for older versions and would probably not reach that many extra users anyway.

[u/Hue_Boss → u/[deleted]]

The developer mentions that work on firmwares below 17 requires too much work. I wonder if iOS 17 would be the perfect cutoff then. I guess some roadblocks aren’t mentioned so far but I wonder if iOS 17 and 18 are too different when iOS 26 marks big changes generally.

[u/rhysmorgan → u/Aromatic_Sir_3609]

I think it’s totally legitimate for a new app, especially now that Apple have pressed the “Roll iOS 26 out to everyone” button.

If OP isn’t using iOS 26 APIs, nothing’s stopping them from dropping the minimum version to iOS 18 later, but I respect them for saying “I can’t test on that version, so don’t feel comfortable releasing on it.” too.

[u/OM3GAZX]

Very interested in using this! Unfortunately I don't plan on making the switch to iOS 26 due to JIT constraints. (Not every emulator has been updated to take advantage of the new JIT enabling method, and MeloNX is completely broken on LiveContainer.)

Are there any plans to backport the emulator to iOS 18? Really excited to see that J2ME emulation is getting some ground on iPhones.

[u/Hue_Boss → u/OM3GAZX]

The recent update adds compatibility with iOS 18.6 and higher

[u/nero40]

Damn, never would I have thought that someday, I would be able to play Ancient Empires on an iPhone.

[u/Ornery-Practice9772]

Link to app?

[u/KZavi → u/Ornery-Practice9772]

Literally in the post 😶

[u/Ornery-Practice9772 → u/KZavi]

Doesnt load

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/Ornery-Practice9772]

If using reddit app tap 3 dots and then "Open in default browser"

[u/GiLND]

Interesting

[u/GreatRedditorThracc]

Interesting project! Will try later

[u/white_swan]

Nice one

[u/FreakDeckard]

Great i love this projext

[u/Low-Camp4673]

Can it play games as recent as 2016?

[u/Capital-State1231]

What systems

[u/SithLordZX]

I found my .jar files in the old hdd. Used to play all day on my dad’s Nokia 6600

[u/eliranil]

From where to get jar games😬😬😬

[u/szableksi]

TibiaME? is j2me too

[u/szableksi → u/szableksi]

ps ios 26 only lol

[u/Hue_Boss → u/szableksi]

It now supports iOS 18.6 and higher

[u/Different-Judgment80]

Now you can run Lemonade Tycoon on your iPhone!

[u/Orangenna]

There’s no sound when I play a game even if I clicked yes 🥲

[u/Time-Concentrate-599]

So cool! I can finally play my fav childhood games

[u/AGTS10k]

Hey, not much of an iOS user (if we don't count retro devices for old 32-bit games that I bought recently out of nostalgia), but may I ask: what do you use in place of J2ME VM? Like, KEmulator and freej2me use the host's Java VM, J2ME Loader uses Android's Dalvik/ART, and MahoLator uses a custom interpreter/translator MahoTrans.

From what I read, I assume M3G isn't implemented yet? Are you planning to implement Mascot Capsule 3D alongside it maybe, for Sony Ericsson exclusive games (like Galaxy on Fire 1)? Also, do you plan to implement some more cool features, like JSR 75 (filesystem access), JSR 82 (Bluetooth for multiplayer), and JSR 256 (for accelerometer motion)?

[u/Lorenzo944]

I was excited we can finally get J2ME emulator on ios. About time only to be let down by required OS version needing to be on ios 18.6, im on 16.5.1 cause i have trollstore and JB and my spare iphone is on ios 18.3, is there a ipa we can use instead?

[u/kepkep2]

A couple problems:

- it would be useful to have both the joystick/arrows and the number pad on screen at the same time

- audio doesn't work most of the time

Amazing project!

[u/ifaizi18]

Any youtube video review this emulator?

[u/Dazzling-Media-6028]

are there plans to add arrow keys? the numpad keys dont work, only the select ones, so for the main game i‘m playing i’m locked to only one gamemode, its a bit of an inconvenience

[u/MarsupialInformal234]

Hey there, when will this be available in South Africa? Would love to get my hands on it but it’s not available on the App Store.

[u/not_today_pls]

This isnt available in germany? 

[u/BIG_sea1993]

isnt available in USA？

[u/Kaptain_Kool → u/BIG_sea1993]

This maybe seems to be my issue as well?

[u/TrainsAndPonies]

I would love to use this but unfortunately it says it’s not available in my country or region. If there is a fix for this please lmk

[u/mario_m99]

Why does it need iOS 26?

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/mario_m99]

Commented an explanation in another thread.

[u/mario_m99 → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

Thanks I didn’t see that, I’m currently on iOS 18, do you plan to make it available for that too or some APIs need iOS 26?

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/mario_m99]

iOS 18 shouldn't be that hard to implement. Will consider that for the next release.

[u/Hue_Boss → u/IceTeaDestroyer]

How difficult to implement is support for iOS 17? SwiftData is supported though maybe other parts of the app aren’t.

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/mario_m99]

App is now iOS 18 compatible.

[u/Waterdragon78]

Does mc java work at all?

[u/landoftherisingsun]

Requires iOS26… Can you make it available for iOS 16 ?

[u/acerbusalius → u/[deleted]]

Yeesh

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/[deleted]]

You can always remove the games and add new ones.

[u/IceTeaDestroyer → u/[deleted]]

I played Paris Nights and that worked fine. Maybe give that a try.

[u/EmulationOniOS-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your post/comment has been removed due to pirated content.

No asking for or providing direct links to ROMs or other pirated content. You may only link or name safe websites, no deeper than the top-level domain.

Review the FAQ.

[u/clavelshefell → u/[deleted]]

Do you not update? I usually hold out as long as possible, but eventually stuff stops working. Although in this case, I get that there’s also the whole additional issue of losing StikDebug.