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Atari iPhone app?


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Hello together!

 

What about an Atari iPhone app?

 

Maybe we can crowd funding this?

 

I would donate $30....

 

What do you think?

 

Can't a university in California (computer department?) make a call for a master thesis to write an emulator as an app for the iPhone?

 

Would be cool to read in all those atr-images and play the old games...

 

Just loud thinking as always...

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There are plenty of starting points out there now, such as

http://atari800.sourceforge.net

 

The main barrier seems to be a lack of interest. You'll need someone to port these tools out of love, not money. There's no Odyssey 2 emulator for modern mobile devices, either. Android has a few Atari emulators in the Play Store.

 

Apple's Xcode development software is now free for all to use, and if you compile your own binaries, you don't need to get into the App Store.

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That looks great, of course, but:

 

...you need a jailbroken iOS device...

 

That way, I don't want to go...

I agree with you, better to keep your device jailed. You don't need to jailbreak to run a DOS emulator (and an Atari emulator inside of that).

 

Option 1: If you're not on iOS 9 yet, grab iDOS 2 from the app store for a dollar or two. It's the same emulator core as the litchie stuff referenced in the guide above. It works great up through iOS 8.6, but needs a compatibility update for 9. Apple has approved it multiple times so I suspect it will stick around. It uses iTunes File Sharing to move files around. You'll want to use a computer utility like iFunBox to make it easier.

 

Option 2: Try the Build Store, which uses enterprise certificates to allow you to install unsigned software. These apps remain jailed which means the security of your device should not be compromised. I thought long and hard about doing this and ended up going for it. It's ten dollars per device per year, and they have a bunch of things ready to install, including a wonderful GBA emulator GBA4iOS, and a multi-system emulator called Provenance which can run NES, SMS, GG, SNES, and Genesis games. There's an older version of iDOS you can install this way.

 

Note that option 2 is basically outsourcing the hard work of using XCode yourself to compile, sign, and deploy your own apps from source (which you can snag from github and similar repositories). You can still do this if you have some time on your hands, but builds.io is way easier.

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Apple has changed it so you can load binaries you compile yourself onto your iOS devices without paying $100 a year. So now it would just take someone to port Atari800. If Phareon is willing, you could license the OS and Basic from Altirra to bypass any legal issues.

 

I'd be will to throw a few bucks toward this project, but like Flojomojo said above, you'd need to find someone to do it for love, not money. :-)

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I think they specifically called out emulators in an older version of the guidelines. Now, at https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/it says,

 

"Apps that install or launch other executable code will be rejected"

 

There's not much more executable you can get than an .EXE file in DOS, but given the age of that operating system, the fact that it's double-sandboxed (both in DOSbox and in the iOS app), and that its so easy to legitimately get this stuff from places like GOG, I'm glad they're allowing iDOS 2 in.

 

It's a very different situation from allowing a Nintendo emulator.

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I think they specifically called out emulators in an older version of the guidelines. Now, at https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/it says,

 

"Apps that install or launch other executable code will be rejected"

 

There's not much more executable you can get than an .EXE file in DOS, but given the age of that operating system, the fact that it's double-sandboxed (both in DOSbox and in the iOS app), and that its so easy to legitimately get this stuff from places like GOG, I'm glad they're allowing iDOS 2 in.

 

It's a very different situation from allowing a Nintendo emulator.

 

 

What's the definition of executable code? :-)

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Please write up your experience and impressions here!

 

Everyone who complains about touch interfaces aren't a good fit for this kind of program are completely correct. That said, my iPhone is by far my favorite computer ever, so anything that expands its capabilities, even in a useless way like running ancient games, is a huge source of satisfaction for me.

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