MAME for non-jailbroken iOS

[+SpiceWare]

Somehow I missed this - last year Apple made some changes and now offers Free Apple Developer Accounts. While the free account doesn't have all the features of the $99 a year account, such as you won't be able to distribute software via the App Store, it does allow you to install software you compiled yourself onto your own iOS devices. This post over at iDownloadBlog shows how to sign up.

 

Over here you can find the source code for iMame4All, a version of MAME that works on non-jailbroken iOS devices. Les Bird, the maintainer, recently posted an update which fixes some issues with the latest version of Xcode.

 

I have a paid developer account and had installed a prior version of iMame4All on my old iPad Air - it worked quite will. That build didn't like my iPad Pro though, and by then I couldn't compile a new version due to the new version of Xcode. I'm hopeful that whatever Les Bird fixed will allow it to work on it - I'll followup this weekend.

 

NOTE: Xcode only runs on a Mac, so if you don't have one this won't be of use to you.

[+SpiceWare]

It's up and running on my iPad Pro:

 

 

 

 

There are some issues though - iMame4All locks up if I try to access the HELP, FILTER or OPTIONS from the pop-up menu. If I try to access DONATE or WIIMOTE the app crashs (returns to the homescreen). EXIT GAME works though, so I can return to the list of games and run something else.

 

There's a different issue when run on my iPhone 6S Plus - the game's don't show up:

 

 

I've contact Les Bird, hopefully we can figure out why iMame4All isn't working quite right with the latest iOS devices.

[mckafka99]

Don't know if this info is of any use but the version of iMame4all that made it onto the App Store long ago for a short while before getting pulled works on on my iPhone 6+ running iOS 8.2 just fine.

[+SpiceWare]

Thanks! I used to run that version as well, don't have it installed anymore. I've been compiling it myself as the newer version supports MFi controllers - I like them better than the iCade controllers, especially for games like Robotron which work very well with the 2 analog sticks.

 

I suspect part of the problem is something changed with iOS 9.2.

 

Heard back from Les, he was aware of the Options screen lockup and plans to spend some time on it soon. Hopefully it's not difficult to track down the problem and fix it. I'll keep monitoring his site and post a followup.

[+SpiceWare]

There's a different issue when run on my iPhone 6S Plus - the game's don't show up:

Discovered last night that the game list does show up if I launch iMame4All while the phone's in landscape mode:

 

 

Once the list shows up, I can turn it back to portrait mode and it works as expected:

 

 

Well mostly as expected. The onscreen joystick come back, it shouldn't as I have a iCade 8-bitty paired with my iPhone. Also neither orientation uses the full screen - the image is shifted to the left in landscape mode or up in portrait mode.

[goldenegg]

I'm glad to hear Les is looking in to the options screen issue. I've been meaning to e-mail him about it, but hadn't got around to it yet.

[lesbird]

Hey guys, I've retired the old iMAME4all Xcode project and created an all new Xcode project based on the MAME 0.37b5 source code which means it's fully compatible with the MAME4all ROMs. It's full 64-bit compliant and works on all iOS and tvOS devices. You can download the Xcode project from GitHub. Works with iOS 10 and Xcode 8.

 

MAME4apple Xcode Project

 

- Les

[Flojomojo]

I found that my free developer certificate expired too quickly for this to be useful for me ... I just pay $10/year to the Build Store so they can deal with the hassles for me. They have an old MAME build there that works fine though a little letterboxed on modern phones, I believe. http://builds.io/

[RoxburySoftware]

Les, are there any instructions for relative newbies like me in how to compile and load this on an iPAD? Thank you by the way, from the screenshots I see I can't wait to load this up. I really wasn't interested in Jailbreaking or paying $100 to Apple just to play these games.

[toddtmw]

Is there a reason that someone couldn't post the compiled version so we could load it (I know we would have to have a developer account to actually load it, but when you compile it, does it tag it to the developer?)

[Flojomojo]

Is there a reason that someone couldn't post the compiled version so we could load it (I know we would have to have a developer account to actually load it, but when you compile it, does it tag it to the developer?)

Yes, that's how you sign your certificate. It's easy to download these projects from GitHub and compile them with Xcode.

 

And way easier to just pay for someone with a developer cert to pre-roll them for you, like I suggested a few posts back. There are others who will perform this service, too.

 

I'm coming around to the idea that this stuff is nicer to emulate on other platforms, though.