Apple has never shown favor to emulators in its App Store (with the exception of examples like the Commodore 64 app), so it’s surprising to see iMAME available in the App Store for free right now. iMAME allows you to run thousands of classic arcade titles if you’re lucky enough to have the original ROMs.
The emulator app includes 9 less-than-popular arcade games to run, but the possibilities are pretty endless if you know what you’re doing.
It seems that you can sideload a ROM .zip file to iMAME with a tool like iExplorer. No jailbreak is required. Mario on the iPhone, anyone?
Apple’s review team has let several questionable apps into the App Store as of late (iTether and QuickPick, for example). It will be interesting to see if these types of Apple Store slips continue to become more frequent.
So, what are you waiting for? Get iMAME before it’s gone!
(via TouchArcade)
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
12 responses to “iMAME Retro Arcade Emulator Appears In The App Store, Get It While You Can!”
Good idea, bad execution. Why didn’t they just use the Documents folder access via iTunes? Why do I need a tool like iExplorer :(
Annnnnnddd…. It’s gone.
Any chance of this playing Gameboy roms?
I have an arcade emulator for my pc and it basically freezes when i try
to load the machines up.
All good things never do last….
It is still available if you get it through the Top Charts list!
Free versions usually won’t last… but it’s still good news to those looking for free version.
http://electriciansinsydney.ne…
Still available in Australia
With iExplorer, there are lots of zip in the app. But only a few are playable, don’t know why. Tried to load a zip in the same folder, no luck.
Cause most of the things you want to load are actually illegal?
Still available in the UK, and I just played Mappy and 720 on my phone!
Add your own roms here step by step: http://www.techmamba.com/2011/…