The free Delta game emulator for iPhones is live on Apple’s App Store

Submitted ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨brie@beehaw.org⁩ to ⁨technology@beehaw.org⁩

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/17/24132984/delta-free-emulator-nintendo-gba-n64-iphone-app-store-us

Caveat: It isn’t available in the app store in the EU, and is instead only available via the developer’s marketplace, AltStore¹. As far as I can tell, this genuinely isn’t because of greed, but because of a little detail in Apple’s EU rules (possibly wrong):

[…] Developers can choose to remain on the App Store’s current business terms or adopt the new business terms for iOS apps in the EU.

Developers operating under the new business terms for EU apps will have the option to distribute their iOS apps in the EU via the App Store, Web Distribution, and/or alternative app marketplaces. […] Developers who achieve exceptional scale on iOS, with apps that have over one million first annual installs in the past 12 months in the EU, will pay a Core Technology Fee. ²

The problem being, if you’re under the old terms, there is no “Core Technology Fee.” However, in order to distribute on another marketplace, you must opt into the new terms, meaning you now have to pay the fee even on apps that are distributed on Apple’s app store. Thus, if you distribute on the iOS app store in the EU for free, and lets say it gets 2 million installs, you get 1 million installs free… and you now owe Apple half a million dollars.

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Comments

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MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Need an “emulator”(sandbox really) for old IOS apps. All the best games I ever played on IOS, games I paid for, were retired from the app store and replaced with substandard, ad/subscription based knockoffs, years ago.

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- LiveLM@lemmy.zip ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Unfortunately the only functional iOS emulator for games I’ve ever seen is TouchHLE, though that’s only for PCs and rather experimental at the moment.
  
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  - vox@sopuli.xyz ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    it also supports android and works really well
    
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- WolfLink@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I would love to play Infinity Blade again
  
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- vox@sopuli.xyz ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  touchhle!
  
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PoliticallyIncorrect@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Can’t understand why people use such a closed platform as apple ecosystem.

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- astraeus@programming.dev ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Because it works. I don’t have to figure out what (A01839: Device error has occurred.) means or weird Android nonsense all the time. If I wanted a constant project I already have plenty with work and actual things I enjoy wasting my time on. If it’s my computer I can mess around, if it’s my phone it’s just a pain in the ass. Even Samsungs can get weird like that sometimes, although the lower quality and price Android phones are the worst for it.
  
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  - SuperSpecialNickname@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    This isn’t 2010 with Android Froyo where you need two manager to kill apps. And lower quality? All this comment needs is something about camera quality and we have a bingo.
    
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- DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  After 10 years on Android, I just switched back. Because I admire Apple’s commitment to privacy, and simply don’t trust Google any more.
  
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  - DdCno1@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah, about that:
    
    www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/…/581680/
    
    theguardian.com/…/apple-user-data-law-enforcement…
    
    www.theregister.com/…/apple_apps_privacy_study/
    
    The correct choice would have been a custom ROM for an Android smartphone, without any Google apps and services.
    
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  - WeLoveCastingSpellz@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    apple is as bad as googlethey are just lessopen about it.😬
    
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YuzuDrink@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The fact that popular free apps in the EU are subject to fees unless they come up with their own app store is bullshit and clearly Apple trying to punish developers over there. Like, “if you don’t want to owe us money, then make it so the only people who can find your app are those who already know about it”?

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- brie@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  It’s more the other way around. Both distribution on the App Store and through third parties will incur the fee. However, if you don’t distribute on third parties, you can stay under Apple’s old terms, avoiding the fee. It’s a way of monetarily punishing third party app distribution.
  
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- bwhough@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That’s… not what’s happening at all. Developers of apps in the EU can keep the same old terms, the same terms they’ve always had any the US still has. They have to opt-in to the new terms, which incurs the CTF. Its not mandatory.
  
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autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

Click here to see the summary
The app marks the first significant and officially sanctioned game emulator for the iPhone since Apple began allowing them, with wide-ranging console emulation from the original Nintendo Entertainment System to the Nintendo 64 (and even the Sega Genesis, for when you want to play those games that Nintendon’t). Delta developer Riley Testut told The Verge via email that the app is identical to the version debuting with AltStore PAL. The app features on-screen buttons that change their layout and appearance to match whatever system you’re emulating. It supports Bluetooth controllers like Xbox One Series S or PS5 controllers, too, and the app lets you customize their layout or set extra buttons for things like quick save states (essentially letting you pause a game whenever you want and load it up from that point later) or fast-forward through an old-school game’s all-too-often unskippable cutscenes or endless stream of startup logos. Both were short-lived, though, with Apple taking down iGBA over spam and copyright App Store rule violations and Bimmy’s developer getting cold feet in light of Nintendo’s recent crackdown on emulators. That means the app has already been through five years of feature and bug-fixing iterations, so it will likely be one of the most polished emulation experiences on the iPhone for a while. — Saved 50% of original text.

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