from Hacker News

High-level emulator for iPhone OS apps

by bexsella on 11/2/23, 12:39 AM with 59 comments

  • by callalex on 11/2/23, 1:58 AM

    Almost every program that I bought on the Steam store in 2009 runs flawlessly today on the latest Windows version, and even on new Linux distros that couldn’t have even been imagined in 2009.

    Exactly zero software that I purchased on the App Store since 2009 still functions at all, on the exact same platform. What a pathetic showing by Apple.

  • by ianlevesque on 11/2/23, 1:47 AM

    Very interesting. The "why" context seems to be buried in an issue comment https://github.com/hikari-no-yume/touchHLE/issues/181#issuec... and I guess the purpose is to emulate old iOS games, from the early Cambrian explosion of ideas at the start of the App Store. This is also an era I am nostalgic for, with lots of new concepts, art pieces, and indie games, before anyone knew how to sustainably monetize, for better or worse. For example, Distant Shore is definitely a relic from a simpler time! https://johnnybgamer.com/2009/08/13/distant-shore/

  • by hoherd on 11/2/23, 1:51 AM

    > The goal of this project is to run games from the early days of iOS

    This is exciting! There are a bunch of great iOS and iPadOS games that no longer work that my kids and I would love to play again! It's disappointing that Apple can do things like Rosetta but didn't work hard enough on keeping compatibility with old iOS versions.

  • by tech234a on 11/2/23, 3:35 AM

    The developers have begun asking for permission to legally redistribute some apps that are compatible with this emulator: https://touchhle.org/app-archive/

  • by LegNeato on 11/2/23, 2:36 AM

    This is what osmeta did (bought by Facebook). I believe it shipped in whatsapp and messenger (see https://twitter.com/steipete/status/1007428817579859969, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11599617) but later fell out of favor and was replaced with react native and pure native rewrites.

  • by lukeh on 11/2/23, 4:43 AM

    Wow, whatever is going on (macros?) to write ObjC class implementations in Rust with a hybrid syntax is very, very clever.

  • by mkolassa on 11/2/23, 3:30 AM

    Defender Chronicles, ChainRxn, Zombie Wars 2, etc.

    Maybe even all the games I purchased before they were updated to include all the IAP’s.

    I am so looking forward to the possibilities.

  • by qingcharles on 11/2/23, 5:03 AM

    This is a good community for finding old iPhone apps and games:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/LegacyJailbreak/

  • by flykespice on 11/2/23, 3:32 AM

    The only one game I'm looking forward to play on this emulator is the long forgotten Bioshock 1 port