After weeks of ad-riddled apps and bizarre delistings, RetroArch is finally on the App Store to handle all your retro emulation needs for free
May. 16, 2024Emulation is on iOS in a big way
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Apple confirmed that it would allow emulators for classic game consoles on the iOS App Store back in April, but early releases for the platform have often been riddled with ads and third-party trackers - when they haven’t been suddenly disappearing altogether. Now, emulator frontend RetroArch is on the platform, and it looks to be the perfect all-in-one solution to handle all your classic gaming needs.
“RetroArch is a free, ad-free, open source, and cross platform frontend/framework for emulators, game engines, video games, media players, and other applications,” as the devs themselves put it on theApp Store page. The program itself is not an emulator, but instead serves as an interface where you can download numerous emulators for various old platforms.
The list of supported emulators is, indeed, numerous. Emulators for heavy hitters like the NES, SNES, Mega Drive/Genesis, PlayStation, and N64 are all supported, alongside handhelds ranging from the Game Boy to the DS and PSP. You can also enjoy some less popular systems, ranging from the fairly notable (Neo Geo) to the downright obscure (Watara Supervision). Support cuts out just before the PS2 era, but that’s still decades of gaming history handled here.
RetroArch also supports features like save states, netplay, and even AI-driven translations for in-game text. It’s already a robust tool on other platforms, and it looks like many of those features are carrying over here. Itapparentlyeven has touch screen support for light gun games, which might just make it the ideal way to play everything from Duck Hunt to Virtua Cop on a modern display.
The first Nintendo emulator to land on the App Store and stick following an Apple rule change also plays DS, GBA, N64 games for free.
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