I’ve been using retro gaming emulators as far back as 1999, and it may not surprise you to know that, long ago, I also jailbroke my iPhone back in 2010 to see how an emulator fared on Apple’s smartphone.
Jailbreaking has been around since the iPhone launched in 2007. Exploits found in the code of iOS, then iPhoneOS, allow unauthorized stores like Cydia to let you download themes, games, emulators, and more.
The emulator in question was SNES4iPhone, an app miming the Super Nintendo console from the mid-90s. Due to the power that the A4 chip brought to the iPhone 4 back in 2010, I was able to play plenty of games with no issues. This emulator was created by Benjamin Stark, commonly known in the iPhone community as ZodTTD.
In April, Apple changed its rules to allow retro gaming emulators on the App Store. Soon after, Stark released Gamma, a PlayStation emulator, in May. Since then, there have been plenty of updates, such as multiplayer support, cheats, improved cover art for games, and lots more.
To mark the latest release of Gamma to the App Store this week (July 16), iMore spoke with Stark about his history as well as the making of Gamma.
From Jailbreak to Gamma
As mentioned, Stark was prolific in the iPhone jailbreaking community, but his history in programming goes back even further. “Just before the iPhone and iPod Touch were released, I was reminiscing with a friend of the good ole' days when we'd go to a bowling alley. We'd hang out near an arcade machine of the game Buster Bros. Then one week I wasn't able to leave my place and the Internet was out; So to cheer me up, my friend brought me a PlayStation emulator and the CD for Buster Bros Collection. Except he brought me the source code to the emulator, not the application to run,” Stark explains.
“I had a Tapwave Zodiac PalmOS gaming handheld and a compiler for it. That night, I got Buster Bros showing up on the device. The other application I ported to it was Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe, hence my handle being ZodTTD. However, the emulator ran horribly slow on the device. So I quickly picked up an ARM assembly guide and programmed the first ARM dynamic recompiler for the console. Bringing SNES4iPhone to iPhone made it the first big hit for Apple, driving the need to jailbreak the phone as there was no App Store back then. This brought me incredible success which I am still grateful for.”
Since Apple allowed retro-gaming emulators onto the App Store in April, we’ve seen plenty of emulators released. Delta, RetroArch, and PPSSPP have been huge successes so far. When Stark saw Apple’s change of heart in April, he had a one-word reaction. “Finally.” He continues: “There was the irony of Apple taking 15 years to allow the apps that built its platform in the first place. For those who were involved in Apple's revolution of what a smartphone could be, know the iPhone had great hardware but lacked built-in apps from its main competitor back then, PocketPCs, driven by Microsoft. Back in 2007, Apple had no App Store. It had things like a Notepad and a Calculator, but no fun games! It was my emulators and software that brought massive traffic to Apple's new device, to the tune of over a million downloads a day,” Stark reveals. “So much so that apps were being created to help distribute my software such as Cydia, putting energy into the emerging jailbreak community. That community built the foundation of what later became Apple's App Store, driving the company to new levels of success.”
Gamma was made available for free in May for iPhone and iPad users. Since then, there have been plenty of updates, such as better management of games that had multiple disks, cheat support, and more. Stark reflects on why he chose to focus on Sony’s PlayStation console, instead of bringing his previous efforts to the App Store. ”It became a passion project of mine to finally see my PlayStation emulator of the original iPhone 15 years ago realized on the App Store. I took a considerable financial hit by passing up valuable contract work in order to accomplish Gamma, and it was well worth it to me.”
Stark was also quick to mention the support he had during Gamma’s development. “I want to say the support of Diana Toledo helped me make sure Gamma could exist. She encouraged me to create Gamma and stick to it. The care and support during such rapid development from Apple's announcement to Gamma's launch. She'd dive into plenty to help me make sure I was on the right track until its release.”
Of course, developing an app for jailbroken iPhone devices can differ from developing one for the App Store. You can use certain programming frameworks that aren’t allowed by Apple for example, such as the JIT, which is why emulators like Dolphin aren’t currently available for iPhone and iPad. I asked if Stark came across any challenge in developing between the two environments. “The development itself is easier nowadays than it used to be in old jailbroken days. Apple does a fantastic job supporting developers with tools such as Xcode and well-documented, quality first-party frameworks. The challenge comes in the form of limitations in the way things can be emulated. This is due to Apple maintaining security practices preventing code-injections.”
“Emulators use an advanced technique to improve performance called dynamic recompilation, also referred to as JIT compilation. This process involves creating executable code on the fly, shoving it into memory, and running it. While such emulation is unrelated to a security issue, Apple is unable to know what code is being created that will be executed, so they want to prevent security exploits from running,” Stark explains. “So if Apple opens it up to emulation, it would also open up the option to someone who wants to run code from a remote server on phones that aren’t seen by Apple's app review. This is a nice layer of added security that Apple provides but sadly it rules out high-performing emulation.”
With Apple Vision Pro available since February in the U.S., followed by other countries this month, we put it to Stark whether there’s a future for emulators for spatial computing headsets like Apple’s. “Gamma on Vison Pro will definitely come. I am even getting requests from fans to implement Vision Pro in compatibility mode. Headsets are slowly emerging so emulators on it may not thrive yet, but in time I can envision it.”
Gamma to the Future
Gamma, the PlayStation(tm) 1 emulator for iOS App Store, has been greatly updated with multiplayer, cheats, analog controls, no ads, disc swapping, beautiful game library cover art, and so much more!Get it now:https://t.co/dBuBEKx6UB pic.twitter.com/QkmZvfVtttJuly 16, 2024
Finally, with updates to Gamma coming thick and fast, with the most recent having arrived on July 16, Stark confirmed that more features are on the way. “So much has been updated in Gamma since its fast launch, such as local multiplayer with hardware controller support, analog controls, cheats, ad-free options, and more,” Stark explains. “Look out for community controller skins in Gamma’s Support Center section, filters for scan lines, improved importing options when adding in more games, and something never seen in a PlayStation emulator before! Gamma is my focus as of now but I will of course be bringing more apps that users will love in the future!”
