Apple just approved retro PC emulator UTM SE for iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro

(Image credit: Turing Software LLC)

If you've been looking to play classic PC games or run older software on your Apple devices, it's a good day for you.

That's because Apple has finally approved UTM SE, a software emulator, for distribution on the App Store. In fact, you can download it right now on iOS, iPadOS, and even Apple Vision Pro.

According to the App Store listing, "UTM SE is a PC emulator that allows you to run classic software and old-school games," and can emulate x86, PPC, and RISC-V architectures.

As with other emulators, you'll need to install additional operating systems to emulate, but it's not just Windows and Linux - DOS and older versions of macOS are available, too.

We are happy to announce that UTM SE is available (for free) on iOS and visionOS App Store (and coming soon to AltStore PAL)!Shoutouts to AltStore team for their help and to Apple for reconsidering their policy.https://t.co/HAV5JnT5GOJuly 13, 2024

PC emulation floodgates opened?

It's not all been plain sailing to get UTM SE onto the App Store, though. The app was initially rejected from being added in June because it offered a "subpar experience".

The team worked with the AltStore team and another developer to help get the application approved.

We've already seen emulators arrive for games, but this marks the first time you could theoretically run PC software or operating systems on your iPad or Vision Pro headset.

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Lloyd Coombes is a freelance writer with a specialism in Apple tech. From his first, hand-me-down iMac, he’s been working with Apple products for over a decade, and while he loves his iPhone and Mac, the iPad will always have his heart for reasons he still can’t quite fathom. Since moving from blogging to writing professionally, Lloyd’s work can be found at TechRadar, Macworld, TechAdvisor and plenty more. He’s also the Editor in Chief at GGRecon.com, and on the rare occasion he’s not writing you’ll find him spending time with his son, or working hard at the gym (while wearing an Apple Watch, naturally). You can find him on Twitter @lloydcoombes.