iMore can exclusively reveal that Provenance, a multi-system emulator, is in the works for iPhone, following Apple’s recent App Store rule change.
In an email, Joseph Mattiello, project lead of Provenance, told us his team “are working on a release,” but stated “I need to investigate these new rules before an App Store submission, and to improve some quality-of-life issues. Also, I need to change some things to adhere to the App Store’s rules, such as mentioning “beta”.”
Apple’s rule change on April 5 means that retro gaming emulators can now be made available on the App Store. These are apps that can behave like one or more gaming systems — two great examples are Provenance and Delta, another multi-system emulator created by Riley Testut, which was released on April 17. This is, at the time of writing, the number one free app on the App Store worldwide charts.
Provenance goes further than Testut’s Delta emulator, at least for now. The app supports systems such as the Sony PlayStation, SEGA Saturn, Nintendo Virtual Boy, Nintendo Gamecube, and many more. The team has also confirmed they’re working on support for SEGA Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation 2, and others.
Users should be aware though, that downloading Sony, SEGA, and Nintendo titles for emulation, even if you own the physical titles, is considered a breach of copyright law, especially by Nintendo. For those who want to use Provenance and other emulators on an iPhone lawfully, there are free, independently developed games available online. One such example is Unearthed, a Game Boy game that you can get from Homebrew Hub.
Like Delta, Mattiello’s emulator also has a Patreon which includes an upcoming version that features early support for Sony’s PlayStation Portable and SEGA Dreamcast. Mattiello wasn’t clear on a date he’s aiming for Provenance to be made available on the App Store at the time of writing.
I’ve used Provenance before, and it’s fantastic — iMore’s take
Having used Provenance on Apple’s iPad Pro, I’m happy to report that it’s a fantastic experience, especially when paired with one of the best game controllers for iPhone.
Its user interface was easy enough to map some hotkeys to my controller, and all of the games I tried out ran flawlessly. Just remember, most games you might expect to play on an emulator are still protected by copyright laws, regardless of whether they’re still available to buy or not. If you want to make sure you’re not breaking any laws, there are plenty of homebrew PlayStation 1 games you will be able to play on the app when it’s eventually made available.
I had always hoped that the day would come when I’d be able to download Provenance from the App Store. It looks like that hope is finally becoming a reality.
While Mattiello has been developing Provenance since 2016, the emulator was first created by James Addyman in 2013. This was back when jailbreaking, a method of installing any app onto an iPhone, was the only way to load the emulator onto the handset. Apple’s rule change now allows his emulator on the App Store — and I’m looking forward to seeing just how it will fare on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, when it’s released in the near future.
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