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D. Emulation/Piracy

The topics of emulation and piracy in the context of the technical nature of emulators and ROM images, hardware modification technology, as well as their effect on the industry as a political topic are deemed to be generally acceptable.

Linking to pirate download sites, directions on how to get pirated software to work, reviews or impressions of pirated software, and livestreams of pirated software play are all strictly prohibited.

We are talking about an emulator from a technical perspective and the news surrounding it. Please do not link to ROM sites. Additionally, please do not post direct links to this emulator. Though the creators give the disclaimer (as pictured in these shots from the web) that you should not use their application for piracy, the emulator itself actually features a button that kicks you to a ROM download site. It is for this reason that linking to this would be different to say, linking to an Emulator that has no links/ROM downloaders built in. Please do not post links to this emulator, unless deemed acceptable by moderation, as it might fall under the latter part of the TOS. Thank you.

So apparently either yesterday or today, NDS4iOS came out as a non-App Store download. By changing the system date on one's iOS device, the emulator installs and signs itself, ready to be used. The current version even has MFi Controller support as well as dropbox syncing. Reports are that with frame skipping enabled and sound off, many titles run well on an A6+ device.

Though I've dicked around in Xcode, I am a little ignorant in the signing process that these apps, apparently posing as enterprise apps, keep getting. One thing in common is that they're installed as profiles, like any other profile such as a custom Webclip you would install with Apple Configurator. How do they keep doing this? Furthermore, remounting a full system backup also mounts these profiles back, without a hitch. Is this a glass of ice water for the hell that is the walled garden, or something that over time could cause Apple to buckle down even more due to fear of malware from users downloading these enticing packages? Hell, what is Apple's policy concerning this stuff and warranties? It's not like the device or OS have been modified in any way.

So, thoughts on this industry-wise or tech-wise? Regardless, I think it's a pretty nice feat, kinda shows you how far things have come, even if it's nowhere near perfect.

 

[Ninja Dom]

It's exactly it - the Apple App Configurator allows developers to develop Enterprise & Corporate apps that don't have to go through Apple's App Store process.

But you still need approved licences which is why you have to roll back the calendar on your iOS device to an earlier date so that this emulator can install itself on an expired licence.

I'm not sure if you need to roll the date back on your iOS device just for installation of the emulator or if the date needs to be rolled back every time you RUN the emulator.

 

[killercow]

It's exactly it - the Apple App Configurator allows developers to develop Enterprise & Corporate apps that don't have to go through Apple's App Store process.

But you still need approved licences which is why you have to roll back the calendar on your iOS device to an earlier date so that this emulator can install itself on an expired licence.

I'm not sure if you need to roll the date back on your iOS device just for installation of the emulator or if the date needs to be rolled back every time you RUN the emulator.

Nope you don't. Just when you install it.
And that's my Wario Ware screenshot

 

[soul]

I don't have any device that uses iOS, but it's weird to me that the Android development community has actually surpassed the iOS community by miles. Is it really the first iOS DS emulator available? My friend showed me at least two emulators that run perfect on Android devices, DraStic DS Emulator is excellent from what I've seen.

 

[BassForever]

Is this from the team that did the gba one? I like it but every other month or so I have to delete and reinstall it for it to keep working and that's getting old

 

[cw_sasuke]

I don't have any device that uses iOS, but it's weird to me that the Android development community has actually surpassed the iOS community by miles. Is it really the first iOS DS emulator available? My friend showed me at least two emulators that run perfect on Android devices, DraStic DS Emulator is excellent from what I've seen.

Why would it be weird? Android is an open system and way more people own Android devices than iOS.

 

[mocoworm]

I just searched the appstore, can't find it.

 

[Garrett Hawke]

Has anyone actually done it?
I'm not jailbroken and I don't want to risk messing up iMessage and other syncing apps just to run DS homebrew on my iPhone

 

[YesManKablam]

I just searched the appstore, can't find it.

The title literally says non-app store.

 

[nynt9]

I just searched the appstore, can't find it.

Thread title:

NDS4iOS, A DS Emulator For iOS, Has Released A Non-Jailbreak, Non App Store Version

Gee I wonder why you couldn't find it on the app store

 

[Oemenia]

What emulator is this based off?

 

[mocoworm]

Thread title:

NDS4iOS, A DS Emulator For iOS, Has Released A Non-Jailbreak, Non App Store Version

Gee I wonder why you couldn't find it on the app store

I read that it slipped the net and was posted on the appstore. My comment was to confirm it had been pulled.

 

[Diablohead]

I gave this a quick spin last night on my iPhone 5, it doesn't like to run too great for new super mario bros while drastic on my OUYA runs full speed no problem, Not sure if both are based on the same code or more cores = better performance since the iPhone 5 only has 2 cores, the OUYA has 4.

 

[ZeroX03]

Works nicely on the 5S. Usually get fucked up sound emulation on these sorts of things, but it's pretty good replication. Not quite up to the standard of Drastic on Android, but for something that doesn't require a jailbreak it's very good.

EDIT: Okay the sound is a little bit delayed but it doesn't seem to hurt much.

 

[soul]

Why would it be weird? Android is an open system and way more people own Android devices than iOS.

Well, I always owned an Android device and the one thing that always annoyed me is that the Play Store kept receiving applications months after their iOS release. So to see something that exists on the Android platform way ahead of iOS, it's a genuine surprise.

 

[Buttonbasher]

Is this from the team that did the gba one? I like it but every other month or so I have to delete and reinstall it for it to keep working and that's getting old

The guy that made it is on the team, but the project is lead by someone else. Also if the GBA one stops working, just roll your date back to before February 8th 2014, and relaunch it. Once you've done that , you push your date back to normal, and are good until your device resets/powers down.

Also just as a heads up, my GBA4iOS thread got locked, because of its link to a ROM downloading site. I dunno if by not linking to the emulator itself, you're able to avoid that clause, or not, but in the event this gets locked, that's probably the reasoning.

I've tried this one out, but it only really runs full speed on A7 devices (5S, and certain iPads), and not my 4S. I hope someone figures out how to get these running on iOS 8, as that's my next hardware upgrade. I've really become used to having access to my Gameboy/SNES games on here, and would love to add my DS to that group.

What emulator is this based off?

DeSmuME 09.10

Has anyone actually done it?
I'm not jailbroken and I don't want to risk messing up iMessage and other syncing apps just to run DS homebrew on my iPhone

Doesn't mess with any of that. I've been tinkering with these emulators since July, and have yet to run into any issues (outside of the date thing, which is a 30 second fix each time).

 

[cw_sasuke]

Well, I always owned an Android device and the one thing that always annoyed me is that the Play Store kept receiving applications months after their iOS release. So to see something that exists on the Android platform way ahead of iOS, it's a genuine surprise.

That has been true commercial apps and games - but more Homebrew oriented app like emulators were always quite big on Android. They had to rely on these kind of entertainment when the Android market didn't offer the choice of games Apple could.

 

[Minsc]

This app links directly to sites distributing pirated ROMs... sorry. Makes it impossible to have a thread about it, since it directly links to piracy. Normal emulators do not link to you commercial games directly from emulator.