this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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Looks to be based on GBA4iOS.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago (1 children)

According to one of the the GBA4iOS devs, this is not official https://mastodon.social/@rileytestut/112268412745806214

Please proceed with caution if you choose to use this

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Well, why has the dev not submitted the official version? That would have fixed that problem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Yep you are right, that was after my comment.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

He wants to release it in his own app marketplace

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

To be honest, I support his own app marketplace completely. But I still don’t understand why he doesn’t want to have it on the Apple AppStore as well.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Would it? This would’ve been released with a different name. App Store, Play Store, or no store, people love to take OSS projects, wrap them in ads, and release them to make a buck.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Sure, but then the official one would also be there and hopefully have a better rating and more popularity

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Good point.

That said, the reasons the developer hasn’t released this for the App Store is because he’s a small independent developer and has been trying to ship another project.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I'm totally ignorant to the love that PSP got. What games are worth throwing on my steam deck?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

My default go to: Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I’ve never played it but I hear the god of war version psp got was good.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Why does it need my location?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

Because you can charge more for your shady ads if you also hand over user location data

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

The App Store page says it but the app hasn’t asked me for it when I opened the app.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

So Nintendo can find you later.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

You know that eye from lord of the rings?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Yeah, not sure how it relates to this app wanting my location

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I was about to install the app until I saw that. I’ll just stick to my usual emulation machines for now.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

You know you can block that, right? They just collecting data for advertising.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Just tried it, with a GBA Castlevania game (of course) and it handles beautifully. If this the future of AppStore allowed emulation, I’m a fan.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Sketchy as heck but it works.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

I’d imagine it is just a matter of time before Nintendo sends Apple a C&D, before this gets taken down?

Edit: Welp, that didn’t take long. Hopefully anyone who cares got a copy on their phone and don’t change phones for the foreseeable future.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It was not taken down because of Nintendo, xD, the emulator was a copy of GBA4iOS and did not mention that it is based on GBA4iOS.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

That was Apple’s fear.

But this app has no ROMs and the search page only takes you to a public domain homebrew ROM page. You can add and run your own ROMs but they don’t even mention it for fear of crossing Apple or Nintendo.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

As long as it doesn’t include a bios file, and is completely free (including no in app purchases), I doubt it. Emulators like igba are all over the Google play store, Nintendo only shows its fangs when they try to make money or contain proprietary code.

And actually, looking at it

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fastemulator.gba&hl=en_US

There are paid android emulators on google play, so if Nintendo hasn’t already taken them down, I can’t see them doing that here

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

An emulator, even a paid one, would be totally legal in the US as long as:

  1. It does not use any patented technologies. I'm not sure if Nintendo has any patents in the emulation space, but regardless the GBA is so simple that it wouldn't require patented techniques to emulate.

  2. It does not contain any proprietary (copyrighted) code. On more modern consoles, this would include the BIOS or Firmware files. Does the GBA even need something like that?

Number 1 is a non-issue for a GBA emulator. Number 2 is more tricky, but it's always possible to reverse engineer and reimplement the firmware. That's protected by the Compaq v. IBM case.

The recent drama with the Switch emulator is that they violated the second principle.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What proprietary code did they have?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Stupidly, the decryption key.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Which is probably not copyrightable. A key is just a number, and copyright only applies to creative works. In a court, Nintendo would have to argue that copyright does apply because the key was created via some artistic or creative process by a human. It likely is just the output of a random number generator. Also, we’ve already been through this when people figure out how to decrypt DVDs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

You’re forgetting about the DMCA.

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