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NES Emulator for iPhone Emerges

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the from-the-depths-of-the-lake dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The first emulator for iPhone, iPhoneNES has been released. It run very slow, and has no sound, but hacker NerveGas has managed to modify the source to release an optimized version that is playable. " My favorite bit is that your controller is a clickable picture of the NES controller. Not exactly the ideal UI but still an amazing accomplishment.

19 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. The Real Question... by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How do you install it on the iPhone. Or is this an Ajax app?

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:The Real Question... by dakameleon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Search around for all the info on Jailbreak, or the iphone-dev wiki.

      --
      Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
    2. Re:The Real Question... by wannasleep · · Score: 5, Informative

      Basically you have to connect the iphone to a computer, run a program called jailbreak that makes the file system readable and writable. Then you just copy files here and there on the iphone. Turn off and on and you will have an icon to the emulator on your screen. More details: you take the files in the zip and install them into the directory /Applications, you add the application to the list of applications to be shown on the screen by editing a file called DisplayOrder.plist, and finally you chmod +x the NESApp.

  2. Re:How is this newsworthy? by darkhitman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Emulation on the PSP, at this point, is a given. Anything up to and including the PS1/N64 is pretty much emulated... The importance of this would probably be that it's the first emulator on the platform or whatnot.... still not the world's best story, but hey.

    --
    Tell me something...it's still "We, the people"... right?
  3. Re:How is this newsworthy? by Zekasu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm not sure if you noticed, but there's both more iPhones on the market (due to popularity) and a larger market for the iPhone (can the PSP make phone calls (out of thoe box)?), and I also would take a gamble and say the iPhone wasn't created with gaming in mind. (Not as much as the PSP, therefore different hardware specs., and a different control configuration.)

    Also, you may want to check out the following:
    Playstation Emulator for PSP Released
    x86 Emulator on PSP Runs Windows & Linux
    Gameboy Emulator Released for PSP

  4. Interesting... by chadwik01 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seems like a good idea but I can't imagine trying to play NES with that small of a controller. I think it would be strange on a touch screen. Button mashers sure would be fun though.

  5. Hasn't this been done before? by noSignal · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm pretty sure I had one... the phone reception sucked, but the sound worked and it had a brilliant UI.

  6. thanks but no thanks by electrobutter · · Score: 2, Funny

    looks cool, but I'll keep my TI-89 version thank you.

  7. WOW! by Clockwurk · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now the iPhone is like a smartphone from 3 years ago!

  8. Eh... by iamdrscience · · Score: 3, Funny
    I can't imagine playing NES games on the iPhone would be much fun. I'll buy that the tactile sensation of real buttons is unnecessary for dialing a phone or browsing a web, but it seems like it would be essential for playing most fast-paced games like most NES titles. So for the benefit of iphone users and software developers, here is a non-exhaustive list of what the iPhone is and isn't:

    The iPhone is...
    • A phone
    • A music player
    • A very nice mobile web browser
    • Expensive
    • Shiny
    The iPhone is not...
    • A video game platform
    • The dawn of a new revolution of electronic communications which will render all devices before it obsolete and bring eternal enlightenment to all those who lay their eyes upon its glory.
    1. Re:Eh... by dreamchaser · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why does it matter what OS a handheld gaming device runs? It's an OS, not a religious text...oh wait this is Slashdot...my bad.

    2. Re:Eh... by thedbp · · Score: 2, Insightful

      this post requires a "short sighted" mod. Its been out just a hair over a month ... And the 3rd party app scene is already bustling. Just because you dont have an ounce of imagination or innovation in you doesnt mean that someone else couldn't look at the platform and devise a way to make it work, and work well.

      It amazes me how the only people who are voiciferously negative about the iphone are the ones who haven't actually used one... As for myself, having used one extensively, I can absolutely see the potential for expansion into areas not built in to the device as shipped.

  9. I disagree by Brigadier · · Score: 2, Insightful



    The iPhone is a rectangular 115 x 61 x 11.6 mm touch sensitive screen, WiFi, 8 GB of memory a reasonable amount of processing power on a fairly common OS. The truth is you can use it for whatever is applicable. It also supports USB so you can plug almost anything into it. Steve Jobs isn't stupid he has a platform that can be adaptable for many things.

    Video, Audio, Data Sharing, Communication, Interactivity the list goes on.

    Shoot My palm I use as a web browser, video game console, organizer, music player flashlight when i need it, data drive you name it.

  10. bluetooth by mzs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The iPhone has bluetooth, maybe it will be possible to use a separate fold-out bluetooth keyboard for things like this and the terminal emulator.

  11. Re:How is this newsworthy? by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Emulation is no big deal. Why are the numerous PSP emulator releases never posted? /.'s Apple nuthuggery gets more visible by the day.

    Simple:
        - Sony = bad
        - Apple = good
        - */Linux = extra good :)

    --
    Jumpstart the tartan drive.
  12. Re:Why not iPhoNES by toleraen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Try searching google for iPhoNES. It seems someone else may already have a pretty high page rank for that one.

  13. Re:Nice accomplishment but who would want to play by Koiu+Lpoi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, nice accomplishment indeed.

    It seems that, for any device that comes out these days, we first see the NES emulator, then other emulators. This is then followed by ports of Doom, Heretic, Hexen, and maybe Duke3D. This is then followed by Linux, Quake, and Descent. It's only after all that do we see actual new things being made for a platform.

    I swear, some people have nothing better to do but port old games to every platform imaginable.

  14. Re:Nice accomplishment but who would want to play by Peganthyrus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Writing your own game is hard. Writing your own game while you're figuring out how to use the platform is harder.

    Getting an emulator up and running requires a lot of things to be solved: dealing with the filesystem to load ROMs, getting things to run on a regular schedule, updating the screen, taking input and using it, talking to the audio hardware... by using a pre-existing emulator that you know works, or something like Doom, you can concentrate on these sorts of tasks with an end result that's actually a decent-sized project, instead of a tiny little toy app that bounces your coder-art logo around the screen and goes 'thrummmmmm'.

    --
    egypt urnash minimal art.
  15. Re:Poor programming, undoubtedly. by Ailure · · Score: 2, Informative

    You have to remember that the faster emulators tend to be either inaccurate, such as the old infamous nesticle emulator. or use lots of low-level tricks such as ZSNES (which kinda also locks them into one platform). Some emulators where close to perfect accuracy is the goal is also some of the slowest, at least in the NES emulation scene.