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Commodore 64 Runs Again On the iPhone
Hugh Pickens writes "Stephen Williams reports in the NY Times that the app recreating some of the Commodore's seminal retro games, including Le Mans, Dragons Den and Jupiter Lander, has been re-issued after being pulled in September. The app features SID sound emulation, auto-save to continue where you left off, and a realistic joystick with a beautifully crafted C64 keyboard. Apple originally rejected the program for violating the SDK agreement, which dictates that 'no interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple's Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).' After disabling the controversial feature, Apple published the app in September, but days later it was pulled and the developer was asked to remove, rather than just disable, the BASIC interpreter from the program, which would have allowed unscrupulous users to run unlicensed, emulated code on the iPhone or iPod Touch. 'The road was bumpy, but we remained persistent and made the changes Apple was looking for. Ultimately, BASIC has been removed for this release; however, we hope that working with Apple further will allow us to re-enable it,' the company wrote on its blog."
I like it, apple is probably about 1.7x as expensive as micro$oft.
No, and the whole thing is utterly disingenuous. If there was a hole in the underlying hardware emulator then a hacker wouldn't give a shit about Commodore BASIC, but would be crafting a 6510 assembly attack. Besides, as we now know, malware is distributed directly by the App Store.
In other words, Apple is full of crap and utterly wanton in its megalomania.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Precisely. Apple's position is moronic. Maybe they're just pissed because back in the day of 8bit computers, Commodore eclipsed them.
At any rate, a vulnerability in the emulation is going to be accessible much more directly and easily via 6510 assembler than via BASIC. But I defy anyone here to provide an example of any such breach in any emulated processor/machine. Why would anyone even bother using a C64/6510 emulator to bust into an iPhone when apparently it's much easier to get malware approved and distributed by the App Store.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Most of the really good C64 software was written in 6510 assembly, but that only shows the shear hypocrisy and stupidity of Apple's position. They won't let a high level interpreted language to run under an emulated 6510 CPU on an iPhone, but they will, apparently, allow 6510 op codes to run on an emulated 6510 CPU on an iPhone.
In short, Apple is authoritarian and retarded, and its fanboys are stupid beyond all reason.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.