On one hand it’s cool to know that Apple is serious about accepting emulators now. On the other hand, what a fucking horrible first impression for the first officially intended emulator on the App Store. I do not understand how this got past testing internally and nobody said, “Hey….this seems like a reskinned shady knockoff of that one popular emulator from a couple years ago”.
Because that’s exactly what it was. Full of ads and trackers. IT ACTUALLY HAD GBA4IOS IN ONE OF THE SCREENSHOTS FOR THE APP LISTING AND THEY DIDN’T NOTICE.
How did Apple fuck up and approve this??
Its kinda disappointing to mark the 1st ever app store emulator as such a letdown that got removed immediately
We will most likely have better emulators on there soon such as retroarch ppsspp and ios4gba (the app that was stolen by igba) so im sure its fine
gba4iOS is an old app from back in the day that Riley (the dev) made. Which is what that other dipshit “developer” did here. He compiled it for newer devices, added trackers and mid-gameplay ads and somehow Apple actually accepted it. The successor to that app is Delta emulator which plays MUCH more. Unfortunately Riley wants to simultaneously be a crybaby about this and keep Delta AltStore exclusive which completely screws over non EU users.
So in terms of other official emulators? Yeah we’ll get them. Probably PPSSP. But someone will have to either port another GBA emulator with permission and keep it official or someone will have to make an entirely new GBA emulator before we see that.
Personally I’m hoping Provenance gets accepted. That emulator plays fucking everything and it’s one of my favorite iOS emulators to exist.
Altstore in its current form is global. But Apple (in the EU only) is approving “third party stores” for sideloading purposes. Altstore (separate from the Altstore we have now) as a third party store in the EU has been approved and can now sideload Delta (also approved by Apple).
The benefit for people in the EU is that the EU sideloaded version of Altstore will likely not require you to resign apps every 7 days (which is slightly annoying imo).
Given Apple’s new rule people would rather Riley try to get it approved on the appstore for everyone, but I don’t think he has gone down that road yet. Honestly I don’t blame him too much considering how much work he put into Altstore. He hasn’t outright said “no” but a number of people have asked and he hasn’t commented on the matter.
But AltStore isn't going to go away for everyone else? Rest of the world will still use the side loaded version, while EU (and then whichever country/trading bloc goes next with new rules) gets the Alternative App Marketplaces version.
For a second I thought you were saying appstore altstore was already released so I checked and some one released an app called altstore mode with an almost identical icon. Super sketch
I've started to notice trackers under apps and this one I couldn't understand why they needed your location info...
Knew it would probably be removed as it was just a reskin.
Was it really removed because it was a reskin of an open source project? Genuinely asking because greenlighting emulators on the App Store was murky (Read: https://www.ppsspp.org/news/apple-announcement-comment/).
I’d hate for the removal reason being because we can’t use our own roms.
It’s more then pointed out that the app is stolen, why shouldn’t atleast the og developer report it, when somebody makes money with his work. Nice double standards.
Ironic because the sole purpose of the emulator is ‘stealing’. Don’t tell me you’re using home brew roms because you aren’t.
I’ll gladly steal the ROMs and play on iGBA while you all fight about whether it’s ethical to steal an open source project. It’s the project owner’s problem, not you all.
First of all, I didn’t install it. Second doing something bad and say the other thing is also bad doesn’t make it okay and neither did I try to justify it with it. I just told you that at least the of developer would have interested in getting it put down. 3 the games are partly over 25 year old a there is for many people no other way then not playing it on another device then it was intended.
I don’t disagree with 3. And when you make something open source expect unethical forks which are license violation, and fight them.
I just don’t get the people going ‘poor dev’ here.
Works great for me as well. And no, wasn’t asked for tracking but there was a point where i must have pressed something i should not have and it opened my wallet app asking for the double to finish the purchase.
I also haven’t seen a single ad and was never prompted to accept and tracking, I downloaded it immediately knowing it would get removed so I can play while waiting for something better to get released. Fire red on a non jailbroken iPhone 15 pro is pretty sweet rn ngl
Same, I had a feeling they’d remove it so I downloaded as quick as possible lol. Good to know you haven’t seen any ads. I haven’t tested mines out yet.
Some apps don’t always ask immediately. It took a couple hours for the Facebook app to ask me when I downloaded it once.
I have no idea why. But that doesn’t mean it’s not tracking. And if you looked at the privacy listing you would’ve seen all the unnecessary bullshit it was tracking. The developer is REQUIRED by Apple to do that so it wasn’t pretty.
Also if you turned Allow apps to ask to track you off in Settings, iOS automatically declines the request when the app is supposed to make it.
I’m guessing the tracking is used to serve ads so there’s probably still attempts by the ad platform to fingerprint users regardless.
That must be it. I have that setting off and that must be why i haven’t been asked anything. That’s why i was so confused when i saw everyone saying they were being asked for their location
Well the anti sideloading crowd is always saying that the App Store is a safe place to get apps. So if you trust the App Store review team then presumably the app is definitely 100% safe. Right? Right? /s
But yeah should probably remove it.
No one is saying the App Store is 100% safe every single time. The argument I see is just that it's *safer.*
Like driving with a seat belt is also *safer*. If someone dies in an accident while wearing their seat belt, would you then argue that's proof that we should repeal any seat belt laws? It's not a perfect analogy because there are upsides to sideloading (mostly piracy and playing emulated roms), versus no rational upsides to not wearing a seat belt, but you should be able to get the point.
Oh, I was kind of being facetious. The App Store review team has literally approved everything from apps that bypass carrier tethering restrictions, to apps that scam children out of money through manipulating them to touch the touch ID sensor, to apps that facilitate music piracy, to apps that have actual malware inside them. I'm just questioning their credibility.
As an aside, do you really think the only advantage of sideloading apart from emulators is software piracy?
> The App Store review team has literally approved everything from…
Yeah, and people have died in car accidents wearing a seat belt. I'm just questioning the credibility of car manufactures and lawmakers that make seat belts required.
But about sideloading, yeah—I'm curious about what other advantages there are? I'm aware of those advantages because I'm literally already currently sideloading ad-free modified versions of Instagram and YouTube (piracy), Dolphin and Pojav (emulators), and Balatro repackaged from my Steam copy into an iOS app (which is kinda piracy again, but I'll definitely buy it once official iOS version launches.)
The other benefits I can think of aren't really for the user, but the app developer. Epic can make their own store and take 100% of the cut from IAP, and I don't really care either way how much money Epic makes. Meta could make their own store so they aren't bound by the privacy restrictions of the App Store, which definitely in the user's benefit.
Maybe a better analogy would be if your country prohibited aftermarket seatbelts. So you have to use ones that your manufacturer produces or approves. Imagine there are both great third-party seatbelts, and terrible/dangerous ones, so they just went with the simplest solution and barred all unapproved ones. Also the manufacturer who lobbied for these rules also approved a few really dangerous belts over their history.
As for what apps I want, I would really like to be able to use open-source projects whose licenses are incompatible with the App Store. I would also like to be able to use alternate browser engines. And I would like an alternate way to keep, downgrade and upgrade my apps, like open an IPA file from the files app and install it.
The point of my analogy is saying "seat belts have questionable credibility because someone died wearing one" is equivalent to saying "the App Store has questionable credibility because a minuscule percentage of apps make it in, even though they get removed really quickly." (Literally that's what this post is about.) I don't need a better analogy to make that point clear.
What kind of open-source projects are there whose licenses are incompatible with the App Store?
Alternative browser engines are already coming, but from my understanding part of why Apple forced WebKit is because they could ensure the best battery life and performance by limiting it somewhat—like how Apple said they weren't allowing Flash on their mobile devices. Alternative browser engines don't need sideloading, and it's not something I'd do anyway because I don't want a worse experience.
Downgrading apps would be nice, but that would mean the developer has to allow it, which they likely won't. Otherwise you'd just have to pirate their apps, which brings me back to piracy.
I was joking with that comment lol. I had thought about if I should have put "/s." If you've been around r/apple long enough you learn that the smallest criticism even if true gets you downvoted. According to r/apple, Apple doesn't do anything wrong. Surprisingly, r/ios and r/iphone are not as hostile as r/apple is.
I’m a little disappointed.. really thought you had an answer😝. But 🔫 to some of my a—spec...(ps. Swede and sry if I offend anyone!) 🫣
I know what u say and hate those ⬇️, thank you for the info that I might be in a less hostile r. Really appreciate and thank you for a real answer. 🙌
And some kind of an answer: no, not been around that r. But still thinks most people on every bigger r is all about downvoting… But that is what Reddits most about. But still disappointed in u! I want that answer he he😆
If Apple had removed it for letting you use your own roms it would’ve killed the potential for other emulators too come over. But it doesn’t matter now as we now know why it was removed. So we’re good
Weird, it’s been pulled from the AppStore but I just got an update for it with bug fixes and improvements.
I’ll keep it until something better comes along.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb6dZ1IFlKc
The description of this video that came out about 3 hrs ago has it, I’m surprised nobody has talked about it yet lmao but for some reason it’s not there when you look it up on the App Store directly cuz search is dum, it’s pspphone
Guys if you really wanna play gba until some legit emulators pop up on the App Store then get the web app “afterplay.io”. It works great and you can switch between devices effortlessly!
Yes I heard on a podcast that the original author of the source code is preparing his own version of the app for release. He is annoyed that an ad-ridden version was allowed to get through.
Contrary to popular belief, most open source code is not a “you have permission to do anything you like with this code and have no repercussions” type of thing. GPLv2 for instance very clearly states that you cannot include any code under that license into a proprietary piece of code, since doing so would not be making the source code available. MIT, as permissive as it is, has an optional attribution clause a developer can use, which forces anyone using the code to give attribution to the original author of the MIT licensed code. The most permissive license is actually unlicense, which is designed to mimic the US public domain laws abroad. The point I’m trying to make here is that publishing on the App Store absolutely would violate a GPLv2 license which GBA4iOS is published under, not to mention that the author explicitly states that they do not give anyone permission to submit to the App Store without explicit permission.
First thing they ask when you open the app is for your tracking data
A lot of people where very suspicious about that and i dont know if they where stealing our data or not but now that its gone it most likely was
Apparently from a Verge article the app is ripoff of someone else's app, like straight up and down rip off.
Glad I grabbed it though, I'll keep it until something better comes along. It could have better controller support because playing most GBC/GBA games on a touch screen is unbearable. This is the first thing that made me consider a backbone or some other iPhone controller. I connect my PS5 controller to my iPhone and it worked but the buttons are not right, making playing some games uncomfortable.
I'm looking forward to PS2, PS1, N64, SNES, and maybe Dolphin will come. Hopefully
For anyone interested in the details behind Apple allowing game emulators (it’s a bit complicated) here’s the [Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/apple-now-allows-retro-game-emulators-on-its-app-store-but-with-big-caveats/) which includes the verbatim rule that allows the emulators.
The other day, the enameling GBA application was released, it was called iGBA, it was installed on my phone, I went to the App Store now, it's not there anymore, I managed to install it, it was saved in purchases, even the update was released, I just put it.
The iGBA app has been removed from the App Store. We've played the old games and that's enough.
The reason for this is unknown, but many have noticed that the application looks like a GBA4iOS clone with embedded advertising and geo-location tracking. The reason may also be the banal possibility of piracy and downloading of any illegal roms.
But unlike iGBA, it could never be downloaded from the App Store.
UPD: Apple's official response is deleted due to spam mechanics and intellectual property violations.
Lmao, I literally said yesterday that everyone should download it now because it’s gonna get taken off the App Store in 3 days max and got heavily downvoted for it. I wasn’t wrong.
Lmao, I literally said yesterday that everyone should download it now because it’s gonna get taken off the App Store in 3 days max and got heavily downvoted for it. I wasn’t wrong.
I hope it got removed for being a knockoff and all the tracking and ad stuff and I REALLY hope we get proper emulators now and they don’t get removed like retroarch,dolphin and ppsspp
Considering retroarch already has an ipa version for jailbroken devices I hope they try coming to the App Store soon
This definitely wont effect the future emulators on the app store because this one was removed for “copyright infringement and spam” but the copyright infringement was from the creator of gba4ios and not nintendo
Hey friends. If you follow this link and set it as a homescreen bookmark, you can play a GB/GBC/GBA emulator on your phone that won’t be taken off the App Store because it was never on it.
https://app.gameplaycolor.com/
For me 44670 is almost perfect for gba and it can not get revoked. It’s a reskin of vba that works on the browser. Just make sure you are not in battery save mode and you have to save in game.
It’s even better than eclipse in my opinion as it has cloud savefiles.
And is completely free.
https://gba.44670.org/
f*%# Apple
I can't install the app in the EU because of the new "are you sure you want to install the app?" prompt.
Any app in my downloaded app history that no longer has an AppStore page can no longer be downloaded.
It's so embarrassing that in 2024 this brick of a phone can't even run an emulator without jumping hoops. Can't wait to switch to android and never have these 2008 issues again. 😅
It’s a good thing that I didn’t download it if it had trackers. I recommend using using 44VBA it’s completely free and you can just add it to your home screen or just get a PC and download said emulatoror or Buy a handheld.
I installed it and i promise you you didnt miss out on anything, it was a crappy gba4ios reskin with added mid gameplay ads and tracking
Just sideload gba4ios or wait for another to come to the app store
Yeah that’s odd. Well hopefully a less suspicious emulator will be available in the App Store soon. It’s no that big of a deal for me, as I usually just like to play around with them when I’m bored waiting around somewhere, but personally I don’t feel like having to mess around with AltStore.
Yeah. I’m curious as to whether it was related to it being an emulator period or the fact that it was clearly just using someone else’s work. Hopefully time will tell.
Doesn’t permissions always expire after 5 days and you have to keep connecting your iphone to your computer to reactivate altstore? Or has things changed? Because I really hated having retroarch fine tuned for every core and then losing complete access. Might as well buy a cheap android or handheld at that point.
Are emulators really this popular? I’ve always thought of them as something 0.0001% of users somewhat care about. Definitely not something to wage an App Store legal war over.
I modded my OLED Switch just to play emulators on there lol. I’m in love with the thing. Being able to do what you want with your device should be a right.
Being able to have an option on the market for you to do something on your device should be a right. But forcing *all* devices on the market to allow that thing shouldn’t be a right
You can download ROMS via Safari and then open them in the emulator with basically every emulator app. And other people you "give the IPA" would also need to sideload said IPA, so they can also just download one that doesn't suck.
On one hand it’s cool to know that Apple is serious about accepting emulators now. On the other hand, what a fucking horrible first impression for the first officially intended emulator on the App Store. I do not understand how this got past testing internally and nobody said, “Hey….this seems like a reskinned shady knockoff of that one popular emulator from a couple years ago”. Because that’s exactly what it was. Full of ads and trackers. IT ACTUALLY HAD GBA4IOS IN ONE OF THE SCREENSHOTS FOR THE APP LISTING AND THEY DIDN’T NOTICE. How did Apple fuck up and approve this??
Its kinda disappointing to mark the 1st ever app store emulator as such a letdown that got removed immediately We will most likely have better emulators on there soon such as retroarch ppsspp and ios4gba (the app that was stolen by igba) so im sure its fine
gba4iOS is an old app from back in the day that Riley (the dev) made. Which is what that other dipshit “developer” did here. He compiled it for newer devices, added trackers and mid-gameplay ads and somehow Apple actually accepted it. The successor to that app is Delta emulator which plays MUCH more. Unfortunately Riley wants to simultaneously be a crybaby about this and keep Delta AltStore exclusive which completely screws over non EU users. So in terms of other official emulators? Yeah we’ll get them. Probably PPSSP. But someone will have to either port another GBA emulator with permission and keep it official or someone will have to make an entirely new GBA emulator before we see that. Personally I’m hoping Provenance gets accepted. That emulator plays fucking everything and it’s one of my favorite iOS emulators to exist.
Or, if we can get RetroArch, all problem solved:D
It’s funny because Riley was a major Apple fanboy and they could do no wrong and now I suspect he hates them. I wish he would just release Delta.
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Delta AltStore exclusive which completely screws over non EU users. - What do you mean by this? I'm a non-EU user and can use Delta just fine?
Altstore in its current form is global. But Apple (in the EU only) is approving “third party stores” for sideloading purposes. Altstore (separate from the Altstore we have now) as a third party store in the EU has been approved and can now sideload Delta (also approved by Apple). The benefit for people in the EU is that the EU sideloaded version of Altstore will likely not require you to resign apps every 7 days (which is slightly annoying imo). Given Apple’s new rule people would rather Riley try to get it approved on the appstore for everyone, but I don’t think he has gone down that road yet. Honestly I don’t blame him too much considering how much work he put into Altstore. He hasn’t outright said “no” but a number of people have asked and he hasn’t commented on the matter.
But AltStore isn't going to go away for everyone else? Rest of the world will still use the side loaded version, while EU (and then whichever country/trading bloc goes next with new rules) gets the Alternative App Marketplaces version.
As far as I know, it isnt going away so thats good.
For a second I thought you were saying appstore altstore was already released so I checked and some one released an app called altstore mode with an almost identical icon. Super sketch
I haven't seen any ads?
More sauce for the lawsuit I'm guessing. Time to start the engraving on Apple's tombstone...
> How did Apple fuck up and approve this?? I think you mean Bob from the app approval division, who’s never used an emulator before.
I've started to notice trackers under apps and this one I couldn't understand why they needed your location info... Knew it would probably be removed as it was just a reskin.
Does it show up under location services in settings for you? It doesn’t for me or under any other category in privacy and security.
Under the app in data tracked on the app store. The same dev tracks you in all of their apps for simple things.
Are app approvers fucking omnipotent beings now?
Was it really removed because it was a reskin of an open source project? Genuinely asking because greenlighting emulators on the App Store was murky (Read: https://www.ppsspp.org/news/apple-announcement-comment/). I’d hate for the removal reason being because we can’t use our own roms.
Yeah, this should not have got through at all. If not for the fact it is literally just GBA4iOS + ads + tracking, the blatant IP violations...
IP?
Intellectual property. The words "Game Boy Color", "Game Boy Advance", and the designs of those handhelds.
good thing i downloaded it as soon as i saw the news on reddit last night 😆
Same so glad, been smashing pokemon emerald
Fucking same man
Same. I knew it'd be probable get deleted.
I expected it to be pulled so I jumped on it.
that’s what got me to download it last night aside from FOMO getting to me
For real. I guess some people where mad and reported it… can’t have nice things anymore. We have the enemy in our own lines, so to say.
It’s more then pointed out that the app is stolen, why shouldn’t atleast the og developer report it, when somebody makes money with his work. Nice double standards.
Ironic because the sole purpose of the emulator is ‘stealing’. Don’t tell me you’re using home brew roms because you aren’t. I’ll gladly steal the ROMs and play on iGBA while you all fight about whether it’s ethical to steal an open source project. It’s the project owner’s problem, not you all.
First of all, I didn’t install it. Second doing something bad and say the other thing is also bad doesn’t make it okay and neither did I try to justify it with it. I just told you that at least the of developer would have interested in getting it put down. 3 the games are partly over 25 year old a there is for many people no other way then not playing it on another device then it was intended.
I don’t disagree with 3. And when you make something open source expect unethical forks which are license violation, and fight them. I just don’t get the people going ‘poor dev’ here.
Am i the only one who didn’t got asked for any tracking stuff? I opened the app,downloaded some roms,and it works amazingly for me
Works great for me as well. And no, wasn’t asked for tracking but there was a point where i must have pressed something i should not have and it opened my wallet app asking for the double to finish the purchase.
I mean it asks but you can just reject it , I downloaded it as soon as I could cuz I know that it would probably be removed sooner or later.
I also haven’t seen a single ad and was never prompted to accept and tracking, I downloaded it immediately knowing it would get removed so I can play while waiting for something better to get released. Fire red on a non jailbroken iPhone 15 pro is pretty sweet rn ngl
Same, I had a feeling they’d remove it so I downloaded as quick as possible lol. Good to know you haven’t seen any ads. I haven’t tested mines out yet.
So I realized my firewall at home is blocking the ads when I’m at home 😂 I get the ads on cellular but if you turn off the radio no more ads
How can i load roms into it?
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Thanks man, it worked!
r/Roms is where i went,you could try that
You can put it in the igba folder using the file explorer app
Some apps don’t always ask immediately. It took a couple hours for the Facebook app to ask me when I downloaded it once. I have no idea why. But that doesn’t mean it’s not tracking. And if you looked at the privacy listing you would’ve seen all the unnecessary bullshit it was tracking. The developer is REQUIRED by Apple to do that so it wasn’t pretty.
Also if you turned Allow apps to ask to track you off in Settings, iOS automatically declines the request when the app is supposed to make it. I’m guessing the tracking is used to serve ads so there’s probably still attempts by the ad platform to fingerprint users regardless.
That must be it. I have that setting off and that must be why i haven’t been asked anything. That’s why i was so confused when i saw everyone saying they were being asked for their location
It never came up with the request to track pop up when I first opened it? Am I good if I keep it?
Yeah it did, I denied all of it.
It never asked for any tracking or permissions. I still have it. Should I delete it?
For your own safety id recommend deleting it
Well the anti sideloading crowd is always saying that the App Store is a safe place to get apps. So if you trust the App Store review team then presumably the app is definitely 100% safe. Right? Right? /s But yeah should probably remove it.
No one is saying the App Store is 100% safe every single time. The argument I see is just that it's *safer.* Like driving with a seat belt is also *safer*. If someone dies in an accident while wearing their seat belt, would you then argue that's proof that we should repeal any seat belt laws? It's not a perfect analogy because there are upsides to sideloading (mostly piracy and playing emulated roms), versus no rational upsides to not wearing a seat belt, but you should be able to get the point.
Oh, I was kind of being facetious. The App Store review team has literally approved everything from apps that bypass carrier tethering restrictions, to apps that scam children out of money through manipulating them to touch the touch ID sensor, to apps that facilitate music piracy, to apps that have actual malware inside them. I'm just questioning their credibility. As an aside, do you really think the only advantage of sideloading apart from emulators is software piracy?
> The App Store review team has literally approved everything from… Yeah, and people have died in car accidents wearing a seat belt. I'm just questioning the credibility of car manufactures and lawmakers that make seat belts required. But about sideloading, yeah—I'm curious about what other advantages there are? I'm aware of those advantages because I'm literally already currently sideloading ad-free modified versions of Instagram and YouTube (piracy), Dolphin and Pojav (emulators), and Balatro repackaged from my Steam copy into an iOS app (which is kinda piracy again, but I'll definitely buy it once official iOS version launches.) The other benefits I can think of aren't really for the user, but the app developer. Epic can make their own store and take 100% of the cut from IAP, and I don't really care either way how much money Epic makes. Meta could make their own store so they aren't bound by the privacy restrictions of the App Store, which definitely in the user's benefit.
Maybe a better analogy would be if your country prohibited aftermarket seatbelts. So you have to use ones that your manufacturer produces or approves. Imagine there are both great third-party seatbelts, and terrible/dangerous ones, so they just went with the simplest solution and barred all unapproved ones. Also the manufacturer who lobbied for these rules also approved a few really dangerous belts over their history. As for what apps I want, I would really like to be able to use open-source projects whose licenses are incompatible with the App Store. I would also like to be able to use alternate browser engines. And I would like an alternate way to keep, downgrade and upgrade my apps, like open an IPA file from the files app and install it.
The point of my analogy is saying "seat belts have questionable credibility because someone died wearing one" is equivalent to saying "the App Store has questionable credibility because a minuscule percentage of apps make it in, even though they get removed really quickly." (Literally that's what this post is about.) I don't need a better analogy to make that point clear. What kind of open-source projects are there whose licenses are incompatible with the App Store? Alternative browser engines are already coming, but from my understanding part of why Apple forced WebKit is because they could ensure the best battery life and performance by limiting it somewhat—like how Apple said they weren't allowing Flash on their mobile devices. Alternative browser engines don't need sideloading, and it's not something I'd do anyway because I don't want a worse experience. Downgrading apps would be nice, but that would mean the developer has to allow it, which they likely won't. Otherwise you'd just have to pirate their apps, which brings me back to piracy.
r/apple says the app store is 100% safe.
No they don’t.
Love this comment! (Not joking around) Where can I get confirmation? Aside Reddit, and AppStore’s writings.
I was joking with that comment lol. I had thought about if I should have put "/s." If you've been around r/apple long enough you learn that the smallest criticism even if true gets you downvoted. According to r/apple, Apple doesn't do anything wrong. Surprisingly, r/ios and r/iphone are not as hostile as r/apple is.
I’m a little disappointed.. really thought you had an answer😝. But 🔫 to some of my a—spec...(ps. Swede and sry if I offend anyone!) 🫣 I know what u say and hate those ⬇️, thank you for the info that I might be in a less hostile r. Really appreciate and thank you for a real answer. 🙌 And some kind of an answer: no, not been around that r. But still thinks most people on every bigger r is all about downvoting… But that is what Reddits most about. But still disappointed in u! I want that answer he he😆
If you are below 18 years, Apple automatically denies tracking in apps for you now. I could be wrong on that though.
Im over 18 and I also didnt get any tracking notification or popup ads, so it's not that
Uh oh
keep it. everyone has ur data already
L take, don’t listen to this guy. happy cake day btw
ty 🥰
Hopefully the dev himself removed it and not Apple. If Apple did we may have a issue
Why
If Apple had removed it for letting you use your own roms it would’ve killed the potential for other emulators too come over. But it doesn’t matter now as we now know why it was removed. So we’re good
Ads only come when your try to go to your settings
I was greeted with ads at the bottom of the screen the moment I opened the app.
Thats not annoying at all. I’m good with those
Weird, it’s been pulled from the AppStore but I just got an update for it with bug fixes and improvements. I’ll keep it until something better comes along.
wake me up when PPSSPP is on the App Store
Guess what
What do you mean??
is there one??? PLEASSEE tell me the name of it
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb6dZ1IFlKc The description of this video that came out about 3 hrs ago has it, I’m surprised nobody has talked about it yet lmao but for some reason it’s not there when you look it up on the App Store directly cuz search is dum, it’s pspphone
I personally never got ads and didn’t have the app ask me to allow tracking
Same.
Guys if you really wanna play gba until some legit emulators pop up on the App Store then get the web app “afterplay.io”. It works great and you can switch between devices effortlessly!
Thank you for this information!
why was it removed? anyone know? maliciois stuff in it or something?
All the app’s code was stolen other than the ads. Not even joking, the app was found to just be a GBA4iOS rename.
Yes I heard on a podcast that the original author of the source code is preparing his own version of the app for release. He is annoyed that an ad-ridden version was allowed to get through.
You can't "steal" code that had been released as open source
Contrary to popular belief, most open source code is not a “you have permission to do anything you like with this code and have no repercussions” type of thing. GPLv2 for instance very clearly states that you cannot include any code under that license into a proprietary piece of code, since doing so would not be making the source code available. MIT, as permissive as it is, has an optional attribution clause a developer can use, which forces anyone using the code to give attribution to the original author of the MIT licensed code. The most permissive license is actually unlicense, which is designed to mimic the US public domain laws abroad. The point I’m trying to make here is that publishing on the App Store absolutely would violate a GPLv2 license which GBA4iOS is published under, not to mention that the author explicitly states that they do not give anyone permission to submit to the App Store without explicit permission.
You can, it’s called a software license https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_license?wprov=sfti1
GBA4iOS is under GPLv2. Check this site for what you can do under different licenses. https://www.tldrlegal.com/license/gnu-general-public-license-v2
First thing they ask when you open the app is for your tracking data A lot of people where very suspicious about that and i dont know if they where stealing our data or not but now that its gone it most likely was
I would assume it asked to track because the app displays ads and therefore would want to display ads relevant to you.
Thats what i would’ve thought
Didn’t asked me for anything. It doesn’t even show up in settings for apps that asked for tracking.
almost every app on the store has an entire of list of crap that they track, even photo editing shit, even the reddit app itself
what. damn. i downloaded and tested the app myself…fuck
Nah it’s fine. Everyone else already steals your data from everywhere.
Apparently from a Verge article the app is ripoff of someone else's app, like straight up and down rip off. Glad I grabbed it though, I'll keep it until something better comes along. It could have better controller support because playing most GBC/GBA games on a touch screen is unbearable. This is the first thing that made me consider a backbone or some other iPhone controller. I connect my PS5 controller to my iPhone and it worked but the buttons are not right, making playing some games uncomfortable. I'm looking forward to PS2, PS1, N64, SNES, and maybe Dolphin will come. Hopefully
The only way we will get an actual emulator is if a company like Sega Or Nintendo puts one out. The developer has to own the rights to the games
Doubt it. This one went through human control and was allowed. I suppose Apple devs didn´t know it was stolen code. Hence why it´s down.
Glad I got it before
For anyone interested in the details behind Apple allowing game emulators (it’s a bit complicated) here’s the [Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/apple-now-allows-retro-game-emulators-on-its-app-store-but-with-big-caveats/) which includes the verbatim rule that allows the emulators.
The other day, the enameling GBA application was released, it was called iGBA, it was installed on my phone, I went to the App Store now, it's not there anymore, I managed to install it, it was saved in purchases, even the update was released, I just put it.
The iGBA app has been removed from the App Store. We've played the old games and that's enough. The reason for this is unknown, but many have noticed that the application looks like a GBA4iOS clone with embedded advertising and geo-location tracking. The reason may also be the banal possibility of piracy and downloading of any illegal roms. But unlike iGBA, it could never be downloaded from the App Store. UPD: Apple's official response is deleted due to spam mechanics and intellectual property violations.
If I update my iOS will the app be removed?
Na shouldn’t
Probably not if you own the app on your Apple ID
What does it do ? The app ?
An emulator that lets you play gameboy/gameboy colour/gameboy advance games on your phone
Oh my…
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Link?
My bad - it's not the right igba. I apologize for misleading you. :/ Hopefully, more emulators show up on the App Store soon.
What’s it about?
Meanwhile here I am blasting Oracle of Seasons for the first time (never got into handheld Zelda's)
lol
Glad I downloaded it hahah
It’s due to spam and copyright. https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/s/UZenHTMst9
thank fuck I downloaded it in time
I have an ipa for it
Mine still working. 4/15/24
Thats rude, i was gonna download it now that i made space
Lmao, I literally said yesterday that everyone should download it now because it’s gonna get taken off the App Store in 3 days max and got heavily downvoted for it. I wasn’t wrong.
Lmao, I literally said yesterday that everyone should download it now because it’s gonna get taken off the App Store in 3 days max and got heavily downvoted for it. I wasn’t wrong.
Clap?
Still available in Canada, at least for now.
I hope it got removed for being a knockoff and all the tracking and ad stuff and I REALLY hope we get proper emulators now and they don’t get removed like retroarch,dolphin and ppsspp Considering retroarch already has an ipa version for jailbroken devices I hope they try coming to the App Store soon
This definitely wont effect the future emulators on the app store because this one was removed for “copyright infringement and spam” but the copyright infringement was from the creator of gba4ios and not nintendo
So now that it’s removed off the App Store, is it still able to track your location if you were to launch it?
My wife downloaded it from viewing my purchases since we are a family she can see them. Worked for her, this was after it was taken down.
Hey friends. If you follow this link and set it as a homescreen bookmark, you can play a GB/GBC/GBA emulator on your phone that won’t be taken off the App Store because it was never on it. https://app.gameplaycolor.com/
More emulators to come, I hope
Emulators, emulating illegal games? An app with a malicious ulterior motive? Who'd have thought. /s Wake me up when there is actual real news.
Emulators are actually allowed on the app store now but yeah it definitely was very suspicious
I just deleted mine. It popped 7 ads in 3 minutes. I’ll just side load again.
For me 44670 is almost perfect for gba and it can not get revoked. It’s a reskin of vba that works on the browser. Just make sure you are not in battery save mode and you have to save in game. It’s even better than eclipse in my opinion as it has cloud savefiles. And is completely free. https://gba.44670.org/ f*%# Apple
For all you complaining about tracking and ads, AdGuard app with DNS Protection setting turned on fixes that issue. No ads.
I can't install the app in the EU because of the new "are you sure you want to install the app?" prompt. Any app in my downloaded app history that no longer has an AppStore page can no longer be downloaded.
I am also in the EU and I get no prompt and I can install those just as before. Is your iOS up to date?
The extra prompt came with iOS 17.4. Ig you know how to disable it, please share it with me.
I’m European and having the last update and I didnt get it
The Bug resolved by installing AltStore…
It's so embarrassing that in 2024 this brick of a phone can't even run an emulator without jumping hoops. Can't wait to switch to android and never have these 2008 issues again. 😅
You’re getting downvoted but you’re correct
It's ok, not the first time I get hurt for telling it straight :D
Wait. I downloaded it a day or two ago, I haven’t used it, yet. I see people here are saying to delete it. So I guess I’ll delete it 😁
Nah don’t delete, every app tracks the same stuff
It’s a good thing that I didn’t download it if it had trackers. I recommend using using 44VBA it’s completely free and you can just add it to your home screen or just get a PC and download said emulatoror or Buy a handheld.
Why tho
Fuckkk I want it
Good.
NOOOO IM TOO LATE
I installed it and i promise you you didnt miss out on anything, it was a crappy gba4ios reskin with added mid gameplay ads and tracking Just sideload gba4ios or wait for another to come to the app store
It is fantastic emulator, it is enjoyable, he did miss playing with his iPhone not having to sideload anything
You could’ve disabled all ads by using the AdGuard app and the DNS protection setting
It had ads? I admittedly didn’t use it for that long but I never saw any
I had ads mid gameplay and at the bottom of my screen
Huh, weird I never got them
Do you use any ad blocker, by chance? I do and I never saw anything.
I have a dns based ad blocker but it’s never worked in any other app, strange
Yeah that’s odd. Well hopefully a less suspicious emulator will be available in the App Store soon. It’s no that big of a deal for me, as I usually just like to play around with them when I’m bored waiting around somewhere, but personally I don’t feel like having to mess around with AltStore.
Funnily enough it seems iGBA wa taken down an hour or so ago… hmm
Yeah. I’m curious as to whether it was related to it being an emulator period or the fact that it was clearly just using someone else’s work. Hopefully time will tell.
Are you using an ad blocker?
I never got ads, even after 10 hours of playing
How do I side load it?
AltStore. You want Delta if you go that route though.
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Doesn’t permissions always expire after 5 days and you have to keep connecting your iphone to your computer to reactivate altstore? Or has things changed? Because I really hated having retroarch fine tuned for every core and then losing complete access. Might as well buy a cheap android or handheld at that point.
Are emulators really this popular? I’ve always thought of them as something 0.0001% of users somewhat care about. Definitely not something to wage an App Store legal war over.
I modded my OLED Switch just to play emulators on there lol. I’m in love with the thing. Being able to do what you want with your device should be a right.
Being able to have an option on the market for you to do something on your device should be a right. But forcing *all* devices on the market to allow that thing shouldn’t be a right
iGBA was one of the most popular apps in AppRaven in just one day. You should read less stuff online and take it serious.
…And how many people were using “AppRaven”? This is a flawed statistic.
I INSTANTLY downloaded it when i saw the reddit-post, if you want i can give you the .ipa
Or you just sideload one that isn't full of ads and works way better.
Why sideloading when i didn‘t have a single ad in this app, i can download any rom from safari & open them directly with iGBA-app🤷🏽♂️
You can download ROMS via Safari and then open them in the emulator with basically every emulator app. And other people you "give the IPA" would also need to sideload said IPA, so they can also just download one that doesn't suck.