Full MAME emulator for non-jailbroken iOS | Hacker News Reader

Full MAME emulator for non-jailbroken iOS

jwz.org

59 pointsujeezy28 comments

Meanwhile, on Android, MAME is freely downloadable from the Play Store, with 500000 downloads and no danger of imminent removal.

Which is great, if you view your phone as a computer.

I'm a programmer and webmaster by trade, but I consider my phone to be an appliance. I want an appliance, not another computer to manage. I already have two desktops, two laptops, and a pile of VM servers...

That's just sad.

I'm not sjwright, but I'm in agreement with him. I wouldn't call it "sad", so much... more like "convenient".

If I ever change my mind, I know where to buy an Android device.

You know what's really sad? Installing a virus checker on your phone.

Why own a smartphone, then? You can buy a prepaid Tracphone or whatever that's a non-smartphone and requires absolutely none of that. No apps, no anything.

Why pay $700 for stuff you won't even use?

I can't speak for the OP, but I imagine he wants some of the traits traditionally associated with an appliance (extremely low maintenance primarily) combined with some of those associated with general purpose computers (running software not provided by the manufacturer, customisability).

The reality is there is a tension between these two, and we are lucky enough to have two high quality platforms where the line is drawn in different places.

It is incorrect to assume you can have more of one without compromising the other though.

Yeah, you can't let someone else manage everything and just expect them to be acting in your best interests. But if you just want something that's a phone and only a phone, that's both readily available and very, very cheap.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. If by acting in my best interests I mean 'checking available applications for security issues and API compliance such that they won't use my resources (battery, data) in unexpected ways', then I think you can expect someone else to do that.

Certainly I could use the device without that service, but then I would have to do it myself - as I do with other platforms.

I think the OP wants a smartphone, not only a phone.

I'm a Tracphone user. They're great! I spend about $100 per YEAR on my phone. Not per month, per YEAR.

  > Why own a smartphone, then?
  > Why pay $700 for stuff you won't even use?

I use it for calls, music, podcasts, mapping, email, browsing the web, calendars, messaging, weather, banking, and occasional light gaming. My smartphone is an utterly indispensable part of daily life.

But I still don't view my phone as a computer.

Your phone has a programmable cpu, so it is a computer. What you want is just very restrictive software.

That's a programmer-centric view of matters.

I want software that works so well that I don't feel the need to worry about how "restrictive" it might be. If I want more power, I'll pull out my laptop.

This quote from Steve Jobs is relevant:

  "We’re getting to the point where everything’s a computer
  in a different form factor. So what, right? So what if
  it’s built with a computer inside it -- it doesn’t matter.
  [What matters is,] what *is* it, how do you use it?"

> That'a a programmer-centric view of the matters.

If every device is a computer, every device user is a programmer.

> I want software that works so well that I don't feel the need to worry about how "restrictive" it might be.

You should always worry about the arbitrary restrictions imposed on the devices you own. The demand of software that works is just as legitimate, but orthogonal.

> If I want more power, I'll pull out my laptop.

It's not about power, it's about freedom. Why a phone company has root access to my phone and I do not?

> So what if it’s built with a computer inside it -- it doesn’t matter. [What matters is,] what is it, how do you use it?

That's a terrible, myopic, consumer centric (as opposed to producer), point of view. It does't matter only if you have to sell it, covered in bells & whistles. I don't have to sell it, I have to use it.

I wonder if any Apple story on the internet has ever managed to avoid the Android trollers. Seems you guys need to constantly validate your purchase with silly comments.

Is this a loophole for all emulators, then? Couldn't someone theoretically write an emulator for a fully homebrew Super Nintendo game that reads from the disk?

If I recall correctly, Apple doesn't care if you interpret other code (some sort of assembly, in this case) from the disk, just that you cannot download new interpreted code from the internet with your app (and even here they are lenient with apps that load HTML5 updates other-the-air).

> they are lenient with apps that load HTML5

The built in webkit js engine is exempt from the rules, or you couldn't use web content in apps at all.

It seems that Apple, for whatever reason, doesn't care about this emulator on the App Store. It's been there for weeks now.

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/01/26/fully-functional-mame-em...

> This means if you have a program capable of tunneling into the iOS file-system through USB, you can once again have a working version of MAME on a non-jailbroken device

What kind of program would I have that is capable of tunneling into the iOS file-system through USB?

http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/ or http://i-funbox.com, for example.

Does anyone have any particular recommendations on which one is better? I don't mind paying for iExplorer, I'm just wondering if there is any issue with reliability/safety/security with either of these two.

iFunbox is great, free, and works on both OS X and Windows.

Highly recommend it, it's what I personally use.

Also - note that this build of Gridlee is equivalent with MAME 0.139u1 - so when looking for ROMs, you may need to lookup the ROM on http://www.mamedb.com/ to see what version of MAME compatibility for your ROM/game was introduced (especially for newer arcade games).

I'm a newbie to this stuff and used iFunbox using the tutorial here:

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2013/01/27/mame-gridlee-guide/

The only tricky part that's missing from those instructions is that you have to run the game once before the roms folder is created.

I believe iTools is the one that is recommended:

http://www.itools.ru/

iFunbox is a free one.

Would be cool if this app integrated with the new dropbox SDK for iOS.

If you've got a dev account you've been able to build MAME via Xcode for ages http://code.google.com/p/imame4all/

If this comments thread is to be believed, the original iMAME in the app store was not pulled by Apple, but on request of MAMEdev team:

ScottishCaptain: "iMAME was pulled ON REQUEST of mamedev.org because it reflects poorly upon the project (as I quite clearly stated before, but got flamed into oblivion). iMAME (and it's derivatives) is based upon MAME 0.37b, which is nearly 10 years old now (if you don't believe me, go check out mamedev.org's previous version section and look up 0.37b- it's from y2k)."

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/24/imame-app-gets-pulled-fro...

Also, "MAME" is trademarked to the MAMEdev team and they request that you get their permission before using it.

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