Retro game emulators are coming to Apple’s App Store

Under pressure from EU and US regulators, Apple was forced to agree to some relaxations in its own policy. In particular, retro games will now be available to App Store users, and audio streaming applications will be able to include active links to developers’ websites. Retro game emulators can already be placed on the App Store with worldwide downloads.

But iPhone owners may be disappointed when they don’t see retro “toys” available on the Android platform in the store. The thing is, Apple’s wording is quite vague. Emulators of classic games run in files with ROM extension – there are quite a number of such file types in the world. Most likely, Apple will only allow games that are owned by specific companies to run. And free-to-play games, as well as games owned by owners who no longer exist, will be banned.

If it’s as described above, the set of retro games available on the iPhone will be relatively sparse. According to the Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network, about 87% of “classic” video games are no longer available.