

Full MAME emulator for non-jailbroken iOS - ujeezy
http://www.jwz.org/blog/2013/02/full-mame-emulator-for-non-jailbroken-ios/

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

~~~
sjwright
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...

~~~
Natsu
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?

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MrScruff
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.

~~~
Natsu
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.

~~~
MrScruff
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.

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drewblaisdell
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).

~~~
geon
> 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.

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rcush
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...](http://www.macrumors.com/2013/01/26/fully-functional-mame-emulator-
appears-in-app-store/)

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monochromatic
> 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?

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

~~~
kjackson2012
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.

~~~
pudquick
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).

~~~
ThomW
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.

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

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

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clobber
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...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/24/imame-app-gets-pulled-from-itunes-
app-store/)

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

