Commodore 64 Emulator for the iPhone
posted by Blake Patterson on May 9th, 2008 3:38 PM EDT in Emulator, Jailbreak, RetroIn a bit of news from Down Under, retro gaming fans waiting anxiously for June's arrival of the iTunes App Store have reason to rejoyce. Developer Stuart Carnie has used the iPhone SDK to port Frodo, a popular Commodore 64 emulator, to the iPhone.
It appears that in only three days, Carnie took his project from concept…
As an Objective-C / Objective-C++ / XCode / iPhone development learning experience, I have began porting the Frodo C64 emulator to the mobile OS X platform. I chose Frodo, as I have experience with this code-base, and there is a certain satisfaction of seeing the READY prompt for the first time.
…to initial success; he has a working Commodore 64 up and running on the iPhone simulator. Carnie indicates that his next steps will be to create a user interface to manage the user experience, such as implementing save / resume states, a file browser, auto-launching for games, and an on-screen virtual keyboard and joystick.
Interest in retro gaming today is huge — a quick look at the large number of retro remakes on XBOX Live and the Playstation Network confirms it. The Commodore 64 is the most popular computer in history and boasted arguably the best graphics and sound of any 8-bit home computer of its era. As such, thousands of excellent game titles were developed for it — arcade conversions as well as orginals. The promise of being able to scratch that retro itch by firing up a few of these classics on an iPhone or iPod touch while on the go has us rather excited, indeed.
A potential roadblock to mobile C64 gaming bliss on the iPhone is Apple's possible stance on distributing emulators through the iTunes App Store. The experience of using an emulated C64 is, by nature, a cryptic one to most users. What's more, emulators of this sort are usually dependent upon ROM images of the emulated system's firmware which usually cannot be distributed legally. Apple may have reservations about allowing such an application into the store. We're keeping our fingers crossed that Carnie's effort will not be resigned to use only on jailbroken devices.
What I'd really love is a decent Apple II emulator. Yea, Atari and Commodore beat it on the graphics and sound fronts, but the Apple II was my platform, back in the day.
How about a ScummVM engine for the iPhone/iPod touch?
@MooCow:
http://toucharcade.com/2008/04/08/adventure-gaming-excellents-lands-on-the-iphone/
OH man I cant wait to play omega race again!
Per the iPhone SDK license agreement:
"An Application may not itself [...] launch other executable code by any means"
I don't think we're going to be seeing emulators in the iTunes Store anytime soon…
@Thomas Harte
Ah, a rather relevant, if unfortunate find. That would seem to address the question fairly head-on. Unless Apple changes its stance there, it would seem that jailbreak may be the only route to emulation on the iPhone / iPod touch.
Thanks for the post.
@Thomas Harte
I'm not an expert by any means, but isn't an emulator just an interpreter rather a compiler. In other words the interpreted 6502 (c64) code is essentially relegated to the status of a script and could not really be considered to be "executable"?
Please correct me if i'm wrong….
Oh give me the Maniac Mansion, Bruce Lee, Misson Impossible, etc games
…oh, and wizard of war ofc…
PLEASE MAKE AN ATARI ST EMULATOR WITH WORKING MIDI PORT EMULATION THROUGH USB!! THIS WOULD BE SOOOOOOO AWESOME!
you should check out
http://www.pouet.net/
and look at the section they have for Commodore 64
people still some times make what they call "demos" for the platform.
Basically it is a video generated to show of their coding and artistic skills in such a limited environment. Plus Commodore 64 had or has what many consider to be the most advanced sound chip ever made. This is because they were replaced by modern sound cards and the only sound chips that are still around are used because they are cheep. Think of Nintendo music except the Commodore sounded a LOT better. Anyway because of that the emulation would need to be perfect. Especially the sound emulation.
It is a small market sub market but so is the market for a Commodore 64 emulator on the iPod Touch to begin with.
Also I can really see why this would be “An Application may not itself [...] launch other executable code by any means”. You could load up a rom that you make yourself to some how jailbreak the iPod Touch or execute a virus.
The way they could still publish some thing like this would be to have each program be essentially one rom plus emulator as on program with embedded files. Or maybe it would come with a small selection of files in a pack. For example Maniac Mansion, Bruce Lee, Mission Impossible and a few others in a graphics interface that is not really an emulator but instead just looks like the Commodore 64. It would be the difference between an OS (operating system) running and a program with a very retro interface and a number of (levels) you can select. You could have some share ware games on a free version and publish another that for example has all the games done by one publisher and so on. Each bundle would only be a dollar or 2 but you could make many bundles cheaply and make some prophet once you worked out how to do it.
@aidovoice: Timely post. I just saw this in my feeds this morning:
http://www.remix64.com/new_revolutionary_c64_music_routine_unveiled.html
Some demo coders just had a massive breakthrough in C64 SID music. The sample track is amazing. But, as the article says, emulators can't handle it (presently).
That's why I keep a C64 (and a few Amigas) on my desk. I am a demo addict.
Actually an emulator is an interpretor and is sandboxed in a way, isolated from the iPhone itself. I do not believe "executable" applies here as even a custom rom can only do what the emulator gives it access to do.
Well, The C64 Emulator was released in the App Store only to be pulled shortly after for having not Disabled BASIC. So they appear to have removed BASIC and re-submitted it to the App Store for Approval.
Anyways, you can re-enable BASIC in the new version on any Jailbroken Device,
I'll have those details posted on my site when and if it is ever re-approved.
Well, if you were one of the lucky few, or somehow managed to get your hands on the C64.app for iPhone and iPod Touch, and you want to write some code in BASIC, then head over to my website if you want to download the patch that will add the COLON and SEMICOLON keys to the keyboard (The Developers Failed to Include them).