If you’re willing to jailbreak, you’ve basically got pick of the litter when it comes to which of the vast array of emulators on your iOS device. If you’re not into the whole jailbreak scene but still are interested in emulation, things aren’t so easy.
There’s basically three ways for the stock firmware crew to get emulators:
- Wait for an app to get approved with secret emulator functionality and hope you’re lucky enough to grab it before Apple pulls it.
- Settle into using one of the web-based emulators out there and just come to grips with the overall experience not being that great.
- Use one of the several emulators out there that exploit a expired enterprise certificate using what’s typically been referred to as “the date trick."
#3 of the above list historically has been by far the most reliable. All you have to do it point your browser to gba4iosapp.com, go in your phone’s date settings and roll your clock back, and then install the emulator. It’s quick and simple, and is by far the easiest way for non-developers to get things on their phone that Apple would never approve for sale on the App Store.
Problem is, as pointed out by our pals at PocketGamer this morning, iOS 8.1 beta testers are reporting that Apple has finally closed this loophole. Unsurprisingly, the emulator community isn’t too happy about this. As GBA4iOS beta tester Dario Sepulveda writes:
The Date Trick fuels the emulator communities nowadays, iEmulators.com relies on this to continue distribution. Without it, everything looks bleak. Without GBA4iOS 2.0, everything seems… well, sad. Will iOS 8.0.2 become our perpetual purgatory so that we can continue to enjoy these things?
On one hand, as someone who loves emulation and has played what’s likely upwards of 100 hours worth of classic SNES RPGs on my iPad mini, this really blows. On the other, I can totally understand why Apple would do this. When it seems like you can hardly read the news anymore without hearing about some massive security breach, Apple needs to keep iOS secure- Particularly with how much they enjoy boasting about all the security issues and malware Android has during keynotes.
…It just sucks that emulators have been caught in the crossfire. Assuming this change in the 8.1 beta makes it out to the final 8.1 release later this month, emulation fans are going to be left with few options beyond just staying on iOS 8.0.2 forever, hoping for a new loophole, just saying screw it and jailbreaking, or paying the $99 yearly fee to become an iOS developer to just to be able to sign and install emulators yourself.
Unfortunately, none of those solutions are as simple as rolling your clock back.
[via PocketGamer]
