Imagine the joys of playing NES games on your iPhone or iPod Touch. What could possibly be a better way to kill time while waiting for quitting time at work? Sure you could buy an handheld NES emulator or get a flash cart to run emulators on your Nintendo DS, but using your iPod Touch would open a whole new world of possibilities in which your boss would never know you're playing video games (if you are, in fact, allowed to listen to music at work). This was almost a reality. Almost.According to an article by Lex Friedman of MacWorld, Apple recently approved an NES emulator app, but then removed it soon after. The app, Nescaline, would have allowed you to play any NES ROM on your iPod Touch or iPhone, including homebrew games. The app even came with five of these homebrew games.
Nescaline’s developer had thought of everything: You could tap on objects to simulate firing upon them with the Light Gun; you could use a multitouch virtual controller; you could enter Game Genie cheat codes…Apple initially removed the app without explanation, though later they did apparently call the developer, Jonathan Zdziarski, to tell him that the app was removed "because it was an emulator." There are, however, still other video game emulation apps available in the App Store.
It's understandable that Apple wouldn't want something that could allow people to play illegal copies of games in their App Store, but it seems like they are approving an awful lot of apps that they later feel the need to remove. Do they even look at apps and consider any possible legal problems before approving them? Or do they simply approve anything that comes across their desk and let the lawyers and protesters sort them out later? Remember the Shaking Baby app? What about Zombie School?
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