The iOS App Store has a new No. 1 app, and it’s Delta — Game Emulator. Recently unbanned by Apple, the app allows players to emulate games from several different Nintendo systems, even though it isn’t officially backed by Nintendo.
As reported by The Washington Post, Apple recently loosened its App Store restrictions, allowing game emulators to return to the storefront even though they were previously banned. Emulators exist in a gray area in the video game industry, being beneficial for game preservation but also potentially facilitating illegal game play if users obtain ROMs online.
Delta — Game Emulator allows users to play ROMs of NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS games. The app also supports playing with traditional game controllers, saving progress with save states, accessing cheats from devices like Game Genie, GameShark, and Action Replay, and more.
Despite the disclaimer on its App Store page that it’s not affiliated with Nintendo, Delta has become popular among users seeking to relive Nintendo game nostalgia. It has maintained its position as the No. 1 app on the App Store since Apple loosened its restrictions, with a high user rating of 4.9 stars.
Nintendo has not issued a statement regarding the popularity of Delta. Given its history with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedowns and challenges to game preservation, the future of such apps on iOS remains uncertain despite Apple’s relaxed restrictions.
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