Apple’s latest update for iOS and iPadOS has enabled something that the company would have most certainly preferred to keep under lock and key: the ability to download apps from outside the official App Store.
The change is a result of the Digital Markets Act in the EU, which is intended to enforce a fairer digital economy with better competition, although Apple has been staunchly against opening up its ecosystem for years. Currently, this change is only applicable in Europe, but it’s possible that other global regions may follow suit at a later date.
Why is this notable? Well, it looks as though the first third-party app ‘store’, dubbed AltStore PAL, is now available to download with a small one-off fee (thanks, Phone Arena). This is particularly notable for Nintendo fans as one of the first apps available within AltStore PAL is, surprise surprise, a Nintendo emulator known as Delta.
The app is reportedly able to run games from the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, N64, Nintendo DS, and Sega Genesis. Riley Testut, one of the co-developers of AltStore and Delta itself, has been building emulators for more than a decade and says in a blog post that he is heavily inspired by the Smash Bros. community who, as Testut puts it, “keep fighting to play this 20-year-old game” despite controversial moves from Nintendo.
He states that Delta is more than just about emulators, however:
“This is about all the indie developers who’ve ever received a phone call telling them their app is rejected, but not telling them how to fix it; all the high schoolers who couldn’t release their app because it “wasn’t good enough”; all the startups who missed their launch dates due to Apple requesting yet another resubmission; all the users who think tech is boring now (it is) and assumes that’s just how it has to be (it doesn’t).”
So, AltStore PAL and Delta have now legally circumvented Apple’s own app store to allow for a Nintendo emulator to operate on iOS devices. It remains to be seen whether Nintendo itself will have anything to say about it.
What do you make of the ability to download third-party app stores on iOS devices? Would you want to play emulators on your iPhone or iPad? Let us know with a comment.