NES emulator released for the iPhone

Yeah, the floodgates have opened, and we promise not to bug you with every new app to come down the pipe, but we figured you'd want to know when you can get your Mario on. Video is after the break.

[Via TUAW]

[Jim @ Aug 6th 2007 10:56PM]

http://digg.com/apple/iPhone_NES_Emulator

[D. Rich @ Aug 6th 2007 11:05PM]

Mirror at http://games.red-rome.com
Code will be available at http://developer.red-rome.com

[DickHardknocks @ Aug 7th 2007 10:32PM]

BUt......CAN IT PLAY DOOM?

[kingofnukes @ Aug 6th 2007 11:01PM]

Eveyone knew his was comming, I for some reason expected to be wide sreen tho. :-/

[Bevon Findley @ Aug 6th 2007 11:01PM]

It makes me want to get an iphone now {rolls eyes}!

[Dean M. @ Aug 6th 2007 11:04PM]

buttons definitely wouldn't come in handy for this Steve.

[Dean Marano @ Aug 6th 2007 11:05PM]

buttons definitely wouldn't be useful here Steve. Thank goodness you got rid of all of them.

[paloooz @ Aug 7th 2007 12:36AM]

I put it on my iPhone ... it's pretty slow. About half speed. That, and the controls are unusable!

Games are the one thing I can think of that need real buttons... Typing and what not works fine for me, but this? Nah... I could see games like linewriter working really well on the touch screen, but nothing that requires skill like this.

[Mike Jenkins @ Aug 6th 2007 11:09PM]

There's no video.

[Ben @ Aug 6th 2007 11:28PM]

YES YES YES

Just what I wanted.

[fischju @ Aug 6th 2007 11:14PM]

Just make it play Super R-Type (SNES) and I'll buy one.

[Shaflugi @ Aug 7th 2007 2:25AM]

Yeah, because I totally wanna play Mario at 1/3 speed. More of a proof of concept thing than something that's actually useful.

[dj-kenpo @ Aug 7th 2007 11:55AM]

Then code one better or shut yer trap.

[Revrant2394 @ Aug 6th 2007 11:23PM]

Nothing like bopping Bowser on the head in my beret and mock turtleneck, baby.

[Kyle @ Aug 6th 2007 11:25PM]

I cant ever see using the touchscreen as a decent controller... sure the iPhone has great emulator potential as it's specs are amazing, but the touch screen is so limiting... look at the NES one even, half of the screen is the controller and that's just for 6 buttons... plus with the multitouch, you could easily press all the at once without even meaning to.

[Nick @ Aug 6th 2007 11:46PM]

I didn't think I would like a touchscreen either until I tried a nintendo DS, they have quite a few popular games that use just the touch screen exclusively for the gameplay.

[Miles @ Aug 7th 2007 12:31AM]

@Nick
The difference between a NES and a DS game is that the DS game was MADE TO USE A TOUCH SCREEN

The NES game was made to use a PHYSICAL CONTROLLER.

[humpty @ Aug 6th 2007 11:25PM]

Nice PDA!

[Robert Weiss @ Aug 6th 2007 11:34PM]

he wasnt actually holding the forward button to move forward. im guessing multi-touch isnt supported so they had to use a script to keep the forward key pressed down

[Covarr @ Aug 6th 2007 11:40PM]

Touch controller = no tactile feedback. This isn't really an issue when using a stylus, as on a DS, but it's absolutely a crap replacement for buttons.

[St. Stephen @ Aug 6th 2007 11:41PM]

it's cool, but i'm waiting for the ps3 emulator on the iphone

[Bernhard @ Aug 6th 2007 11:44PM]

Nintendo's gonna sue apple for this

[fischju @ Aug 6th 2007 11:55PM]

You'd better be kidding. Do I need to explain how much is wrong with that statement?

[LordFarkward @ Aug 7th 2007 1:08AM]

the "dumbass association" is also going to sue you for stealing their lines.

though seems like they're having trouble locating their lawyer in their own asses. "nope, not in your asshole, check mine".

[Jason Gold @ Aug 6th 2007 11:50PM]

How do I put it on? Also, where do I put web 2.0 apps?

[paloooz @ Aug 7th 2007 12:38AM]

1. Jailbreak
2. Enable SSH
3. Copy NESApp.app to /Applications
4. chmod +x /Applications/NESApp.app/NESApp
5. Restart iPhone and the icon will be there at the bottom.

Have fun.

[David Sutton @ Aug 7th 2007 11:04AM]

How do I get this on my iPhone?

[Clue Less @ Aug 6th 2007 11:58PM]

What is this thing...IPhone?

[otaking241 @ Aug 7th 2007 12:14AM]

because the true measure of a $600 gadget's worth is whether it can play a 25 year-old videogame...

[Andy @ Aug 7th 2007 12:25AM]

It isn't worth buying till it can play DOOM.

[lassi @ Aug 7th 2007 8:34AM]

andy: friggin 7650 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_7650 ), in friggin 2002, had a doom port.

[EDALBNUG @ Aug 7th 2007 12:26AM]

I'm just waiting for someone to put the label "It Plays Doom" on the iPhone.
Maybe someday it'll be "It Plays Quake".

[Miles @ Aug 7th 2007 12:27AM]

I've tried playing NES on a PDA once.

Even thought it didn't have multi touch, it was still hard to even move around.

I don't see how this could be any better.

[darkstar @ Aug 7th 2007 12:42AM]

is there an NES or any other emulators for palm????
im still using my Clie. help!

[ZSX @ Aug 7th 2007 3:29AM]

Little John PalmOS: http://www.little-john.net/
Emulates:
* Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
* Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
* Nintendo Gameboy/Gameboy Color (GB/GBC)
* Sega Genesis/Megadrive
* Sega Master System (SMS)
* Sega Game Gear (GG)
* Bandai Wonderswan/Wonderswan Color (WS)
* NeoGeo Pocket/NeoGeo Pocket Color (NGP)

Palm MAME: http://www.pocketdimension.com/PalmMAME.html

For the Tapwave Zodiac (a wonderful emulator and gaming device!), you have
FrodoZ (C64): http://frodoz.sourceforge.net/
ZodMAME and LJP work well too.

[Miles @ Aug 7th 2007 12:27AM]

I've tried playing NES on a PDA once.

Even thought it didn't have multi touch, it was still hard to even move around.

I don't see how this could be any better.

[Miles @ Aug 7th 2007 12:28AM]

Is it beacuse I am using safari!?

[paloooz @ Aug 7th 2007 12:39AM]

This application is a _native_ application. It is not a web app. It does not run in Safari.

[Miles @ Aug 7th 2007 12:51AM]

I meant how every other time I post I post it twice.

[paloooz @ Aug 7th 2007 1:28AM]

Oh, then the answer to your question is yes. I actually didn't notice your first post.

Anyway, there seems to be a bug where you get redirected to some blank Engadget page. If that happens, the comment still gets posted, so just go back to the thread and see if it's there. Sometimes it takes a while... but for sure, if you hit submit with text in the text field, your comment _will_ be posted.

[Miles @ Aug 7th 2007 12:34AM]

Anyone else wonder if you could hack up a NES controller to have a dock port for the iPhone so you could use it?

I mean you can already write apps for it, so how hard would it be to make an emulator work with it?

[Shmoe @ Aug 7th 2007 12:46AM]

I see a project for Ben Heck. Fitting an iPhone dock into an original NES controller to allow this to be played with real buttons.

[Mike Kurasz @ Aug 7th 2007 12:52AM]

Well if the game was widescreen with the buttons split the touchscreen would be more than suitable for most emulators, except systems with triggers and buttons on the top... But for novelty gaming on Atari, NES, Gameboy, DS, and flash the touchscreen would be fine.

Whats with all this hating on no keys, the virtual keyboard is adaptable. The advantages far outweight the disadvantages. A keyboard thats there only when u need it, and programmable to fit different applications. If you dont like the buttons on 99.9% of phones your beat cause they are there and cannot be changed...

Also wait till the day they build a lil dock for the phone that lets u connect peripherals to use the phone as a full fledged mac..

I say thumbs up to the developers, good job keep up the good work... I can't wait for flash support tho, anyone?

[Doug @ Aug 7th 2007 1:08AM]

Good luck playing games with a touchscreen d-pad... I've tried it on another device. You can't find the "buttons" because you can't feel them, and you can't look down from the game to try and find them because you have to watch what is going on in the game the whole time. Trust me, it doesn't work.

[Mike Kurasz @ Aug 7th 2007 12:56AM]

Also, hate to flame but it doesn't take a genius to touch a picture on a screen. Just cause ur to inaccurate to type on the thing don't be a hater for your inferior motor functions.. Adapt, touchscreens are the future.. Evolution baby.

[lassi @ Aug 7th 2007 8:49AM]

no, it doesn't take a genius to press a button that you watch on the screen - doing it without watching that part of the screen is the thing.

you can't touchtype, which is the point. or play by touch. physical buttons just are better for some kind of games and activities(as is tactile feedback about that you pressed a button that it's the right button and not the middle of two buttons..), multitouch touchscreen or not you still need to see the device and just forget about using it while it's in your pocket(on most phones with dedicated multimedia buttons you can press next/prev without taking the phone out even..). iphones front does have room for a 4 way direction pad and couple of buttons anyhow.


biggest gripe about gaming on some modern phones(n95 for example) is that the directional keypad sucks for gaming. otherwise it's quite powerful(hw 3d acceleration etc).


you know why those projected pda keyboards suck? can't touchtype.

it's not like iphone is the first device with touchscreen only.


this nes emu is an impressive hack though.

[dan @ Aug 7th 2007 1:00AM]

I wonder if this will work with the iphone http://www.acidmods.com/forum/index.php?topic=854.0

[The ZeroCorpse @ Aug 7th 2007 1:23AM]

GREAT. Now you can play a game you could probably purchase for fifty cents at a garage sale on your $600 mobile phone, and all it takes is some hacking, messing about, illegal downloading, and violation of the EULA and copyright laws.

Or, as I said, you could go to a garage sale and buy an old NES for next to nothing, and then legally and cheaply play this 20-year-old game to your heart's content.

[Miles @ Aug 7th 2007 2:01AM]

And you'd have to blow, reload, etc.
Plus it's not portable like it would be on the PSP or iPhone.

[ShortFuse @ Aug 7th 2007 2:54AM]

I used to run an SNES emulator on my old PocketPC. it ran okay but controls were too awkward to really use. there's an NES emulator for the Motorola A1200 but that is also touchscreen, so not that fun.