TurboGrafx-16 emulation hits the iPhone

Finally, the ultimate dream of all iPhone owners has come to pass: TurboGrafx-16 emulation. Thanks once again to the massive talents at ZodTTD, Apple's phone has gotten another piece of the emulator puzzle in the form of Temper4iphone, a fully functioning recreation of everyone's favorite under-performing game console. The app can play both TurboGrafx and PC-Engine games, as well as CD-based ROMs. Right now the software is only available to beta testers (and donation-makers), though it's expected to hit wide release soon. Check the video after the break and see for yourself.

[Via Joystiq]

[Fernando @ May 30th 2008 10:13AM]

Wasn't this posted like 2 days ago? Damn I have an iPhone and I love it but you guys need to cool the iPhone posts down a bit WTF.

[Tim @ May 30th 2008 10:14AM]

Isn't that the attract mode? I can't imagine actually playing with the touch screen. Still very cool, though. :^)

[Heinz @ May 30th 2008 10:16AM]

Old iPhone ahhh, bring on the 3G sweetness!!!!

[Vidit Bhargava @ May 30th 2008 10:19AM]

uh...more games for the toy

[Flashpoint @ May 30th 2008 10:23AM]

I am absolutely not a macfanboy. In fact, I hated Macintosh until I was forced to use Leopard Server for my office and my company gave me an iPhone.

I know how you feel, but, keep in mind, once you get an iphone, this stuff actually matters to you.

[0megapart!cle @ May 30th 2008 11:21AM]

If I get an iPhone, I don't think I will suddenly have the urge to know every possible piece of news about my shiny device.

Don't project, dude. We don't all have your problems.

[Greg @ May 30th 2008 10:20AM]

Stop with the fucking iPhone articles. What the hell is wrong with the writers on this site? Do they not get it through their head?

[Vidit Bhargava @ May 30th 2008 10:22AM]

na...they like to rage wars...enjoy it and make money out of it
dont you see...2-3 iphone/apple posts everyday...its money minting tech for them and all are f**kin rumors

[Joshua Topolsky @ May 30th 2008 10:32AM]

Here's a thought -- just don't read the articles you're not interested in. Works like a charm. I also find it helpful to not spend time commenting on articles I'm not interested in as well, especially if my comment is just about how I hated reading the article.

[Steffen Jobbs @ May 30th 2008 11:40AM]

IPHONE! IPHONE! We all want to hear about.... IPHONES.

Oops. Sorry 'bout that, dude.

[Vic the One @ May 30th 2008 12:32PM]

What the writers on this site DO seem to understand (a lot better than you do) is that whether people love Apple or hate it, it is an absolute magnet for comments and site hits. People who like Apple read the article and post, and people who don't like it make Engadget even more money by whining about it in comments... If you want them to stop posting the Apple news, the best way to get them to do so is to ignore it altogether.

[shanoboy @ May 30th 2008 10:20AM]

Someone try this out and tell us how well playing a game with those touch controls actually works. I can't imagine it working very well.

[Flashpoint @ May 30th 2008 10:21AM]

I am an iphone owner ( moved from a Blackberry 7290)

Regardless what the apple fanboys might say, the iphone's touchscreen is terrible to use as a video game controller.

it has no tactile feedback whatsoever and no "spring tension" to aid human reflexes - which is extremely important in most Konami games.

I would perfer a device with a D-pad and 4 action buttons + 2 shoulder buttons (similar to the GamePark handhelds) for playing emulated games. I have the Turbo graphix 16 emulator, Genesis and NES and SUPER NES for my PSP with over 120 full games stored on a Memory Stick Pro Duo (for details you can find this in NYC Chinatown).

The Emulator works FAR better on PSP.

[Vidit Bhargava @ May 30th 2008 10:23AM]

the first iphone user who makes sense :)

[Heinz @ May 30th 2008 10:27AM]

Wow, I can't imagine life without my nes on the iphone.

Let me see psp is a game system, the iphone is a phone and you can play games on it. Of course the psp is better for games. iPhone nes is just for fun. Who cares about springs and buttons? The touchscreen is awesome to use, no one has really lived until the play duckhunt on the iphone. You can actually touch the birds to shoot them, do that on a psp.

[Fernando @ May 30th 2008 10:55AM]

Some games are playable, Excitebike, Mario, pacman, duckhunt, Contra, some are not Arkanoid, shooters, etc. It all depends on the game whether or not the touch screen is good enough. But there is definitely nothing wrong with it, NES emu on iPhone works great, kills your battery but works great.

[KEROLiUKAS @ May 30th 2008 11:31AM]

@ Heinz
And emulation of NES/SNES etc has been on Windows Mobile for like how long? like long long ago..lol


IDK why people these days think the iphone is a 'revolution' it is nothing but Apple cashing in on their marketing and selling an underpowered smartphone to mainstream opposed to Windows Mobile phones which are not as mainstream in every day life, because idiots don't buy it for the 'pretty UI' (which can be easily achieved on WM too btw.)

[Brendan Sheehan @ May 30th 2008 12:29PM]

As a game controller the iPhone suits me, but I can see how it would be an issue with certain games.

A solution for you may be closer then you think however: http://www.icontrolpad.com/

[Kaiser-Machead @ May 30th 2008 1:54PM]

@KEROLiUKAS:

In what way do you mean underpowered? If you mean application support, then this is currently true.

If you mean raw hardware specs, then that would be incorrect.

[happy_penguin @ May 30th 2008 6:44PM]

I'm a happy iPhone owner and I agree that it's probably not a good game platform, but I wouldn't know for sure because I've never tried it. I think if they're going to have games on iPhone they should be games that are well suited to the touch screen. Not all games are going to work well.

While we're on the subject of the touch screen, the keyboard isn't all that great either but it does suffice for my needs. I rarely text but when I do I can't help but think that a true keyboard would be better. But the things iPhone does well, it does very well. Mainly, it's a nice iPod and a decent although not perfect phone which occupies the space of one device in my pocket. Plus, it has all these other little goodies in it like a super calendar and a good web browser and more. And it's thin. The thinner the better in my pocket and no other device like this with these features is thinner.

No, the iPhone is not perfect but I do love it. You have to make your choices according to your wants and needs. I'm a fan, not a fanboy.

[PCIV @ May 31st 2008 3:19PM]

iPhone:

Supercalender, no.
but underpowered? They still haven't made anything as smooth as the interface on WM6. I know, I run a prophet overclocked, and it can't compare to my friend's iTouch. Plus, NES playing on a WM6 isn't that good either.

[Gingerbread Man @ May 30th 2008 10:34AM]

Cool that it's there but, I kinda like my warranty and Im not sacrificing that over some games. Sure enough a month after I would download that thing the volume would stop working or the phone would freeze up on me.

[g3n3tix @ May 30th 2008 10:42AM]

It would be better ergonomic if the on screen buttons were on each side of the phone (in landscape/movie watching mode)
Think of a PSP-like layout.

[Steffen Jobbs @ May 30th 2008 11:46AM]

You're not the only one that thinks that way:
http://www.icontrolpad.com/

[Jonathan @ May 30th 2008 10:53AM]

I loved that game. I remember if you put the turbo button on you could do this crazy mid-air spin thing that slowed your decent when you jumped.

Ah, and legendary axe... so many memories. [tear]

[darkstar @ May 30th 2008 11:09AM]

any way to add a bluetooth controller, such as the ps3's controller??
doesnt make much sense using the touchscreen

[chefgon_ign @ May 30th 2008 11:16AM]

You'd be better off carrying a dedicated gaming device in addition to your phone than trying to cram a PS3 controller in your pocket.

[justin @ May 30th 2008 11:17AM]

Now all I need is that Neo-Geo emulator to complete my trifecta of obsolete gaming platforms on my iPhone.

I'm so lonely.

[isdnelson @ May 30th 2008 11:19AM]

Pretty cool stuff!

Any idea if this works on ipod touch?

[pickleman77 @ May 31st 2008 2:18PM]

Yes, it does =D I'm an iPod Touch owner (Beta tester) and it works great! The controls take some getting used to, but its still reallllly cool.

[Steffen Jobbs @ May 30th 2008 11:37AM]

I'd read about this emulator the other day. It's amazing that the iPhone emulator will turn out to be better than the actual Turbographx-16. You'd never have been able to fit the original in your pocket unless you were Paul Bunyon or the Fifty-foot woman and you'd need a portable generator to use it on the go.

For the member that says the emulator works better on the PSP: Do you mean it runs faster or smoother or that the PSP has better controls? Just curious.

[Steffen Jobbs @ May 30th 2008 12:15PM]

@KERO
You are right. Most of those emulators were developed for WinMo. However, why didn't MS push to make WinMo-powered smartphones a mainstream product? It doesn't take a genius to know these emulators were developed before the iPhone existed. If most people don't hear of these things, then it's just assumed that they didn't exist before and nobody cares enough to find out.

In a year, hardly anyone will care whether the emulators were first on WinMo handsets. In a year, all they'll know is that the iPhone is THE coolest handset to play emulated games on. True gaming nerds will know otherwise, but the general public won't give a crap. Marketing and sheer iPhone numbers will win the day for Apple. For all intents and purposes, it'll be like Apple invented game emulators (at least the best ones).

[Chrisvanren @ May 30th 2008 12:18PM]

YAY GOOOOOO APPLE IPHONE MADNESS

[crow610 @ May 30th 2008 12:36PM]

Why did you have to remind me of the TG-16. I'm still trying to forget that I ever invested in that stupid machine.

[Zak @ May 30th 2008 12:47PM]

You're crazy, Bonk and Monster Lair were awesome.

[Alex @ May 30th 2008 6:18PM]

I owned all three of the "16-bit" systems out at the time, but the Turbo easily received the most playing time out of all of 'em. Five player Bomberman '93 and Dungeon Explorer, not to mention the multitude of awesome shooters...

[Jake @ Jun 1st 2008 12:52AM]

Splatterhouse FTW!

-jp

[Jason @ May 30th 2008 1:35PM]

Finally a reason to buy the iPhone! Oh, wait, it doesn't support a joystick yet.

[Leroy Vargas @ May 30th 2008 1:40PM]

Was this made with the SDK, or does it require the jailbreak?

[Mindfield @ May 30th 2008 6:52PM]

Jailbreak. Apple wouldn't approve emulators for the App Store in a brazillion years. Too much gray legal area, plus they'd have to build in a way to transfer arbitrary data (ROMs) to arbitrary locations on the device.

[TheYoshi @ May 30th 2008 2:10PM]

Why do you idiots always whine about iPhone stories? Don't read it if you don't care. I don't care about the weather but you don't see me writing the local news channel complaining about it every time they mention it.

No one at Engadget held you down and forced you to read the story, you read it of your own volition, so shut the eff up.

[fart-nando(yes its my, name blame my rents!) @ May 30th 2008 2:19PM]

let me show you how its done!!!
flame s-p-a-m flame s-p-a-m flame!!! omgoogle! tg-16!!!! wholey crap-a-moley batman! and i thought i was old-ish...
im not getting the whole deal with tg-16 emulation...lets see if they can bring back ball-in-a-cup! hahaha! -coordination junkies!
or better do something that hasnt been done...like make a cure for cancer or even navigate that humongoid rock in outter space to our sun so the vampires will come out and suck us all dry!
^_^
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! hahaha!

[oliver hart @ May 30th 2008 2:39PM]

wow that guys had too much coffee and not enough meds

[Shunnabunich @ May 30th 2008 5:47PM]

I was going to watch the video, but then I noticed that because of the background on the control pad in the photo, one of the buttons looks like this:

:|

And then nothing else mattered.

[Mindfield @ May 30th 2008 6:50PM]

Ha! I didn't even realize that. Brilliant. Perfect commentary on most people's feelings about playing with a virtual joypad.

[Mindfield @ May 30th 2008 6:47PM]

Ritalin in the bowl to your left, beta blockers on the right. Those who need them, please partake or there will be blood. And the iPhone haters, feel free to go out the way you came in, then use the filter Engadget helpfully provides to block iPhone news so you so biliously despise. (http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/tired-of-iphone-and-or-apple-news-on-engadget/)

As for the emulator, it runs exceptionally well. Very compatible, full-speed. A few glitches here and there, some issues with CD games that will be fixed before release. Yes, playing with a virtual keypad is teh suck, but whaddya gonna do? Plus, ZodTTD, the emulator's portmaster (among his other emus) will likely build support in for the iControl Pad mentioned upthread -- since he has a little something to do with the project.

[Mindfield @ May 30th 2008 6:49PM]

Oh, and better video demo here:

http://www.touchpodium.com/2008/05/28/temper4iphone-beta-preview/

[CitizenLee @ Jun 3rd 2008 11:04AM]

I used to have the handheld... it was awesome! Chan and Chan FTW!

Just too bad it's on iPhone as I dont have the right haircut to own one, and 2MP camera phones are so like OMGZ so totally outdated in the UK :(