iPhone 3GS PlayStation, Game Boy Advance emulators demoed on video

A final iPhone 3GS jailbreak hasn't been released yet, but that isn't stopping enterprising hackers from trying to get at all that extra horsepower, and some of the first notable hacks we've seen are these updated PlayStation 1 and Game Boy Advance emulator ports, which run way faster than the versions for the original and 3G. The revved up hardware in Apple's latest is apparently capable of running either of these at 150 - 225fps with zero frameskipping, which is pretty impressive. Of course, we'll be way more impressed when the Dev Team releases a 3GS jailbreak and we can hit these up ourselves, but in the meantime there are plenty of videos to with which to while away the time at the read links.

Read - Emulator videos
Read - ZodTTD blog post with more info

[Dee @ Jun 25th 2009 10:50AM]

WOW! I am truly impressed.

[Heavytoka @ Jun 25th 2009 11:57AM]

Agreed

[cbgoding @ Jun 25th 2009 1:23PM]

I saw this article and I JIZZED. IN. MY PANTS.

[Gerard @ Jun 26th 2009 2:54AM]

Truly. That is hands down the smoothest running emulation on a phone I have ever seen. My SE Xperia can't even play it 1/4 as smooth as that even with the sound off and the resolution turned down. One thing I do lament on the iPhone is it's lack of hardware buttons. If it even just had a single D-Pad it would truly be a viable gaming device.

[onox37 @ Jun 25th 2009 10:51AM]

This has to be the greatest use of the iPhone since it came out.

[Alex @ Jun 25th 2009 11:14AM]

Perhaps. This is one situation in which the lack of tactile feedback will be truly detrimental to the user experience.

[EI8HT @ Jun 25th 2009 11:35AM]

although the idea seems very cool...the dual shock has all those buttons for a reason. i personally think that playing a playstation game on the iphone would suck. playing nes games on the iphone is hard enough, and that only has 2 buttons (besides the directional buttons). here your looking at 8 different control buttons added onto the 4 directional buttons, all on a buttonless touchscreen device.

[Brown Robott @ Jun 25th 2009 11:51AM]

The greatest use of the iPhone would be to make phone calls you idiot.

[Vanillacide @ Jun 25th 2009 12:45PM]

@ EI8HT: Dual Shock? This is a PlayStation emulator, which was pre Dual Shock. Notice the controls are the original PS gamepad design.

[Gibson @ Jun 25th 2009 1:09PM]

That touchscreen gamepad literally makes my joints hurt.

[logicbomb.de @ Jun 25th 2009 1:58PM]

Turned based RPGs like FFVII wouldn't be too difficult to play.

the dev could probably even add accelerometer function for the dpad tilt-to-move or something

[Poo_and_Wee @ Jun 25th 2009 2:01PM]

@Vannilacide: http://195.224.149.148/SB/playstation1_dual.jpg

DERP DERP DERP

[SimbaDogg @ Jun 25th 2009 7:22PM]

dude...i hate to be the first one to bring it up...but after reading the article i was very impressed. and since i'm so used to seeing either this, or "first" i did a "ctrl +f" and typed in "crysis". seems like this blog is finally starting to evolve.

[DeepMartin @ Jun 25th 2009 10:51AM]

how come apple doesnt do this?

[cxp3 @ Jun 25th 2009 10:52AM]

Because of their ridiculous rules surrounding App store apps

[Jamesology @ Jun 25th 2009 10:54AM]

Isn't ROMs illegal or even just distributing it? I don't know! But maybe that's why.

[thatrotierkid @ Jun 25th 2009 10:55AM]

probably because of the legal grey areas with emulators. you are only legally allowed to run a game on an emulator if you already own it on another system, but most choose to ignore that. so instead of opening themselves up to a firestorm, they dont have it in the app store.

[Celedhring @ Jun 25th 2009 10:57AM]

I'm sure videogame companies will be very interested in licensing their content for the iPhone if legal channels were available.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 25th 2009 11:24AM]

No, Apple forbids code plug-ins for programs (not just emulators) that aren't also sold through the store. This is because Apple wants to control all the code that runs on the device and take 30% of the sales. If I could release an app with plug-in code, I would just release one app and give it away for free, then sell the plug-ins outside the store and keep all the money for myself. Even more, I could lets others sell plug-ins for my app (perhaps only charging 15% to the seller) and then no developer would need to use the store and Apple would lose their app store revenue.

[Tsing Tao @ Jun 25th 2009 4:38PM]

@WhyNot Yes and you would lose your free hosting, free advertising, free credit card processing etc etc etc. In addition with the 3.0 update you could technically sell all of the roms within the app. Though it is true about the code bit, you cant create an app that processes any kind of code that the formal SDK does not.

[VanillaSpice @ Jun 25th 2009 10:17PM]

I think it is the combination of the two. Since it could threaten Apple's monetization of the device, and because of the legal issues surrounding emulators, it's just so much easier for Apple to ban them outright. Sucks for users, sure, but makes Apple's life a heck of a lot easier.

One does get the impression, though, that a Sony-approved PS emulator, with in-app game purchasing (so Apple gets their cut) would *still* be denied.

[Celedhring @ Jun 25th 2009 10:52AM]

And that's why the iPhone won't become a serious gaming platform: virtual control buttons taking over half the screen. It's a pity, since they can do very nice stuff with the revised hardware.

[Greg N. @ Jun 25th 2009 10:53AM]

Yea but for RPG's it should work well.

Golden Sun, FF series, etc.

[robpetrin @ Jun 25th 2009 10:54AM]

Basically.... the "shoulder buttons" now have to be pressed with like.... the.... back... of the index finger? Weird.

[Brat @ Jun 25th 2009 10:57AM]

Id buy a nice PS style controller case if they exist and had good games for the IPhone. Apple really should give developers more space! I think they're shooting themselves in the foot!

[ilkyone @ Jun 25th 2009 11:06AM]

only because nobody has use the new dock connector APIs to sell a game pad... *YET* I'm sure somebody has a PS controller, a soldering iron and the SDK out as we speak.

[b3tan @ Jun 25th 2009 11:12AM]

If you take a look at sonic in the app store, you can play it like seen above or you can full screen and have transparent buttons over the actual game. Works quite well.

[Celedhring @ Jun 25th 2009 11:18AM]

Yes, I have tried the "invisible buttons" in some games on a friends' Touch. Having my chubby fingers all over the screen is still pretty detrimental to the game experience.

A "button case" would be a nice solution if done elegantly and supported in apps across the board. Using BT keyboards or such sort of kills the portability of the device.

[Quix @ Jun 25th 2009 12:15PM]

WHERE'S MY STARCRAFT - IPHONE EDITION?????

[aMac @ Jun 25th 2009 1:23PM]

I don't see the problem with that virtual game pad at all.

Obviously you aren't meant to have your fingers over the shoulder buttons when you play, and you need to press them with your thumb.
Granted this means that many games won't be practical to play anyway, as you can only have 2 independent inputs, so any game where you need to press a direction and more than one other button won't work.

As for the issue of the buttons taking up half the screen, what other option is there? If you have the game playing horizontally, then the buttons would need to be invisible or tiny on the sides of the screen, and no one likes that.
As it is with the setup being vertical, extra screen height space for is useless, as it would mess up the video aspect ratio, so there's no reason NOT to have massive buttons.

Not all games will practically be playable with this setup, but for those it works with, it'll be fantastic to have.

[iphonerulez @ Jun 25th 2009 4:51PM]

Don't any of you boneheads know that they're coming out with a Bone Controller. Jeez. There'll probably be a number of add-on controllers for the iPhone and Touch within the year. Get off the negativity and get with the program. Bluetooth profiles are being written for BT controllers and there's still the 30 pin connector that can be used.

http://www.videogamenews.com/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ArticleView/mid/625/articleId/1865/iPhone-Bone-controller.aspx

[Decoy @ Jun 26th 2009 12:33AM]

The shoulder buttons are activated with the shuffle headphones - double click for left shoulder button, triple click for right.

[Kelmon @ Jun 26th 2009 11:29AM]

"And that's why the iPhone won't become a serious gaming platform: virtual control buttons taking over half the screen."

I entirely agree that playing old games with a virtual controller is dumb. It's a nice "blast from the past" but much like playing emulated NES games on a keyboard is not as much fun as playing on the NES controller itself, so playing old games on the iPhone isn't as much fun as playing them on the correct hardware. The reason for this is easy: the iPhone wasn't designed to play GBA or PlayStation games. But this is not to say that it couldn't become a serious gaming platform (it can be argued that it already is, much to my own surprise - I seriously never saw this coming). All that it requires is that games are designed for the hardware. I don't accept that buttons are necessary to play games or to be taken seriously but, much like the Nintendo Wii, it does require game developers to think in a different way.

[Stig___ @ Jun 25th 2009 10:53AM]

Final Fantasy 7 would be good enough reason to make me upgrade my iPhone 3g

[Jamesology @ Jun 25th 2009 10:55AM]

Ditto! I love Blackberries but seeing that game cover pretty got me sold.

[robpetrin @ Jun 25th 2009 10:52AM]

Unless it's a two-in-one emulator, wouldn't these be TWO of the first notable hacks?

Not being grammar police, but wondering if it's a single "port" or multiple ports.

Yeah okay, I'm being grammar police.

[CreepinJesus @ Jun 25th 2009 10:59AM]

Someone's got to do it!

[Will Clark @ Jun 25th 2009 10:52AM]

150-225 fps?! Can we infer from this that it would run reasonably well on a 3G too?

[robpetrin @ Jun 25th 2009 10:55AM]

You know what they say about people who infer... they make an in....

Hmm.

[zenstylejunglist @ Jun 25th 2009 11:28AM]

From my experience with the PSX emulator on my first gen iPhone I'd say the 3G will run it just as slow. It runs, but not very fast. The GBA & SNES emulators from Zodttd are really good on the first gen though.

http://www.zodttd.com/blog/

[zenstylejunglist @ Jun 25th 2009 11:31AM]

There is a new version of gpSPhone (GBA Emulator) too.

5.0! http://www.zodttd.com/blog/2009/04/11/vastly-improved-gpsphone-v500-released-publicly/

[ash chapman @ Jun 25th 2009 11:35AM]

@robpetrin

Funny you should use that... I ran through a make believe version of that very conversation in my head yesterday. Weird, right? And now I'm telling you about it.

[Rob @ Jun 25th 2009 10:54AM]

Ability to use a PS3 controller would have a huge advantage though awkward.

[cdm710 @ Jun 25th 2009 12:08PM]

That would be pretty cool and seems like a possibility since it's bluetooth

[Yaw Dapaah @ Jun 25th 2009 10:53AM]

now someone figure out a way to connect (via BT) to my DS3 and i'll be golden.

[logicbomb.de @ Jun 25th 2009 2:03PM]

Good call.

It'll happen enventually.

[tim h @ Jun 25th 2009 10:53AM]

rendering 225fps of a postage stamp? i'm not sure if I'm impressed.

[HTCMogul.Info @ Jun 25th 2009 11:15AM]

You must have some huge postage stamps where you live...

Just sayin'

[Mahesh @ Jun 25th 2009 10:53AM]

iphone 2g??

[JonnyW @ Jun 25th 2009 11:14AM]

ohhh...preeetty..