iNES —

NES/SNES emulator sneaks into iOS App Store

"Floppy Cloud" hides emulation support in Dropbox file manager.

A screenshot from inside Floppy Cloud's NES emulator interface.
A screenshot from inside Floppy Cloud's NES emulator interface.

It looks like yet another app that lets you emulate classic gaming hardware has slipped through the iOS ban on such activity. Floppy Cloud is described on the App Store as a way to juggle files easily between an iDevice, a Dropbox folder, or an FTP server, and it does support some basic features to that end. However, it also sports a hidden feature that lets you load up an NES or SNES ROM from your Dropbox folder and into a built-in emulator right on your iDevice (as spotted by Touch Arcade).

The emulation ran pretty decently in our quick tests, supporting features like save states and basic graphical enhancements such as anti-aliasing and frame skips. There's even built-in support for iCade and other bluetooth controllers, so you don't have to fumble with those annoying on-screen control overlays. There is no native support for iPhone 6 or 6 Plus users, though the emulators do run in a blurry, upscaled mode.

It looks like developer Kyle Hankinson tried to sneak the app onto the store right before the annual holiday freeze, when many Apple employees are on break and further app approval and store maintenance is put largely on hold until the new year (classic arcade emulator iMAME pulled a similar trick back in 2011 and was up on the store for two whole days). That likely won't stop Apple from removing the hidden emulator rather quickly, so those interested in iOS emulation without the need to jailbreak should buy the $1.99 app as soon as possible.

Channel Ars Technica