5 ms·
Curious as to why it took so long. Anybody around knows?
by Ecco 3y ago
Curious as to why it took so long. Anybody around knows?
- peddling-brink 3y agoI’m surprised it’s allowed at all. To my knowledge, Apple has never allowed general purpose virtualization software.
- madmoose 3y agoThere's no general purpose virtualization involved in ScummVM. It's a collection of game engines derived mostly from reverse engineering old games.
- peddling-brink 3y agoOh, well I stand corrected.
- amlib 3y agoIsn't Apple very restrictive about apps that allow running arbitrary code like emulators? I'm also a bit perplexed, unless they have changed their policy recently.
- dangus 3y agoI wonder if it was determined that the code isn’t arbitrary, and nothing is being emulated. It’s more like a content engine. Perhaps ScummVM is closer in concept to something like Super Mario Maker than to a full blown programming environment. You could argue that the custom content is “code” but it’s more like a limited set of actions accompanied with content.
- lxgr 3y agoThat ship has long sailed. There’s an x86 Linux user space emulator capable of running unmodified Alpine Linux, a shell running WASM/WASI binaries… It seems like the current bar is something like “can it plausibly run something other than pirated Nintendo ROMs”.
- simonw 3y agoWhat's that x86 Linux emulator app?
- Exonym 3y ago[iSH](https://ish.app https://ish.app).
- haunter 3y agoa-shell https://holzschu.github.io/a-Shell_iOS/ https://holzschu.github.io/a-Shell_iOS/
- lxgr 3y agoThat one runs WASM binaries interfacing (via WASI) with the native iOS AArch64 environment and some clever built-in bindings that make iOS look not entirely unlike a normal POSIX. Very impressive (and faster than emulation, since WASM can be JIT compiled by iOS!), but not Linux :)
- wk_end 3y agoIt’s got interpreters that lets it execute arbitrary (?) code, which I thought was verboten. TBH I’m not sure how this got through Apple’s censors…?
- truegoric 3y agoI’d say it’s curious it happened at all. As others have mentioned Apple doesn’t allow emulators at all in their store, perhaps they are afraid of losing too much of the market after EU forces them to allow side-loading? EDIT: I just checked the App Store listing for this app - I find it pretty hilarious (and for more than one reason) that it’s listed in the Adventure category which has a pirate flag for an icon.
- simonw 3y agoI wonder if this is a case of an individual AppStore reviewer not actually understanding what the thing they are reviewing does.
- DaiPlusPlus 3y agoI understand that new app launches need approval by someone who actually knows the rules, whereas new updates for already-published apps are run-by the rank-and-file reviewers.
- saagarjha 3y agoThis isn't necessarily true.
- madmoose 3y agoScummVM isn't an emulator, it's a collection of game engines based on reverse engineering and, on occasion, original source code donations.
- truegoric 3y agoI stand corrected, although from a policy-making perspective ScummVM allows users to run software acquired through ways not sanctioned by Apple (or owners of the original IPs), which I believe is the major part of why emulators are not allowed on App Store and thus bears a similarity to them in that particular aspect.