5 ms·

Apple yanks C64 emulator from App Store

17 points by billpg 17y ago

JMostert 17y ago
The stark irony of this is, of course, that very few games on the Commodore 64 used or required BASIC, and certainly none of the popular ones. BASIC games where the first generation, before people mastered assembly. Some games may make proficient use of internal BASIC routines, but most will bank the BASIC ROM out of sight and never look back. Without BASIC, you won't get that READY. prompt and you can't enter LOAD "* ", 8, 1, but that hardly seems an obstacle. The simple fact of the matter is that any emulator, or for that matter any programming environment that can be used to create one will allow users to run "illegal copies of games" (though with slowdown that could be crippling, admitted). They should ban emulators altogether, and anything that even smells like custom code execution (subject to Apple's discretion, of course). I propose "applications may not supply a Turing-complete environment to users", though regrettably this may mean spreadsheets and anything using macros may have to get the axe as well...
zandorg 17y ago
My guess is it's RunStop/Restore key combination resetting back to the BASIC prompt.
gaius 17y ago
Users should have kept schtum, shouldn't they?
blasdel 17y ago
Typing in games from listings in magazines was annoying enough on a full-size keyboard 25 years ago -- do they really expect people to do it on an iPhone?
davidw 17y ago
Here's one for S60 that works pretty well: http://koti.mbnet.fi/~haviital/index.shtml?projects_frodo http://koti.mbnet.fi/~haviital/index.shtml?projects_frodo
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
- Tichy 17y ago
  "And it's for copyright issues, not for security. " Huh?
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - lurkinggrue 17y ago
    "And then it found that Manomio hadn't yanked the interpreter, it had simply tucked it out of sight." It wouldn't BE a C64 emulator without the basic interpreter.
    - teeja 17y ago
      So much for "thinking different".
lurkinggrue 17y ago
Good thing they pulled it, god knows what script kiddies would have done to the iPhone platform once they learned how to access the basic interpreter on the C64. sys49152? Seriously, how insane are these people at Apple app approval department?
jacquesm 17y ago
That didn't take very long. High time for a competing app distribution network for the iphone. Just imagine, Commodore Basic on your Iphone... the dangers! "Apple's logic was that this tool could allow users to run illegal copies of games, holding it open to a charge of contributory copyright infringement." That's what you get for trying to control a platform. Imagine: IBM Built the PC well before the Internet era, what would the world look like if they had had the possibility to have all of us under their thumb the way Apple does with the Iphone.
- gojomo 17y ago
  High time for a competing app distribution network for the iphone. For those willing to jailbreak their phones, there is the 'Cydia Store': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydia_(application)#Cydia_Store http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydia_(application)#Cydia_Store
- bitwize 17y ago
  That's what you get for trying to control a platform. What, a fuckton of money and all the user and developer mindshare you can ask for? Closed platforms are the way of the future, man.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    > Closed platforms are the way of the future, man. I sincerely hope that you are wrong. For now Apples app store acceptance policies have given it the biggest PR headache in years.
    - tedunangst 17y ago
      Yeah, you should see the lines at Apple stores filled with people returning their iPhones because they can't run C64 emulators. The app store is only a PR disaster for the 200 people who read HN. Scratched nanos was a bigger PR headache than this.
      - jacquesm 17y ago

17 points by billpg 17y ago

The stark irony of this is, of course, that very few games on the Commodore 64 used or required BASIC, and certainly none of the popular ones. BASIC games where the first generation, before people mastered assembly. Some games may make proficient use of internal BASIC routines, but most will bank the BASIC ROM out of sight and never look back. Without BASIC, you won't get that READY. prompt and you can't enter LOAD "* ", 8, 1, but that hardly seems an obstacle. The simple fact of the matter is that any emulator, or for that matter any programming environment that can be used to create one will allow users to run "illegal copies of games" (though with slowdown that could be crippling, admitted). They should ban emulators altogether, and anything that even smells like custom code execution (subject to Apple's discretion, of course). I propose "applications may not supply a Turing-complete environment to users", though regrettably this may mean spreadsheets and anything using macros may have to get the axe as well...

zandorg 17y ago

My guess is it's RunStop/Restore key combination resetting back to the BASIC prompt.

gaius 17y ago

Users should have kept schtum, shouldn't they?

blasdel 17y ago

Typing in games from listings in magazines was annoying enough on a full-size keyboard 25 years ago -- do they really expect people to do it on an iPhone?

davidw 17y ago

Here's one for S60 that works pretty well: http://koti.mbnet.fi/~haviital/index.shtml?projects_frodo http://koti.mbnet.fi/~haviital/index.shtml?projects_frodo

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

Tichy 17y ago
"And it's for copyright issues, not for security. " Huh?
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- lurkinggrue 17y ago
  "And then it found that Manomio hadn't yanked the interpreter, it had simply tucked it out of sight." It wouldn't BE a C64 emulator without the basic interpreter.
  - teeja 17y ago
    So much for "thinking different".

lurkinggrue 17y ago

Good thing they pulled it, god knows what script kiddies would have done to the iPhone platform once they learned how to access the basic interpreter on the C64. sys49152? Seriously, how insane are these people at Apple app approval department?

jacquesm 17y ago

That didn't take very long. High time for a competing app distribution network for the iphone. Just imagine, Commodore Basic on your Iphone... the dangers! "Apple's logic was that this tool could allow users to run illegal copies of games, holding it open to a charge of contributory copyright infringement." That's what you get for trying to control a platform. Imagine: IBM Built the PC well before the Internet era, what would the world look like if they had had the possibility to have all of us under their thumb the way Apple does with the Iphone.

gojomo 17y ago
High time for a competing app distribution network for the iphone. For those willing to jailbreak their phones, there is the 'Cydia Store': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydia_(application)#Cydia_Store http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydia_(application)#Cydia_Store
bitwize 17y ago
That's what you get for trying to control a platform. What, a fuckton of money and all the user and developer mindshare you can ask for? Closed platforms are the way of the future, man.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  > Closed platforms are the way of the future, man. I sincerely hope that you are wrong. For now Apples app store acceptance policies have given it the biggest PR headache in years.
  - tedunangst 17y ago
    Yeah, you should see the lines at Apple stores filled with people returning their iPhones because they can't run C64 emulators. The app store is only a PR disaster for the 200 people who read HN. Scratched nanos was a bigger PR headache than this.
    - jacquesm 17y ago