Recently, Apple, the tech giant, has made some changes to its policies regarding the inclusion of retro games in its app stores.
As a result, many gaming emulators, including the popular PPSSPP (a PSP emulator), are now accessible on the App Store for iOS users.
The PPSSPP is an open-source, cross-platform PSP emulator that has been available on other platforms for several years.
Evidently, macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, and many others officially had access to the emulator. Conversely, iOS users previously had to resort to sideloading or jailbreaking to obtain the emulator.
However, the wait is over as it has officially come to the App Store and was announced by a blog post.
“After nearly 12 years, PPSSPP has finally been approved for the iOS App Store! Thanks to Apple for relaxing their policies, allowing retro games console emulators on the store,” they announced.
More Details About the Development
Just a heads up, the current PPSSPP iPhone install has a few limitations.
As per their blog post, Vulkan support using MoltenVK isn't available yet, and RetroAchievements are also not supported. Additionally, the JIT recompiler and the Magic Keyboard (iPad Keyboard) are not yet compatible.
Details regarding each of these developments show there are chances MoltenVK will be re-enabled in the future. However, there's no chance for the JIT compiler, except for Apple making some changes to their current rules.
“However, the JIT compiler cannot be restored without a change in Apple’s rules. The loss of the JIT is unfortunate since, without it, our CPU emulation performance is reduced,” PPSSPP said.
Nevertheless, they pointed out that with the PPSSPP iPhone settings, the loss of the JIT recompiler won't be very noticeable.
They said most iPhones run at breakneck speed, making it almost impossible for users not to notice the loss.
New Updates Coming Up
In a follow-up blog post, PPSSPP also announced on 20th May new updates that won't be coming after the emulator's release.
Moreover, they thanked their fans for the impressive feedback they received regarding the new PPSSPP iPhone install option. Henrik Rydgård, in the blog post, said the RetroAchievements will be coming.
Basic keyboard support will be coming, allowing users to edit their nickname and RetroAchievements support.
To improve the emulator's performance, users should also expect Vulkan rendering through MoltenVK.
There will also be some addition of some accessibility settings to make things more interesting.
“Swipe-to-left gesture to go back in menus and to the menu in-game, similar to many other iOS apps,” Henrik Rydgård added.
Users can anticipate screen-dimming fixes in the future. If implemented, this means that the screen on iPads will no longer dim while playing games. PPSSPP wasn't the only game emulator to become available on Apple devices following the relaxation of old rules.
RetroArch and Gamma were also popular game emulators added to the App Store.
Gamma is designed for PlayStation 1 games, while RetroArch supports emulation for various Nintendo consoles, including N64, SNES, Game Boy, and Nintendo DS.