iPhone goes retro with C64 emulator

Stephen Withers
Monday, 07 September 2009 07:43

Your IT - Mobility

Fancy putting some 80s style gaming in your pocket? C64 does the trick for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Manomio's C64 Commodore C64 emulator for the iPhone has quickly garnered a top popularity rating at the Australian and US App Stores, but is nowhere to be seen on the Top Paid Apps charts.

The $A5.99/$US4.99 app comes with five games - Dragons Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Arctic Shipwreck, and Jack Attack - with more titles promised, including Bristle, Astro Chase, and Commodore Sports Pack 1. The first game packs are said to be waiting in Apple's approval queue.

All titles offered for use with the C64 app are licensed by their owners. There is no provision for playing original C64 games that are already owned by the user.

However, some users have reported that it is possible to upload game files to jailbroken iPhones and then play them in C64. There are also reports that the Commodore 64's BASIC mode is present though hidden in C64, although Manomio's blog states "BASIC has been removed from this release; however, we hope that working with Apple further will allow us to re-enable it."

Some purchasers have asserted that the C64 application is based on the Frodo emulator originally created by Christian Bauer and released under the GPL. If true, that could mean legal problems for Manomio unless arrangements have been made with Bauer as the copyright owner of Frodo.

A useful feature of C64 is that it can be used in a vertical orientation, in which case a C64 keyboard or joystick are displayed beneath the screen. When rotated to landscape, the joystick disappears and its functionality replaced by virtual controls that can be activated anywhere on the screen. This allows the player's thumbs to be positioned anywhere that doesn't block the action.