C64 emulator pulled from App Store

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 09 September 2009 03:15

Your IT - Mobility

C64, a well received Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone, has been pulled from Apple's App Store. The developer hopes it will soon return.

Manomio's $A5.99/$US4.99 C64 Commodore C64 emulator was shipped with five games - Dragons Den, Le Mans, Jupiter Lander, Arctic Shipwreck, and Jack Attack. More games, including Bristle, Astro Chase, and Commodore Sports Pack 1, were said to be on their way.

But there was a glitch in the company's plans. When C64 was first submitted to the App Store, Apple denied approval as the emulator included the Commodore 64's BASIC mode, allowing people to enter and run programs.

That fell foul of Apple's rules, which apparently forbid the selling of emulators that can run user-supplied code. C64 was OK as far as the games were concerned, as they were packaged with the emulator. (We don't yet know whether Manomio plans to use in-app purchasing for add-on game packs.)

But BASIC was a stumbling block. Manomio disabled the interpreter and the app was approved, but as previously reported users soon discovered how it could be re-enabled. The news travelled fast, and once Apple got wind of it the app was withdrawn from sale.

According to Manomio officials, "We have now fixed the issue and our application has been re-submitted for approval by Apple." The company hopes C64 will return to the App Store in the next few days.

Apple's policies and procedures for approving iPhone apps come in for regular criticism from sections of the developer community. There have been suggestions that rules are applied arbitrarily, and that the approval of simple (in some cases relatively useless) apps may be prioritised over complex and more worthwhile offerings (which take longer to test) in an attempt to push as many apps as possible through the system.