Apple’s recent App Store policy change means that emulator apps like Riley Testut’s popular Delta platform for iPhone and iPad can finally be hosted in the App Store — sans ROM, of course.
These apps have long been available to users, but they could only be sideloaded via AltStore, Sideloadly, or Xcode. For many people, this was simply too much of a challenge, either because sideloading requires certain knowledge or because of the burdensome 7-day signing period. But now that these apps can be had from the App Store, that’s not a problem anymore.
In today’s tutorial, we’ll be walking you through the process of loading a ROM in your newly downloaded Delta emulator app.
What you need to know about emulators
Before getting started, we should note that there are a few caveats to using emulators on your iPhone or iPad. Perhaps the biggest elephant in the room would be the legality of it.
Using emulators legally
Emulator apps are 100% legal and can be downloaded from the App Store — even passing the muster of Apple’s App Store review process. But you can’t play any games with an emulator app until you load a game cartridge’s Read Only Memory (ROM) into it, and this is where things can get hairy (but not if you do it correctly).
Much like decrypting apps that you download from the App Store, the only legal way to get game ROMs for your emulator app is to dump them from the game cartridges that you already own and to use the data you dump only for personal purposes. This effectively means you can’t share those files with anyone else.
A ROM dumper is typically a piece of hardware you buy, such as the one pictured below, that can read and extract said read only memory from a classic game system cartridge and write that data to your computer.
These ROM dumper tools have input(s) where you can place your game cartridge(s) and usually have a USB output that connects to your computer. Many of these dumpers, which can be purchased online, also require the use of software you can download from the internet that is required to make them work with your computer.
While you can find ROM files online to download, which is unquestionably what most people do, going this route is considered engaging in piracy. That’s because you would be downloading ROM files from an unauthorized distributor without the game author’s permission, which infringes on their copyright rights.
For these reasons, iDB will not share where to download game ROMs from since we do not condone or wish to perpetuate piracy, and we instead recommend taking the kosher route and dumping your own game cartridges for use with emulator apps like the highly esteemed Delta.
It’s a fully-functional game system
Not only can you play games using the Delta emulator app, but you can save them and you can play local multiplayer just like you could with the original game consoles too. You can even AirPlay your screen to a bigger screen, such as a television or a projector.
Upon saving a game, you can load that save over and over again, as well as overwrite your progress over and over again. It’s just like playing on the real thing.
Additionally, you can connect and use game console controllers or third-party controllers that connect via Bluetooth to control those games. You aren’t forced to play using the touch-based controls that Delta provides out of the box, however they are nice touch controls complete with haptic feedback and the whole nine yards.
Why ROMs exist
Emulating game consoles in the primary reason why the game ROM community exists, however there are other perks to this hobby as well.
For example, much of the community will point to how game cartridges wear out over time. When this happens, the game can be lost forever. Dumping the ROM onto a computer for use later not only makes emulation possible, but it preserves that game perhaps even longer than the cartridge itself can.
Since many retro game consoles and their games are no longer produced by the manufacturer, it’s particularly important to hobbyist gamers to have access to these games even today, despite only being available in the second-hand market. Preserving those games well into the future ensures that even future generations will have access to those games, even after the last retro game cartridge in existence breaks.
What Delta can play
Right out of the box, Delta is compatible with game ROM files from the following game systems:
- Nintendo Entertainment System
- Super Nintendo Entertainment System
- Nintendo 64
- Game Boy (Color)
- Game Boy Advance
- Nintendo DS*
Notice the asterisk next to the Nintendo DS. That’s because you need to load some BIOS files to make it work properly. Unfortunately, we can’t share those either and you’ll have to extract them yourself to do this legally. Attempting to play a Nintendo DS game ROM without doing this will result in errors.
More console support is expected to be added to Delta in the future, but you’ll notice that most of the available game consoles are of the Nintendo variety at this time.
In this tutorial, we will focus on what to do with the game ROM file so that you can load it in the Delta emulator app.
How to load a ROM in the Delta Emulator app
To load a game ROM that you already have in the Delta Emulator app, follow the steps outlined below:
1) Download and install the free Delta emulator app from the App Store if you haven’t already.
2) Drag your game ROM file into the AirDrop window and drop it over the device you want to transfer it to:
3) On that device, launch the Files app:
4) Navigate to the Downloads folder and tap the game ROM that you previously AirDropped:
Note: The game will automatically load into the Delta app.
5) Tap the game in Delta to launch it:
Enjoy playing the game!
You are now playing a fully emulated game on your Delta game emulator for iPhone and iPad. Wasn’t that nice and easy?
Wrapping up
We’re just absolutely ecstatic that Apple is finally allowing the Delta emulator app into the App Store and allowing fans to play retro game console games on their iPhone and iPad platforms.
While this has always been possible with sideloading, it feels entirely more legitimate now that the app can be had from the App Store and used by a wider variety of people without burdensome prerequisites.
Are you going to be playing retro games on your iPhone or iPad with the Delta emulator app? Tell us why or why not in the comments section down below.
