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iMAME Arcade Emulator Hits the App Store (For Now) [Update: Pulled]

davidbix said:
Anyone else trying to use the Windows version of iExplorer getting an alert from an anti-malware app (MalwareBytes in my case) for a trojan called backdoor.bifrose? Is it a false positive?

Thanks!
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I had the same issue in Win 7 x64 - Malwarebytes reporting "Backdoor.Bifrose" in "C:\Program Files (x86)\iExplorer\iExplorer.exe". Plus, when I next rebooted, the Windows Firewall asked if I wanted to block the Akamai Netsession Client.

Anyone else? I'm going to let Malwarebytes quarantine iexplorer.exe until I'm convinced it's not malicious.
 
goMac said:
It's not breaking any of the app store rules. There are many emulators up on the app store. The only app store requirement is that you can only play games bundled with your app. It doesn't cover users jail breaking the phone and loading more.
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MAME is trademarked, so in all likeliness it was the MAME authors who had it pulled.
 
MacRumors said:
Update: It took Apple two days to get around to it with the holidays, but iMAME has been removed from the App Store.
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It was not Apple. Mamedev.org pulled it.

Taken from Engadget forum (comments):

By ScottishCaptain

Since there's a lot of fluff flying around in this thread already, let me clear up a few things.

iMAME was pulled ON REQUEST of mamedev.org because it reflects poorly upon the project (as I quite clearly stated before, but got flamed into oblivion). iMAME (and it's derivatives) is based upon MAME 0.37b, which is nearly 10 years old now (if you don't believe me, go check out mamedev.org's previous version section and look up 0.37b- it's from y2k).

The reason why iMAME is based upon such an old version vastly stems from the fact that nobody working on the project really has any idea what the hell they're doing. The iMAME source code has been hacked up and modified beyond all recognition- and MAME has changed so much between 0.37b and 0.144u3 that it would be virtually impossible to update the code without throwing out the entire project and starting again.

iMAME requires a totally different ROM set then MAME does, because most ROM files have been redumped, renamed, or otherwise improved. Remember, you're dealing with decade old source code here that expects certain files to have exact SHA1 checksums- otherwise it won't work (because you're emulating low level hardware that expects an EEPROM to contain a certain dump of code and not something else entirely).

There is NO REASON why iMAME can't contain a recent version of MAME instead. The iPhone 4 and iPad 2 have more then enough power to run a recent version of MAME- in fact, 0.144u3 would likely run FASTER then 0.37b with a higher level of accuracy- just because the code has been refined that much in 10 years.

So to recap: iMAME was pulled by mamedev.org because:

1) iMAME didn't get permission to use the MAME trademark
2) mamedev.org would never give iMAME permission to use that trademark, because the project is a hack and reflects badly upon MAME

There is no conspiracy here involving Apple or MAME. Just a bunch of lazy developers who have no idea what they're doing, doing derivative things that don't agree with the trademark and source license agreements of the original project they were based upon.

-SC
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Im having a lot of fun with imame. Got myself an icade on the back of this. Hopeing one day we will see one of these modern builds of imame. Whats the point of preserving all of this heritage if you make it so hard for anyone to actually play it. Imame has already driven me to checkout what else icade supports and I've bought all the crave titles on the app store (none of which are icade supported Booooo....crave. The fact that no one is allowed to talk about roms on these sites is killing me and is incredibly frustrating. But at least i finally get to play slap fight again : )
 
iLes said:
Somebody else might know otherwise but my experience with this is that even though you back it up, if it's been pulled from the App Store you will not be able to restore it. I had this problem with iDOS. I had it backed up but removed it from my device. Later on after it was pulled I tried reinstalling it from my backed up copy but iTunes wouldn't do it.

If you want to keep it, don't remove it from your device.

- Les
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That's good to know. Has anyone else run into this problem and can confirm?
 
DocNYz said:
That's good to know. Has anyone else run into this problem and can confirm?
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I can't confirm that. It was some months ago but I am pretty sure that I successfully installed good ol' iDOS from iTunes onto my iDevice (I think it was iPad 2).

But it's always a good idea to keep the *.ipa backed up separately somewhere.

I don't know if it has been mentioned already in this thread but since some days there is a "new iDOS" in App Store called Aemula (free). Get it before it's too late. It comes with nine good original retro games and there could be a possibility to upload other games into this DOS emulator.

Some "hackers" in touchArcade forum (have a look at the most recent postings; it has not been pulled as the thread title in the forum suggests) are investigating this right now… Get Aemula soon (iPad and iPhone version) and wish them good luck!
 
Habakuk said:
I can't confirm that. It was some months ago but I am pretty sure that I successfully installed good ol' iDOS from iTunes onto my iDevice (I think it was iPad 2).

But it's always a good idea to keep the *.ipa backed up separately somewhere.

I don't know if it has been mentioned already in this thread but since some days there is a "new iDOS" in App Store called Aemula (free). Get it before it's too late. It comes with nine good original retro games and there could be a possibility to upload other games into this DOS emulator.

Some "hackers" in touchArcade forum (have a look at the most recent postings; it has not been pulled as the thread title in the forum suggests) are investigating this right now… Get Aemula soon (iPad and iPhone version) and wish them good luck!
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Yes. There's ways to add games. Someone has already figured it out. What I'm trying to find out is how to add Super Mario. I've heard it crashes on startup. I'm trying to find other versions to see. Sigh. :(
 
Apple pulled iMAME, not MAMEdev.org.

from toucharcade.com & from the person who released the app to Apple.

Hi everyone. I just want to make it clear that the MAME team is not responsible for iMAME's disappearance. It was Apple's decision to temporarily remove iMAME from sale. We are working together to return it to the App Store (and hopefully soon.) There will likely be little progress over the holiday but follow me on Twitter and I will post updates in the new year. @JimVanDeveloper
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I saw that this came out and I downloaded it in itunes to my iMac but...

I can't seen to transfer it to any of my IOS devices.

I downloaded it on my Mac and it's in my "Apps" list in itunes but it's not showing under purchased apps - "not on this iphone" in my apps list. Tried it on the iPad and it doesn't show up under apps for ipad or iphone but it's still sitting there on the Mac.

Ideas?
 
iLes said:
Somebody else might know otherwise but my experience with this is that even though you back it up, if it's been pulled from the App Store you will not be able to restore it. I had this problem with iDOS. I had it backed up but removed it from my device. Later on after it was pulled I tried reinstalling it from my backed up copy but iTunes wouldn't do it.

If you want to keep it, don't remove it from your device.

- Les
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What about backed up in Time Machine, or the Win equivalent? You ought to be able to go to an older iOS backup file.
 
I got it before it was yanked, sadly we won't see any updates now. Tried jail-breaking my older iDevice and gave up, it wasn't worth the hassle. Its a shame Apple can't find a way to allow emulation. I'd really like to have a portable Atari ST in my pocket as well.
 
JAT said:
What about backed up in Time Machine, or the Win equivalent? You ought to be able to go to an older iOS backup file.
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Yes, I'm confused about this. Do you mean that you backed up iMAME in some way that didn't involve putting it in iTunes? iTunes will definitely put the app on the iOS device even if it's no longer in the app store (I downloaded iMAME before it was pulled and only today synced my iPhone, and it put iMAME on it without any problems).
 
So i'm trying to figure out which is better:
1) iCade
2) Atari setup

Thoughts/insight/reviews?

The atari one only work with the Atari games??
 
mkrishnan said:
Yes, I'm confused about this. Do you mean that you backed up iMAME in some way that didn't involve putting it in iTunes? iTunes will definitely put the app on the iOS device even if it's no longer in the app store (I downloaded iMAME before it was pulled and only today synced my iPhone, and it put iMAME on it without any problems).
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Ok, that's good to hear. However, just to confirm I tried to reinstall iDOS again and got the iTunes error message that says "iDOS failed to install". I'm simply trying to sync my apps from iTunes by selecting the apps I want installed then clicking on the SYNC button. It'll install all apps I selected except for iDOS.

So I'm just saying that it's possible that at some point, with iMame being pulled from the App Store, it might follow suit.

Now with that said, you can probably restore from a backup and install it that way.

- Les

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ladysman said:
So i'm trying to figure out which is better:
1) iCade
2) Atari setup

Thoughts/insight/reviews?

The atari one only work with the Atari games??
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Personally I like the Atari setup better with it's direct connection through the 30 pin dock connector, however it'll only work at this time with the Atari games. I sent an email a while back after they shipped to ask about an SDK but they replied and said no SDK was available and it'll only support the Atari app.

So for iMame you really only have 2 choices, the iCade or the iControlPad.

- Les

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mkrishnan said:
Yes, I'm confused about this. Do you mean that you backed up iMAME in some way that didn't involve putting it in iTunes? iTunes will definitely put the app on the iOS device even if it's no longer in the app store (I downloaded iMAME before it was pulled and only today synced my iPhone, and it put iMAME on it without any problems).
Click to expand...

Oh, and to follow up on my last reply it's quite possible there are different states of being "pulled" from the App Store. It might be that iMame is still active but just not available and iDOS is completely removed, which could explain why you can still install iMame but I can no longer install iDOS. I do know that iMame is being re-evaluated now and hasn't been completely removed at this time.

- Les
 
iLes said:
Ok, that's good to hear. However, just to confirm I tried to reinstall iDOS again and got the iTunes error message that says "iDOS failed to install". I'm simply trying to sync my apps from iTunes by selecting the apps I want installed then clicking on the SYNC button. It'll install all apps I selected except for iDOS.
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Huh, interesting. I've never seen that. Is it possible the copy on the computer is corrrupted?
 
any advice on how I can use it to play the simpsons arcade ?

can anyone send a link to the rom from a repuatable website and tell me how I can load it with imame?
 
Anyone else? I'm going to let Malwarebytes quarantine iexplorer.exe until I'm convinced it's not malicious.
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iExplorer is one of the worst applications I've used in quite a while, anyway. I searched for an alternative, and found Diskaid, which works perfectly, and the free version is fine for transferring ROMS. Mac and PC.

However, since they released the new jailbreak, I went ahead and switched back to the jailbreak version of MAME. The fact that I can use the wii classic controller wirelessly to play Super Basketball and Smash TV (and SCRAMBLE!!:D:D:D) is just priceless. Jailbreaking can be a bit stressful at first, but really, it's worth it.

Oh, and search for the GP2X ROM set, as others have suggested. They mostly all work in MAME4ALL.
 
If you have an IOS dev account...

...there's an Xcode project of iMame floating around which you can freely install on your IOS devices and add ROMs to via iTunes file sharing.

Steve
 
ladysman said:
So i'm trying to figure out which is better:
1) iCade
2) Atari setup

Thoughts/insight/reviews?

The atari one only work with the Atari games??
Click to expand...

No experience with the Atari setup, but the iCade is VERY well built. Besides being functional, it makes a nice piece for a den or game room, and will get a lot of use as a conversation piece at parties (and a lot of play). The atari one looks functional but nothing to really draw attention to it. I suppose it's better for the dedicated atari gamer, but I think most people buy these for the nostalgia, and the icade satisfies the nostalgic feeling amazingly well.
 
crs.one said:
No experience with the Atari setup, but the iCade is VERY well built. Besides being functional, it makes a nice piece for a den or game room, and will get a lot of use as a conversation piece at parties (and a lot of play). The atari one looks functional but nothing to really draw attention to it. I suppose it's better for the dedicated atari gamer, but I think most people buy these for the nostalgia, and the icade satisfies the nostalgic feeling amazingly well.
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I actually was one of the lucky ones who got an icade at Bed Bath and Beyond for $50 - %20 off coupon from my wife. It is great! Track and field good ole days!
 
Where can I get the iControlpad? think geek seems to be out and the UK takes 14 days.
thanks
 
transfer to ipad

Does anyone know if I would be able to put this app on to my ipad if I've already got it on my iphone?
 
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