Legal C64 emulator rejected from App Store

Written by Joe Martin

June 22, 2009 | 12:03

Tags: #app-store #c64 #iphone #ipod

Companies: #apple

iPhone developer Manomio has revealed that the fully licensed Commodore 64 emulator it has been working on for the iPhone has been rejected by Apple, despite having got early support from the Mac-maker.

Manomio, who also worked on the iPhone version of retro classic Flashback, claims that the emulator is fully working and can run many classic C64 games or even C64 BASIC in full-speed. While the project started off simply as a test of skills, Manomio was luckily able to get the rights to the C64 after meeting with Kiloo Apps and getting early support from Apple, according to TouchArcade.

"Apple seemed really excited," claimed the developer, who decided to continue developing and investing in the project after explaining the App to Apple and ensuring it would get published and not rejected.

Unfortunately, when the emulator was eventually submitted to Apple for App Store approval a rejection letter quickly came back claiming that the emulator was in breach of the SDK Agreement - namely that:

"An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple's Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s)."

The developer has attempted to dispute the rejection, pointing to other App Store applications and emulators that run similarly - such as Sega's Golden Axe and Sonic the Hedgehog ports, the FROTZ IF interpreter and certain programmable calculators.

It's unclear if the emulator will ever see the light of day now, but we sure hope Apple will see reason eventually. What do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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