Let's wind back the clocks a bit so those of you who weren't around for the great iDOS fiasco of 2010. It all started with Apple ever-so-slightly easing up on their approval guidelines which opened the floodgates for quite a few apps (such as the Google Voice apps) that seemed to eternally be trapped in approval limbo. Whether this had anything to do with iDOS or not is debatable, but it seems awfully coincidental otherwise. Anyway, on the morning of October 26th last year, iDOS hit the App Store. It was a shockingly full featured DOS emulator complete with keyboard and mouse support, as well as a basic virtual gamepad, multiple screen modes, and so much more.

The crazy part about iDOS is there seemed to be nearly no limit to what it was capable of. If you scroll down on this story you'll even find someone successfully installing Microsoft Windows, within iDOS, on their iPad. iDOS was quickly pulled, then re-appeared in late January of this year with quite a bit of its functionality stripped. Regardless, people quickly figured out how to load things into iDOS, utilizing utilities like iExplorer and other Mac/Windows programs that allow you to fiddle with the file system of your iOS device. Once again, iDOS was removed from the App Store.

Yesterday, iDOS hit the App Store once again, this time as Aemula Oldies [Free] for the iPad and Aemula Oldies S [Free] for smaller screen devices. There's also the Aemula Gamepad [99¢] which works a lot like the other gamepad apps and pairs with an iPad playing a game. It seems that the functionality has been stripped even further, as all the previous command line access has been traded for a simple menu to load the included games.

The freebies packed in with Aemula Oldies are Mille Bornes, Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle, Duke Nukem, Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion, Scorched Earth, CD-Man, The Catacomb Abyss, Bio Menace, Monster Bash, StarMines II: Planet of Mines, 4D Prince of Persia and CHAMP Kong. They all seem to work decently well, too.

I sort of think third time is the charm for iDOS, err, Aemula Oldies, as I'd imagine that there aren't any holes for slipping other things to emulate in left anymore. Of course, I could be totally wrong on that, so if anyone figures out any tricks, be sure to let us know.

Emulators have had an interesting history on the App Store, to say the least. There are a few emulator apps that have received Apple's blessing, namely Manomio's Commodore 64 [$4.99] and a choice group of similar emulators. More often than not though, they randomly appear, having slipped through the Apple approval system, then are quickly pulled. Right now we've got no clue which side of the fence iMAME [Free] is sitting on, but it's free, so there's absolutely no reason not to download it just to have it.

iMame comes preloaded with nine less than stellar ROMs to play, but the real interesting part is going to be whether or not it's possible to side load other ROM files into the app. I've been tinkering around with various tricks to load other ROMs into the app that have worked in other instances of similar emulators on to the App Store, and so far haven't had anything work. Regardless, I give it about two hours (or potentially much less) before someone figures it out, and a few hours after that for Apple to pull it from the App Store.

Go go go!!! I'll keep this post updated as new things develop.

Update: It seems that the same method used to get games into iDOS also works in iMAME. Twitter user @mattlukens mentions, "Yep, add a .zip rom to the Docs folder through PhoneView and it works perfect! Just tried Crime Fighters!" He also provided a screenshot. The clock is really ticking now on Apple pulling this down.

Update: iMAME supports the iCade.

Update 12/23: iMAME has been pulled from the App Store.

It's been over a year since the last update, and many in our forums were worried that the app had been abandoned, but I'm happy to report that Manomio has released an update to C64 for iPhone [App Store], the Commodore 64 emulator and game store (at over 50 titles right now) for iOS, that we've been tracking since way back in 2008.

Stuart Carnie of Manomio filled me in on the license tangles he's been dealing with since late last year which stymied work on the app, but indicates all is now resolved and that he's excited to bring this update, as well as return his focus to development and the acquisition of new licenses for C64-loving iOS gamers.

The big news in this latest version of C64 for iPhone, version 2.2, is the addition of support for the iCade and compatible devices (such as the iControlPad and Gametel controller we recently covered), which is huge news given the nature of the typical Commodore 64 game title. In this initial implementation, iCade support means joystick and fire button emulation -- certain games with extended features, such as The Last Ninja, still require tapping the screen for key input and the like. This update also brings full support for iOS 5.

It's worth pointing out that, presently, C64 is not a Universal application, and so using it on an iPad in the iCade means running the iPhone app at 2x video magnification. However, Stuart has big plans for the app and shared a short-list of what's coming, down the road...

• A new, Universal app!
  • This is a rewrite in order to add all the required features
  • PRO: By not replacing the iPhone version, we can keep existing users with old hardware on the current builds
  • PRO: For compatible games, we'll continue to add them to C64 for iPhone
• Activate your original C64 for iPhone purchases if you have it installed
• Cycle-exact emulation -- will require ARMv7 devices
• Same OpenGL ES 2.0 retro visual effects currently in progress for iAmiga
• iCADE / iControlPad / Gametel support
• TV-out
• Network play
• More in-app purchases, including existing titles
• A big pack of free games to get you started
• Retina display support
• BASIC mode, with 1541 "disk" save support

The following demo video taken by one of our readers shows C64 for iPhone running on an iPad, being controlled with an iControlPad (in iCade emulation mode).

We're very glad to see Stuart out of the woods and moving forward with his efforts to bring retro fun to today's gamers. We will keep readers in the loop on the latest from Manomio as the news unfolds.

Retro gamers out there, especially those on the other side of the pond, have had a great resource available to them for reliving the 8-bit classics, in the form of Elite's ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection emulator series, which landed last October. While it had basically zero presence here in the states, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was probably the leading home computer gaming platform in the UK and various other parts of Europe during the early '80s.

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Early yesterday I made a post sharing Manomio CEO Stuart Carnie's intent to bring iCade support to his Commodore emulation systems. Early this morning, he posted a video of the Amiga game International Karate + running under his iAmiga emulation system with full iCade support. I've not had a chance to test out his latest development build personally, but I wanted to share the video for to pique retro gamers' appetites.

And, speaking of Manomio's Amiga and C64 emulators, Craig Rothwell behind the iControlPad (and Wizzley Presto) reached out and is sending over an eval device for us to check out. Manomio is currently in the process of building iControlPad support into their emulators, as promised. We'll report on that shortly.

Hudson is doing a fantastic job of keeping a fresh batch of new games pouring into their excellent TurboGrafx-16 emulator app called the TurboGrafx-16 Gamebox [Free]. The app launched last December with a decent selection of titles, all of which could be purchased from within the app for $2.99 apiece with one rotating title per day available for a free timed trial. We really enjoyed the TurboGrafx-16 Gamebox in our original review, and within a couple of months a new selection of titles was added improving the game further.

Earlier this month, yet another update hit adding another 5 brand new games to the package, including the classic pinball game Devil’s Crush and the third entry in the Bonk’s Adventure series. Now, just a few weeks later we already have another new update to the Gamebox adding 5 more new games.

Likely the most recognizable of the titles is the vertically scrolling top-down shooter Raiden. Raiden was an absolute classic in the arcades a couple of decades ago, and remains one of my very favorite shmups of all time. The TurboGrafx-16 version is obviously highly scaled down from the arcade original, but while it lacks the graphical oomph it still contains excellent gameplay. Performance-wise, Raiden can slow down a bit when action gets intense on screen, but overall it’s pretty solid.

A far more exciting addition to the Gamebox, at least for me personally, is Dragon’s Curse. You may know it by its former name, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, as it was called on the Sega Master System back in 1989. This was one of my all-time favorite action/puzzle/platforming games back then, and it still holds up extremely well today.

It has a Metroidvania vibe where you must take on the roles of different animals that each have unique abilities that allow you to access new areas of a huge non-linear world. There's a number of different weapons, armors, and items to buy which adds a nice RPG element to the gameplay. Dragon’s Curse is colorful, clever, and just plain fun, and I’m really excited to have the game in my pocket to play through for the umpteenth time.

The three other titles in this latest update to TurboGrafx-16 Gamebox aren’t as familiar to me, but they may hold a special place in your own heart. These titles are: Shockman, Moto Roader, and Out Live. There’s plenty of other classic TurboGrafx-16 games I’m still waiting on too, like Keith Courage, Super Star Soldier, and Legendary Axe, so hopefully Hudson continues to crank out the updates. Currently, I think they’re doing a pretty darn good job, and the TurboGrafx-16 Gamebox continues to be a shining example of how to do emulators right on iOS.

If you are amongst the millions of iPhone owners who also happen to have PS3's, I've got the perfect app for you. Behold, PSN Status [Free]. This free app will tell you both quickly and easily whether or not PSN is up. Sure, it would have been much more useful last month, but it will be handy to keep around if/when PSN goes down again.

Oh also, on the subject of PSN being down, if you're like me and really only use your PS3 for watching BluRays, don't forget to claim your free games. Even if you weren't really affected by the downtime in any real way, you're still eligible for two free PS3 games and two free PSP games. The selection is surprisingly decent, too.

On a somewhat related note- If you're a proud PS3 console warrior and your pride has taken a substantial hit over the last month as you were the brunt of countless "PSN is down" jokes from your Xbox 360-loving friends, don't forget to also download i360Emu [Free]. It's a shockingly accurate emulator of early Xbox 360's, or, it was, before they changed the power-on animation.

Late last year when TurboGrafx-16 GameBox [Free] first hit the App Store, I was beyond excited our review. I'd still list the TurboGrafx-16 as one of my favorite game systems of all time, and the potential that an officially sanctioned emulator has is still something I'm still glad to have, I just wish it had more games. Hudson has slowly been leaking out updates to the emulator with new packs of games included, but like most other official emulators, it's sorely lacking in the classics department. Not to say that Bonk isn't a classic, but come on, where is Blazing Lazers, Keith Courage, and other phenomenal TG16 games?!

Anyway, the newly included games are Bonk's Big Adventure, Image Fight, Break In, Devil's Crush and Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball-bu PC Bangaihen (say that one three times fast). Payment still works the same way in that there's a daily rotating free game, or individual titles can be permanently unlocked for $2.99 a piece. Devil's Crush is worth checking out, I'm not so sure about the other four.

We've been tracking Elite's retro game releases through its ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection [App Store] and associated apps for some time now. This weekend, Elite released another emulated classic that many gamers on both sides of the pond will recall fondly: Barbarian from Palace Software.

Barbarian (distributed in the U.S. by Epyx as Death Sword), originally released for the Commodore 64 in 1987, is a hack and slash fighter that places you, the barbarian, in a series of fighting pits on a mission to slash your way through warrior after warrior and ultimately defeat the evil wizard Drax and rescue the ample Princess Mariana. It's all in the spirit of Conan. The game was noted for its realistic character animation (despite its simplistic graphics), considerable gore, and pleasant dose of wit. More than all of these, perhaps, it was noted for its racy box cover art featuring a bikini-clad Maria Whittaker, who had recently made an appearance as a topless Page Three girl in The Sun, and some dude. The outcry was dramatic.

Being a title running in Elite's ZX Spectrum emulator, Barbarian: ZX Spectrum is, of course, the ZX Spectrum version of the game. Unfortunately, this was not one of the strongest ports. Due to limitations of the Speccy's hardware, the actual play area and the characters within are rendered in monochrome. The detail is there, but the presentation feels pretty sparse. Another negative in this emulated iOS release is the control scheme. Despite Elite's "iDaptive" control system, where button (or key) layout can be custom arranged, the types of wildly varying moves that you need to pull off in rapid succession to excel in this game are not particularly conducive to touchscreen-style D-pad play. Happily, the customizable controls let you move the D-pad out of the way of your character in landscape mode, but that doesn't help with the feel of the controls.

Barbarian for the C64 and other platforms of old featured both a single player campaign mode (the quest to rescue Mariana) and a two-player challenge mode. It's worth noting that the version presented here offers only a single player mode.

See a video of the game as played on the ZX Spectrum.

Barbarian: ZX Spectrum is a stand-alone title with versions for both the iPhone [link] and iPad [link], and will be appearing as part of a new download pack for Elite's ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection [link] on Friday, when the number of available games in the collection will reach 108.

As a fan of what I knew as Death Sword on the Apple II back in the day, I was happy to see Barbarian arrive on iOS, even if it's come in a non-native fashion. I'd wager that the happy customers here are going to be other oldschool gamers who have fond memories of gut kicks and decapitation as Palace delivered them. Those unacquainted will probably find this one wanting.

Early this morning Atari released perhaps the most significant single retro gaming application yet to appear in the App Store. Atari's Greatest Hits [link] is a free Universal application for the iPhone and iPad that comes bundled with their first game ever, the 1972 classic Pong. And, while the games-for-free situation ends there, the fun certainly doesn't -- not by a long shot.

By way of in-app purchases, Atari's Greatest Hits can deliver to your iOS device up to 99 more games from the historical studio's back catalog, a mix of both arcade and (then) cartridge-based VCS / 2600 releases that you just might've grown up with. These games can be had in four-title game packs available at $0.99 each, as well as in a 68MB lump download of the entire library for $14.99. (The path you take here will reveal to you just how much of a bull geek retro gamer you are, so choose wisely.)

One hundred vintage Atari games for fifteen bucks. It's quite a proposition. But, what are we talking about here?

The almost awkwardly long list of game packs and the titles within them can be seen in our earlier post about this release.

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Regular readers who also happen to be oldschool gamers from the UK have likely been enjoying legendary studio Elite System's forays into retro gaming on iOS. ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection [App Store], and the standalone Jet Set Willy [App Store], make for some quality virtual Z80-based nostalgic gaming.

Word on the street is that in 2012, Elite will be re-releasing the ZX Spectrum, in a manner of speaking. It seems that the studio will be bringing out a a bluetooth keyboard in the form of a ZX Spectrum that will connect to the studio's iOS apps and deliver a rather close to authentic, emulated ZX Spectrum gaming experience to iOS gamers. And, while it's not confirmed, we're expecting rubber keys.

That's about all we've got on this right now, but we'll keep you posted as news breaks.

Here's one that will make a select few of our readers stand up and shout, while merely drawing a faint "hmm" from the rest. But, as Arnold and myself are among the standers and the shouters... Last night, in honor of the 20th anniversary of their founding, the Free Tools Association (or FTA) released a free bundle of their classic demoscene productions and games wrapped in their ActiveGS Apple IIgs emulator as the Universal application ActiveGS - Best of FTA [App Store].

FTA and the associated groups Apple Chemical Software (ACS) and Second Sight Software were well known in the pre-web online Apple II communities for their to-the-metal, assembly-coded demos, games, and utilities that pushed the Apple II to its limits. Among the included productions are Nucleus and Modulae, probably the most well loved and beautifully executed demos to be found on the IIgs, as well as the playable demo of the group's take on the pseudo-3D shooter Space Harrier. Those checking out this collection who have no Apple II in their past should note that the Apple IIgs, which was released in 1986, is an 8/16-bit computer that runs at 2.8MHz -- and that's in "fast" mode.

The Modulae demo, running under emulation on a Windows machine:

The group's ActiveGS emulator used in this application is a front-end for the multiplatform KEGS, which emulates the Apple IIgs and, by extension, the Apple IIe. It's available in both stand-alone applications and as a browser plug-in and is the primary emulation system behind the Virtual Apple ][ website where hundreds of Apple II programs can be run online.

In this iOS version, the emulator simply provides hard coded execution of FTA's demos, so it won't work as a general emulator.

UPDATE: Developer Olivier Goguel has chimed in on the comments thread and provided a link to a video of a version of ActiveGS running on the iPad, loaded with many more Apple II demos and games than are featured in the App Store release. But don't get too excited...

For approval reason, this version contains only FTA product! For a sneak preview of the full version, have a look at this video, but don't expect it to be live soon...

Back in December, Hudson somewhat surprisingly released an emulator app for their cult-classic 16-bit console TurboGrafx-16. This emulator, called the TurboGrafx-16 GameBox [Free], features a free-to-download shell that includes the full game of World Sports Competition and houses a hefty selection of other titles that can be unlocked via in-app purchase for $2.99 each. There's also one new rotating tile per day that gives you a chance to play that particular game for 10 minutes, up from the initial 3 minutes offered on the app's release, as a sort of demo to decide if you want to purchase the full version.

We really liked the TurboGrafx-16 GameBox in our review, noting that its virtual controls were about as good as they come on an iOS device that emulates games designed for physical controls and a favorable save system ensured that you could retry tricky sections easily without causing too much frustration. The initial selection of games available for in-app purchase in the TurboGrafx-16 GameBox featured a range of very good to mediocre titles, with a couple of must-haves like Bonk's Adventure, Ninja Spirit, or R-Type. Today Hudson has released an update for the TurboGrafx-16 GameBox that adds 5 new titles to the in-app catalog which are listed below:

Bonk's Revenge by Hudson Soft

Detana!! TwinBee by Konami

Kaizouchoujin Shubibinman by NCS/extreme

Double Dungeons by NCS/extreme

Benkei Gaiden by Sunsoft

Like a few of the games in the initial release of TurboGrafx-16 GameBox, 3 of the 5 new titles are the PC-Engine versions of the game, the Japanese counterpart to the TurboGrafx-16. As such, their menus, dialogue, and instruction manuals are entirely in Japanese with no option for an English version. For a game like Detana!! TwinBee this isn't as much of an issue, as it's just a vertical shooter and knowing what's going on is secondary to blasting stuff out of the sky. But in the case of Benkei Gaiden, it's a heavily dialogue-driven RPG which will be hard to enjoy if you aren't able to read Japanese text.

Also worth noting is that the full version of Bonk's Revenge is currently free to play as part of a special promotion. Seeing as this will likely be the title that most people are interested in, it's a great chance to actually try it out yourself before committing the cash to unlock the full version. Make sure to update your game to the latest version and give Bonk's Revenge a spin and check out the other 4 new titles in the TurboGrafx-16 GameBox.

As mentioned in our post from this morning, the original iDOS fiasco last October was an incredible one. We constantly updated our initial post on the emulator throughout the day as we were more and more blown away by just how capable it was until Apple finally pulled the plug later that same day. Not long after, I reminisced on just how important iDOS was, hoping developers utilized the iDOS emulator framework to bring DOS classics to the iPhone.

As of today, iDOS is back, and free. The update text warns to "think thrice" before updating, as part of getting iDOS back on the store involved removing the iTunes functionality that allowed users to just drag and drop whatever executables they wanted within iDOS right in to iTunes to sync. You'd think that this would be the end of the iDOS saga, but forum member BoxOfSnoo informed us that the initial iDOS emulation rabbit hole is still there... It's just a little more complicated to get to.

Using the freeware utility iPhone Explorer, adding additional games to iDOS is as simple as browsing your apps in iPhone Explorer, opening the iDOS folder, and then dumping whatever files you want inside of the iDOS documents folder. These files will be available in iDOS, as /Apps/iDos/documents/ is the equivalent to C:\ inside of iDOS. This does not require you to be jailbroken.

What Apple's response will be to this discovery is anyone's guess. Technically speaking, I'm not entirely sure if iDOS is breaking any of the developer agreements since adding games is done entirely through an unsupported third party utility. Regardless, it seems that this version of iDOS is just as capable of the original version, just with a slightly different way for loading additional games on to it. If you haven't yet, you should really consider downloading iDOS. It's free and may not last long.

Oh, and of course, the thread on our forums for iDOS 2.0.1 is going wild again with people installing all kinds of crazy stuff on their iOS devices.

You may remember last October when a little app called iDOS snuck its way into the App Store. Every once in a while the review team at Apple falls asleep at the wheel and approves an app that probably shouldn't be allowed in the App Store. iDOS was one of those apps. It was a version of the DOSbox emulator that let you run DOS on your iOS device and load up all sorts of crazy old PC software.

Ah yes, I remember the iDOS day well. It was so much fun watching our article on iDOS constantly getting updated with whatever new feat of magic was discovered by the eager members in our forums. Many classic PC games ran incredibly well in iDOS, with full keyboard and mouse support, and the coup de grace was actually installing Microsoft Windows 3.0 on an iPad and playing the classic version of Solitaire included with it.

Like all good things though, the iDOS phenomenon quickly came to an end, and the app was removed from the App Store almost as suddenly as it appeared. Being able to load and run entire outside programs from within the iDOS app is a big no no according to Apple, and the thousands of people who had downloaded iDOS quickly backed up the app to their hard drives for safekeeping.

Then last night, iDOS surprisingly showed its face again in the App Store. In order to get it through the approval process, developer FAST Intelligence closed up the iTunes file sharing rabbit hole that was the gateway to loading whatever DOS programs you wanted, but has added some other nice functionality to try and compensate.

There are now 6 legal shareware games preloaded in iDOS which can be downloaded for free from the new “iDOS Store” within the app. The games can then be launched easily by selecting them from your collection, and no knowledge of DOS commands is necessary to get them going. For those that want to though, there is still access to the full DOS prompt for launching games.

Other additions include a full virtual joystick/d-pad and buttons rather than just a virtual keyboard, the ability to play on the iPhone/iPod touch in portrait mode just like the iPad, and Bluetooth keyboard support for text-based games. The virtual gamepad is actually really good, and makes playing games like Wolfenstein 3D a whole lot more enjoyable.

While it is pretty disappointing that you won't be able to go nuts running programs using the new iDOS, it's actually a pretty solid little emulator and still fun to play around with. Word on the street is that jailbroken devices can still load whatever games they want into this new version using file managing programs, but that doesn't seem very exciting to me since iDOS has been available as DosPad in the jailbreak App Store Cydia for a long time now, and offers that same functionality.

These screenshots show the new portrait mode gamepad controls for the iPad (left) and the iPhone (right). Click either image to enlarge.

If you missed out on iDOS the first time, it's still worth checking out this new version despite its limitations, especially as it's now free to download. Be warned though – if you have the original version of iDOS in your iTunes library, this new version is actually an update that will replace that one, so it's suggested that you back up the original app before downloading version 2.0. There's a brand new thread in our forums for discussing this rereleased version of iDOS, and hopefully this time Apple will let it stick around for longer than one day.

App Store Link: iDOS, Free (Universal)