Apple Gives C64 Emulator The Boot

apple_boots_c64_emulator

After making it to the top 20 in most regions, Apple has removed the c64 emulator for the iPhone from the App Store. Apparently the thorough app review process didn’t discover that the BASIC system had not been removed from the app, but was instead merely hidden.

Another revision of the emulator has been submitted for review but how long will that take?  What is the review process for if they’re not looking deep enough to find specific functions they don’t want an app to have? Approving apps and pulling them a few days later is another Hot Coffee waiting to happen.

[POCKET GAMER via Slashdot]

37 thoughts on “Apple Gives C64 Emulator The Boot

  1. OK Drew, I’ll step in here– you’re all a bunch of jealous haters. Show me something better than an iPhone and then these insults might have a chance of holding some water. (Pre-emptive rebuttal: the Pre and Android phones are not prime-time ready.)

    Why do people give a crap about this at all??? It’s silly to expect Apple to care so much about nostalgia computing that they change the terms of the App Store to allow interpreted code.

    If you want to program on the thing, just jailbreak and get yourself a shell and python– it’s /very/ easy.

  2. I do not agree with Apple’s App Store developer agreement but I do think this:

    They should have followed the agreement in my opinion. You either want to make money or you do not. Apple are not a bunch of dummies; they found the hidden BASIC interpreter here. I know the developers probably thought it would be clever to hide it in some way. It should have simply not been there. Who is making BASIC apps for it anyway? Everyone is just going to use this to run the old warez games that came off BBS, and try to re-live the 80’s.

  3. @drew, salsa, etc. This isn’t about mac fandom or about the cool factor of the iPhone. It’s about owning things you buy. When I buy a computer, I have the right and ability to run any arbitrary program I can find. Why should a PDA or mobile phone be any different? My theory: Apple is reaping the benefits of a software monopoly on their own hardware for now, but they are aware that this is not a sustainable situation. Sooner or later there’s going to be a competing device with really good support of Flash or something like it, allowing people to write and share apps without any manufacturer’s say-so, and Apple will have to follow suit.

  4. they dont want basic because they dont allow interpreter, but they are okey with you feed it an actual binary with 6510 code ? doesnt make sense but that is maybe that think differently thing?
    How have they gone about the licening of charrom, kernal and basic rom ?

  5. they dont need permision from microsoft, they sold the full rights to the basic to commodore. that was basic 1.x that was on the pet, every other machine had inhouse developed versions based on that.

  6. Ben Ryves: so its basicly just a rip off ? take a free available emulator, not a very good one at that, and then stick a gui for iphone on it and sell it with some crappy game, Sound like something a bigcorp would do

  7. Hey, I know they think I paid for my iPhone but didn’t.

    I only *licensed* them the use of the money until I revoked the right at future time of my choosing.

    They should have read my fine print.

    So I demand that money back now.

  8. Keep buying shiny iPhones, iPods and other overpriced crap. Keep haking it, jailbraking it, create all sorts of software to overcome limitations Apple put on purpose. Keep
    making crutches and making excuses that dildo Aplle sticking in you but inst that bad if you lubricate it enough. Keep feding them and grow their policy to you. Maybe soon others will realize if Apple can screw their customer tnan they can do it too, do you really want this for shiny piece of plastic ?

    >>>”you’re all a bunch of jealous haters. Show me something better than an iPhone”

    Any Pocket PC will beat Iphone to
    nothing, in performance, comfort and
    number of software, Windows Mobile look like open source when compared to locked in every way iPnone. It funny to see when something get released for iPhone like Skype and make into big news like something revolutionary new happen, while Skype was available for PPC and many phones for more than 5 years!

    Actually you hater of yourself for buying crap and madly realizing it now.

    Im not against Apple I against crap they put on their own customers and newer get guilty for this.
    It newer apper clear for me why people (smart people, not only shepple) continue buying it instead of boycotting this pseudo monopoly

  9. @salsa:
    >> Show me something better than an iPhone and then these insults might have a chance of holding some water.

    When did cut, copy and paste become classified as a feature! Really this is a joke to think that they can label something that any $5 phone from a department store can do as a sale feature.

    I thinkt he iphone has a good GUI but that’s about it. it looks good. big deal.

  10. @salsa- “Show me something better than an iPhone and then these insults might have a chance of holding some water. ”

    Anything is better than an Iphone.
    I do love the interface, but what else does it have that others don’t?

    If only they would’ve improved on the Newton line… those were amazing. Still use my Emate on a daily basis. Can’t make calls, but I can run whatever the hell I want on it =).

  11. @salsa: What’s better than iPhone? Android, anything windows mobile, anything Palm. OK I admit that the widows mobile user interface sucks, but it can actually do things, and YOU CAN INSTALL WHATEVER GOD DAMN APPS YOU WANT. Palm may be moribund but there’s already an app for everything so it doesn’t really matter and YOU CAN INSTALL WHATEVER GOD DAMN APPS YOU WANT, usually for free.

  12. @sgt. renfrew,

    I have been P’od with Apple for ages…

    Yeah, the appleIIe was kool but, in its time,
    the very first Macintosh was truly the koolest
    thing since sliced bread…
    Totally silent, decent GUI, beautifully designed..

    In those days Apple were truly on the side of the
    “different thinkers”. A number of my Uni mates
    worked at both the Apple & MS research labs…
    People who thought differently were in demand
    and their ideas actually flowed into the products..

    IMHO these days they have been harpooned by the marketing idiots. “Form over function” is now the motto.

    I mean REALLY guys…:
    – normal humans can’t even change
    the batteries in an iPod…
    – You PAY MONEY for a song and can ONLY play it on
    Apple HW
    – If you wanna build iPhone apps (legally) then the development environment only runs on an INTEL mac.. (taking the piss out of all the faithful “G” series developers..)

    etc., etc..

    In my opinion they have become just as monopolistic and greedy as other large companies that do not need to be mentioned..

    The iStore issues are just another example of this…

  13. > Sigh… They used to be the good guys…

    Eh ? When was that exactly … back in the 80s ?

    Why do people always think Apple has sold out when all they ever intended to do from the get go was go out and sell.

  14. I have a Touch Diamond2.

    The UI sucked

    It took me a while, but now I have a UI that is almost as good as the iPhone UI (via iPhoneToday), a much much much better keyboard (TouchPal) and of course a better camera, ability to multitask, a screen with higher screen-res, a superior PIM and freedom to do whatever I like with MY phone.

    The ONE thing iPhone has got going for it is the UI, the rest…. nope….

    One day when they hack Android to work on the Diamond2, I can even switch OS at my leisure.

    So yeah, a stock Diamond2 might not be quite as cool as a stock iPhone, but you get more hardware for your buck and you can put together your OWN phone and end up with something that is much cooler.

    I am soooo glad I did not go the iPhone route

    I use the stock ROM btw…

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