Due to Apple policy restrictions, the DolphiniOS simulator has been abandoned on the App Store

At the beginning of the month, Apple relaxed its App Store policy to allow game console emulators to be listed on the App Store. The Nintendo console emulator “Delta” currently ranks fourth in the App Store free software rankings and ranks first in Hong Kong’s entertainment software. It can be seen that the simulator has attracted much attention from iOS device users. But another famous iOS simulator is not so lucky. GameCube and Wii emulator “DolphiniOS” finally decided to give up listing on the official App Store. The reason is also due to Apple’s policy.

According to Oatmeal Dome, the core developer of “DolphiniOS”, the game code for the PowerPC series processors used by GameCube and Wii cannot be directly executed on the ARM series processors of iPhone and iPad. It needs to be “translated” before it can be used on iPhone/iPad. understand. In order to achieve this goal, “DolphiniOS” uses a just-in-time recompiler (JIT recompiler, Just-in-Time).

However, Apple refused to approve the use of “DolphiniOS” on the grounds that the JIT recompiler poses security risks. Currently, Apple only approves third-party browsers to use JIT recompilers in the EU, and the use of other types of software is still prohibited.

OatmealDome said that although “DolphiniOS” can still use an interpreter to translate PowerPC code into ARM code, the performance is far behind. He also showed two “Mario Kart” demonstration videos, comparing the difference in game performance between using a JIT recompiler and an interpreter, showing that using an interpreter, the game will even have problems with the start countdown. Therefore, he decided to abandon the plan to put “DolphiniOS” on the official App Store in more regions, and only keep it on the third-party application store AltStore.

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