Filip Brož If I don't count the traditional Tetris, my first contact with games was thanks to Nintendo and their handheld Game Boy console. To this day, I still remember steamy evenings in the company of Super Mario, Zelda, Pokémon or the shooter Contra. Over time, I replaced several of these devices in the nineties, until I settled on the first generation PlayStation. Game Boy suddenly went to the side.
I only got back to it thanks to the iPhone emulator GBA4iOS, which was developed by Riley Testut. GBA4iOS became a hit because you didn't need a jailbreak and you could download hundreds of games to your iPhone at once. It also included a built-in browser that made it easy to download new games. However, in 2014, Nintendo asked developers to download and disable the emulator. However, Testut has not been lazy and has prepared a completely new and improved Delta emulator, which is currently in the beta testing phase.
We test first
Anyone could participate in the testing, but then you still had to go through the manual selection of developers. I tried for Jablíčkář and to my surprise I was also chosen as a journalist. It should be noted that an incredible ten thousand people who were interested in testing Delta signed up within one week. Testut eventually selected 80 members of the public and 40 journalists from around the world. Apparently, no one else from the Czech Republic was so lucky.
The Delta app works as a game emulator for the Game Boy Advance, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Nintendo 64 consoles. Personally, I like the Game Boy Advance games the most, so the choice of games was clear from the start. However, after installing through TestFlight, I found that Delta is completely empty compared to GBA4iOS. There is no built-in browser, but the games need to be downloaded separately and uploaded to the application.
There are several ways. You can use cloud services such as Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Google Drive or DS Cloud or by cable through iTunes. During several weeks of testing, I tried all the methods, and I personally like Dropbox the most. All I have to do is find a suitable page on the Internet where I can download GBA (Game Boy Advance) games, which I then throw on Dropbox and download to Delta. If you use iOS apps like GoodReader, you can download games directly to your iPhone – you search for the game in Safari, open it in GoodReader and upload it to Dropbox.
A simple process that doesn't take even a minute. You can download a new game to Delta anytime and anywhere, and there is no limit to their number.
3D Touch support
Downloaded games are sorted by console type in Delta with a helpful preview image. If you have an iPhone with 3D Touch, you can, for example, quickly delete the game in the menu, save the gameplay or watch a short demo. In the settings, you can even choose from four skins how your Game Boy will look. The gameplay itself faithfully corresponds to the legendary consoles, so forget about some "modern" flicking of the finger on the display. Control takes place using virtual buttons.
I tried dozens of games using Delta. I nostalgically reminisced about the original Mario, shot myself in Metroid, beat up a few people in Grand Theft Auto, and ran through a few worlds with Crash. There was also catching and searching for Pokemon or the fantastic environment of Zelda - i.e. retro with everything. Each game is completely faithful to the original model, including saving gameplay, sounds and stories. You can even use cheats in each game. All you have to do is open the Start menu, where you can also find other user settings.
It can also be seen that the developer Testut has adapted the Delta to the latest seven iPhones. All games, without exception, support the Taptic Engine, so every time you press a button, you feel a vibration feedback in your fingers, which ultimately enhances the gaming experience. I also like that you can speed up each game in the menu and skip not only the game dialogues faster, but also significantly increase the fluidity of the game. The characters suddenly move faster and everything is more agile.
Endless fun, but with a question mark
As already mentioned, Delta is in the testing phase and should officially appear for all users sometime this year, not only in the version for the iPhone, but also for the iPad. However, it is not certain whether the application will appear directly in the App Store. After three weeks, Apple stopped testing Delta via its TestFlight developer tool, and developers are now looking for a way to distribute the new updates to users.
But what is certain is that thanks to Delta you will suddenly return to the nineties and nostalgic games that did not require any in-app purchases and did not contain obnoxious ads. All the games that existed can be downloaded on the Internet, which guarantees hundreds of hours of endless entertainment. Nintendo fans definitely have something to look forward to, although it is still not entirely clear how the game should officially get to iPhones and iPads.
You can find more information about the emulator at deltaemulator.com.
This is very important… I always really wanted to play Nintendo games on iPhone… How about iWork updates etc…
Probably irony, but I would say that this is important. Or at least more important than iWork. Yes, I myself would rather welcome an update of iWork, but I am afraid that since MS Office was released on MacOS, that iWorks have taken a back seat and I am personally waiting for a notice when Apple will say that iWorks is already "dead"... Like he did with Aperture, MobileME, AirportExpress, etc...
Well, if Nintendo doesn't satisfy the hunger, someone else will. Anyway, I personally don't understand the attitude of Apple + Nintendo... They could easily agree with the developers that they would buy it and the games would be sold officially by Nintendo as In-App purchases and we wouldn't have to be stuck with some poor Super Mario Run...
Is this supposed to be the future of Apple? Recycling Crapware? ?