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Commodore 64 for the iPhone is back

By John Biggs

3upAs you’ll recall, the C64 emulator for the iPhone was shut down by the App store for being too awesome. Apple has approved the app but took off the BASIC support. Not great but not bad, either.

You can download the app here and this time there is no secret back door for enabling the BASIC emulator right in the app, which caused the emulator to run afoul of Apple’s draconian “no fun” policy.

Apple pulls C64 App after Manomio shenanigans revealed

By Thomas Ricker

Come on Manomio, what did you expect? Did you really think Apple would leave your C64 emulator in the App Store after it was revealed that the BASIC interpreter was still in your software, exposed with a little up, up, down, down, left, right trickery? That’s a clear breach of the SDK and well, downright sneaky. In a blog post to its site, Manomio claims that it had “no intention of tricking basic into the app” and only left the code in to be remotely activated later should Apple change its policy. Of course, with so much money left on the table, Manomio promptly submitted a new, presumably BASIC-free app for approval. Something we’re sure Apple will get right on.

[Via The iPhone blog]

Read — Enable BASIC in C64 hack
Read — Manomio’s plea for mercy

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Apple pulls C64 App after Manomio shenanigans revealed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple approves officially-licensed Commodore 64 emulator for iPhone

By Donald Melanson

Well, it’s almost certainly not a signal that Apple is opening the door to emulators of all sorts on the iPhone, but the newly (and finally) approved Commodore 64 emulator is still a fairly notable first for the platform — representing not only the first officially-available emulator, but perhaps the first app that actually runs code (even if it is a couple of decades old). In this case, that first bit apparently wasn’t too big a point of contention for Apple, considering that the app had all the necessary licensing rights lined up, but the second issue was, and ran right up against a clause in the iPhone 2.0 SDK that prevented apps from containing their own executable runtimes. As it happens, the key to bridging that divide around that was none other than iPhone 3.0, which contains a new feature for in-app purchases that the C64 emulator will take advantage of to let folks purchase additional games, rather than load arbitrary game code downloads. Interestingly, while this newly-approved version of the emulator also no longer exposes a BASIC interpreter, Manomio has added a note to the app that it “should be resolved in a future update,” although it’s not quite clear if that’s just wishful thinking or not. In the meantime, you can grab the app right now with five bundled games for $4.99.

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Apple approves officially-licensed Commodore 64 emulator for iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple reconsiders rejected iPhone apps, C64 emulator on the way?

By Donald Melanson
We’re always a little hesitant to get too optimistic about changes to the App Store approval process, but it looks like there’s been a few hopeful changes to the way things are done in the past few days, which could well lead to some previously rejected apps becoming available. Perhaps the most encouraging sign is that Apple seems to actually be going back through rejected apps and contacting develops to resubmit their app (without any changes, mind you) for an “expedited review.” One such app is the Start Mobile Wallpaper Gallery, which was rejected for using Shepard Fairey’s famous “HOPE” image of Barack Obama on the grounds that it “ridicules public figures.” In other App Store news, the developer of the officially-licensed C64 emulator also says that it was contacted by a senior director at Apple, who reportedly said that there was “BIG news coming,” but didn’t elaborate any further. But, really, is there any news bigger than a C64 emulator?

Read – TechCrunch, “Apple Continues To Right App Store Wrongs. Obama “Hope” App Is Go.”
Read – MacNN, “Apple reconsidering C64 Emulator for iPhone?”

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Apple reconsiders rejected iPhone apps, C64 emulator on the way? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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