Nintendo allows GameBoy emulator for iOS to be taken offline – update

Nintendo has taken a GameBoy emulator for iOS offline. The app, which had been available for several months, allowed users to play GameBoy, GameBoy Color, and GameBoy Advance games on their iOS device, without the need for a jailbreak.

According to TorrentFreak has the American division of Nintendo eventually ensured that the app was removed. The developer of the app, 18-year-old Riley Testut, claimed that by February this year the software had been downloaded more than one million times. In the app, users could access games through a built-in game library and using external rom sites. The latest version of the app also had Dropbox integration.

GBA4iOS was unique in that unlike any other emulator, no jailbreak was required to play old games. Installing the app was possible because the developer used an enterprise certificate from Apple to distribute the app outside of the App Store. Such a certificate is normally reserved for large companies that want to distribute apps internally, but the developer of the GameBoy app would have obtained one through a loophole.

The site of GBA4iOS has since been taken offline at the request of Nintendo America by Github, where the source code of the app was hosted. Github complied with Nintendo America’s request to remove all ‘infringing’ content as quickly as possible.

Update, 13:34: This article suggested that the emulator was on the App Store, but that was incorrect. The article has been adjusted accordingly.