Nintendo lets GameBoy emulator for iOS take offline – update

Nintendo has had a GameBoy emulator for iOS taken 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, Nintendo’s US division eventually got the app removed. The app’s developer, 18-year-old Riley Testut, claimed that by February of 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 last 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 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 is said to have obtained one through a loophole.

The GBA4iOS site 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 that all ‘infringing’ content be removed as soon as possible.

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