A way to play Atari 2600 games on an iOS device?

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Does anyone here know if there is a way to play 2600 games on an iOS device? Modern mobile games are just not that interesting.

[MaximumRD]

Officially? If not app on the store not sure, the IOS ecosystem tends to be pretty locked down and emulation was typically accomplished through jailbreaking the device which was something I dabbled in years ago with early iOS devices but I think that has changed a lot and isn't as easy or even as desirable to do these days, it used to be a case of benefits outweighing the effort and pitfalls but I don't think that is the case any longer and certainly not something you'd want to do on your main device, IE it's more trouble than it's worth. But that is my limited knowledge these days, perhaps there is an easy and or safe way to manage it these days so hopefully someone with more knowledge about it chimes in as I am sure many here would be interested. 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Hmmm…you just gave me an idea.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I figured out a way to play 2600 games.  I remembered JavAtari website.

[MaximumRD]

48 minutes ago, Atari 5200 Guy said:

I figured out a way to play 2600 games.  I remembered JavAtari website.

Right, website enabled emulation a good work around! 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I used to have a web emulator for the NES.  I found it and used it as a college project.  I can’t remember the name of it.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Ok. JavaAtari is cool but I don’t believe I’ll be winning any high scores on it.  Touch controls are iffy most of the time.

[TrekMD]

I know there are several emulators for Android but I'm not aware of what is available for iOS.  Usually Apple does not allow emulators on their store.  At least, that's the last I heard.  Maybe it has changed.

[MaximumRD]

On 12/19/2023 at 5:48 PM, Atari 5200 Guy said:

Ok. JavaAtari is cool but I don’t believe I’ll be winning any high scores on it.  Touch controls are iffy most of the time.

And why "mobile" games are very much their own thing. On my Android phone (an old Android 7 I use as a tablet of sorts without a sim card) I don't mind the odd puzzle or Pinball game, some pinball is pulled off quite well but I never really could get into platformers or racing or fighting games on mobile personally. Short of maybe using a Bluetooth gamepad with emulation but again I've only done that on Android. With so many ways to emulate or play retro games, I've not tried too hard to accomplish it on my iPad.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I love my iPhone but I was getting bored of the mobile games constantly playing ads and wanting me to spend real money.  It was messing up my mojo. 😁

Of course there’s Apple Arcade but don’t you have to subscribe to it to use it?

[waynel]

On 12/19/2023 at 3:04 PM, Atari 5200 Guy said:

Does anyone here know if there is a way to play 2600 games on an iOS device? Modern mobile games are just not that interesting.

Back in the early days of iPhones, there was an app that had a few Atari arcade games, and a few 2600 games. 
 

It was interesting to flip back-and-forth between the arcade and 2600 versions of games, but I ended up not playing it very much because using a virtual on-screen joypad and button was tremendously annoying, especially since the screens were so small back than. This was before the Apple joined the plus-sized phablet craze. 
 

Like many of the early apps, it's no longer available.

It's because of apps like that one that I almost never buy third-party phone apps. They can disappear at any time, and you're out whatever money you spent. I prefer to buy programs, rather than rent them. (I Love Katamari, and Aurora Feint come to mind.)

Edited December 25, 2023 by waynel