Apple yanks C64 emulator from App Store

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/09/08/c64_app_store_no_show/

by billpg • 17 years ago

17 25 17 years ago

reghardware.co.uk

jacquesm6• 17 years ago

That didn't take very long.

High time for a competing app distribution network for the iphone.

Just imagine, Commodore Basic on your Iphone... the dangers!

"Apple's logic was that this tool could allow users to run illegal copies of games, holding it open to a charge of contributory copyright infringement."

That's what you get for trying to control a platform.

Imagine:

IBM Built the PC well before the Internet era, what would the world look like if they had had the possibility to have all of us under their thumb the way Apple does with the Iphone.

bitwize2• 17 years ago

That's what you get for trying to control a platform.

What, a fuckton of money and all the user and developer mindshare you can ask for? Closed platforms are the way of the future, man.

jacquesm6• 17 years ago

> Closed platforms are the way of the future, man.

I sincerely hope that you are wrong.

For now Apples app store acceptance policies have given it the biggest PR headache in years.

chaosprophet3• 17 years ago

I don't know much about commodore basic, but I think any form of executable code can be dangerous on the iPhone. What if there was a vulnerability in the emulator which allowed somebody to remotely run basic code, which sent your entire contacts list over to them???

For once I'm on Apple's side. Besides ain't it the developers fault for not removing something Apple explicitly asked him to remove???

jacquesm6• 17 years ago

> What if there was a vulnerability in the emulator which allowed somebody to remotely run basic code, which sent your entire contacts list over to them???

What if such a vulnerability existed in any other iPhone application ?

Or does the review process includes a line-by-line code audit and sign-off ?

bendtheblock• 17 years ago

Valid question. IBM lost control of the PC market because it gave away the rights to the two most complex parts of the architecture - the processor and the OS (to Intel and MS respectively). Hence, any other manufacturer could easily build a PC using the products of those two new companies.

On the other hand, Apple successfully controls the key interface to its iPhone platform (the OS) - so the centralised app-store approach will probably be around for a while.

gojomo• 17 years ago

High time for a competing app distribution network for the iphone.

For those willing to jailbreak their phones, there is the 'Cydia Store':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydia_(application)#Cydia_Store

JMostert• 17 years ago

The stark irony of this is, of course, that very few games on the Commodore 64 used or required BASIC, and certainly none of the popular ones. BASIC games where the first generation, before people mastered assembly. Some games may make proficient use of internal BASIC routines, but most will bank the BASIC ROM out of sight and never look back. Without BASIC, you won't get that READY. prompt and you can't enter LOAD "* ", 8, 1, but that hardly seems an obstacle.

The simple fact of the matter is that any emulator, or for that matter any programming environment that can be used to create one will allow users to run "illegal copies of games" (though with slowdown that could be crippling, admitted). They should ban emulators altogether, and anything that even smells like custom code execution (subject to Apple's discretion, of course). I propose "applications may not supply a Turing-complete environment to users", though regrettably this may mean spreadsheets and anything using macros may have to get the axe as well...

zandorg• 17 years ago

My guess is it's RunStop/Restore key combination resetting back to the BASIC prompt.

gaius• 17 years ago

Users should have kept schtum, shouldn't they?

blasdel• 17 years ago

Typing in games from listings in magazines was annoying enough on a full-size keyboard 25 years ago -- do they really expect people to do it on an iPhone?

davidw• 17 years ago

Here's one for S60 that works pretty well:

http://koti.mbnet.fi/~haviital/index.shtml?projects_frodo

lurkinggrue• 17 years ago

Good thing they pulled it, god knows what script kiddies would have done to the iPhone platform once they learned how to access the basic interpreter on the C64.

sys49152?

Seriously, how insane are these people at Apple app approval department?

Apple yanks C64 emulator from App Store

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