Gamer's Corner: Does The iPhone 3GS Software Mean Slow Running Emulators Are A Thing Of The Past?
by Matt Fox
July 17, 2009
I found a fun little video making the rounds on YouTube the other day and thought it would bring up some interesting discussion topics. A link to the video of this can be found here. Check it out and I'll continue on after...
So, there you go. It doesn't show much and it's a very early beta version of this guys software, but you get the basic idea. The video was done by tech and jailbreak guru ZodTTD. The Playstation emulator is called psx4iphone and it is running on 3GS iPhone that has NOT been jailbroken. What really amazed me was how smoothly it seemed to run on the new iPhone 3GS compared to anything we've seen on either of it's predecessor's.
What does this video really mean? Not much really. I mean you can play most of games on the PSP or DS anyways, but it does highlight the power of the new iPhone and the possibilities of the software for sure. This current emulator is available in Cydia only. I would personally love to be able to play something like Final Fantasy VII without all of the issues of current emulators.
When jailbreaking started to become more than just a fad, emulators were very common and popular. However, they always seemed to suffer the same issues in way of stuttering framerates. It seems, and I put emphasis on the word seems here, that the 3GS has finally fixed that issue. Or in any case it's made the issue much less apparent.
To be able to play numerous different games from all different consoles on one handheld device...well, that would definitely be something worth owning in my book. I mean who has the pocket space for an iPhone, PSP, and a DS? Of course when the PSP Go arrives that might change everything...maybe not though?
Let's not forget to mention the fact that these emulators are not official at all and will probably never get into the app store anyway. Look at the Commodore 64 emulator that's been stuck in limbo since it was submitted. As great as that app would be, I'm not sure we'll be seeing it anytime soon. Which is a shame because it looks like a lot of fun...ah, well.
So what do you guys think? Is this even something to get excited about in your opinion? Do you even care about emulators for the iPhone? How about the issue of jailbroken and not. I for one would love an emulator app so that I do not need to jailbreak my phone (assuming one will ever happen.) How about you?
Game App of the Week
So this week I had a chance to check out The Moron Test, which is currently sitting at number one on the app store's Top 25 list. Even though this app is listed in the "Entertainment" category, it is very much a game.
In short, you answer a bunch of brain teasing questions and the app will make you fell like a...well, moron basically. It's a lot of fun and can get extremely frustrating as well, but in an entertaining way. A review for said app can also be found here.