AfterDawn: News

Apple iOS 8.1 will block emulator apps and vaunted 'date trick'

It seems that if you are a current iOS user who likes to play classic games via game emulators, your time with those games is running short.

The new update will kill the "date trick" loophole that allowed anyone to install third-party emulators and unapproved apps by rolling back the date on the iPad or iPhone.



Reads the post from GBA4iOS, a popular Game Boy emulator app that required the date trick to operate because Apple does not allow it in the App Store:

Apple, it appears, is setting their eyes on the emulators community, starting by making the now-famous 'Date Trick' completely obsolete in an upcoming update. iOS 8.1 beta was seeded to developers yesterday and it's already causing panic among some iOS emulator aficionados. It was reported to me almost immediately by a source that the date trick wasn't helping at all in installing GBA4iOS 2.0 - that's when worry started to set in and I decided to investigate.

The 'Date Trick' fuels the emulator communities nowadays. Our website, iEmulators.com, relies on this to continue distribution and updates. Without it, everything looks bleak. Without GBA4iOS 2.0, everything seems... well, not-fun. Will iOS 8.0.2 become our perpetual purgatory so that we can continue to enjoy these things?

Unsurprisingly so, this was a long-time coming; we knew this would one day arrive. After the 'Date Trick' became famous earlier last year, our panic subsided and we learned to live a period of peace knowing that even though some of our favorite emulators' certificates were revoked by Apple, we could still install these emulators by rolling our date back - many came to believe it was something that would last. Developers like Riley Testut didn't lose any motivation knowing that their updates and hard work could still be acknowledged. Apple, it seems, had other plans.

If you are willing to jailbreak you can continue to play your classic games, but you also lose official support from Apple and timely patches, a handy thing to have when operating systems brick your entire phone (here's looking at you, iOS 8).

Source:
GBA4IOS

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 9 Oct 2014 10:27

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• 10 comments

• dEwMe

  The evil empire strikes again...
  
  

  Just my $0.02,
  
  dEwMe

  9.10.2014 13:32 #1

• ThePastor

  Why is it that every new "feature" by Apple is some kind of restriction?
  

  Oh, Im sorry... Did the middle of my sentence interrupt the beginning of yours?

  9.10.2014 15:14 #2

• Bozobub

  This is EXACTLY what iOS adopters were warned about, re: "walled gardens". Enjoy!

  9.10.2014 23:34 #3

• mightyzog

  Big deal!!! So we are supposed to cry crocodile tears for the 0.001 % of all iPhone users who can't circumvent Apples "walled garden". Why is this such a big deal since you guys seem to hate apple hardware and software. If android is soo much better then this shouldn't be an issue at all. If you wanna use an emulator on an idevice, don't update(stay at iOS 7) or get an old iPhone 4 which can't get the iOS 8 update, problem solved!!!
  
  It's kinda funny how many iPhone users there are(that this is a problem at all).....Since there are so many negatives to owning an iPhone, right hearme0 and Bozobub.

  10.10.2014 19:29 #4

• Bozobub

  You shouldn't HAVE to bypass a walled garden; it simply should not exist in the 1st place. Nor do the majority of iOS users jailbreak their devices (.001% unjailbroken, my tukhus), and for that matter, jailbreaking your iDevice will not allow these emulators to run, as the article notes (you still had to use the "date trick" to do so, and that is now ineffective). You can install them, but they still will not work, period. Real cute, that. And are you suggesting a "solution" of never updating your OS - a serious security risk, for one - or using outdated hardware and wanting to be taken seriously..?! Wow. Problem NOT solved, homes. Not in the slightest.
  
  Your response is quite telling, in that you apparently interpret any criticism of Apple hardware/software as "hate"; this is pretty much the defining trait of a "fanboi"/"fangrrl". I'll reiterate, I do not hate either and yes, there are some nice things about Apple hardware and software. But paying more for the privilege of artificial limits and draconian crap like we see here isn't an advantage, no matter how you try to spin it as such.
  
  Oh, a hint: It's not Android users that are complaining about this change to to iOS - lol.

  10.10.2014 20:13 #5

• mightyzog

  The .001% I was referring to was the people using emulators not unjailbroken idevice users.... You misread it. I'm not about to feel sorry for people who find a need to circumvent software to run programs that are not intended to run on this hardware(yes the change date trick is a circumvention)
  
  It's hard not to believe the criticism of Apple is "hate".... When every other comment in these forums is"I hate apple" or "crapple" or "isheep". These are not people who like anything apple( I have been reading comments from these forums for a lot longer than I have actually posted and you seem to be very level headed and very well informed. I respect most of your comments and opinions... Even if I disagree with some of them.)

  10.10.2014 21:03 #6

• megadunderhead

  do you notice most people that love emulators use android no jailbreaking required and they run really smooth
  

  12.10.2014 00:07 #7

• Bozobub

  Mightyzog, the software IS intended to run on iOS; it's just that Apple doesn't want it to; let's be perfectly clear on that. And just because YOU don't see a need to run any given program, simply has no bearing on the large number of people who do.
  
  I put it to you: Why is it OK for Apple to do this? It's not as if they've restricted only emulators, after all. And their attack on free software is also hard to ignore.

  12.10.2014 11:34 #8

• qazwiz

  Originally posted by megadunderhead: do you notice most people that love emulators use android no jailbreaking required and they run really smooth SOON TO COME: "All people who want to still play games they played years ago will use Android devices"
  
  a point made earlier needs to be reiterated
  IT AINT ANDROID USERS THAT ARE COMPLAINING
  
  also note: Apple sales are down 9% from last year... Just saying....
  
  also it is rumored that if you don't like the color of your brick that there are five new colors for you to choose if you need to buy another $600 brick

  12.10.2014 14:58 #9

• DXR88

  Originally posted by qazwiz: Originally posted by megadunderhead: do you notice most people that love emulators use android no jailbreaking required and they run really smooth SOON TO COME: "All people who want to still play games they played years ago will use Android devices"
  
  a point made earlier needs to be reiterated
  IT AINT ANDROID USERS THAT ARE COMPLAINING
  
  also note: Apple sales are down 9% from last year... Just saying....
  
  also it is rumored that if you don't like the color of your brick that there are five new colors for you to choose if you need to buy another $600 brick low quality gold brick incrusted with blood diamonds, coming soon at a low low price of $10,000

  12.10.2014 16:49 #10