AltStore PAL in the EU: Delta vs. Clip: Implications for Apple, Developers and the App Store Deployment

Testut says AltStore PAL is also open to submissions from third-party developers as well. The plan is for AltStore PAL apps to be self-hosted by developers on their own servers instead of being uploaded to the App Store and users have to add additional sources to download software made by other developers.

Apple just opened the door to emulators for its app store, which iGBA has shown is a very eager market. Delta might finally become it as long as it stays in good graces.

Delta and Clip are getting an Apple notarized start on the AltStore PAL app marketplace in the EU thanks to the DMA. You can see what we think of the two apps in our hands.

AltStore PAL is integrating its marketplace with Patreon for monetization, and will support developers who want to distribute beta apps as a reward for crowd-sourced funding, which isn’t allowed in the App Store. Testut will charge €1.50 (plus tax) a year for downloads of AltStore PAL to cover Apple’s Core Technology Fee (CTF) for installing the app marketplace itself. Delta is free to help offset the CTF, but downloading Clip requires a minimum monthly Patreon pledge of €1 (plus tax).

Neither app is brand new, nor is the app store they’re launching on, really. AltStore has been around since 2019 for iOS, but until now installing it has involved a workaround that basically tricks the iPhone into thinking you’re the app’s developer using a companion piece of software called AltServer running on a Mac or PC. Even if you don’t technically have tojailbreak your phone, it’s a bit hacky.

Both apps highlight the kind of software that might be possible on the iPhone now that developers don’t always have to go through Apple’s App Store to get onto customer’s devices. Apple only recently decided to support Delta, a legal gray area as a game emulator. Testut reported that some of the workarounds that Clip needs to run in the background are against App Store rules. There are good reasons for this, but it is something that you should consider for yourself, instead of relying on Apple to do it for you.

Apple loosened its App Store restrictions to allow retro game emulators onto its store earlier this month. The main stipulation in its rule change was that the emulation apps comply with “all applicable laws.” (Nintendo has a history of cracking down on sites that traffic in ROMs, which are playable software versions of its hardware game cartridges.) Apple also expressly forbids “copycats” in its store. “Don’t simply copy the latest popular app on the App Store, or make some minor changes to another app’s name or UI and pass it off as your own,” its guidelines read. iGBA was a copy of another developer’s work.

Testut says the developer apologized for the mess and that they didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.

Re-playing Games: How Playing Old Games and Recordings Can Be Revisited Rather Than Porting It To New Hardware

Testut’s are more in demand than ever as the game industry grapples with saving older titles at risk of disappearing forever. “We’ve seen repeatedly that IP owners are resistant to (consistently) porting old titles to newer hardware, preventing later generations from playing them,” Testut says. It is possible for old games to be re- played decades later, similar to playing audio recordings.