Check out our Monthly Survey Page to see what our users are running.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

touchHLE is a new emulator for iPhone OS apps

By - | Views: 22,857

Want a way to emulate old Apple iOS apps and games? Well, touchHLE just had its first release to prevent some more things being lost to time.

Platforms change and move on, often cutting off what came before. We've seen it time and time again with games consoles and with iOS being the closed platform it is plenty will get lost from it too. Perhaps not so much now if projects like touchHLE can keep advancing.

touchHLE is a high-level emulator (HLE) for iPhone OS apps. It runs on modern desktop operating systems, and is written in Rust.

As an HLE, touchHLE is radically different from a low-level emulator (LLE) like QEMU. The only code the emulated CPU executes is the app binary and a handful of libraries; touchHLE takes the place of iPhone OS and provides its own implementations of the system frameworks (Foundation, UIKit, OpenGL ES, OpenAL, etc).

Currently it doesn't seem to have fully working Linux support, and it has been a solo effort so far but now it has a release up and it's available on GitHub I'm sure it won't be long until someone else hacks away at it to get Linux support into shape.

Right now their main goal for the project is to support the earlier days of iOS like iPhone OS 2.x and mainly later 32bit versions with modern 64bit apps a non-goal and unlikely to be prioritised due to the complexity of it.

You can see their example video below:

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
10 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
4 comments

Jpxe Feb 6, 2023
I have fond memories of playing Wolfenstein RPG on an iPhone a long time ago so I hope they can get that game working.
Mar2ck Feb 6, 2023
Mobile gaming is a time-sink, micro-transaction disaster nowadays but the early days of iOS actually had a lot of high quality games. Like the smartphone-only Dead Space spin-off or the ports of Devil May Cry 4 and Resident Evil 4 that had exclusive mobile-only content. I'm really looking forward to those old games being accessible again since even if you have an iPhone you can't play them anymore because Apple killed 32-bit support.
Purple Library Guy Feb 6, 2023
Presumably even if they get them working these would play a bit . . . weird on a desktop unless you had a touchscreen.
Phlebiac Feb 7, 2023
Quoting: Purple Library GuyPresumably even if they get them working these would play a bit . . . weird on a desktop unless you had a touchscreen.

Could be great on a Steam Deck!
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.