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ScummVM on the App Store

apps.apple.com

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Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#71

Post by wk_end »

karolist wrote: post #42
truegoric wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stand corrected, although from a policy-making perspective ScummVM allows users to run software acquired through ways not sanctioned by Apple (or owners of the original IPs), which I believe is the major part of why emulators are not allowed on App Store and thus bears a similarity to them in that particular aspect.

Is there any philosophical difference in playing your game using ScummVM versus playing a JavaScript game on some website using Safari for iOS?

Apple controls the JS sandbox in Safari, whereas they don’t control the ScummVM scripting sandbox. In theory it’d allow the execution of arbitrary scripts that can do anything native code can do, although I don’t know - maybe ScummVM checksums the games you load into it and will only run code it recognizes (and if so, maybe that’s why it’s allowed).

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#72

Post by fragmede »

wronglebowski wrote: post #62

How’d this get past app review? Apple has allowed zero emulators of any type on the App Store. I bet this gets crushed.

> 2.5.2 Apps should be self-contained in their bundles, and may not read or write data outside the designated container area, nor may they download, install, or execute code which introduces or changes features or functionality of the app, including other apps. Educational apps designed to teach, develop, or allow students to test executable code may, in limited circumstances, download code provided that such code is not used for other purposes. Such apps must make the source code provided by the app completely viewable and editable by the user.

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#phy...

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#73

Post by galapago »

toasteros wrote: post #57

ScummVM 2.8.0 is a pretty big release overall, with the App Store release just being the icing on the cake. The full notes are pretty long![0] The list of supported games has grown a lot. ScummVM is capable of running the Adibou series now, as well as the first Might & Magic game and Muppet Treasure Island! A hefty review of the Broken Sword engine has also restored a lot of small missing features. If you have even a…

There is another HN thread to discuss that release here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38816506

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#74

Post by Turing_Machine »

wronglebowski wrote: post #62

How’d this get past app review? Apple has allowed zero emulators of any type on the App Store. I bet this gets crushed.

ScummVM explicitly denies being any kind of emulator.

It doesn't run the original source code of the games. Rather, it's a complete rewrite of the game that uses the original assets (images, sounds, internal scripts, etc.)

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#75

Post by jraph »

saagarjha wrote: post #48
jraph wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> GPLv2 which doesn't require the freedom to RUN the program It does. This is the first freedom of free software. I'm not sure the issues with distributing GPL software on the App store are specific to the GPLv3. I don't fully understand things on this, but [1] seems to be a good entry point. > apple seems to ship software with gplv2 (old bash, etc) but no GPLv3 software. This is an Apple policy / a choice that they…

Sued by whom? The bash people seem like they have better things to do than sue Apple.

The Free Software Foundation.

Bash is part of the GNU project. As a consequence, I believe contributors assign their copyright to the FSF. I downloaded a random release of bash 3 (3.0.16) and opened a random C file from it and it is indeed "Copyright (C) 1993-2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc."

I appreciate that individual developers might not have the time & energy to engage in a lawsuit against Apple, but the FSF is bigger, and has all the incentive to be firm with the terms of the GPL licenses for the licenses to look strong. Developers can also certainly request help from the Software Freedom Conservancy [1] or the Software Freedom Law Center [2] (which has helped BusyBox win several lawsuits) for this kind of stuff. Apparently the SFLC has helped the FSF in the past, against Cisco, if I'm to believe [2].

[1] https://sfconservancy.org/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_Freedom_Law_Center

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#77

Post by Turing_Machine »

saagarjha wrote: post #50
xmodem wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been a hot minute since I had to dig into the code Apple publishes for anything and since then they seem to have moved it all to Github. I don't have my mac handy to try building it, but I don't see any references to a rootless.h in the code they're publishing. I'm curious to know a bit more about what's missing.

They inlined the code here: https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/bash/commit/9817a...

That would be perfectly legal under the GPL, right?

It doesn't say you're not allowed to modify the code, just that you have to distribute the modified code in its entirety. If what Apple is distributing is sufficient to build (their version of) bash, it's perfectly fine.

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#78

Post by nu11ptr »

adrianN wrote: post #4

Is there a place where I can legally obtain images to run on the vm?

Gog is ideal. I own several of them, and if you are patient, they run great sales throughout the year making them very cheap to obtain (and there isn't any DRM).

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#79

Post by loloquwowndueo »

awill wrote: post #41

This is fantastic. I consider iOS far superior in so many ways over Android. Except that it is locked down so much. If iOS becomes more open, there will be nearly no reason to get an Android.

Downloadable or installable game content is hardly any indication that iOS is about to become more open. Plenty of other apps do that.

Re: ScummVM on the App Store

#80

Post by johnwalkr »

This reminded me of the fact that excellent remasters of monkey island were released on the iPhone (and a few other paltforms) but were removed from the App Store after a few years. It’s a shame, they had great new artwork and sound/music but you could switch back and forth with the old art and it was cool to see the difference in each scene.
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