Apple eased guidelines to allow for game emulators to be distributed through their App Store.
The first one I’ve downloaded is the free Delta emulator. It supports a good handful of original Nintendo consoles with more to come. The Verge has a good write up with details.
Loading ROMs is easy. Delta intelligently hides onscreen controls when a Bluetooth controller is present. You can Airplay the game to a screen and it works fairly well. (And yes, Android phones have had these emulators for a while, but it’s nice to have them available on Apple’s store.)
Here’s the thing though, I doubt I’ll spend much time playing any of these old games. I’ve oodles of classics available on the Switch, old consoles that still work in storage boxes and a Raspberry Pi set up specifically for emulation. I love the idea of playing old games, but when it comes down to it? I’d rather be doing something else.
There’s joy in the possibility though, and sometimes that’s nice to have on hand.