Developer removes NES gaming emulator from Apple App Store "out of fear"

The updated Apple App Store App Reviews Guidelines have finally given the green signal to retro gaming emulators. A Game Boy Advance emulator named iGBA was among the first to take advantage of this change, but it later got removed by the Cupertino tech giant. As we've already covered in a separate report, the removal was mainly due to copyright and spam violations.

But that's not the only game emulator that got removed from the App Store shortly after its debut. A NES gaming emulator named Bimmy was also pulled out, but this time, it wasn't Apple that removed it. Instead, it's the developer who has taken it down.

While this removal right after Apple took down iGBA may make it seem that Bimmy was also violating copyright and spam guidelines, the case is totally different. The developer said that the NES gaming emulator didn't have any "ads or tracking of any kind." No one even reported it as being a copy of another app. Instead, it was removed from the App Store "out of fear."

Those who were able to download the NES emulator before it got removed can still use it, though. If you couldn't install it before the removal, the app was for homebrew games, and it also allowed players to load up ROMs. Regarding the second part, anyone can simply pirate the game ROMs and play them on the app, which isn't okay according to Nintendo.

Bimmy's developer further explains that no one has put pressure on the app's removal. Instead, the game emulator was taken down because the dev "got more nervous about it as the day went on." For those unaware, Nintendo recently went full-on in taking down emulators.

The crackdown on the Yuzu app, which allowed Nintendo Switch (Lite curr. $188.88 on Amazon) game emulation, ended up with a $2.4 million lawsuit. GitLab also had to take down Suyu, a fork of Yuzu, after getting an email from Nintendo. Given all these, Bimmy's developer didn't want to risk things. The good part is that the developer has shared a GitHub link to the open-source code of the NES emulator.