San Francisco, Calif. Apple has banned a Commodore 64 emulator just days after approving the iPhone application. According to the emulator’s publisher, Manomio, Club Cupertino yanked the retro emulator after users managed to access a banned BASIC interface.
“Unfortunately, Apple has pulled the C64 Application from their store as it was discovered by some users that it was possible to enable the BASIC program through the interface,” Manomio confirmed in an official statement. “We have now fixed the issue and our application has been re-submitted for approval by Apple. We thank you all for your support and fingers crossed we hope to launch again over the next few days.”
As TG Daily previously reported, Apple originally banned the emulator because its support for BASIC allegedly violated the iPhone SDK Agreement (3.3.2). Apple then approved a modified version with an ostensibly disabled BASIC interface.
“The road was bumpy, but we remained persistent and made the changes Apple was looking for. Ultimately, BASIC has been removed for this release; however, we hope that working with Apple further will allow us to re-enable it,” Manomio explained. “Despite it’s absence, BASIC is not our focus, ultimately fans of the C64 want games.”
It should be noted that iTunes currently offers a number of emulators, including programmable calculators and a Z-machine interpreter known as Frotz. Nevertheless, Apple recently banned a Nintendo DS simulator developed by ZM2 Dev. The disputed application – dubbed Double Sys – reportedly acted as a “handheld game console” by simulating the DS OS.
Other applications banned or censored by Apple include Zombie School, Hottest Girls, Nine Inch Nails:Access and NinjaWords dictionary.
