C64 taken down from the App Store due to BASIC glitch

It was a glorious few moments for retro gamers when Manomio's C64 emulator was finally approved by Apple and released to the eager, nostalgic iPhone public.

Then, calamity! It was gone again. Apparently some wily users figured out how to access the Commodore 64 BASIC system that was originally packaged with the emulator - something that Apple wasn't too happy with, given the nature of the interpreter's code.

By setting the keyboard to 'always on', launching a game and restarting BASIC, players got into the 'empty shell' of their C64 emulator.

Manomio tells Pocket Gamer that it had only just discovered the trick itself and put a new build together and sent in to Apple, though unfortunately too late to prevent C64 from being pulled. A glitch in putting together the latest build (which was approved by Apple) had hidden the BASIC system, rather than removing it.

The developer is now hard at work setting up a meeting with Apple to clarify matters and get C64 back to the retro gaming public who put the app in the top 20 paid games list across most territories inside of two days, and even made it into the top 10 in certain areas before disappearing.

Although it's uncertain at the moment what will happen, a new build is in submission to the App Store. C64 was personally approved by Apple management after the difficulties of passing the approval criteria by normal means, so hopefully it'll be given an equally close look for the BASIC-less update and put back on the shelf as quickly as possible.

Watch this space, and if you want to help let Apple hear your cheers of joy for iPhone retro gaming in the comments section below.