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[Update] Game Boy Advance emulator for iPhone smuggled onto the App Store inside baby-naming app

Play Pokemon on your iPhone

[Update] Game Boy Advance emulator for iPhone smuggled onto the App Store inside baby-naming app
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Updated on March 19, at 18:08: As predicted, the Game Boy Advance emulator has been pulled from the App Store and is no longer available.

Original story follows...


A Game Boy Advance emulator has been smuggled onto the App Store under the guise of a baby name generator.

Basically, just load up the £1.49 / $1.99 app Awesome Baby Names, tap on a few hidden buttons, and you'll be given access to a secret menu of Game Boy Advance ROMs.

That means you can play Pokemon and Advance Wars on a non-jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch. Good news, right?

Well, not entirely.

The emulator isn't fantastic. It doesn't support iPad (and has visual glitches if you try), the controls are iffy, the settings are limited, and the controller overlays are very obtrusive.

Step by step

But if you really must have Pokemon on your iPhone, here's how to use the app.

First, download Awesome Baby Names. Then, plug your iPhone or iPod touch into your computer, and download a program that lets you meddle with the files on your iOS device. We recommend i-Funbox.

Find 'Awesome' under 'User Applications', and open the 'Documents' folder. You need to put a "gba_bios.bin" file (Google it) and a GBA ROM in this folder.

GBA emulator

Then, load up the baby-naming app. Tap on the top-left-hand corner of the screen (near the first letter of the top name), then tap on the 'Middle' button.

The words "Ready Player One" will appear. Tap on those to load up the emulator page and see a list of the ROMs in the 'Documents' folder. Tap a game to play.

If you want Awesome Baby Names, you should grab it (and back it up) quickly. Apple has a history of removing such apps in the blink of an eye.

iPhoneBlog.de
Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer