Delta is a

video game console emulator A video game console emulator is a type of emulator that allows a computing device to emulate a video game console's hardware and play its games on the emulating platform. More often than not, emulators carry additional features that surpass ...

created by Riley Testut for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and

iPadOS iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple for its iPad line of tablet computers. It was given a name distinct from iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones to reflect the diverging features of the two product lines, suc ...

. It supports games for the

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

Game Boy Color The (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT scre ...

, and

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

. A paid version of the emulator also supports

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

games. Development of Delta started prior to Testut entering university, with it being a successor to the earlier GBA4iOS application. Prior to the application's release on the

App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...

, iOS users had to download Delta via AltStore, Testut's app store for the

and

operating systems. Upon release onto the App Store in April 2024, the app reached the top of the App Store rankings for about two weeks.

Background

Riley Testut started developing GBA4iOS, the predecessor of Delta, during his senior year at Richardson High School along with his friend Paul Thorsen. It was a emulator of the

for the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

. iOS users had to sideload the emulator via a

loophole A loophole is an ambiguity or inadequacy in a system, such as a law or security, which can be used to circumvent or otherwise avoid the purpose, implied or explicitly stated, of the system. Originally, the word meant an arrowslit, a narrow vertic ...

called the "Date Trick", where the app is allowed to be downloaded and installed via the Safari browser, without needing to jailbreak (i.e. using exploits to bypass software restrictions) the device. On October 8, 2014, the exploit was patched in the iOS 8.1 update, thus ending the lifespan of the software. The source code for the app is currently hosted on

Bitbucket Bitbucket is a Git-based source code repository hosting service owned by Atlassian. Bitbucket offers both commercial plans and free accounts with an unlimited number of private repositories. Services Bitbucket Cloud Bitbucket Cloud (pre ...

Development and release

Development of Delta started prior to Testut entering the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. He released the emulator in 2019 alongside the AltStore app marketplace for iOS and iPadOS. Testut claimed that he developed the application because he wanted to publish the emulator. AltStore serves as an alternative to jailbreaking. Before Delta was released on Apple's App Store in 2024, the only way to install it was through AltStore. Apple did not allow software emulators in their App Store. In 2024, due to pressure from the EU Digital Markets Act, Apple changed their rules to allow emulators. After the change, a copycat emulator called iGBA (a fork of GBA4iOS) was released to the App Store. Apple took down iGBA shortly after it was released. Testut described iGBA as a "knock-off" of the Delta emulator. He also stated that he had not given permission to the developer of iGBA to publish the application. Delta was officially released on the App Store on April 17, 2024. It reached the top of the digital marketplace's charts almost immediately following release. This would be short-lived, however, as the

Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans ch ...

app surpassed Delta just two weeks later after they announced that they would give twelve donuts for free for people who downloaded the app in the USA. In mid-2024, the emulator changed its logo after

Adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

threatened Testut with legal action due to its original logo sharing an almost identical similarity.

Supported consoles

Delta can emulate the consoles listed below: *Sega Genesis only available to patron supporters

References

External links

* {{Nintendo emulators 2019 software Video game emulation IPadOS software IOS software Game Boy emulators Game Boy Advance emulators Nintendo Entertainment System emulators Super Nintendo Entertainment System emulators Nintendo 64 emulators Sega Genesis emulators Nintendo DS emulators