Consoles 4+

Great Start, needs improvements

In terms of features this app is brilliant. The ability to directly sync save states between an iPhone and an Apple TV via iCloud is pretty incredible!

But the actual emulation is very mixed with some games running at full speed and some being a juddery mess. I’m talking Genesis titles that have the same speed on an Apple TV and a Pro iPhone so clearly the software layer is to blame.

I’d also like to change controller keys and have some sort of pause menu.

Developer Response ,

Hi there! We’re sorry think you’ll really enjoy the Consoles (1.1) update. It includes some performance fixes and Button/Key Mapping.

Decent start

Picked this up earlier today and I’ve tried it on my iPhone, Apple TV and Mac.

Thumbs up for:

- Games and save states -mostly- sync nicely across devices
- Simple and uncluttered interface. A nice change
- Apple TV support
- Decent selection of consoles. Don’t know why Sega machines are so lacking on iOS
- Good controller support on iPhone, iPad and Mac
- Remapped buttons -mostly- carry over to other devices
- Automatic artwork
- Oh, and top of the list. Data is not collected. Too many emulators on the store have build cookie nonsense into them. Truly appreciate this app just doing what it sets out to do.

I’m glad I’ve bought this, this is a really good basis for a quality app. That saying, improvements are needed:

- Save states created on Apple TV don’t seem to work when trying to load on other devices. Currently having to delete the save states for the game to work again
- More scaling options. The setup right now fills the screen, but does not hide the fact that pixels aren’t even so dithered graphics look pretty bad.
- No a ‘Reset’ option for consoles, this automatically loads a save state, unless you delete the save state
- Single size artwork from the UI. On iPhone for example, pinch to zoom (out) would be nice to see more than just a couple of games at a time.
- Manual artwork support (re. Homebrew and new games)
- Rename ROMs (again, Homebrew and new games)
- Shader support please
- Gameboy and Gameboy Colour. Let the users choose to split or combine those game lists
- Gameboy (monochrome), support for original colour options
- Mark games as favourites (and then also users to filter to those favourites).
- Rate games, 5 star options (again, filter options for those)
- Search for games. Not only in the console lists, but from the main page too.
- Touch screen button remapping. I noticed Gameboy mappings for A & B were incorrectly laid out. Need to be laid out as per the original console.
- Controller re-mapping. Again, defaults were incorrect.
- Apple TV, I could not see an option for remapping controls.
- Apple TV controller support feels pretty bad. Played loads of games on Apple TV, but this feels really laggy. iPhone, iPad and Mac all feel fine. Apple TV controller needs a little work.

Yes, there improvements list is long, but this is in no way a bad App. It’s early days and I expect the dev is aware of some of these observations. Really hoping this will grow into something quite special.

Tons of potential

I’m just glad this is in the App Store ! Yep there’s a fair bit to improve on but you can see the potential. Please please please add MAME as we’re crying out for a decent MAME !!! So far so good. Support this talented dev !