October 18th, 1985 it hit the streets in North America and ever since millions of gamers and technophiles alike have found a place in their hearts for the 8-bit video game console known as the Nintendo Entertainment System. It’s sold over 60 million consoles world wide and launched the careers of two Italian plumbers, destined for stardom. What does that have to do with today’s cutting edge technology? Well, nostalgia has programmers revitalizing the antiquated system on one of the most advanced gadgets to date: the iPhone/iPod Touch.
The NES emulator functions by simulating the graphics and controls of the original system. It is capable of reading ‘rom’ files, which contain the data of a videogame. Simply put; the emulator simulates all that cumbersome hardware on your little iPhone. The developer has crafted a replication of the controls as they would appear on the original NES controller. So you have your D-pad, Start, Select, and A and B buttons. All of the buttons are located on the lower portion of the screen and respond via touch. The NES app also makes use of the accelerometer by tracking portrait verses landscape positioning and adjusting the screen in accordance. This means that if you hold the iPhone sideways the screen and controls will reorient themselves to compensate.
The developers even added a few features to keep the system within today’s gaming standards, featuring save points wherever you are in-game, which greatly reduces the tedium of playing levels over-and-over again to get back to where you left off. Another addition is called ‘Zapper Tap’ which essentially means touch-screen targeting. So for games such as Duck Hunt, which relied upon the Zapper light-gun controller for targeting, you can simply touch the screen where you want to shoot.
All in all, the NES emulator for the iPhone/iPod Touch is an excellent interactive way to play classic Nintendo games on the go and definitely worth checking out.
