It looks like the Delta Nintendo emulator for iOS has been a hit since it launched earlier this month, racking up tens of thousands of (very positive reviews) on the App Store, and we're assuming a lot more downloads. Now the developer has confirmed that an iPad version is imminent.
Posting on Threads (via 9to5Mac), Delta developer Riley Testut says that Delta for iPad is "near completion", and will be showing up on iOS the next time an update is pushed through – specifically, in version 1.6 of the app.
The developer has even included a preview video of Delta working on an iPad, showing how the extra screen space and multi-window capabilities of Apple's tablet will be used to present classic Nintendo games and consoles in a variety of ways on screen.
There's no time frame yet for when Delta for iPadOS will show up, but it shouldn't be too long now. If you live in the EU and you're signed up to the relevant Patreon, you can already download and install the tablet version from the AltStore.
Emulators and Apple
Apple first opened the App Store doors to emulator apps at the start of April, presumably in an attempt to avoid further antitrust pressure from governments in the EU and the US – pressure which has continued to grow this year.
It didn't take long for the first emulators to appear, though a Nintendo emulator was pulled by its own developer over concerns about possible legal consequences. While emulators are legal, pirating copyrighted software for them (in the form of ROMs) isn't.
Apple says emulators on iOS must comply with "all applicable laws", and so far we haven't seen any of these apps run into trouble in that area. We did see a Game Boy emulator taken down, but that was because it shamelessly ripped off another app.
Nintendo is usually fairly aggressive when it comes to chasing down game piracy, though it hasn't intervened here so far. It most often tackles emulator tech and ROM distribution rather than end users, with the issue further complicated by different loopholes in individual countries (like the right to make personal backups of software).
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