Apple approves PC emulator on App store; you can now play retro PC games on supported iOS devices
Apple’s iPhones have always been touted as a closed ecosystem. However, this is slowly, and steadily, changing. That Apple, in a first, approved a PC emulator named UTM SE for iPhones, is a testament to the same. The app allows users to run full versions of Windows and Linux directly on iPhones, enabling users to run retro games and apps.
The fact that UTM SE is free for use makes the whole deal even better. The developer even offers resources for users to download various computer operating systems, including Linux, Windows, and even macOS.
We were able to download the UTM SE app from the App store on the iPhone 15. It allowed us to create a new virtual machine, and boot into the existing one with an option to download pre-built machines from the UTM gallery.
Not just that, the app is also available for iPads and the Vision Pro spatial computer. This way, users can play their favourite retro DOS and Windows games directly on Apple devices.
The emulator is built on top of QEMU, a widely-used open-source emulator, and can support terminal mode for text-only OSes. It is also compatible with VGA mode for operating systems with a user interface.
The UTM SE PC emulator app is around 1.7 GB in size, and depending on the OS that one loads, it will consume additional storage. The app is compatible with iPhones and iPads running on iOS 14 or newer versions, and it supports over 12 different languages.
Developed by Turing Software LLC, the UTM SE app allows users to directly boot an OS from the local storage and is capable of emulating OSes developed for platforms like x86, PPC, and RISC-V architectures. The developer is also making it easy for users to run pre-built machines, which can be downloaded from the company’s official website or build their own, as per the requirement.
