GAME OVER: Nintendo takes down iOS Game Boy emulator

At least for now, it's "Game Over" for an emulator app that allows gamers to play Nintendo Game Boy titles on their iPhones and iPads.

 

Nintendo this week sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice to developer Riley Testut, taking down his creation dubbed GBA4iOS.

 

Well it's official, @NintendoAmerica has sent a DMCA Notice requesting http://t.co/2egsx0sRNS to be shut down.

— Riley Testut (@rileytestut) May 13, 2014

 

GBA4iOS will continue to function normally on your device, but new downloads will temporarily be suspended.

— Riley Testut (@rileytestut) May 13, 2014

 

He also expressed disappointment that people would no longer be able to download the emulator:

GBA4iOS 2.0 was on track to reach 10 million unique downloads by May 19th, 3 months after its release. That probably won't happen now :(

— Riley Testut (@rileytestut) May 14, 2014

 

For now, Testut's website offering the app has been shut down.

 

A separate report on Torrentfreak.com noted GBA4iOS gained popularity as it did not require jailbreaking, or hacking an iOS device to let it accept apps from outside Apple's App Store ().

 

Loophole exploited

 

Torrentfreak said Testut's app exploits a loophole in Apple’s Developer Enterprise Program and allows users access to several games.

 

Such games are accessible via an inbuilt browser and third party ROM sites, with the latest version even having Dropbox integration.

 

DMCA notice

 

Torrentfreak cited portions of the DMCA notice where Nintendo of America Inc. told Testut that certain material posted on the app's website "infringes copyrights owned by Nintendo."

 

“Nintendo requests that GitHub, Inc. disable public access to the web site at www.gba4iosapp.com. This web site hosts a downloadable mobile application for iOS that provides users with access to unauthorized and illegal copies of Nintendo’s copyright-protected video games in violation of Nintendo’s exclusive rights,” it said.

 

On the other hand, it reported Testut has been working on a new version with multi-player support when the legal action came. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News