First legal NES emulator, Nescaline, debuts on the App Store [updated]

I can barely believe my eyes, but Nescaline appears to be the first NES emulator on the App Store. I’d normally recommend you go buy this before it’s taken down, but I get the feeling that Nescaline is here to stay, as it seems to be very legal.

Here’s the legal mumbo jumbo from Nescaline’s site.

Is this Legal?

According to Bleem! vs. Sony, emulators were ruled to be perfectly legal in case law so long as they do not include any copyrighted material (such as a BIOS) that infringes copyright.

Blah, blah, blah. I was hoping it was going to say, “I will make it legal.” Star Wars references aside, this is like totally exciting. Sorry, eight-year-old me is trying to break free to play NES once more.

Let’s get onto the game. It comes with five public domain NES roms and a warning to not pirate commercial games. It, of course, allows you to download NES roms into the game, allowing you to play any game that you have the appropriate licensing to download and play. You’ll have to police yourself on this one.

The game supports multitouch, and implements a directional pad with A and B buttons overlaid onto the screen. It also supports tapping, should a game support the light gun peripheral. Games can be saved using instant snapshots, not just the original save method. You also have access to a built in Game Genie.

To all the NES addicts out there, you’ll be more than happy to pay $6.99 for this app.

Update (10:00 AM):

I guess I was wrong. As legal as Nescaline claimed to be, it seems that Apple has pulled the app anyway. I haven’t seen anything between Nintendo and Apple yet, but I’m sure Apple’s attempt to take a chunk of the mobile gaming market didn’t put Nintendo in a good mood in the first place. It will be interesting to see if this app reappears, as it doesn’t seem to actually be illegal.