In today's Nothing Gold Can Stay news: iMAME is no longer available for download. What is this mysterious app, you ask? Despite appearances, it definitely has nothing to do with musical theater. (In case anyone asks, I didn't just mkae a musical theater reference, OK?) In truth, iMAME is an app allowing iOS users to play arcade ROMs on their portable devices. Sounds good, right? More like too good to be true: The app has now been yoinked from the App Store. Yoinked, I say! It's sad news, but realistically, it was only a matter of time: Software like MAME is controversial enough as it is in the lawless open waters of the Internets. In the App Store, which Apple polices very carefully, such a bold app barely stood a chance. After all, Apple's long-standing policy forbids apps that allow users to play software via emulators. Only Capcom and Atari, Joystiq points out, have ever made it past this otherwise inflexible ban, and even those exceptions were rare.
The removal of iMAME makes it much more difficult for iOS device owners to play the majority of the arcade catalog on the go, but there is a silver lining: As with all apps ejected from the App Store, iMAME won't be removed from your device if you've already downloaded it. Sure, you won't receive any updates, but if you were an early adopter, you should be able to take the app for a spin for a couple months more. It's cold comfort, but hey, that's life. Nothing gold can stay.
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