Yup, PPSSPP Gold for iOS is still stuck in review, so I am completely unable to update it.
The free version, however, is up to date.
Here's a summary of the situation, along with the rejection letters, my replies and App Store Review's responses.
I recommend all iOS users to use the free version of PPSSPP until this can be resolved, even if you paid for Gold to support the project!
PPSSPP 1.18 is now ready! The most important changes are listed below.
For a more high-level summary of the changes, see the progress report and release announcement!
NOTE! As usual, the Android version on Google Play will as usual roll out slowly over multiple days in order to catch any bad crashes early, so you may have to wait a few days before you receive the update.
Additionally, the iOS version may take even longer due to the unpredictability of App Store review.
PPSSPP Legacy for Android is now available as an APK on the buildbot, as AndroidLegacy.
This special Android APK targets an older SDK version than the official builds, and is thus unaffected by the Scoped Storage API requirement. This can help various Android TV devices where you are currently unable to pick a folder to load an ISO from.
Note that this can not be uploaded onto Google Play since it doesn't meet current requirements. The only way to install it is to sideload it via ADB or similar. If you know how to use APK files, you know what you need to do.
For more information, see the reference page.
PPSSPP for iOS 1.17.4 is out, however the Gold version is unfortuntately stuck in App Store review. If you have the free version installed, it will update automatically.
Changes:
Enjoy!
More information about the App Store review problems are coming in a blog post Monday.
PPSSPP for iOS 1.17.3 has now been released, both Gold and regular, and if you have one of them installed, you should be receiving the update shortly.
Changes:
Enjoy!
The free version of PPSSPP 1.17.2 has been re-approved by Apple, and is now back on the App Store!
The version that's online now is the same as the current Gold version, it includes these new features and fixes:
Enjoy!
And if you do enjoy it, consider buying the gold version to support the project!
PPSSPP for iOS 1.17.2, both regular and Gold, have been sent for review. The Gold version has passed and will roll out today. For the free version status, see below.
This is the status of my apps in the App Store as I'm writing this, just before triggering the rollout of 1.17.2:
I'm trying everything to get the free version up again:
But nothing seems to work, it's been four days since the takedown now.
If anyone knows what else I can do, email me at [email protected].
Below you can find Apple's complaint (which, if accurate, would also apply to the Gold version, since it had the same contents in the homebrew store). Note that despite the complaint giving a 14-day deadline, the app was taken down immediately, which is odd. Additionally, in my opinion the complaint is incorrect because I don't believe anything previously on the homebrew store actually did infringe upon copyright.
Hello,
We are writing to let you know about new information regarding the latest approved version of your app, PPSSPP - PSP emulator, which could impact its availability on the App Store.
Upon re-evaluation, we found that your app is not in compliance with the App Review Guidelines. Specifically, we found your app is in violation of the following:
Guideline 5.2.2 - Legal
The app appears to contain copyrighted video game files, located in the Homebrew Store.
Apps and their content should not infringe upon the rights of another party. In the event an app infringes another party’s rights, the app's developers are responsible for any liability to Apple because of a claim.
Next Steps
Either remove the copyrighted third-party content from the app and its metadata or provide a written affirmation that you have the appropriate rights or license to use and distribute the third-party copyrighted materials.
Resources
Learn more about intellectual property requirements in guideline 5.2.2.
To ensure there is no interruption of the availability of your app on the App Store, please submit an update within 14 days of the date of this message. If we do not receive an update compliant with the App Review Guidelines within 14 days, your app will be removed from sale.
Please note, if your app is found to be out of compliance for any reason and rejected after the time period provided has elapsed, your app will be removed from sale until a compliant update is submitted, approved and released to the App Store.
If you have any questions about this information, please reply to this message to let us know.
Best regards,
App Review
An App Review specialist reviewed the app and determined it is not in compliance with App Store Review Guideline 5.2.2 because it used, accessed, monetized access to, or displayed content from a third-party service without proof of authorization or permission to do so.
The App Review specialist may have used automation as part of the review process.
Your app is being removed from the App Store.
On May 30 I received a complaint from Apple that some games in the built-in Homebrew Store were violating someone's copyright somehow, no details. I don't know or believe that any of them are actually in violation (they are all free to distribute), but I took most of them down for now. I hope Apple will let PPSSPP back in the App Store soon.
For some reason, PPSSPP Gold wasn't affected by the takedown, even though it has an identical homebrew store built-in.
I have submitted new builds of both PPSSPP and PPSSPP Gold to the App Store for review, hopefully this will trigger Apple into action.
Upcoming improvements:
Now, we wait for Apple.
PPSSPP has only been out for iOS for a few days, and the response so far has been overwhelming! It's great to hear from so many people trying out PPSSPP for iOS for the first time and enjoying it. Of course, the first release is a bit rough and ready, I prioritized getting it out early over making it perfect. So, here's what you can expect in the first update, which will be submitted for review in about a week:
Stay tuned!
After nearly 12 years, PPSSPP has finally been approved for the iOS App Store! Thanks to Apple for relaxing their policies, allowing retro games console emulators on the store.
This initial App Store release of PPSSPP has some limitations compared to the earlier unofficial builds:
In future updates, MoltenVK will be re-enabled (and I might even write a native Metal backend), and the Magic Keyboard will be supported through another method (the old method was using an undocumented API, so not usable in the App Store). RetroAchievements will be back as well, with a better login UI.
However, the JIT compiler cannot be restored without a change in Apple’s rules. The loss of the JIT is unfortunate since without it, our CPU emulation performance is reduced. Fortunately, iOS devices are generally fast enough to run nearly all PSP games at full speed anyway, as the PSP CPU is not that expensive to emulate, thanks to our efficient IR-based caching interpreter, which also has further room for improvement.
Anyway, enjoy this new way of playing PPSSPP! And stay tuned for updates. Additional information is available here.
Buy the Gold version if you want to support development!
Apple just added a few lines to their iOS App Store review guidelines, including this:
“Additionally, retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games,"
This seems to imply that retro game console emulators (the PSP is almost 20 years old, that's has to count as "retro") will be allowed in the iOS App Store - however, it's also mentioned later that "links must be provided to all downloadable software", which makes it unclear if it emulators will be allowed to let the user pick from their own files, and not just app-internal downloads.
Since we don't own the rights to PSP games, we can't offer them as in-app downloads, users must still obtain the games on their own (by dumping UMDs). So, for PPSSPP to be useful beyond running a small set of free homebrew games, it all depends on how Apple interprets their own rules.
If it turns out that the rules now allow emulators with ISO/ROM pickers, PPSSPP will come to the App Store later this year. If not, well, it won't!
(JIT permissions have also been debated, and don't look likely to be approved. However, PPSSPP doesn't need JIT to perform well on modern Apple CPUs.)
The current status of the iOS port
The successful release of the Delta multisystem emulator seems to confirm that proper emulators can now pass App Store review. In the near future, an attempt will be made to submit PPSSPP to the App Store.
I'm doing final preparations for review now. Hopefully things go well.
Waiting for review.
The apps are being reviewed.
Just a quick note that the merge of the VR build into the general Android build has been reverted in new builds.
For now, we will keep a separate VR build, due to various issues on Quest 2 with the Android "scoped storage" feature, which we are forced to use in the main Android builds.
Support has been added to the buildbot to build the VR builds separately.
Due to a 3+ week downtime of Orphis' buildbot, I went ahead and set up my own.
The builds that it produces can be found here: Development builds.
Currently, it builds for Android, Windows and Windows for ARM64 processors. More platforms will be added in the future.
Due to using different signing keys, you can't directly upgrade from an Orphis-build to these, but you can upgrade from an official release APK downloaded from this website to a buildbot build.
A classic emulator buildbot makes new builds (emulator executables) for every single change to the emulator source code. This can be very useful when tracking down regressions, that is, finding out when specifically something that was working before now broke.
By using the halving or bisection method, you can often track down errors over huge ranges of commits in a small number of tries. Simply try two builds that you know work and don't, then try the one in the middle between them. Then if it's still broken, try the range from the first commit to the one you just tried, and if not try the second half. Repeat!
From build v1.17.1-60, our Android builds are cross-compatible between phones and VR setups like the Quest 2. So there's no longer any need for a separate downloadable VR app.
For now, only the most recent builds will be there, and due to logistical issues, this buildbot will be less reliable.
For a more high-level summary, see the progress report and release announcement!
NOTE! As usual, the Android version on Google Play will as usual roll out slowly over multiple days in order to catch any bad crashes early, so you may have to wait a few days before you receive the update.
chdman createdvd, DO NOT use createcd.Android has a convenient way for people to opt-in to receive beta releases of apps. I'm finally making use of it, and already lots of people have signed up. Thanks to people installing the beta app, I get crash and hang reports that I can use to make the next release more stable than ever.
Join the Android PPSSPP Beta program!
In other news, I've ripped out Docusaurus and React from the website and rebuilt the whole thing from scratch. I kept getting reports that the site was loading poorly on various devices, and integrations like Analytics had issues with it - plus, every time I wanted to make a change I had to re-learn a lot of stuff.
For long lived projects with small maintenance budgets, simplicity is key. I seem to have to re-learn this concept over and over...
So now, the site is statically generated HTML, all produced with a simple Rust program that stitches together the pages from markdown, Handlebars templates and raw CSS and Javascript. It's easier to manage, easier to change and easier to debug - plus, deploys in 3 seconds instead of 30. Win-win!
This time, I kept most of the visual design (but had to re-implement it, of course), and could re-use the work I previously did to merge the old "PPSSPP Central" with the main site. All the content is the same, too.
Yes, version 1.17 is indeed coming soon, with many fixes and improvements - stay tuned.
For a more detailed summary, see the progress report and release announcement!
Please note that as usual, the Android version on Google Play will as usual roll out slowly over multiple days in order to catch any bad crashes early, so you may have to wait a few days before you receive the update.
Go to downloads to get it! New: There's now an official Mac build!
-fno-math-errno (#18158)Special thanks to [Unknown] for the new JIT compilers, and fp64 for finally cracking the vrnd instruction.
RetroAchievements support (#17589, #17631, many more). See RetroAchievements on ppsspp.org.
New JIT backends:
Input fixes
Rendering performance and fixes
Networking
Texture replacement fixes
UI changes
Cheats
VR (Quest, other Android VR devices)
Other
For a more detailed summary, see the first PPSSPP progress report!
Please note that the Android version on Google Play will as usual roll out slowly over multiple days in order to catch any bad crashes early, so you may have to wait a few days before you receive the update.
Go to downloads to get it! New: There's now an official Mac build!
Stutter caused by shader compilation has been reduced drastically (#16873)
Rendering performance and fixes
Texture replacement improvements
Optimizations
Controls
VR features
Other
(NOTE: 1.14.1, released on December 20, fixes a black screen bug on older Android devices, plus some other odds and ends)
(Additionally, 1.14.2-4 fix some additional bugs and hangs.)
This is no ordinary release - a lot of work has gone into fixing up long-standing rendering issues, such as the water in Outrun or characters clipping through the background in Kurohyou 2, smoke showing through walls in Ratchet & Clank, there are new VR builds for Quest and PICO, and many other things! A quick overview of changes:
NOTE: As usual, the Android version will be rolled out gradually, you'll see it in the Play Store within the next few days.
Another new release! As usual, lots of nice compatibility fixes, performance improvements, and so on. Work has also continued on improving Android 12 support, fixing several bugs. See this guide for more details.
As usual, the Android version will be rolled out gradually, you'll see it in the Play Store within the next few days.
July 28: 1.13.1 just fixes a few bugs.
September 11: 1.13.2 fixes a serious crash bug on Android 12, plus a few more minor ones.
The list is way too long to display here in full this time, but here's an assortment of improvements since 1.12. For more details, see the README file.
Finally a new release! PPSSPP now supports Android 12 and the new Android storage model, "Scoped Storage". For more details on what that means, see this guide.
1.12.1, 1.12.2, 1.12.3 released on October 9, 10, 18 fix a few bugs including a gamepad binding bug.
As usual, the Android version will be rolled out gradually, you'll see it in the Play Store within a week.
In addition to fully supporting Android 12, PPSSPP 1.12 includes a lot of bugfixes and new features. From new UI background options to a lot of game fixes, and for those of you adventurous enough to try the experimental multiplayer support, it works better than ever. Thanks to all the contributors who made this all possible!
The list is way too long to display here in full this time, but here's an assortment of improvements since 1.11:
It's been a long wait, but the reward is finally here.
PPSSPP 1.11 has a large number of fixes for both long-standing and newly discovered issues. As a result, chances are better than ever that any game you try will work great!
1.11.1/2 has some additional crash fixes. 1.11.3 fixes an on-screen keyboard rendering glitch.
Some of the improvements since 1.10:
PPSSPP 1.10 is finally here. Not to be confused with 1.1! 10 major releases since 1.0, that's quite something. Thanks to everybody who has helped and made this possible.
PPSSPP 1.10.1 additionally fixes a few commonly seen crashes. 1.10.2 fixes some camera-related crashes, and fixes centering on notched phones. 1.10.3 fixes further notch issues.
A selection of what has changed since 1.9:
PPSSPP 1.9.0 fixes more bugs and performance issues. 1.9.3 fixes a few additional bugs on Android primarily.
A list of the major changes:
Rollout has started - if you're on Android you'll automatically be updated within a week.
PPSSPP 1.8.0 fixes several bugs and substantially improves compatibility with various hardware. Support for mobile PowerVR GPU in Vulkan has been added, fixing many instances of broken display. Here's a full list of major changes:
PPSSPP 1.7.x has a large number of compatibility and bugfixes, and if you've previously had problems with crashes or instability, hopefully you will see a big improvement.
The Android release will be rolled out slowly over the next week to catch bugs. If you want to get it early, the APK is available.
UPDATE: 1.7.1 includes some minor crash fixes and a savedata fix. 1.7.2-1.7.4 are just additional crashfixes. 1.7.5 fixes an Android issue.
This time, it's all about speed. The Vulkan backend has improved as is now the default where available, while the OpenGL backend has been properly multithreaded and now runs really fast on dual-core devices. Enjoy!
The Android release will be rolled out slowly over the next week to catch bugs. If you want it now now NOW then download the APK!
May 28: 1.6.1 fixes a few crashes. May 30: 1.6.2 fixes some more. June 5: 1.6.3 fixes even more.
Another quick update to take care of some common crashes.
Released a quick update to take care of some common crashes in 1.5.
1.5 has support for Vulkan, the new faster way to draw graphics. Supported on many modern Android devices, and if enabled (change Backend in Graphics settings) you will see a massive speed boost. PPSSPP 1.5 also has the usual assortment of fixes:
No major news, but there's been fixes:
In the initial release for Android, the font files were missing, causing problem with a few games. Please re-download if you got it in the first hours. Sorry for the trouble.
Half a year's worth of fixes in one go, enjoy! Here's a selection of the most important fixes:
A bunch of stability fixes when switching apps on Android Updated the fonts for Chinese and Korean to cover some previously unsupported chars
As usual, a ton of fixes and improvements:
Fixes a few crash bugs in 1.1.
It's been a while, but there are some major new features!
1.0 shipped with broken scrolling in the savestate list, that and a few other small bugs are now fixed in 1.0.1.
Finally, 1.0 is out, with a ton of new improvements! Note that it can take a while for it to become available in the Play store, depending on your location and Google's datacenters.
Full improvements list:
Enjoy!
A few issues have been discovered in the release that need fixing, the Star Ocean fix had a bug and there are some unexpected slowdowns.
NOTE: The Windows version of 0.9.7+ requires new runtime DLLs..
PPSSPP 0.9.9 has been a long time coming but it's finally here! Here's the usual list of what's new:
PPSSPP 0.9.8 is now available!
An annoying rotation lock bug slipped through, and haptic feedback was broken. Both have been fixed.
UPDATE: One more release, fixing a drastic slowdowns in a couple of games.
Another release! More fixes and compatibility, and various little features. Here's the list:
NOTE: The Windows version of 0.9.7 requires new runtime DLLs..
A bug snuck in that causes the game list on Android to either display a blank or crash if it sees a ZIP or RAR file.
This has now been fixed and been pushed to Google Play, and the downloads on this site have been updated.
That's right, it's here, in good time for the holidays! This time the main focus has been on speed improvements, but there has obviously been quite a few bug fixes as well, and a new lighter look for the on screen touch controls. Enjoy! And if you're having fun, don't forget to support the project by buying the Gold version.
Two months since the last release, and today's the 1-year anniversary of the PPSSPP project! What better day to release a new version?
While nothing is perfect, there have been plenty of improvements since the last one, much thanks to all our contributors! Here's a shortlist of top new features:
Please note that it often takes a few hours to roll out an update on Google Play, so you may not see it immediately.
0.9 was a big release and a couple of bad bugs slipped through, including a crash bug in the settings menu and a bug that turned on error reporting for everyone, which is a bit much for our server. So 0.9.1 is just a boring bugfix release, but please install it! :)
Nearly two months of no release are over, and a new PPSSPP is out. As always, there have been incredible progress:
The Android version will automatically upgrade during the next few hours if you installed it from Google Play.
If you bought the Gold version for Windows before, just use the email you got to log in and download the update.
For those of you who wanted to donate but did not have an Android device, you can now buy PPSSPP for Windows here: Buy Gold. This also marks the launch of PPSSPP Central where we will later add a compatibility database, screenshot uploads and more in the future - right now all you can do is download the Gold version though.
As for 0.9 plans, you can look forward to a new UI with great gamepad support throughout, and an official Ouya version. In addition, there will be the usual bunch of compatibility fixes, and hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in a few speed improvements, too.
0.8.1 is pretty much just a crash fix release, fixing a couple of possible crashes around downloading the Atrac3+ plugin.
For more info see the 0.8 post below :)
Here we go! 0.8, now available for Windows and Android*, brings you the following new features:
Thanks to all the contributors making this possible! I want to call out unknownbrackets and oioitff for outstanding additions.
So get downloading! It may take Google Play some time to update to 0.8.
For those of you on iOS and Blackberry, 0.8 builds will be available soon. We are still looking for a volunteer to maintain a Mac build.
Henrik
Note: A Gold version for Windows is coming in the next few days, for those who want to support the project but don't have Android.
A serious bug was fixed and suddenly a ton of vexing issues just disappeared! For example, the 3D graphics being black in Persona 3 and the large graphics errors in the two main GTA games. Those are now very playable (on PC, a bit heavy for mobile)! Also, I found a major bug affecting Little Big Planet among others, fixing that as well. The UI now also has multi-language support, it's in Settings->System.
All these fixes are enough to motivate a new official release, so here we go - 0.7.6! It may take a few hours before it's visible on Google Play.
Another month, another version of PPSSPP! This time I've only added 0.0.5 to the version number, but that's just because I'm saving 0.8, 0.9 and 1.0 for big future updates :) Don't worry, there's been plenty of improvements. Many more games run and some games run faster - the God of War games should now run well on modest PCs and for example the Monster Hunter games are becoming playable on fast phones (although without sound). And I've started to improve the UI - now there's a recent list and game icons in the game selector.
Anyway, stop reading and try it out! And don't forget to buy the Gold version if you use Android and want to support further development.
PPSSPP has once again improved by leaps and bounds, thanks to plenty of hard work from everyone involved! Compatibility has gone up dramatically, speed has increased drastically (especially on mobile) and everything is just better. There's even horizontal tilt control! Some newly playable games are God of War (very slow though, but this will probably be fixed in the near future), Virtua Tennis, Megaman: Maverick Hunter X, Saint Seiya and games like Ace Combat X go in game. Enjoy!
Yeah, so I found the bug. Turns out that LDR r0, [r0] should be encoded as 0xE5900000, not 0xE4900000. If you don't know what that means, well, I can just tell you that the problem was very hard to find but very easy to fix once I found it.
Alright, it's been a while so here's 0.6. It has a preliminary ARM JIT which greatly boosts speed on Android and other ARM platforms, and vertex caching which likewise improves performance quite a bit. Unfortunately I still haven't been able to fix a bug that causes the JIT not to work correctly on Snapdragon CPUs, instead it just crashes. I will fix this issue in an upcoming 0.61 release, stay tuned!
Also, a bunch of new games work but a couple have stopped working (like Mortal Kombat). These will be back, don't worry - it's what happens when emulators develop, sometimes when you fix things, things that worked "by accident" before breakxs until you fix another thing.
The last release was over a month ago, but believe me, it's been worth the wait! PPSSPP 0.5 brings large compatibility improvements, much better audio, many graphics fixes, savegames working in many games, and save states too! All of this available for both Android and Windows, with more ports coming soon.
In this release we also make available the PPSSPP Gold version, which is a paid version with a golden icon but otherwise identical to the main release. If you want to support the development of PPSSPP, a great way is to buy PPSSPP Gold. Currently only available for Android.
Now, stay tuned for v0.6, for which I have planned to write a dynarec (JIT) for ARM, which will improve speed on Android.
Much improved graphics in several games, more games go ingame, more games go to title screen. The usual type of emulator progress :) See the downloads page for the new version (Windows + Android, others are coming soon), and see some new compatible games at the compatibility list.
Progress has been rapid, much thanks to several new contributors! As usual, see the downloads page for the new version, and look at the compatibility list.
Version 0.2 has now been released! Quite a few more games show something at least. See the downloads page and compatibility list.