Skip to content

Cabinet for iOS 0.1.0-alpha

Choose a tag to compare

View all tags
@MMagTech MMagTech released this 09 Aug 19:02
· 392 commits to main since this release
v0.1.0-alpha
30f209f

First public build. Cabinet is an iOS app for your own RomM server: it shows your library, plays your games, and opens on whatever you were playing last.

What works

Seventeen systems run on emulator cores built into the app, so they play at full speed, fill the screen, and work with no connection at all once you have kept a game on the device: Arcade, PlayStation, Saturn, SNES, NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, Master System, Game Gear, TurboGrafx-16, TurboGrafx-CD, Neo Geo Pocket Color and Atari 7800.

Everything else your server supports, including N64, DS and PSP, plays through RomM's own web player inside the app. Those need a connection.

Touch layouts are tuned per system and per orientation. Physical controllers work. Save states, battery saves and PlayStation memory cards sync back to your server, and queue locally if you are offline.

Installing

Download the IPA below and install it with AltStore or SideStore.

The IPA is unsigned. AltStore and SideStore sign it with your own Apple ID as they install it. On a free Apple ID that signature lasts seven days and gets refreshed automatically in the background; with a paid Apple Developer account it lasts a year. This is how all sideloaded apps work, not something specific to Cabinet.

You need iOS 18 or later and a RomM server of your own. Cabinet was built and tested against RomM 5.1.0; other versions may work, but that is the only one it has been run against. Cabinet ships no games and no BIOS files.

Known limitations

  • PlayStation discs must be in CHD format
  • Multi-disc PlayStation and Saturn games are not supported yet
  • N64 runs in the web player rather than natively, so it needs a connection
  • Controllers must be MFi compatible. Some Bluetooth pads, including the 8BitDo Micro, only work in keyboard mode on iOS and cannot be read as gamepads by any app
  • Building from source requires Xcode 26, and the simulator cannot build it at all

About this build

I am not a programmer. Cabinet was built with AI assistance because I wanted the app to exist. The full history is in the repository, unedited.

This is an alpha and it is the first time anyone but me has run it, so expect to find things. Bug reports are welcome.

Assets 3
Loading