Aug 23, 2007 03:30 PM
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Unlike the original version, the NES emulator for the iPhone works great now —except for the sound. There's still one big problem: the lack of tactile feedback on the buttons. Natetrue, the creator of iBrickr, came up with an ingenious hardware patch: a transparent vinyl layer cut like the gamepad buttons. It seems silly, but it works. Jump to see a demonstration video and learn how to install the NES emulator plus your favorite games in the iPhone (for Windows and Mac OS X.)
How to install the NES emulator
• To install the NerveGas' NES emulator you just need to follow our How To: Install Apps on Your iPhone for Total Dummies (Mac OS X and Windows Edition) and set up iPhone Installer in your iPhone.
• Once you are done setting up Installer, click on it in your iPhone.
• Click on the Community Resources package inside the Install tab (this is all quite straightforward, but refer to the last part of the install guide if you have any doubts.)
• Once the installation of the Community Resources is done, you will see a package called NES in the list, under the Games category. Click on it.
• Click on the Install button to Install NES.
• Exit the Installer clicking on the Home button.
Now the iPhone interface will restart and you will see the NES application in the iPhone's home. Its icon, for some unknown reason, looks like the first GameBoy. If you click in the NES application, an empty menu will show up with a Preferences button on the top right corner. This is because you haven't copied any game ROMs to the iPhone yet.
• Exit NES by clicking on your iPhone's home button.
For the non-initiated, game ROMs are files containing the old cartridges you used with your Nintendo Entertainment System or similar consoles. They will look like this:
You can search Google for NES ROMs. There are plenty of sites hosting them, although you should remember that 1) you must own these games and 2) take care on what site you choose (we can't recommend any, sorry.)
How to install NES games in the iPhone (WINDOWS)
• The easiest way for Windows users is to use iBrickr in your PC.
• Click on the Files view.
• Navigate to the directory:
/var/root/Media/
• Inside there, create a directory with the exact name (using identical upper- and lower-case letters) of:
ROMs
• Inside the ROMs directory you just made, create a directory with the exact name:
NES
• Now move your game ROMs to that directory.
• You are ready to play. Open NES and click on any game.
How to install NES games in the iPhone (MAC OS X - Intel and PowerPC)
You can probably use iFuntastic 2.5 to do this directly on Intel, but there's a very easy way to do it for both Intel and PowerPC-based Macs: using a free FTP transfer program called Cyberduck. Get it from here.
Preparation
• Go to the Installer in your iPhone and install these packages in this order: BSD Subsystem and OpenSSH.
• Leave the installer by clicking on the home button.
File transfer
• In your iPhone, go to Settings.
• Click on Wi-Fi.
• Select your network by clicking on the blue button:
• Take note of the IP number of your iPhone. It should look like this.
• Now open Cyberduck.
• Click on Open Connection.
• On the dialog, enter the following:
1. Select SFTP as the Protocol.
2. Write your iPhone IP address in the Server.
3. Write your Username:
root
4. Write the password (this is a common password for all iPhones)
dottie
5. Click the Connect button (if there's any problem, you may have missed a step: go back over the tutorial and repeat the process. Remember that you should have OpenSSH installed for this to work and your iPhone must be awake, not sleeping.)
• Navigate to the folder
/var/root/Media/
• Create a folder exactly called:
ROMs
• Inside that folder, create another folder exactly called:
NES
• Now, move your favorite game ROMs to that folder.
• You are ready to play. Open NES and click on any game.
How to get the tactile feedback
This is natetrue playing Kirby's Adventure for NES with his tactile feedback hack applied.
• Get or buy any flexible transparent vinyl sheet. They will stick to the iPhone glass screen naturally, so no glue is needed here.
• Cut the sheet to the size of the iPhone screen (cut two if you want to have one for each NES layout, horizontal or vertical.)
• Start up NES emulator on the iPhone and place the cut sheet over it.
• Get a soft, thin marker and trace the shape of the d-pad and all the buttons.
• Remove the sheet and, using an X-acto knife, cut the shapes you just drew.
TIP: for the main buttons you may want to use a small coin or any other solid circular shape.
• Once you are done, start up the NES, select any game and apply the vinyl layer.
Enjoy!
Send an email to Jesus Diaz, the author of this post, at jesus@gizmodo.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
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