The Gamma app brings PS1 emulation to the iPhone

Non-jailbreak-prone iPhone users can finally enjoy the blocky polygons and shifting textures of the original PlayStation with gamma, a free PS1 emulator that hit the iOS App Store last night. Gamma comes courtesy of developer ZodTTD, who has been creating iPhone emulators since the early days of third-party iOS apps.

The app has iPhone and iPad versions with support for Bluetooth controllers and keyboards, as well as customizable on-screen controller skins. It uses Google Drive and Dropbox sync to back up your game files and save states (these are snapshots that you can save at any time and reload, a bit like pausing the game – great for older games that don’t allow you save whenever you want). Like the Delta emulator that dominated the App Store’s top free apps list for weeks before being replaced by free donuts, the app will also capture the game’s cover art for you automatically.

The default cover for landscape orientation is almost always transparent and difficult to see, so you’ll want to replace it when you can.

Fortunately, Gamma doesn’t require you to find any BIOS files to run PS1 games. That said, I had trouble getting the first two games I tried – NASCAR 98 It is Shrek Treasure Hunt. But it could have just been the game files I was using, as I was able to run Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee good. Third time’s the charm, right?

According to Gamma’s App Store page, it collects identifiers that can be used to track you and may collect location and usage data. For what it’s worth, the app didn’t trigger a location data access request for me, nor did it ask me for tracking permission (although it did so for my colleague, Sean Hollister).

Benjamin Stark, aka ZodTTD, is out there. Stark pointed to On the edge via email that developer Delta Riley Testut’s first iOS emulator, GBA4iOS, borrowed code from an emulator Stark had made called gpSPhone (something Testut I wrote about in 2013). But even that app, Stark said, was based (with permission, he added) on gpSP, an Android emulator created by a developer called Exophase.

Update May 12, 11:36am ET: Added additional context and details shared by Stark.