NES Emulator For iPhone – Is Terrible, Expensive, But You Still Might Buy It

If you have a hankering to be a hipster, it just might sit well with you to have a NES emulator on your iPhone. Perhaps even one that plays homebrew NES games.

But wait, how about a NES emulator, that only plays homebrew games? Is that worth a stack of singles? The team behind Nescaline [iTunes link] think so.

The application, a homebrew only NES emulator, clocks in at a crushing $7, and contains only five hand-crafted games.

We tested the game here at TNW, being the old school gaming fans that we are, and found the application lacking. The controls are difficult, the games run too quickly, the gameplay is weak, and with no real fullscreen solution, finding your character is nigh impossible.

But still, it is a NES emulator, on the go. Yes, yes, you have seen that before. Even past that, you almost want it. Screens after the jump.

On a side twist, the developer of the application, Jonathan Zdziarski, is a man well-known for being one the first hackers of the iPhone to pry it open. Odd that Apple let him into the app store. But, given how uneven the app store is, it is too hard to take it seriously.

The app is weak, but you can add your own homebrew NES ROMs. That is, if you can find any online. The app comes with five games (none of which you have heard of), so the ability to add more is crucial.

While we can hardly recommend the application, we do hope that in time it will become something more usable, and perhaps get some of the original games that we all recall, and love. Until then, probably want to avoid this one.