Fans of retro games might find searching for an N64 emulator on iOS frustrating. Those who want to play retro games from any console on their iPhones or iPads are usually relegated to waiting for an official port. Given the difficulty in finding ways to play N64 ROMs on iOS, many wonder whether it’s a possibility at all.
Is there a Nintendo 64 emulator for iOS?
The first thing to get out of the way is that there is no N64 emulator available on the Apple App Store, and there never will be. Emulators are against App Store policy, and any attempt to list one wouldn’t pass the review. The upside to this is, unlike with the Google Play Store, there aren’t any apps that pretend to be emulators and then charge the user money or steal their information.
However, unlike with the 3DS, there are N64 emulators that can be sideloaded on iOS. This process isn’t very convenient and requires a PC or Mac computer. It doesn’t require users to jailbreak, though, which is great for those who are just interested in emulation.
Retroarch, Delta, and Provenance are all available on iOS through sideloading. Each of these frontends offers support for the Nintendo 64 through a ported version of Mupen64Plus. Once one of them is sideloaded, the user just has to provide N64 ROMs and start playing. They all support touchscreen controls and external gamepads and have excellent compatibility and performance.
Of the three frontends featuring N64 emulators for iOS, Retroarch is the most versatile, Delta is the easiest to use, and Provenance sits right in the middle. For those who are only interested in N64 emulation, we suggest using Delta along with the AltStore app, which makes getting around the limitations of sideloading on iOS a bit easier.
We won’t get into sideloading apps on iOS here as multiple processes can be used to do it. However, it’s pretty easy to get the hang of it for anyone who is familiar with computers and smartphones.
