Oliver Cragg / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The Delta emulator for iPhone and iPad now lets you play physical game cartridges.
- The app lets you play SNES and Game Boy cartridges by plugging in the GB Operator or SN Operator gadgets.
- It’s more convenient to play ROMs, but physical support is still a fun option.
Delta is arguably the best emulator on iOS right now, allowing iPhone owners to play games from a variety of consoles. Now, the emulator has recently received an update that lets you play physical cartridges on your iPhone or iPad with the aid of a hardware add-on.
Delta’s developers announced on their Patreon page (h/t: Retro Dodo) that the emulator now lets you play physical game cartridges via the SN Operator and GB Operator hardware accessories. Epilogue’s GB Operator gadget lets you play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges on your computer. Meanwhile, the SN Operator lets you play SNES cartridges on your computer.
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Epilogue has released its Retrace app for Android and iOS, allowing you to plug the Operator gadgets into your phone to authenticate cartridges and view pricing, but it doesn’t actually let you play your cartridges on a smartphone. So Delta’s ability to play these physical games is a big deal.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to play these cartridges on your Android device right now. I’m guessing one potential solution would be to run the PC software on your phone via an app like Winlator or GameNative, but this seems like a more convoluted experience. So our fingers are crossed that Android emulators support gameplay via these Operator gadgets in the near future. It’s obviously more convenient to simply play a ROM, but this is still a fun activity. Plus, the ability to play cartridges means you’ve got access to saves stored on them.
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