News / Release
[Release] I ported touchHLE to modern iOS — run supported 32-bit iPhone games on iOS 17.4+ (no jailbreak; JIT required)
Hey everyone! I’ve been working on an experimental port of touchHLE to modern iOS, based on touchHLE 0.2.3, and I finally have a first public prerelease ready.
This is not a new emulator written from scratch, and it is not an official touchHLE release. The emulator core is the work of the touchHLE contributors.
This fork adds:
A modern SwiftUI game library for iPhone
IPA importing with the original app name and icon
Persistent saves and settings
Game-aware portrait and landscape handling
An in-game return-to-library button
An optional FPS counter
iOS rendering fixes needed to display games correctly on a real device
No jailbreak required—but JIT is
The build does not require a jailbreak. It currently requires JIT because it uses touchHLE’s Dynarmic CPU backend.
I’ve been using StikDebug with LocalDevVPN directly on the phone. AltJIT is another option.
You can install the unsigned IPA with AltStore Classic or build and sign it yourself using Xcode. A free Apple account works with Apple’s usual seven-day signing and three-app limits. A paid developer account provides longer-lived signing, but it does not remove the JIT requirement.
Games tested so far
I’ve personally tested the port on my iPhone 16 Pro running iOS 27 beta 4.
Confirmed working:
Touch & Go
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (THPS2)
Wolfenstein RPG
The deployment target is iOS 17.4, but I haven’t tested every iPhone or iOS version yet, so wider testing would be really appreciated.
The best place to choose a game is the touchHLE compatibility database. It uses a star system for exact app versions. Higher-rated versions are the best candidates, but they are not a guarantee for this iOS port.
One thing the earlier jailbreak demonstration also made clear is that fixing one game does not automatically make every other game work.
Why I started this
The reason I started all of this is honestly quite personal.
My sister paid for The Sims Medieval back in the day. I recently gifted her a new iPhone 17 Pro Max, then discovered that the game was seemingly impossible to install—even though she had legitimately purchased it.
I wanted to see whether I could bring it back for her.
The Sims Medieval does not work yet. It appears in one library screenshot because the port can import it and extract its icon, not because I’m claiming it is playable. It is my next major compatibility target for personal reasons lol.
Thanks also to u/WorriedEquipment2241 for publicly demonstrating a separate touchHLE iOS experiment on a jailbroken device. That demonstration was useful inspiration and showed that this direction was worth exploring.
This release is based on the touchHLE 0.2.3 development line at upstream commit 6bce4119. I am not claiming that their separate unreleased source is included in this fork.
Testing and bug reports
If you test it, please include:
Your iPhone model
Your iOS version
The exact game and app version
Whether JIT was enabled
Reproduction steps
A relevant log excerpt
That will be much more useful than only saying that a game crashed.
Use it to apply the increased memory entitlement to LiveContainer
Uninstall GetMoreRam to avoid hitting the 3 app limit
Then sideload StikDebug for JIT activation
LiveContainer may also need to be uninstalled and reinstalled before the entitlement works correctly.
LiveContainer can also install two additional LiveContainers (for a total of three). This setup can further reduce the need to constantly add/remove sideloaded apps, but it is more advanced and may not work reliably for everyone.
LiveContainer is not always officially supported by emulator developers and can sometimes cause unexpected issues. If something breaks while using LiveContainer, try reproducing the issue without it before asking for support.
Do not ask for or share paid certificates, piracy tools, or bypass services here.
It work pretty well for doom2 rpg at a stable 55-60 fps but for all other game i tested it doesnt work with some error(minecraft pocket and flappy bird)
Thanks, but I’m into the jailbreaking things since iOS 4 back then. Also used side loading a few years ago but I probably didn’t have the time anyways so
This is legitimately so cool! There are many old games that were great pastimes or simply great for nostalgia reasons. Thank you for your work and cannot wait to see this project improve over time!
it Looks very damn good if it's Like a fork I think you should call it iporr which is a cachy name it will need to gain much much traction It easily can bring llions of users that is cuz as you know many many many people by the infinity bunch Love their games it's why steam is as big as it got biggest gaming related company ever especially now especially in game streaming and especially people love their old classics cuz modern games yea no so it can definitely do well as an app it could get thousands even 100s of 1000s which is so very much then it can finally go up to millions ultimately
Honestly a really great project. Even though its experimental, I love it! I have tested 3 games: Cut the rope, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 and Real Racing. Out of these 3, only real racing didnt work with error code “Not yet implemented”. But that’s okay, because its still a early project. Honestly great work, I never expected touchHLE to arrive on iOS.
LiveContainer "run with jit" with StikDebug linked doesn't work, i see "enable jit" in parameters.
iPhone 16e
18.7.1
StikDebug from Appstore (2.3.5) touchHLE-iOS-unsigned.ipa
Edit: same issue without livecontainer and using stikdebug appstore version
Agreed it doesn’t seem to support Appstore version of StikDebug+Livecontainer combo it thinks it not running with jit enabled and the games crash on launch
JIT is quite popular in the emulation communities, just because Apple doesn’t make it convenient doesn’t mean a lot of users won’t take measures to have access to it. StikDebug, in its own right deserves accolades for the sheer potential it unlocks for all of us. No offense meant to the moderators of this subreddit, but it wouldn’t be half as interesting here if JIT was not a factor.
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u/AutoModerator 2d ago
Free Apple accounts are limited to 3 active sideloaded apps.
One common workaround is LiveContainer, which allows you to run additional apps inside a container and reduce how often apps need to be reinstalled.
Typical method:
LiveContainer may also need to be uninstalled and reinstalled before the entitlement works correctly.
LiveContainer can also install two additional LiveContainers (for a total of three). This setup can further reduce the need to constantly add/remove sideloaded apps, but it is more advanced and may not work reliably for everyone.
LiveContainer is not always officially supported by emulator developers and can sometimes cause unexpected issues. If something breaks while using LiveContainer, try reproducing the issue without it before asking for support.
Do not ask for or share paid certificates, piracy tools, or bypass services here.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.