Floppy Cloud is branded as a file management app that allows users to manage their files from a Dropbox account or FTP server. However, MacRumors' sister-site TouchArcade has found that the app allows users to easily emulate Nintendo and Super Nintendo games.
It's masquerading as a file management app, which technically lets you manage your files, but if you let it "manage" a .nes NES ROM or a .smc Super Nintendo ROM in a very special way: It'll load right up inside of the appropriate emulator. Both iCade and MFi controllers are supported too, making this a particularly sweet find for someone who owns any kind of controller accessory.
The app imports the .nes NES ROM or .smc Super Nintendo ROM via Dropbox, allowing a user to "manage" the file. However, when one of those two files is selected for "management", an emulator pops up and allows users to play Nintendo and Super Nintendo video games. Traditionally, Apple has taken a strict stance on emulators in the App Store, taking them down as soon as they can.
In late 2011, just before the holidays iTunes freeze, the iMAME Arcade Emulator appeared in the App Store. Two days after arriving, Apple pulled the app from the App Store. Floppy Cloud, however, has been in the App Store since October 30, likely because the app appears to be a simple file manager and that doesn't bring up the emulator until a game has been imported and selected.
This past May, GBA4iOS, a Game Boy emulator that bypassed Apple's App Store restrictions as it could be installed directly to a device via the project's official website, was shut down due to a Digital Millennium Copyright Claim from Nintendo.
Floppy Cloud is a universal app currently available in the App Store for $1.99. [Direct Link]
Update 1/23 3:30 PM PT: The Floppy Cloud app has been removed from the App Store and is no longer available for download.
Top Rated Comments
You mean like a separate physical device? :eek:
Yep it did. At least one. The one I got was simply called "Tether". I have it....it lasted maybe 12 hours on the app store before being pulled, and ran 15.00. Still works just fine, and this thing was released just before or just after IOS6 came out.
One theory at the time was that Apple knowingly let this onto the store, simply to show the Cell Providers that at it's leisure, they absolutley had the power to provide the option. Kind of a subtle warning.
Makes sense too....look at the name of the app. They didn't even attempt to hide what it did. My memory also says the description made no attempts to hide the functionality. Also...now that I've had it for awhile, over two years....Apple knows it exists and has made no effort to disable it from any updates.
Dropbox uses tokenization, so atleast this rout is fairly secure. I have not looked into your FTP claims. A burner Dropbox account or one with nothing important in it would make use of the app safer.
What is worrying is that ROMs, not created by the user from an actual cartridge, could contain malicious code. Even with sandboxing, this could be a problem. It is the sort of thing I'd expect in a Gibson novel, but on this scale would have little praticle application.
Not only Nintendo, but all of the holders of the licenses of classic video games. I would love to pay to download my favorite games from the 80s. It seems like they're missing an opportunity to make money.