Gamma, a free-to-download and play PlayStation 1 emulator, made it to iOS and iPadOS App Stores over the weekend. It’s similar to the popular Delta emulator that topped the App Store’s free apps list.
It’s developed by ZodTTD, who has been making third-party emulators for iPhones for a long time. However, one concern arises with such emulators, as happened in the past when Apple pulled iGBA, a Game Boy Advance emulator app for iPhone, which was found to be a copy of the open-source GBA4iOS emulator developed by Riley Testut, the man behind the Delta emulator.
I installed the app today, and here are my two cents: the app comes with a very minimal theme (which I prefer anyway, so it’s a pro). You can obviously use it in portrait or landscape orientation. Likewise, it comes with a similarly customizable interface and supports Bluetooth controllers and keyboards (which I have yet to try). Furthermore, you can save the game progress using Google Drive or Dropbox.
That said, don’t be mistaken that it’s a Sony original emulator but rather an emulator that supports Sony PlayStation 1 games. Gamma clarifies, “Gamma, ZodTTD, and ZodTTD LLC are in no way affiliated with Sony Corporation or any of their subsidies.”
App developer Benjamin Stark, also known as ZodTTD, has been in the emulator scene for a while. He told The Verge that Riley Testut, the developer behind Delta, based his first iOS emulator, GBA4iOS, on code borrowed from Stark’s emulator called gpSPhone, which Testut acknowledged in 2013. Stark clarified that gpSPhone itself was built with permission from gpSP, an Android emulator created by Exophase.
In addition, Testut confirmed to The Verge that Gamma is built on Delta’s codebase (except for the actual PSX core), and he permitted ZodTTD to do so. Testut also credited Stark for inspiring him to start developing emulators, saying that it’s why “I started developing emulators in the first place.”
Gamma Emulator is available to download on the App Store.