The iOS app Floppy Cloud has absolutely nothing to do with flopping around or with clouds. Instead, it lets you play Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System games on your iOS device.
You’ll need ROMs—illegal copies of Nintendo games that the company has been fighting for years—to make use of the app. But unlike some of its competitors, Floppy Cloud doesn’t require you to jailbreak your phone to use it.
App developer Kyle Hankinson got Floppy Cloud into the App Store before Apple froze store submissions and removals for a week beginning Dec. 22. Theoretically, you should have until Dec. 29 to grab Floppy Cloud before the store re-opens for changes—unless Apple decides to yank Floppy Cloud early, which wouldn’t be surprising.
Screengrab by Dennis Scimeca
We’re not going to show you how to find illegal ROMs. You’re on your own for that. We just think the way Hankinson snuck his app onto the store before Apple’s freeze is funny and clever.
Cleverness aside, Nintendo has been dealing with ROMs and the Nintendo emulators that run them for years. Stolen copies of Nintendo’s handheld games have been particularly pervasive. Nintendo just hired a consulting firm to lobby the U.S. government about cracking down on intellectual property theft, including mobile game piracy. The saga of Floppy Cloud provides one obvious clue as to why Nintendo is fighting so hard.
H/T PocketGamer via Touch Arcade | Image via bradleypjohnson/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Jason Reed
