‘Gridlee’ appears to be just another retro-style arcade game with tacked-on touch controls. But look closer, and you’ll find an entire arcade emulator.

Photo from idownloadblog.com.

Apple doesn’t typically allow emulators on their closed iOS platform, with very few exceptions. Apple typically falls back on the defense that they’re protecting users from potentially malicious code that can be run through an emulated system, which is technically true, although some have debated this logic. The more likely rationale is that Apple doesn’t want to have to deal with DMCA enforcement problems and cease-and-desist orders from game companies when users start loading illegally downloaded ROM images of their games onto iDevices through their marketplace.

In order to get around Apple’s App Store regulations and play emulated games on their iDevices, users typically jailbreak them and load third-party apps. Back in 2011 a port of popular emulator MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) had been released under the moniker ‘iMAME’, which was quickly removed by Apple. But now a new app has surfaced on the App Store, going by the name ‘Gridlee‘.

At first glance, the Gridlee app appears to be just another retro-style arcade game with tacked-on touch controls. But dig a bit deeper, and you’ll find an entire arcade emulator hidden in the app’s source files. Just plug in your iDevice, and use iExplorer to navigate to Gridlee’s ROMs folder, and upload as many ROM files as your device can handle. Not all games are supported, however, so quality may be hit or miss. Gridlee’s emulator even supports iCade’s physical controls.

At least one App Store customer has caught on based on their review, and I’m sure more will follow suit, which means Apple will likely catch on and pull the plug on Gridlee for good relatively soon. Until then, you can grab a fistful of ROMs and head on down to the App Store for some old-school arcade action.