Emulators on tvOS
| Developer | Apple Inc. |
|---|---|
| Release date | 2015 |
| Emulated | ✗ |
tvOS is Apple, Inc.'s streaming media player operating system. It is a derivative and counterpart to iOS, and a sibling operating system to iPadOS. It was introduced with the 4th generation Apple TV as tvOS 9 (to match then current iOS 9 numbering scheme). With tvOS 9's introduction, Apple opened the platform to third-party developers and introduced the tvOS App Store. It continues to be updated and runs on the Apple TV 4K (5th generation) and Apple TV 4K, 2nd generation (6th generation).
Operating Systems for earlier Apple TV are known as Apple TV Software (2nd and 3rd generations). The first generation Apple TV ran a variant of the Intel version of Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.x).
Reasons to emulate on tvOS include: powerful processing (Apple Silicon) and graphics (leveraging (typically) the Metal API), instant large screen TV set-up, and support for Nintendo Switch Online controllers, PlayStation 4 and 5 controllers, and Xbox One S and X/S controllers (along with MFi, Siri Remote and multi-player support). Reasons not to or to be cautious about emulating on tvOS include: difficulty of installation (requires either a Jailbreak (not available on all tvOS's, or all models), a Sideload (see "AltStore") or building/compiling yourself and installing onto the Apple TV (via Xcode)), limited storage capacity (circumvented with cloud storage), and keeping various emulators up-to-date.
Multi-Systems
| Name | Latest version | FLOSS | Active | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MAME | ||||
| MAME4iOS | git | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| libretro | ||||
| RetroArch | 1.20.0 Website |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Provenance | 3.0.6 AltStore git |
✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Provenance boasts TopShelf Support (tvOS), automatic ROM metadata downloading including release info, screenshots, case and manual artwork viewer (where available) and Mutli-Disc Support. It does support all Atari and Sega consoles (save Dreamcast), Neo Geo and Bandai handhelds, and the Sony PlayStation.