iPhone NES Emulator Adds Accelerometer Support, Brings Tilt Control to Mario

The new version of the popular NES emulator for the iPhone and iPod Touch now includes accelerometer control for all games. The implementation is very simple: a tilt is equivalent to control input in that direction. This means that tilt control can be used in any game loaded into the emulator, but also that some of the controls are pretty much balls. Also, this app does not live in the official app store.

As seen in the video, controlling Mario is fairly natural, though quick turns and exact jumps are difficult to execute (playing Mario with the stock controls is often worse, though). Bomberman sort of works, but in that case – and many others – the old touch control overlay is much easier. Obviously none of these games were designed with tilt control in mind, but a surprising number are at least playable. Add this to the pile of reasons we still want an active app black market. NES.app 2.3.0 with tilt control is available now in Cydia. [NES.app]