Floppy Cloud is branded as a file management app that allows users to manage their files from a Dropbox account or FTP server. However, MacRumors’ sister-site TouchArcade has found that the app allows users to easily emulate Nintendo and Super Nintendo games.
Floppy Cloud emulator image via TouchArcade
It’s masquerading as a file management app, which technically lets you manage your files, but if you let it “manage” a .nes NES ROM or a .smc Super Nintendo ROM in a very special way: It’ll load right up inside of the appropriate emulator. Both iCade and MFi controllers are supported too, making this a particularly sweet find for someone who owns any kind of controller accessory.
The app imports the .nes NES ROM or .smc Super Nintendo ROM via Dropbox, allowing a user to “manage” the file. However, when one of those two files is selected for “management”, an emulator pops up and allows users to play Nintendo and Super Nintendo video games. Traditionally, Apple has taken a strict stance on emulators in the App Store, taking them down as soon as they can.
In late 2011, just before the holidays iTunes freeze, the iMAME Arcade Emulator appeared in the App Store. Two days after arriving, Apple pulled the app from the App Store. Floppy Cloud, however, has been in the App Store since October 30, likely because the app appears to be a simple file manager and that doesn’t bring up the emulator until a game has been imported and selected.
This past May, GBA4iOS, a Game Boy emulator that bypassed Apple’s App Store restrictions as it could be installed directly to a device via the project’s official website, was shut down due to a Digital Millennium Copyright Claim from Nintendo.
Floppy Cloud is a universal app currently available in the App Store for $1.99. [Direct Link]
