Delta Beta Testing

Friday. December 09, 2016 - 4 mins

In my last post, I explained that GBA4iOS was more or less dead after Apple released iOS 8.1, which killed the date trick used to install the app. Now, two years later, I’m finally writing another post to confirm that GBA4iOS is finally, truly, dead.

And it feels great to say that.

GBA4iOS was a tremendous success; by the time it was finally killed, it had been downloaded over twenty-five million times, which still blows my mind. Clearly there’s a market for emulators on iOS, despite Apple’s policies excluding them from the App Store. However, for many reasons it made sense to let GBA4iOS die, so that’s exactly what happened (for one, GBA4iOS 2.0 was released when I was a senior in high school, when I had plenty of free time; now, I’m a junior studying Computer Science at the University of Southern California ✌️).

Eventually though, I began to wonder what I would work on next, and in March 2015 I wrote my first line of code on what would become GBA4iOS’ successor: Delta.

So, what is Delta?

Delta is an upcoming emulator for iOS devices that I have been working on for the past couple of years. Unlike GBA4iOS, Delta will not just emulate one (or two) systems; instead, Delta will emulate an array of game consoles, starting with Game Boy (Color), Game Boy Advance, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64. (Additionally, more consoles will be added in the future, so if you have any in particular you’d like to see added, please let me know in the comments or on Twitter.)

I originally teased Delta last February at the end of a video made to celebrate GBA4iOS’ two year anniversary. Following several months of silence, I released a teaser webpage for what will eventually become Delta’s home, http://deltaemulator.com. I promised that beta testing of Delta would begin in December, and now that we’re just over a week into the month, it’s time to finally start that process.

How do I apply?

Just like with GBA4iOS, there will be two main groups of beta testers: general and press. The differences between the two are minor, but press beta testers will be for those who will write or post some original content about the betas (vlogs included!). Because of this, they will also be provided with betas more often than general testers, as they need to be kept constantly up to date.

For both groups though, there are a couple of prerequisites:

At least one device running iOS 10
Apple ID (for TestFlight builds)

Assuming you meet these (minimal) requirements, all you need to do is fill out this form, and you’ll be considered for one of the beta testing slots:

Delta Beta Test Application

We’ll be accepting beta test applications until next Friday, December 16, at 11:59pm, and testers will be announced the following Monday, December 19, at which point we’ll also release the first beta.

But wait, there’s more!

This time around we’re also holding an (optional) competition for those applying for general beta testing. We’re looking to promote Delta soon, and rather than using our own promotional artwork, we’d love to use stuff that y’all have designed yourselves!

If you’re interested in participating, simply upload any original piece of content promoting Delta when applying for general beta testing, and we’ll pick our favorite submissions to promote Delta as we approach launch. We’re open to pretty much anything, so images, videos, motion graphics, etc. are all valid! And of course, if your art is selected, you will also be chosen to beta test the app.

For your convenience, we’ve uploaded some Delta assets that you are more than welcome to use in your submissions, which can be found here.

Improving your chances

You might be wondering if there’s anything that can improve your chances, especially since we’re expecting a large number of submissions. Luckily, there are a few (completely optional) things you can do!

Follow me on Twitter, as well as fellow judges Caroline Moore, Grant Gliner, and Maddie McCarthy.
Retweet this tweet linking back to this blog post.
Submit artwork for the promotional artwork competition mentioned above.
Have an iOS developer account.

Wrap-Up

I’m thrilled to finally be openly talking about Delta, and I couldn’t be more excited to put it in your hands for the first time ever. I wish you all the best of luck applying, and can’t wait to start getting your feedback so I can have it ready to release to everyone as soon as possible. Looking forward to hearing from each of you!

Riley Testut

Independent iOS developer, USC student, and Apple fan.