In another game of cat and mouse, Apple has subjected Manomio’s C64 emulator to a strenuous review process. However, it was finally approved, which brought a glimmer of hope that Apple would be reforming its App Store review policies; but alas, it was null and void as the App was promptly removed.

Manomio’s C64 App was first denied in June of this year due to its ability to execute run time code (it is a Commodore emulator after all) which is expressibly forbidden according to the iPhone SDK 2.0 agreement. However, once Manomio stripped out access to the BASIC interpretor from the App, it gained access in to the App Store only to be cut out again. The reason? While BASIC was removed originally, it was hidden within the App and could be accessed with a simple shortcut. The shortcut to enable BASIC within the emulator is simple according to the The iPhone Blog:

(If you’re dying to get your BASIC on, however, reader Stooovie let us know you can still access it by enabling “always show full keyboard”, starting a game, paging over to the EXTRA keyboard, and then tapping RESET. Boom, dropped into BASIC with a ready-prompt — though we clearly don’t remember enough C64 BASIC to see if it actually does anything or just sits there blinking. Commenters?)

Once Apple got wind that a workaround existed, it immediately removed the App and when trying to download the C64 emulator from the App Store, an all too familiar message appears dampening any hopes of using the App until Apple approves it once again:

The item you tried to buy is no longer available

The availability of the item changed while you were using the store. The same item may be available with a different price or elsewhere on the store.

Hopefully Apple allows the C64 App back in to the App Store but any and all references to its BASIC emulator must be cut out.

Via: iPhone Alley