Popular iPhone emulator in legal trouble - but not from Nintendo

Delta, the popular app that allows users to emulate thousands of Nintendo games on iPhone and iPad, has finally found itself in legal hot water - but not from Nintendo itself.

Instead, Delta's developers were accused of copying their app's icon from Adobe, the company behind PhotoShop - and have now rushed to change it to avoid being kicked off the App Store by Apple.

"Adobe threatened legal action unless we changed our app icon - so we did!" the app wrote in its latest patch notes, explaining its hastily-changed icon design. "Hope y'all like it!"

The drama unfolded earlier this month in a succession of emails to Delta, The Verge reported - firstly from Adobe's lawyers and then a day later from Apple itself, saying the app risked being delisted.

Adobe claimed Alpha's triangle-with-a-bit-cut-out logo was similar to its own triangle-with-a-bit-cut-out design. And, looking at them side-by-side, you can see the similarity.

But these logos are based on entirely different letters, Delta argued - while still changing its look to a scrambled version of its original as a placeholder.

"We responded to both Apple and Adobe explaining our icon was a stylised Greek letter delta - not an A - but that we would update the Delta logo anyway to avoid confusion," Delta creator Riley Testut said.

Delta topped the iPhone App Store last month, following Apple's recent change in app store policy to officially allow video game emulator apps onto its storefront for the first time.

The app allows users to play downloaded ROMs of classics from the NES, SNES, N64 home consoles, as well as Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS handhelds.

It's not the first App Store emulator to get into trouble. Last month, Apple pulled another Nintendo emulator after it was discovered that the app itself was based on another emulator's code.

Last week, a free PS1 emulator for iPhone and iPad named Gamma was also launched.

Eurogamer previously contacted Nintendo for its stance on app store emulators, and was pointed to industry body Video Games Europe for a response.

"The industry is committed to protecting the creativity and hard work of video game developers," a Video Games Europe spokesperson said. "Illegal circumvention of copyright protections or engaging in copyright piracy stifles innovation and hampers the development of the entertainment experiences that are enjoyed by millions of players around the world."

Could more Nintendo consoles be emulated on iPhone in the future? Not for now, according to Nintendo hacker and dataminer OatmealDome, who has demonstrated that GameCube and Wii emulation on iPhone is unlikely due to technical constraints.