The easiest way to play Pokemon on your iPhone is to use an emulator. Basically, it’s an app that lets you run software (in this case – a Pokemon game) on your mobile device. If anything, it’s pretty straightforward. You just have to install the right emulator for your game.
As you may be aware, however, Apple doesn’t allow emulators on the App Store. So where do you download them? How do you get the games? Don’t worry, we’ll be going over all of the answers below—so be sure to keep reading!
Using Emulators to Play Pokemon On Your iPhone
1. Using GBA4IOS
GBAiOS is one of the best emulators out there. Not only is it great for GBA games, but you can also use it to play GB and GBC games. There are many additional features as well. For example, you can use cheat codes, save states, and controller skins. Not only that, but it also comes with dropbox support and multiplayer support.
First things first, you want to head on over to gba4iosapp.com. Select “Download” from the top and you should see a link for GBA4iOS 2.1. Click on it and a pop-up will appear. Tap “Install” and it’ll install the emulator on your phone.
Next, tap on the app. It’ll ask whether or not you want to open the application. Click “Continue” on the right-hand side to proceed.
*If the emulator doesn’t open, you may need to change the date on your phone. To do that, go to “Settings”, select “General” and tap on “Date & Time.” Set the date so that it’s sometime before February 19th, 2014. Once you’ve done that, open the emulator again. With a bit of luck, it should start working.
**If that doesn’t work, you may need to fiddle with the settings a bit more. Go to ”General” and select “Profile & Device Management.” Scroll down and click on “Acme, Inc.” under “ENTERPRISE APP.” On the next screen, tap “Trust ‘Acme, Inc.’. That should fix the problem.
For those who already have a ROM of the Pokemon game, you can upload it to the emulator by clicking on the “Settings” icon at the top left-hand corner of the screen. That’ll let you send it over via Dropbox.
If you don’t have the ROM yet, don’t worry – you can download it directly from the emulator. Click on the “+” icon on the top right-hand corner of the screen and scroll down to “P” (make sure to select the “ALL” tab to see all the games). You should see the Pokemon game that you’re looking for. Tap on “Download” once you see the prompt and you’re good to go. You should be able to play the game right away.
2. Using Happy Chick
Happy Chick is great in that it emulates more than a dozen different gaming systems. You can use it to play PSP, GBA, GBC, NES, SCNES, NDS games, and more. Not only that, but you can also back up your games to the cloud. That way, you won’t have to worry about losing any progress.
Start by going to xiaoji001.com. Click on the “Download” button at the middle of the screen and click the link under “Method 2”. A pop-up will appear asking if you want to download from the link. Click “Ok” and you’ll be brought to another screen. There should be two green buttons – “Install HappyChick Link#1” and “Install HappyChick Link#2”.
Click on any of them and a pop-up will appear. Tap on “Install” again and the download will begin. Next, go to “General” under “Settings” and select “Device Management.” Click on “Trust ‘ski Internet service co., LTD’ to enable the emulator on your phone.
Once you’ve done that, open the Happy Chick app. Make sure to enable location services, otherwise, it won’t work properly.
To download the game, click on the search bar at the top of the screen and type in “Pokemon.” You should see the game that you’re looking for in the search results. To download it to the emulator, tap on the blue “Get” button on the right-hand side. A couple of pop-ups will appear, one of which will have a blue “Download” button. Tap on it and select “Method two” from the menu and the game will begin to install.
Once the game is installed, the blue “Download” button will turn into an orange “Play” button. Tap on it and you’ll be able to play the game!
3. Using Delta
Delta is another emulator that supports a variety of consoles including GBA, GB, GBC, NES, SNES, NDS, and more. It also comes with many features including split-screen support, multi-player support, and cloud syncing. The only requirement is that you must be using iOS 10 or higher.
To install the emulator, go to emus4udownload.org on Safari. Scroll down and click on the “Download Emus4U” button. A pop-up will come up asking if you’d like to download a configuration profile. Tap “Allow” – that will download the profile to your phone.
Once you’ve done that, go into “Settings.” Tap on “General” and select “ VPN & Device Management”. At the bottom under “Downloaded Profile”, you should see “Emus4u Installer”. Tap on “Install” in the subsequent window and the app will appear on your home screen.
From there, open the Emus4U app. Select “Emulators” from the top and search for “Delta.” Once it’s come up, tap on the “Get” button. Another pop-up window will appear. Tap on the “Install” button again and Delta will be downloaded to your home screen. Like before, you’ll have to enable the profile in “VPN & Device Management”.
In terms of adding the Pokemon game, there are three ways that you can do it. For starters, you can download it from the built-in Delta browser. Simply type “Pokemon” into the search bar” and you should see a link to download the file. Once it’s downloaded, select “Open with” and choose “Delta emulator” from the dropdown menu.
Alternatively, you can download the ROM from your computer. Once you’ve got the file, you can transfer it to the app via iTunes. Simply click and drag the file into the Delta emulator window (make sure to tap on the “Apps” tab at the top). From there, you can open the ROM with the emulator – just set the source as iTunes.
If you want, you can also sync your iPhone to Google Drive or DropBox (assuming that the ROM is already there). The emulator will automatically detect and download the file once it’s open.
4. Using Game Play Color
Game Play Color, as you can probably guess, allows you to play GB and GBC games on your phone. What sets it apart from other emulators? It’ll automatically identify cover art that’s stored with your ROM and display it like a virtual library. You won’t have to worry about losing progress in your game either as it’ll remember your save state.
To install Game Play Color, open their website on Safari. Scroll down and tap on the “Play Now” button. You’ll be brought to another screen, which will have the instructions. Basically, what you want to do is tap on the share button in your browser. From there, select the “Add to Home Screen” option.
A pop-up window will come up. Tap on “Add” at the top right-hand corner of the screen and a Game Play icon will appear on your home screen. Open the app and it’ll prompt you to sign in to your Google Drive account. You’ll then be given an access code, which will allow you to sync the two accounts.
Assuming that you already have the Pokemon ROM on Google Drive, it’ll automatically appear on the screen. Simply tap on it and you’ll be able to play the game.
Note: Unlike other emulators, there’s no way to download ROMS directly from the app. You must download them from your computer and transfer them over via Google Drive.
5. Using Eclipse
Eclipse is a multi-emulator that comes with GBA, GBC, GB, NES, SNES, GG, and SMS support. And unlike other emulators, it’s web-based – this allows you to use it on any device, not just your iPhone. Not only that, but because it’s web-based, you won’t have to worry about losing your save to a revoke!
All you have to do is go to their website – eclipseemu.me. Tap on the red “Get” button and you’ll be brought to another page where you can set it up. Simply tap “Setup Eclipse” – that’ll allow you to customize the app; you’ll be able to choose the display mode (fill screen, aspect ratio) as well as the skin. From there, all you have to do is agree to their terms and conditions.
You’ll know everything has been configured successfully when you see the words, “Setup Complete”. Close the window when you’re finished and you’ll be able to add games by clicking on the “+” icon at the top right-hand corner. There are a few different options – you can either upload the game from a URL or add it from a repo, Dropbox, or Google Drive.
Once you’ve added the game, it’ll automatically appear in your library. From there, all you have to do is tap on the cover art to begin the game!
6. Using iNDS
iNDS is a third-party emulator app that lets you play Nintendo DS games on your iPhone. Originally, it was only available for jailbroken devices but now, anyone can use it. The only requirement is that you must be running iOS 7+.
Go to their Github page https://github.com/iNDS-Team and download the iNDS Emulator IPA file. Once it’s installed, open “Settings” and select the “VPN & Device Management” option. Find the iNDS Emulator profile, tap on it, and click on “Trust” in the subsequent pop-up window.
Next, open up the app – you can download your Pokemon game from the built-in browser. Just tap on the search bar, type in the game of the name, and you should see it on the screen. From there, all you have to do is give it a tap and it’ll automatically be added to the emulator.
If the game that you’re looking for doesn’t show up, you may need to download an external ROM. From there, you can transfer it to the emulator via Dropbox or iTunes.
7. Using Provenance emulator
Provenance is great for those who want to play ROMs for GBA, GBC, SG, and GG. You can save and load games at any point in time, customize the on-screen controller, alternate between portrait and landscape orientation, and more. That’s not all, you can also create your own game map and game controls.
You can download the Provenance IPA file from here. You’ll also need Altstore- it’ll let you sideload the emulator app to your device.
Once you’ve installed Altstore, tap on the “+” icon. You’ll see a list of IPA files that are installed on your phone. Select Provenance, input your Apple ID and password and it’ll begin the installation process. Once it’s finished, Provenance will appear as an icon on your home screen.
To add your Pokemon game, open Safari and navigate to your preferred ROM site. Find the ROM that you’re looking for and click on the download button. Make sure to select “Open in ‘Provenance’. That way, the game will automatically start once the download is finished.
Alternatively, you can import them from Dropbox, Google Drive, or iCloud Drive. Simply navigate to the directory, tap on the ROM that you’d like to add, and select the “Copy to Provenance” option.
Where Can I Download External ROMs?
There are several ROM sites that you can use including CoolROM, Retrostic, Romsmania, Emuparadise, DopeROMs, Vimm’s Lair, and Gamulator. While they’re all different, the general process is the same – simply type in the Pokemon game that you’re looking for in the search bar and press enter. If they have it, it’ll come up in the results.
Depending on the site, there may be a countdown timer on the download page. If that’s the case, just wait for it to reach zero.
If for whatever reason, the ROM doesn’t end up working, you may want to try downloading the same ROM from a different site. Sometimes files get corrupt and you need a new ROM altogether.
