Convert old game to IOS app?

JoeMama808

Estimable
Mar 18, 2014
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4,510
I have this game, Lego Racers, that I'd like to put on my phone. What kind of programming/tools would be required to convert this 64mb of game into an iOS app?
 
Solution
You'd need to completely rewrite it.
Study iOS application development for 6 months. Then spend another 6 months to a year rewriting it.

Saberus

Honorable
Aug 23, 2013
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Then spend 6 months in litigation for copyright infringement if you didn't get expressed, written permission from the original developer. That or find your game just swatted out of the Apple Store shortly after you put it up.
 

USAFRet

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Moderator


That too.
 

Quixit

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Dec 22, 2014
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You missed that you need the source code. I've ported several apps from Blackberry, iOS and Android and it's a lot of work and you can't just take compiled software for one CPU and OS and run it on another.
 

JoeMama808

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Mar 18, 2014
2
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4,510
I understand that this will take a lot of time and effort, I know that you can't just port the game over to a whole new platform. All I want to know is what pre-requirements there is to starting the conversion. I don't want to sell this game, I just want to play this on my phone instead of my PC.
 

Charles A Peirce

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May 19, 2015
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You can do this.

I am sorry that most of the responses so far have been dismissive. I think that some may have considered the task too big for them to accomplish and therefor doubted your ability to do the task.

As you will have gathered from some of the answers, you cannot just take the code and transfer it to your phone and make it run with the aid of a few tools, such as an emulator. At least, as far as I know, there are no emulators that run under iOS which will emulate Microsoft Windows, Gameboy, PlayStation, or Nintendo 64, the platforms that Lego Racers was developed to run under.

The task then is to write a "copy" of the game that will run under iOS. There are copyright issues, but as long as you are not planning on publicly distributing the results, or exhibiting the results in a public place, you probably won't break any laws or open yourself to legal action.

Your question indicates that you are not afraid of programming. The main programming language for iOS is Objective-C. The Apple website offers an integrated development environment (IDE) that will make the programming experience much easier, called Xcode. Most seasoned programmers use an IDE, and there are sometimes arguements about which is the best, but this one from Apple, as you want to target an Apple device, is probably going to be the best one for a beginner.

There are alternatives which promise to be easier, although they come with a price-tag. These are game creation platforms, most of which don’t require any programming knowledge. You may have to sacrifice some flexibility, but if you don’t have the time to learn a programming language then this is an option. Check out the websites for GameSalad, GameMaker: Studio, Stencyl, and Construct.

Whichever option you choose, if you stick with it you will learn some valuable skills. As you probably already know, the ability to take an idea. no matter that it's not your own, and make a working game out of it, offers many employment oppertunities. Even if you don't want to work in the games field, being able to show that you chose a project and that you stuck with it until completion will go down very well at any job interview.

I have been a programmer for many years, and I have made a good living out of turning others peoples ideas into reality, or refining others working constructs into a polished and robust app that is suitable for public use. I first learnt how to program by setting out to do something similar (mobile phones didn't exist back then). Give it a shot and see where it takes you.

 

Black_Plague

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Jun 29, 2014
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Charles isn't completely right.
There are emulators for ios.
Gba, gbc, psp, c64, ms-dos...
You may need to jailbreak/root first though.
I made some research about the game. And if you redownload gameboy color version and download a gameboy color emulator. Use a pc program to move game file to documents of emulator, or download directly from phone.