In addition to listening to music and watching video clips, iPods with a touch wheel also offered another form of entertainment: video games. Those who had one in the past are more than likely to remember some like Pac-Man, Tetris, or even Sonic the Hedgehog. If you’re feeling nostalgic, you’ll probably be happy to know that you can play them again thanks to the community.
Many of these games were on the verge of becoming irrecoverable, as they could no longer be purchased or downloaded again. Fortunately, the user community is determined to preserve the game catalog for classic iPods so that we can enjoy them again at any time.
In 2011, Apple completely removed the games from the iTunes Store. However, these games, which are IPG files, were recovered and backed up, thanks to the Internet. Still, the games themselves still cannot be “used” due to the strict protections of Apple implemented at the time. It should be noted that each IPG file was linked to a specific iTunes account and the hardware where iTunes was installed.
Fortunately, a solution was discovered to overcome these limitations. It was found that owners of an iPod with a click wheel who had copies of these games could reauthorize their account through Apple’s servers and sync it with another iTunes installation. This “trick” has sparked the iPod Clickwheel Games Preservation Project, supported by Reddit user Olsro.
With this initiative, Olsro aimed to “build a community virtual machine that anyone could use to sync authenticated clickwheel games on their iPod.” If you want to know more about the project and how to access these games, here we provide access to the virtual machine that will allow you to play the classic iPod titles without having to rack your brain too much.
Source: ArsTechnica
