📰 New article from Retro Handhelds
JarPlay Brings J2ME Emulation to the iPhone and iPad
https://retrohandhelds.gg/jarplay-brings-j2me-emulation-to-the-iphone-and-ipad/
Remember when your phone could only do calls, texts, and Doom RPG? Yeah, those were the days. Now, thanks to JarPlay, you can relive them—on your iPhone.
Launched quietly on the App Store, JarPlay is a J2ME emulator that lets you run early-2000s Java mobile games like Harry Potter 7, Asphalt 4, and even lost gems like the Tony Hawk mobile series. No bundled games—you bring your own .jar files—but it’s got slick on-screen keypads, controller support, and optional visual filters to make your old games look like they’re still stuck in 2003. The free version works fine; $3.99 unlocks unlimited imports, skins, and shaders—no ads, no tracking. Just pure nostalgia.
Not everything runs perfectly—N.O.V.A.? Nope. Gangstar Rio? Barely. But for the dozens of forgotten mobile classics that vanished when Java died, this is a miracle. Think of it as digital archaeology with a touch screen.
In an age where games vanish when servers shut down, JarPlay is quietly saving gaming’s forgotten past—one .jar file at a time.
Now if only we could emulate that Nokia ringer…