Is there a good reason there's no iOS port?

[modusgolems]

I know Angband has been ported to Android, so is there a good reason there's no iOS version (yet)?

Would there be anything (in the license? or otherwise?) to stop me from looking at the code on Github and trying to port it for iOS?

Has this been tried and failed for some reason?

[Derakon]

My guess would be that there just hasn't been someone with the combination of interest and skill yet. Angband's all open-source, so if you want to try to knock together an iOS port yourself, go right ahead, and I wish you luck!

[takkaria]

Originally Posted by modusgolems

I know Angband has been ported to Android, so is there a good reason there's no iOS version (yet)?

Would there be anything (in the license? or otherwise?) to stop me from looking at the code on Github and trying to port it for iOS?

Has this been tried and failed for some reason?

molybedenum is working towards it with the Cocoa port I believe. For licence information, see copying.txt at GitHub.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by modusgolems

I know Angband has been ported to Android, so is there a good reason there's no iOS version (yet)?

Would there be anything (in the license? or otherwise?) to stop me from looking at the code on Github and trying to port it for iOS?

Has this been tried and failed for some reason?

No, no, no.

Like Derakon says, feel free, and it would make everyone happy. It might be worth noting that

1. molybdenum, who has massively improved the OSX port (and made other code improvements) has talked about doing an iOS port and
2. the devteam generally is just starting the process of splitting the game code and UI apart so that new ports are easier to do,

but you're of course still free to do what you like independent of all that.

PS. Nice name!

[molybdenum]

Originally Posted by takkaria

molybedenum is working towards it with the Cocoa port I believe. For licence information, see copying.txt at GitHub.

I'm shooting to redo the entire OS X port, which would make it easier to port to iOS in the long run. I'm interested in also trying to port it over in a way that is fairly natural to touch-based devices. As it stands, it probably wouldn't be too difficult to get something running on a device; mostly just moving from AppKit to UIKit.

As for getting it on the App Store, there are two big issues that might preclude a direct port of Angband being submitted. The first is Tolkien IP: being on the App Store might draw unwanted attention from the Tolkien Estate. There is a good chunk of content that would have to be made more Tolkien-inspired than directly derived. The second issue has to do with the GPL. Apparently, the terms of the App Store violate the terms of the GPL. Apple doesn't care so much, but if they get a request from someone to remove the app due to licensing restrictions, they'll do it right quick. Regarding those, my thoughts were to treat an iOS port as more of a variant that differs mostly in content and not gameplay.