Editor's take: A few years after launching the original iPod, Apple began offering commercial games compatible with the fifth-generation model and later. By 2006, the media player had evolved into a full-fledged entertainment device – though you'd be forgiven for forgetting that the iPod could ever play games.
A dedicated team of Apple enthusiasts has completed an unprecedented preservation effort, saving all 54 commercial games released for clickwheel-based iPod devices. With the iPod Clickwheel Games Preservation Project now finished, iPod owners can replay these games anytime they like.
GitHub user "Olsro" shared the final, challenging steps of the project on Reddit. The preservation effort began a year ago, with Olsro racing to collect as many games as possible before Apple permanently shut down the iTunes 12.x authentication servers.
The last game, Real Soccer 2009, proved particularly difficult to save, as Mac and iPod hard drives repeatedly failed during backup attempts. Nevertheless, the effort succeeded, and Real Soccer 2009 was finally preserved a few months after the previous "lost" game, Tiger Woods PGA Tour.
Olsro has released the updated archive of all known iPod clickwheel games through the Internet Archive, marking the full "Release 15" of the iPod Clickwheel Games Preservation Project. The game files, collected from 18 authenticated Apple accounts, are provided in the ".ipg" format. They are compatible with iPod Nano (3G – 5G) and iPod Classic (5G – 7G) models, with no custom firmware required to play them.
The project's GitHub page documents the complete, somewhat convoluted process to achieve iPod gaming Nirvana, including setting up Windows 10 virtual machines with specific iTunes versions. According to Olsro, the system now works entirely offline. The VM setup also serves as a time capsule for those interested in studying Apple's FairPlay DRM.
Olsro stated that the Real Soccer 2009 release signifies the official completion of this "exciting" game preservation project, though he acknowledges that many of the titles aren't particularly impressive.
The iPod clickwheel game saga represents Apple's first, somewhat half-baked attempt to enter the handheld gaming market. While well-known third-party studios contributed games, the effort ultimately left little lasting impact on gamers, or even on iPod fans.