Last time I checked (experienced) that is a forbidden topic here. Someone else will correct me if possible.
Emulators are fine, Roms are a grey area at best. Now to address OP, the best emulators right now are PPSSPP, RetroArch(N64, PSX) & GBA4iOS. Of course a jailbreak is necessary to get PPSSPP running at a decent speed and that goes the same with RetroArch! If you're not looking to JB & still are on iOS 8 - 8.1.2 then Google iEmulators for an array of decent emulators! As for Roms! Be sure to google the instructions for ripping your own game files as to obtain & play them !
If you have already updated to iOS 8, and don't want to jailbreak, iEmulators is offering a 10$ subscription service to iBuild store, which allows you to use all of the emulators freely.
Given up with emulators on iOS. Backdoor methods so unreliable and a hassle. Lucky to have an Android tablet as well. Lots of emulators, plug in a usb controller with an adapter and ready to go, no hassle. I really wish it was that easy on iPad.
I paid $10 for the emulators on builds.io Works a treat. Hopefully they'll add more emulators. Well worth the cost of $10 a year
This. JB takes 5 min and is completely harmless and reversible. You can emulate many systems including PS1 and PSP.
Not if you aren't into computers that much lol. I saw a guide a few months back from TA and it had a load of steps, dangers, and precautions.
I wish iOS had more commited developers for emulators. NDS runs terribly because it hasn't been updated for a year. Also RetroArch is a catch all, but it handles a lot of games terribly! Not to mention thre is no enhancements at all !
I would prefer to use emulators on jailbroken devices. While it's still possible to use them on non-jailbroken devices through cert signing, they still arent able to access the JIT framework, which is a huge performance boost. That alone would be reason enough to jailbreak any device imo.
I've been looking at iEmulators, but hadn't heard of builds.io before. Does one generally have a better reputation than the other? If there's an iOS update, do these seevices stop being available, or do the downloaded programs themselves stop working?