OpenXcom for iOS on third party app store, no jailbreak required

[Daedalia]

Hello all.

I've been working with a third party app store to bring OpenXcom to their platform. Thanks to a port by Sfalexrog found at https://github.com/sfalexrog/openxcom-ios I've been able to build and get it hosted there. I believe they use enterprise certificates to sign and install the apps, which Apple may crack down upon soon due to Facebook and Google naughtyness recently. You need to sign up and pay around $10 every year to use the store. They offer many other good emulators and apps so worth the money.

OpenXcom isn't listed on thier main app listing but can be found at the link below. Should work for iOS 8 and up. I've tested it on an iPhone 6 & 7, can't make any promises for other devices but should work well. Some mods work, I can share the ones I've tried. Some mods have graphical issues. This port is based on 0.9.

https://builds.io/apps/openxcom/

[Stoddard]

This is great, but can you please elaborate how did you get it into this app store?

Their site is very vague on the how to publish aspect.

Did you just build a single build and signed/whatever in Xcode? And then performed unspeakable rituals?

There must be some way to automate building builds and uploading them. There are things like fastlane to automate signing, but how does one upload to that store ( and where does one get certs/keys? )


And maybe you know of something similar for macos so that .dmgs don't scare people with "downloaded from who knows where, be very afraid?" popups?

[magus66]

I'll sign the mac builds if you need someone to do that.

[Stoddard]

I'll sign the mac builds if you need someone to do that.

Thank you, but manual signing doesn't make much sense. It has to be automated. There were three releases this month and many more intermediate builds.

[Meridian]

FYI, OXCE now also supports iOS: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,7047.0.html

[magus66]

Yeah. We can just setup fastlane on something and let it do things automatically. I've written all the scripts we need to do this for my day job. We do builds for every commit and run them through a test suite.

~ magus

[magus66]

I've even got a mac that's on 24/7 we can use. You'll understand why I might want to use my own box in order to keep my Developer ID Private Key private. :-)

~ magus

[Stoddard]

Well then. I can only provide scp/sftp access to upload the builds.

[magus66]

That should be all we need I would think. Will it automatically show the builds in a list once we do that? Also, I've got a copy of this https://www.araelium.com/dmgcanvas so we can sign and build a custom DMG to make it all "mac like".

[Stoddard]

That should be all we need I would think.

Send me an rsa ssh pub key then.

Will it automatically show the builds in a list once we do that?

Yes, just like with the other builds at https://lxnt.wtf/oxem/#/Extended for example.

The file name form would have to be followed. It's all in the cmakefiles.

Whatever gets to the forum posts is another question.

Also, I've got a copy of this https://www.araelium.com/dmgcanvas so we can sign and build a custom DMG to make it all "mac like".

No opinion, since I have no idea how it's done on macs.

[Daedalia]

Apologies for not replying to your previous posts. I'm using a new service now. Signulous. They allow you to upload an IPA file and sign it for you where you can then install it on your device, all can be done from your device. They act as a convenient signing service for you for $20 a year. Cheaper and simpler than signing it your self with a developer account.

[NancyGold]

I doubt you can legally distribute OpenXCOM on the app store, since it requires files from the original game.
Maybe you can cooperate with GOG to support IOS?
Or their licenses are PC only?
Because I'm sure modern phones are capable of running any old DOS and Windows software by the magic of modern emulation.
It all comes down to maintenance issues.

[Daedalia]

I'm not talking about putting this on the Apple app store. Signulous is essentially a signing service with an app store facility (https://www.signulous.com/). I have built an OpenXcom IPA file which I upload there to sign it so I can install it on my device. I've enabled document sharing in the app so I can then copy my legally bought game content across. I'm talking to Signulous to see if they are interested in listing it in their store.

It is perfectly legal to distribute OpenXcom, but Apples own policies and rules would mean it would probably never be approved by them for reasons I won't go into here.

It would not be legal to distribute the game files on the app store without an agreement from the licence holders first.

[Daedalia]

This is great, but can you please elaborate how did you get it into this app store?

Their site is very vague on the how to publish aspect.

Did you just build a single build and signed/whatever in Xcode? And then performed unspeakable rituals?

There must be some way to automate building builds and uploading them. There are things like fastlane to automate signing, but how does one upload to that store ( and where does one get certs/keys? )


And maybe you know of something similar for macos so that .dmgs don't scare people with "downloaded from who knows where, be very afraid?" popups?

I built an unsigned ipa in Xcode on a virtual Mac (don’t do it) without a paid developer account using some voodoo. To get it in their store I said “Hey wanna host this”. The way it works is they have various enterprise certificates and you have to download and install a provisioning profile to your device to use that. The app is signed to that rather than to your Apple details like with the default store (very layman account of what goes on). The service I use now lets you upload your own ipa’s which is a good way to go. No need to automate and manage signing/hosting. That’s on the end user to sort out.

The company I work for have since bought a Mac and have an app. I’ve done some painful work in my day job to automate building and signing of Android and iOS apps in Microsoft DevOps, using Fastlane in the iOS deployment pipeline to sign, and pushing them out to their respective stores, and TestFlight for iOS testing. This requires a paid developer account which I don’t personally have.

To automate in DevOps would take some dosh and some more dosh for a paid Apple developer account. Might be other cheaper ways but it would take some investigation. If it would pass approval (it won’t) into the official Apple App Store, it would be worth doing but I don’t really think it’s worth the effort at the moment. If there’s some demand for it, I’d give it a go.

[dan733]

Hey Daedela, could you send me the ipa or upload to the game to appdb? Appdb is another third-party ios app store which allows one to download apps for free, as opposed to the monthly fee buildstore charges.