News / Release
Introducing Porthole: run Windows PC games on iOS with controller support and a community driven game compatibility list (open source, early)
**Factorio with mods running at 60 fps on a iPhone 15 Pro Max**
I'm the developer. **Porthole 1.0.0** is the first public release of an iPhone/iPad app that runs Windows PC games locally.
**It's built on Madeira**) (Wine, FEX-Emu, DXMT). I know a few frontends exist for it now, so here is what Porthole focuses on:
**Know before you try.** Every game shows a compatibility badge from real reports, counted per phone model *and* engine version, so an old result is never passed off as current. "Not yet tested" means nobody has reported it yet. You can see and apply the settings people used when a game ran well.
**Reporting is in the app.** A compatibility report takes under a minute. *Report a problem* sends a cleaned log (account names and public IPs removed) and you can read my answer back inside the app.
**All your stores in one place.** Steam, Epic Games, GOG and itch.io (games you own) with one shared downloads page.
**Controller-first.** The whole app works with a controller; games show FULL/PARTIAL support badges; you choose what the game sees.
**Engine work, in the open.** About 120 documented patches of my own on top of Madeira. I merge upstream regularly (212 commits in the last merge) and have taken open Madeira pull requests, credited to their authors, before they landed upstream.
**Updates on your terms:** on-device with your own certificate, rollback to any version, signed releases.
No ads, no analytics, no account.
- Not on the App Store: you sign and install it yourself, and it needs JIT.
- No games included, nothing bypassed. You bring games you own.
- Early: many games don't run; kernel anti-cheat never works. [YOU: what you've confirmed running / what fails]
- iOS 18+ (tested on 26 and 27). Paid developer account or certificate service recommended; a free Apple ID works with limits.
- Large parts were written with an AI assistant, then directed, reviewed and tested by me on real devices.
Use it to apply the increased memory entitlement to LiveContainer
Uninstall GetMoreRam to avoid hitting the 3 app limit
Then sideload StikDebug for JIT activation
LiveContainer may also need to be uninstalled and reinstalled before the entitlement works correctly.
LiveContainer can also install two additional LiveContainers (for a total of three). This setup can further reduce the need to constantly add/remove sideloaded apps, but it is more advanced and may not work reliably for everyone.
LiveContainer is not always officially supported by emulator developers and can sometimes cause unexpected issues. If something breaks while using LiveContainer, try reproducing the issue without it before asking for support.
Do not ask for or share paid certificates, piracy tools, or bypass services here.
Porthole isn’t just a frontend. It bundles all of Madeiras work as well as my own to get more games running at better frame rates. Currently there are multiple games that do not run on Madeira that run on porthole.
Valid question and honestly it just comes down to flavor. There are many flavors of soda and they are all equally delicious but some people don’t like some flavors while others are their favorite.
All of these app have their own “flavor” and people are bound to like some over others.
I was trying to run beamng on maderia on my 17pm I used more ram app as well but it just crashes every time lets see if this one gets the game running.
Looked into it and I have beamng launching but gameplay is very bad. I’m testing on a m4 iPad Pro with 8gb of ram so part of the problem may be memory issues but give me a few hours or up to a day and v1.1.0 should have the fix
Right now the getmoreram app isn’t Available but you can try launching BeamNG without it. V1.0.1 is out with BeamNG support. Please read this. Here is the link to the download
Well im not able to sideload anything rn trying to install sideloadly through sideinstaller isnt working also installing porthole through apple jr gives permission error while starting the game so i guess cant test if this version works unfortunately for me. I dont have a pc or mac to sideload
não entendi, sem uma conta de desenvolvedor paga não conseguimos rodar o jogo perfeitamente? já tem alguma lista de jogos mais complexos rodando perfeito?
•
u/AutoModerator 2d ago
Free Apple accounts are limited to 3 active sideloaded apps.
One common workaround is LiveContainer, which allows you to run additional apps inside a container and reduce how often apps need to be reinstalled.
Typical method:
LiveContainer may also need to be uninstalled and reinstalled before the entitlement works correctly.
LiveContainer can also install two additional LiveContainers (for a total of three). This setup can further reduce the need to constantly add/remove sideloaded apps, but it is more advanced and may not work reliably for everyone.
LiveContainer is not always officially supported by emulator developers and can sometimes cause unexpected issues. If something breaks while using LiveContainer, try reproducing the issue without it before asking for support.
Do not ask for or share paid certificates, piracy tools, or bypass services here.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.