jmtd → log → iPad Mini (2013)

In or around 2014 I bought an iPad Mini (2), and following the normal lifecycle of iOS devices, a major OS update eventually killed it as a useful, general-purpose device: operating it was just too sluggish. It remained useful as a streaming media player for a little while longer until eventually the big streamers (BBC iPlayer, Netflix, etc.) stopped supporting the version of their app which the iPad could install: the last officially supported iOS was 12.4.8 in July 2020, and by November it was officially dead.

Old 32bit games

During its useful life, the iPad Mini witnessed Apple's transition from 32 to 64 bit apps. In the 32 bit days, there was a little cottage industry of app developers, and in particular, game developers. There were even several independent websites (App Shopper, Pod Gamer, Free-App Hero), which aided in sorting through the morass of apps to find the good ones (then as now, the App Store itself was almost impossible to effectively browse). This all went away during the 32/64 transition, as many small-scale developers weren't actively developing their applications or games any more, and weren't prepared to pay the time or apple tax to rebuild and publish them as 64 bit.

The last version of iOS that supported 32 bit apps on this device was 10.3.3, and by luck, there are some methods available to install this old version of iOS on the Mini 2 Today. A couple of years ago I did so, and I kept no notes so sadly I can't report on which method I used. But it worked, and I was able to install a bunch of old 32 bit games that I had no access to on more modern devices.

Prior to John Carmack's¹ departure from iD Software, he'd been responsible for publishing several experimental iD software games on iOS. These mostly disappeared in the 64 bit transition. Amongst them are ports of Wolfenstein 3D, classic Doom, some RAGE tie-ins, but perhaps most interestingly. at least two original games, designed for the phone form factor: Doom 2 RPG and Wolfenstein RPG.

Reading magazine-style things

Another notable game that disappeared was "Civilisation Revolution", a cut-down Civ game that for a while I was obsessed with. Rather than port it to 64 bit, the publisher withdrew it, and then published a "new" game "Civilisation Revolution 2", requiring a separate purchase. Sadly, it is rubbish, nowhere near as good as the first one.

Anyway, having managed to downgrade it to the 32 bit iOS and install these old lost games, I then, of course, never played them and the device continued to gather dust. I should make clear that, running such an old unpatched iOS version means it's not safe at all to put any kind of sensitive information on this, including entering passwords. I don't recommend even opening the web browser. However, this 12 year old device does have some use as an e-reader, especially for certain types of ebook or magazine, that I've struggled to engage with on other devices. That's a topic for another blog post.