Emulating the iPod

These days there are emulators for all the great consoles of yesteryear, as well as old retrocomputers and arcade machines and so much else to boot. Now, though, a particularly …. Now, though, a particularly popular MP3 player has an emulator of its own— by the name of clicky!

The name is a reference to the click wheel of the venerable Apple iPod, and as you might imagine, that’s precisely what clicky is built to emulate. [daniel5151] started the project as a neat technical challenge, following on from earlier work he’s done in the NES emulation space. The iPod is a bit of a difficult prospect to emulate, being very much a closed-source device that is very poorly documented in the public space.

There are few projects to look to for help, since a complete open-source iPod emulator doesn’t already exist; however, various alternative firmware projects have offered a guiding light. For now, clicky can boot into RetailOS, which is what you would have used on an iPod you bought from the factory. It can also run Rockbox and iPodLinux, though for now, running the Apple Diagnostics program is not yet achievable.