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October Update: iCube and iFly on TestFlight, Provenance 3.4, and a Virtual Jaguar Desktop App

Joe Mattiello Joe Mattiello · October 14, 2026 · 5 min read

October Update

The last post here was the skin catalog in March. Since then 3.3.0 went out (2026-03-14: iCloud sync, the new tvOS UI, video filters) without a post of its own, develop has moved 1,490 commits past 3.3.1, and iCube, iFly and Virtual Jaguar each picked up a new way to install. This is a catch-up on all four.

Provenance 3.4.0

MARKETING_VERSION on develop is 3.4.0, and 3.3.1 (a pre-release from 2026-03-30) was skipped in favor of it. No date yet. The upgrade from 3.3.x changes a lot underneath (database schema 28 -> 29, the RetroArch integration moving from a thick wrapper to a thin one, a new iCloud settings sync), so it gets a full smoke test before it goes to the App Store, and that checklist is still open.

What’s in it so far, from the TestFlight notes and the rolling alpha:

  • RetroAchievements memory-map fixes for SNES, GBA, PSP, PC Engine and GBC, NES wired up through FCEU, and hardcore mode enforced on quickload.
  • Stored credentials moved to the Keychain.
  • Atari Jaguar CD, as a beta system. BIN/CUE and CDI only (the importer doesn’t take ISO or CHD yet), and some CD games still crash.
  • Sega NAOMI, NAOMI 2 and Atomiswave, also as beta systems.
  • Dolphin rebased onto a much newer upstream core (2509).
  • ROM patching with RHDN search (#3736, #3738), a shader preset browser, an LCD look for DS and 3DS skins, and import of RetroArch save states from 3.3.x.
  • The cheat lookup, CRT controls and button remapping from the March preview.
  • Browse, launch and import games from iFly.
  • Archive paths sanitized on import (zip-slip), plus import and save-data safety fixes.

Two ways to try it now. Patreon supporters get TestFlight builds through the beta page. The sideload build installs as a separate app, Provenance Alpha, from the AltStore/SideStore source https://provenance-emu.com/apps.json, or as a plain IPA from /install/.

iCube

iCube is the GameCube and Wii emulator for iOS and tvOS (Dolphin underneath).

  • TestFlight: a build is uploaded from develop every day, iOS and tvOS, and goes to external testers once Apple’s beta review clears it. Join from icube-emu.com/testflight.
  • Sideload: the rolling alpha release on GitHub, rebuilt on every push: a non-jailbroken IPA, a TrollStore .tipa, and rootful and rootless .debs. iOS only for now; on tvOS it’s TestFlight.

Changes since Beta 5 (2025-09-14):

  • New SwiftUI settings screens, and a redesigned pause menu (a tile grid on iOS and tvOS).
  • tvOS: a library side rail with L1/R1 paging, and BootMii NAND backup import through the web UI.
  • Controller skins: import Delta and Manic skins, or browse the Provenance skin catalog from inside the app.
  • A controllers hub with per-player screens, and a touch pointer for Wii.
  • Audio output with surround and spatial modes, microphone support, and a GameCube mic button on the touch overlay.
  • A quick menu, and ReplayKit recording.
  • A crash-report consent switch.

On iOS 26, iCube runs Dolphin’s JIT recompiler again when a JIT broker such as StikDebug is attached at launch. Without one it falls back to the Cached Interpreter. It never requires JIT to run (JIT guide).

iFly

iFly is the Dreamcast emulator for iOS and tvOS, with NAOMI and Atomiswave too, built on Flycast. TestFlight is open at ifly-emu.com/testflight, and the minimum is iOS/tvOS 17.4. Sideload builds of 1.0.0 (2026-10-09 and 10-10) are on /install/ and in the apps.json source, but TestFlight is ahead of them.

In the current TestFlight builds (still in testing, so report what breaks):

  • Audio output modes: System Stereo, Spatial, or Surround 5.1.
  • An All Saves tab and Boot a Save tiles, plus continue-from-another-device on Top Shelf and the widget.
  • Arcade overlays with latching gear and flap switches, a portrait layout, throttle lock and rudder.
  • Turbo and hold, set per game, and a light gun aim fix.
  • A fix for the Hard Restart boot stall, and a merge of upstream Flycast (f03faffd2).

Earlier October builds fixed crashes when pausing or leaving a game, made pause-button remaps stick, and stopped emulator settings from syncing over iCloud unless you opt in (Settings > Saves & Sync).

Virtual Jaguar 3.9.0 and the desktop app

Virtual Jaguar is the Atari Jaguar core we maintain for RetroArch and Provenance (libretro/virtualjaguar-libretro). Two releases this week. 3.8.0 (2026-10-13): Flip Out runs, Fight For Your Life boots on the real BIOS, Club Drive has audio under HLE, 2-player Doom holds 60 fps over netplay, and all 28 discs in the Jaguar CD test set reach game code. (Some of those are verified headless only, not yet in a RetroArch build. Jaguar CD itself has been in the core since 3.0.0 in August, and Adrien Beudin, @beudbeud, did much of the CD work in 3.7.0.)

3.9.0 (2026-10-14) ships the standalone desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux. The core is linked statically and driven through the same retro_* API RetroArch uses, with SDL3, Dear ImGui and OpenGL 3.3 on top:

  • A game library: point it at folders and it identifies games by CRC32 against the libretro databases, fetches box art on demand, and splits cartridges, Jaguar CD and BIOS files into tabs.
  • RetroArch .slangp shader presets through librashader, with CRT, scanline and sharp-bilinear presets bundled, plus integer scaling.
  • Remapping for every Jaguar controller type, the 12-key keypad, rotary, driving, paddle, light gun and Team Tap among them, plus an on-screen keypad.
  • Cheats from the bundled libretro cheat database, RetroAchievements, save states with thumbnails and resume-where-you-left-off, and a netplay window for the link-cable games (Doom, BattleSphere, AirCars, Ultra Vortek) with LAN discovery.

For RetroArch and Provenance users the core change is a RISC overclock fix: at 2x, Alien vs Predator went from 71 to 204 fps in the headless harness. With default settings the core is byte-identical to 3.8.0.

Packages: a macOS universal zip (macOS 11+, signed and notarized), Windows x64 and ARM64 installers or portable zips, Linux AppImage and .deb builds for x86_64 and aarch64, and an x86_64 Flatpak. Windows builds aren’t signed yet, so SmartScreen may warn. Shaders may not load on Intel Macs (the bundled librashader is arm64-only), and on Linux they need librashader installed separately (the Flatpak has none yet). Downloads are on the release page and jaguar.provenance-emu.com/app.html.