UTP

Unreal Tournament 99 on iPhone and iPad.
UTP hosts the original OldUnreal v469e game inside a native iOS app with Metal rendering, touch controls, game-file setup, and classic online play.

Current UTP gameplay build, tested extensively on physical iPhone and iPad.

Status · Build · Controls · FAQ · Evidence · Report a problem

UTP brings the original Unreal Tournament 99 engine to iPhone and iPad by hosting the official OldUnreal v469e ARM64 runtime inside a native iOS app. It is not streaming, emulation, or a remake: the original game still owns its menus, maps, bots, weapons, rules, and multiplayer protocol. UTP supplies the Apple-platform layer around it—Metal presentation, touch input, lifecycle, game-file setup, recovery, and diagnostics.

This source tree does not contain Epic game data, OldUnreal release binaries, generated engine images, signing material, or IPA payloads. Preview IPAs are published separately on the GitHub Releases page. Those boundaries are enforced by make public-check.

The authoritative gate ledger is docs/STATUS.md. The requirement-by-requirement view is docs/COMPLETION_AUDIT.md, and the underlying records are indexed in docs/evidence/.

Current repository evidence includes:

• reproducible inspection of the official OldUnreal v469e Apple Silicon baseline and all eight recursively discovered native images;
• build-time preparation of an iOS-platform ARM64 engine candidate without a runtime JIT;
• a UIKit host with a full-bleed FruCoRe Metal surface on iPhone and iPad Simulator targets;
• repeated physical-iPhone and physical-iPad builds with successful signing, installation, launch, gameplay, touch input, and audio;
• usable touch combat and physical controller play on real hardware;
• captured mouse/trackpad look with persistent speed presets, gameplay WASD, pointer buttons, and simultaneous Xbox controller input on physical iPad;
• touch movement, aim, FIRE, ALT, USE, JUMP, DUCK, PREV/NEXT, SCORE, and the original Unreal menu;
• editable touch layout, opacity, handedness, saved profiles, diagnostics, lifecycle recovery, keyboard/controller bridges, and a compact host menu;
• first-run Get Game Data and Import Files flows with explicit consent, pinned verification, data-only extraction, transactional install, and temporary-file cleanup;
• the original v469 online server browser, public-server join, data-only package download, combat, death/respawn, map transition, and clean disconnect in Simulator; and
• a final-package iPhone Simulator session that held one engine process for more than 30 minutes and survived three Home/reopen cycles.

The game itself works on physical iPhone and iPad. Hardware and virtual-keyboard text entry, Xbox controller startup/hot-connect, Gameplay-mode WASD, captured mouse/trackpad look and buttons, adjustable pointer speed, and simultaneous controller plus keyboard/pointer play are physically accepted in Preview 3. Narrower known issues, including wheel behavior, UI scaling, shadow fidelity, and audio-route interruption, are tracked in docs/KNOWN_ISSUES.md.

UTP and Unreal Tournament are deliberately separate. The repository and app package contain no Epic game data, disc image, or prepared game installation.

• Official OldUnreal route: the OldUnreal full-game installer page is the recommended source of truth. OldUnreal currently makes the full game available online through free-to-download installers. Those installers download the original Unreal Tournament 99 GOTY disc image from OldUnreal's file servers, use Archive.org only as a fallback, and apply the latest OldUnreal patch.
• An existing copy: if you already have a user-authorized GOTY installation, UTP can import its supported data from a folder or ZIP.

In practical terms, this means you can obtain the game data online through the established OldUnreal route without buying a separate copy from UTP. UTP is simply using that path: it does not mirror, sell, or relicense the game. Epic's terms and OldUnreal's current instructions still apply.

The current UTP build presents two choices on first launch:

1. Get Game Data explains the source, approximate size, terms, and destination before consent. It verifies the exact installer image by size and SHA-256, extracts only supported data, installs it transactionally, and removes the temporary image.
2. Import Files accepts a folder or ZIP you already have. It rejects unsafe paths, encrypted entries, and desktop/native executables before replacing a working installation.

UTP keeps only the supported Maps, Music, Sounds, and Textures data in its app container. It does not import the desktop System directory or run native code from imported content. This describes implemented behavior, not a finding that distribution rights have been cleared. Public previews already exist; the earlier written-permission gate remains unresolved in the public record. Review the applicable terms and any separate permission for the shipped runtime and acquisition flow; Apple review requirements depend on the selected channel. See docs/DATA_COMPATIBILITY.md and docs/DISTRIBUTION_AND_ONBOARDING.md.

The touch interface is designed as a full-bleed landscape overlay:

• Left thumb: movement stick plus SCORE, USE, PREV, and NEXT utility directions.
• Right thumb: look/aim stick, FIRE, ALT, JUMP, and DUCK.
• Menus: a persistent ••• button opens host settings; MENU opens the original Unreal interface.
• Customization: opacity, scale, handedness, visibility, drag/pinch layout editing, saved profiles, and restore defaults.

Touch gameplay, Xbox controller play and hot-connect, hardware-keyboard text, UTP virtual-keyboard text entry, Gameplay-mode WASD, captured mouse/trackpad look, pointer buttons, and simultaneous controller plus keyboard/pointer play have been exercised on physical hardware. The three-dot panel explicitly switches between Menu and Gameplay routing, captures/releases the system pointer, and cycles persistent 20%, 35%, 50%, 75%, and 100% speed presets.

• Gameplay WASD and relative pointer look require Gameplay Controls mode; Menu Controls routes the same devices to Unreal's original UI.
• Gyro aiming is not included in Preview 3.
• Xbox controller startup and hot-connect are physically accepted. Other extended controllers may use the same Apple profile but are not part of the current hardware acceptance matrix.
• Pointer wheel/scroll behavior has not been separately accepted on hardware.

• Original UWindow menu text remains small at the engine's maximum GUI scale.
• Some projectile, shadow, or alpha effects can render as large black polygons.
• Physical-device server-browser compatibility is less broadly exercised than the proven Simulator and direct-connect network paths.
• Audio-route interruptions, long background/resume cycles, long-session thermals, memory pressure, battery use, and broader device/peripheral coverage remain preview validation work.
• UTP requires iOS/iPadOS 17 or later. It is not available through TestFlight, the App Store, or a one-tap website install.

See docs/KNOWN_ISSUES.md for the engineering ledger.

• an Apple Silicon Mac;
• Xcode and its command-line tools;
• enough local storage for pinned upstream inputs and generated build output;
• a user-owned Unreal Tournament GOTY source for manual import testing; and
• an Apple Development team plus one trusted Developer Mode device for the physical path.

All proprietary inputs and generated products stay under ignored ref/ and build/ paths.

git clone https://github.com/chrissotraidis/utp.git
cd utp

make doctor
make bootstrap
make mac-baseline
make audit-469e
make test
make public-check

Useful targets:

Simulator products are development evidence only. The device path requires a non-secret ten-character team identifier supplied at invocation time:

DEVELOPMENT_TEAM=YOURTEAMID make device-check
DEVELOPMENT_TEAM=YOURTEAMID make device-run
DEVELOPMENT_TEAM=YOURTEAMID make verify-device

device-run uses Xcode automatic provisioning, verifies the produced app, installs it through CoreDevice, and launches the host. Set DEVICE_UDID only when more than one physical iPhone or iPad is connected. Do not commit either value.

flowchart LR
    A["Official v469e ARM64 macOS input"] --> B["Deterministic Mach-O and dependency audit"]
    B --> C["Build-time iOS platform preparation"]
    C --> D["Signed native dependencies and narrow shims"]
    D --> E["UIKit host and SDL2 boundary"]
    E --> F["FruCoRe Metal renderer and original engine"]
    G["User-authorized game data"] --> H["Validated transactional import"]
    H --> F

The host owns scenes, sandbox paths, onboarding, diagnostics, recovery, and touch UI. The original engine remains responsible for menus, maps, game rules, bot behavior, rendering, and the UT network protocol. Imported native code is not supported.

This is a bounded binary-rehosting experiment, not a browser port, streaming client, Windows compatibility layer, x86 emulator, or Unreal Engine 1 rewrite. The exact technical and stop-gate rationale is in docs/UT99_Apple_PRD.md.

Yes—UTP uses the original v469 server browser and protocol, and the current build has connected to real community Unreal Tournament servers. It has populated live listings, joined unmodified servers, downloaded data-only packages, reached player possession, exercised combat and respawn, survived a natural map transition, and disconnected through the original menu.

The original-protocol server path is proven. Physical-device networking edge cases, observer-confirmed chat, background behavior, and clean reconnect remain narrow follow-up checks tracked in docs/NETWORK_COMPATIBILITY.md.

Run the same fast gate used by pull requests:

make public-check

It rejects tracked or unignored build/reference areas, game packages, archives, app/IPA products, signing material, likely credentials, local user paths, oversized files, invalid scripts, malformed third-party metadata, broken local Markdown links, and prohibited paths in Git history.

Before changing visibility, publishing a source tag, or shipping any binary, follow docs/PUBLIC_RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md.

Generated source trees, upstream binaries, local game data, screenshots/logs with private context, app bundles, and packaging output stay ignored.

Read CONTRIBUTING.md before proposing a change. Use SUPPORT.md for issue-routing and evidence guidance, and SECURITY.md for sensitive reports. Pull requests should be focused, run make public-check, state the validation performed, and preserve the distinction between Simulator evidence and physical-device acceptance.

UTP is an independent, unofficial preservation and engineering project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Epic Games, OldUnreal, or Apple. Unreal Tournament, Unreal, OldUnreal, Apple platform names, and all other third-party names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.

The project builds on or references OldUnreal v469e, SDL2, FruCoRe/OpenGLDrv, OpenAL Soft, mpg123, libsndfile, libxmp, and their contributors. Public access to this repository does not relicense those projects, Epic game data, or the official runtime. See RIGHTS_AND_LICENSES.md.