Open-source compatibility layer
Tolkara runs the original Mac game natively on the iPad's Apple silicon and translates its macOS calls into iPadOS ones. Windows games come along through Wine and FEX. Nothing is ported, patched or re-signed.
You build it yourself: setup needs a Mac and a paid Apple developer membership. Tested mainly on an iPad Pro (M5), and only a few games run so far.
Watch gameplay, 6 min
World of Warcraft Forever on an iPad Pro (M5), graphics quality 8.
What runs today
Everything here runs on a physical iPad, not in a simulator, and every entry comes with its known problems. Tolkara is young: a handful of applications work, and others will need more of the macOS API covered.
The macOS clients log in and play: world, combat, quests, trading, audio and cinematics. Classic Era reaches 120 FPS at reduced resolution. Forever holds 59 to 72 FPS at graphics quality 8, by the game's own readout.
The original Windows game with the HD mod. Adventure map, towns, battles, AI turns with up to eight players, saving and loading, music, mouse and keyboard all work. Performance has not been measured.
A 64-bit Windows game from Steam. Whole stages play through, boss fights included. Saves synchronise with Steam Cloud in both directions, so progress made on a PC carries over. Performance has not been measured.
The Steam client updates itself, signs in and opens the library. Games download and start from it; Vampire Survivors plays this way. Start-up takes about five minutes and popups have rendering problems.
The macOS version loads its archives, scripts and shader caches and renders the opening cinematic at about one frame per second. Its memory demands are the hard part.
How it works
Tolkara has the shape of Wine. macOS and iPadOS share a CPU architecture, a kernel, an Objective-C runtime and most low-level frameworks. So a Mac program needs no emulation on an iPad, only a loader and a translation of the parts that differ: process loading, executable memory, the desktop UI frameworks and the shader format.
Its arm64 code runs directly on the iPad's processor.
main.The same pairing Valve ships as Proton for ARM64, with Tolkara underneath.
Executable memory
iPadOS executes only code whose pages carry a valid signature, with one exception for development: memory that a debugger has prepared. Tolkara supports three routes within those rules. You choose one on first launch and can change it later.
A packet-tunnel extension bundled with Tolkara reaches the iPad's own developer service, which prepares executable memory and detaches before any application code runs.
The application's final code pages go into a small library, a page container, signed with your own developer identity. iPadOS validates it and Tolkara maps those pages into place.
You sideload an unsigned build, for example with SideStore, and open it with a JIT enabler such as StikDebug. The enabler prepares memory and is asked to detach.
Get started
Tolkara is a do-it-yourself developer project. It is compiled on your Mac, signed with your own Apple developer account and installed on your own device. Tolkara Management, a Mac app, walks you through every step and checks each one. Set aside about an hour, most of it waiting for downloads and the first build.
Playing an online game this way can put your account at risk. Read the account-risk notice first.
The same scripts the setup app runs, from a clone:
git clone https://github.com/tolkara/tolkara.git
cd tolkara
cp local.env.example local.env # your team, bundle ID, device
tools/install.sh
tools/enroll.sh # once, for Developer serviceSee it
Tolkara on the iPad is a plain library. Each game is described by a small profile, a data file with its name and where its files live. Tap a game to start it. The Execution Mode button switches between the three modes.
A profile holds no code. New ones can be added from a file or a link, and contributed back for everyone.
Optional controls stand in for a keyboard and mouse: a movement stick, a touch trackpad in the manner of a remote-desktop pointer, a Jump button and the iOS keyboard. They are on by default on iPhone and off on iPad.
On an unfolded iPhone Duo they sit in columns beside the game, with number keys, Escape and Tab. iPhone support is experimental.
Video
Videos load from YouTube only when you press play. More on the Tolkara channel.
Principles
Tolkara loads the original executable and translates system calls. These are the limits it keeps, and the source is open to check them.
It is imported as a file, verified by SHA-256 and mapped into memory. It is never edited, re-signed or included in the app bundle. Rebases and binds are runtime state in memory, as with dyld.
The loader answers a few calls itself because they concern how the image was loaded, such as mmap, mprotect, dlsym and _NSGetExecutablePath. The whole list is in one source file.
Imports resolve to an iPadOS framework, a translation library, or a library the application carries. One that nothing provides becomes a stub that logs and returns zero.
Tolkara does not conceal debuggers, processes, the device model or the operating system. The debugger that prepares memory detaches before the first application instruction runs, and nothing attaches afterwards.
Tolkara is not supported, endorsed or approved by the publisher of any application you run with it. Running a game client on an operating system it was not released for may be against that game's terms of service.
Blizzard has for many years tolerated players who run its games on Linux through Wine and Proton. Tolkara is built the same way and for the same purpose. That history is not a promise: automated detection can misfire, and a publisher can change its position at any time.
If you use Tolkara with an online account, the risk of a suspension or ban is real and it is entirely yours. If that risk is not acceptable to you, do not use Tolkara with that account.
FAQ
No. You build it from source and sign it with your own developer account. Releases carry Tolkara Management, the Mac app that does the build for you, and an unsigned build for the External JIT route.
Yes, to build and install Tolkara, to enrol the device once, and to hold your copy of the game. After that the iPad launches games on its own, also after a reboot.
For the tested routes, yes. Tolkara needs the Network Extension, increased memory limit and extended virtual addressing capabilities, which free personal teams cannot sign, and free provisioning profiles expire after seven days. External JIT is meant to work with a free Apple ID, but it has not been run on a device yet.
For Mac applications, no. Their arm64 code runs directly on the iPad's processor, and only the operating-system calls are translated. Windows games are x86 programs, so FEX translates their instructions to arm64 while they run, inside Wine.
Development and testing use an iPad Pro (M5) with iPadOS 27. iPhone support is experimental: an iPhone 16 Pro Max, an iPhone 15 Plus and an unfolded iPhone Duo have run World of Warcraft. The compatibility list says what was tested where.
No. The repository and the releases contain no third-party application code or assets. You bring a copy you have the right to use.
With Developer service, executable memory is prepared at every launch at about 3 MB per second, and Tolkara has to stay in the foreground meanwhile. Local signing has no such wait, but it works only for programs whose code is fixed before they run.
There are optional on-screen controls, and World of Warcraft has been played with them alone on an iPhone Duo. Desktop games are designed for a keyboard and a pointer, though, and that is how they play best.
Independent community forks of Tolkara that focus on World of Warcraft. They are maintained by other people. This site and the tolkara/tolkara repository are the original project.
That is expected for most applications today: each one touches parts of the macOS API that may not be translated yet. Reports and patches are welcome in the issue tracker. Results, including failures, belong in the compatibility list.
Tolkara is MIT licensed and developed in the open. Try your game and report what happens: compatibility reports are as welcome as patches.