This isn't a solution for most, but if you know your way around XCode, you can build https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch for any iOS device without the need for jailbreak. The repo contains working xcode projects (though it still may take a little tinkering...) I even got it running on my appleTV!

Just be prepared to rebuild it every week for no reason other than Apple would really like you to pay them a software development tax.

Local builds didn’t need to have certs updated weekly before at least. Doubt they do now.

If you have never had a paid developer account your provisioning profile is only good for a week. This period used to be 30 days but was downgraded to a week sometime in mid-2016, if my recollection is correct.

Apparently if you have had (or currently have) such an account, the period is longer.

You also can't use all the features of the platform, see the "Apple Developer" vs. ADP columns on https://help.apple.com/developer-account/#/dev21218dfd6.

Don’t local builds get the expiry date of the development certificate?

Yes, but if you do not have a paid account Apple will only give you a certificate that is good for 7 days.

Aah, I misread the comment I was responding to, sorry.

Sure, there are a bunch of ways I could have accomplished what I wanted. You can side load quite a few emulators these days without rooting, but man... just... why do I have to? On android I download the thing and go. Once driod hardware and software got better I dropped iOS and haven't looked back.

You would have to rebuild the app weekly unless you pay Apple a yearly fee.

Minor correction: you would have to resign the app, not rebuild it.

Are you sure? I’ve done local builds of iOS apps in the past and didn’t need to resign weekly. Only sideloading apps requires weekly resigning.