How To Download Discontinued iPod Click Wheel Games

Do you have an old Apple iPod? You’re not alone. Although the iPhone and the iPad get all the attention these days with all their fancy apps, millions of iPods were sold over the last decade that could run “click-wheel” games, a precursor to the App. Before the App Store, Apple used to sell a limited selection of click-wheel games that users could play on their iPod using just a circular wheel (here’s a full list).

Unfortunately, Apple removed the iPod Click Wheel section in the iTunes Store in September 2011 when they discontinued support for the iPod classic and iPod shuffle. This wasn’t a huge surprise. The last time a new click wheel game appeared in the iTunes Store was February 2009.

However, what’s really puzzling is that Apple still promotes the availability of the Click Wheel games on the iPod Classic page on their website (pictured right).

So are iPod owners looking for discontinued games for their click-wheel iPods screwed? Not exactly. Diehard iPod fans have archived the click-wheel games and are sharing them on the Internet using file-sharing services like BitTorrent. Is it illegal to download these games? We’re not sure. Technically they are abandonware because Apple discontinued them. But Apple’s lawyers are very aggressive. Basically what we’re saying here is, download at your own risk.

Here’s how to find and download discontinued iPod Click Wheel Games:

01) Get a BitTorrent Client

You’ll need to download and install a BitTorrent client application on your computer. Don’t worry, they’re free. We suggest BitTorrent (Mac, PC, Linux) or Transmission (Mac).

02) Find a Click Wheel Torrent

There are tons of sites that allow you to easily find torrents. We suggest Pirate Bay. You can do a search on Pirate Bay for “ipod click wheel games” or try downloading this torrent: “Ipod Click Wheel Games”

03) Download & Share

BitTorrent works like this: someone with data shares it with others across the Internet. Downloaders are called “leechers” and “sharers are called “seeders.” After you successfully download a file, it’s polite to share it to help others download it too.

That’s it! we have a more in-depth BitTorrent tutorial here that might help you in your downloading efforts. Otherwise we wish you luck and encourage you to seed the iPod Click Wheel game torrent after you download. Happy Click Wheel gaming!

 

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• Apple axes iPod click wheel games in iTunes, is the ‘classic’ model next? (engadget.com)