According to The Verge, the Simogo Legacy Collection bundles seven games developed by the studio Simogo between 2010 and 2015, plus a companion app. The collection, which includes titles like Kosmo Spin, Year Walk, and Device 6, is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch. It aims to preserve a specific era of inventive indie iPhone gaming that has become harder to maintain on Apple’s modern App Store. The package is designed to mimic a smartphone interface and includes extensive extras like playable prototypes and a dedicated music player. This release acts as an archival effort for games that defined a more experimental period in mobile development.
A Time Capsule of a Lost App Store
Here’s the thing: that 2010-2015 window was a magical, fleeting moment. The iPhone was ubiquitous, but the App Store wasn’t yet a hyper-curated, algorithmically-driven mega-mall dominated by free-to-play giants. The barriers to entry were lower, and the audience was hungry for novelty. A small studio like Simogo could make something as bizarre as Device 6—part game, part interactive novel—and actually find an audience. That’s almost unthinkable in today’s mobile climate. This collection isn’t just a bunch of old games; it’s a museum exhibit for a digital culture that has largely been paved over.
More Than Just a Bundle, It’s a Curated Experience
What I find really smart is how they’ve packaged it. They didn’t just dump the ROMs on a digital storefront. They recreated the feeling of that era by turning your Switch or PC into a giant smartphone home screen. You tap the app icons. You dig into the extras folder. It’s nostalgic, sure, but it also frames these games as the cohesive artistic statements they were. Including the companion apps, prototypes, and podcasts shows a deep respect for the work. This is preservation done right—saving not just the software, but the context around it. You can feel the care.
The Business of Preservation
So why does this matter as a business move? Well, it’s a brilliant bit of niche positioning. For Simogo, it monetizes their back catalog in a sustainable way outside the volatile App Store, where older games get buried. For players, it’s a trusted, permanent collection. You don’t have to worry about iOS updates breaking Year Walk. This model is becoming more common for iconic indie studios—think of the Doom or Quake re-releases. It turns legacy content into a premium product. The real beneficiaries are fans and gaming history itself. These games were designed for touchscreens, but their ideas are timeless. Bringing them to robust platforms like Switch and PC ensures they live on.
A Reminder of What Mobile Could Be
Playing this collection is kinda bittersweet. It’s a blast, but it also highlights what we’ve lost. The modern mobile market is optimized for engagement and revenue, not necessarily for the kind of short, strange, and singular experiences Simogo excelled at. Beat Sneak Bandit or The Sailor’s Dream wouldn’t have a chance today. But maybe that’s the point. This collection proves that the best ideas from that era weren’t just fleeting mobile fads. They were legitimately great games, period. And now, thankfully, they have a permanent home where a new audience can discover just how weird and wonderful iPhone gaming once was.
