Madeira runs Windows PC games on an iPhone, with no jailbreak. Games run as they
are, unmodified, inside a single iOS app.
[!NOTE]
Madeira is an active research project. Many games start and some play well,
but performance and compatibility vary from game to game, and things change
quickly. Expect rough edges.
How it works
| Layer | What it does |
|---|
| FEX-Emu | Translates the game's x86 and x86-64 code to ARM64 as it runs. |
| Wine 11.4 | Provides Windows. It is built for ARM64EC, so Wine itself runs natively and only the game's own code is translated. 32-bit games run through WoW64. |
| DXMT | Draws Direct3D 9, 10 and 11 with Metal. |
| madeira-d3d12 | Madeira's own Direct3D 12 implementation on Metal, converting DXIL shaders at run time with Apple's Metal Shader Converter. |
iOS apps cannot start other programs, so everything runs in one process: even
Wine's server runs as a thread instead of a separate program.
Features
- Game library with artwork, search and a Windows desktop session.
- Steam: sign in, browse the games you own, install and update them, and
start them through Valve's own Windows Steam client (Madeira Dock).
- Steam Cloud saves: saves sync with Steam Cloud when Madeira starts and
before a game starts, and Upload saves and close Madeira in the game
menu sends them when you stop playing. Saves that
changed on both sides are never overwritten without asking, and anything a
sync replaces is backed up.
- Controllers: Bluetooth controllers through XInput, plus customisable
on-screen touch controls.
- Keyboard, mouse and trackpad passed through to games as real input.
- Video and audio for cutscenes and music, through FFmpeg, VideoToolbox and AudioToolbox.
- Japanese locale per game, for Japanese games and visual novels whose text
shows as squares or gibberish or that do not start: Shift-JIS (code page 932)
and a bundled Japanese font (details).
Requirements
- An iPhone on iOS 26 or later, the only version Madeira currently runs
on reliably. Development happens on recent Pro iPhones.
- JIT, which iOS only allows while a debugger is attached. Madeira can use
StikDebug or its built-in StikJIT
helper. On iOS 27 the built-in helper can pair the iPhone itself, without a
computer.
- An Apple ID to sideload the app. A free account works; its signing
expires after 7 days, so the app needs refreshing weekly with the installer
that signed it. Madeira's own refresh is off by default
(details).
Your games and saves are kept across reinstalls.
Because JIT needs a debugger, Madeira cannot be offered on the App Store.
Installing
- Download the IPA from the latest release.
- Sideload it with your own Apple ID using SideStore, AltStore, Sideloadly,
Plume or a similar tool.
- Open Madeira and enable JIT. Automatic mode uses StikDebug when installed,
otherwise it guides you through the built-in setup; see
JIT setup.
- In Settings, check that JIT and Memory+ both show a green check:
Madeira then says Ready to play.
- Add a game. Steam games come from Sign in to Steam in the library. For
a Windows game you already have, copy its whole folder into
Madeira › wine › drive_c with the Files app, then tap + in the
library and choose its
.exe, .bat or .cmd; see
Adding games.
Some 64-bit games need Microsoft's Visual C++ runtime, which is not included
(see Licensing).
Building from source
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/willfaust/Madeira.git
FEX, wine, dxmt and madeira-dock are submodules that point at Madeira's
own forks; upstream checkouts will not build here. The build has several parts
(the Wine unix libraries, the ARM64EC Windows modules, FEX, DXMT and the app)
and some inputs that are not in the repository, such as the toolchains.
docs/BUILDING.md walks through all of it.
git clone --recurse-submodules
cd Madeira
./tools/build-ipa.sh # produces dist/Madeira.ipa
See BUILDING.md for prerequisites, timing, and re-run notes.
Note that FEX, wine and research/dxmt are submodules pointing at forks
containing the iOS work; upstream clones will not build here.
Repository layout
| Path | Contents |
|---|
app/ | The iOS app: SwiftUI front end, Wine bridge and bundled resources |
wine/, FEX/, dxmt/, madeira-dock/ | Madeira's forks and the Steam client launcher (submodules) |
madeira-d3d12/ | The native Direct3D 12 runtime |
build/ | Build scripts and iOS-side sources, one folder per component |
tests/ | Host checks and x86, x86-64 and DXMT test programs |
tools/ | Helper scripts |
docs/ | Documentation |
research/ | Experiments that are not part of the app |
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
