Can I play .ipa files on my computer?

Nope. They are compiled code. I tried getting one to work in xCode and Aspen. No luck with either.

And a quick search didn’t reveal any applications that will do it.

No way Jose.

What about emulating the ipod if someone is able to do that you should be able to use them on your pc. I know that there wouldn’t be much use to do that. But you never know what someone might do

VLC will play ipa files. Treats them like mp4.

VLC doesn’t play *.ipa files!

Just rename the .ipa file as a .zip file
Open the .zip file with ExtractNow (free)
Search for the folder “Content”
There you´ll find the photos
Their resolution is pretty bad on a PC