100 Free iPhone Games
For those complaining about the lack of games for the iPhone and the small number of features that allow software writing for the device we present you with this list of the most popular 100 games developed for the iPhone. It seems that the combo between javascript/ajax and a permanent internet conection was a winner, even tho Flash would've been the icing on the cake.
100 free games specially for the iPhone
As we haven’t given the iPhone enough coverage recently I thought I’d quickly share this service, iPhone Nova it gives you unlimited free access to a load of original games, movies, music, etc.. for your iPhone. Check it out.
One of our readers also submitted, iPhoneGold. It has a list of 100 free games specially for the iPhone.
As I’m in the UK I can’t get my hands on an iPhone yet which is probably a good job as if I did I don’t think fellow CG writer Andi would speak to me again, see this rant post) .
100 free games specially for the iPhone
While there are no any games coming pre-installed with the iPhone, you can play many of the JavaScript/DHTML based games using the Safari browser. And in case you’ve been wondering which games are available, iPhoneGold has compiled a comprehensive list of 100 free iPhone games. There are puzzles, action and some card games on the list. Check it out and have some fun while commuting, during the weekend or whenever you want…
ScummVM
Folks at Gizmodo are reporting that ScummVM, the emulation engine that allows you to play LucasArts and Sierra games, is officially released and now fully working on the iPhone. It means that you can play some of the popular games such as Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones etc on your iPone (works on iPod Touch as well).
If you are wondering how would you be using the controls on the iPhone to play games like Indiana Jones then below are some directions of how to use iPhone multi-touch user interface to play these games.
iPhone’s revolutionary
left click - Single tap
Right click - Hold one finger on screen where you want to click, single tap another
ESC - Hold one finger on screen, double tap another
F5 (menu) - Hold one finger on screen, swipe another down from top to bottom
F 0-9 keys - Press the keyboard button directly under the appropriate number
Pause - Keyboard spacebar
Toggle - Click+Drag mode Hold one finger on screen, swipe another up from bottom to top. In this mode, a mouse click is sent immediately when you touch the screen, drags to wherever you slide your finger, and releases where you lift your finger. Useful for Monkey Island 3: The Curse of Monkey Island and Full Throttle.
Suspend - Press the button.
Quit- Press and hold the button for 5-6 seconds.
As you can see quite an innovative way of using iPhone’s revolutionary multi-touch interface.
Here are the games that have been tested and are fully supported currently:
Day of the Tentacle
The Dig
Flight of the Amazon Queen
Full Throttle
Gobliiins
Gobliins 2
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
King’s Quest 3
Loom
Maniac Mansion
Monkey Island 1: The Secret of Monkey Island (best game ever)
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (ok, maybe this is the best game ever)
Sam & Max Hit the Road (another must-have)
Simon the Sorcerer 1
Simon the Sorcerer 2
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Overall most of the games work very well on the iPhone expect for couple of issues reported by Gizmodo:
Since the resolution of the iPhone is higher than the native resolution of these games, the graphics don’t use the full screen, keeping its original pixel size.
Some of the more modern games, like Monkey Island 3, still have some performance problems.
If this has got you excited and you are looking to install ScummVM on your iPhone, here are some instructions which you will find useful courtesy ScummVM Wiki:
Open Installer.app on a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.
Tap the “Sources” button in the bottom-right corner.
Tap the “Edit” button in the top-right corner.
Tap the “Add” button in the top-left corner.
Enter http://urbanfanatics.com/scummvm.xml into the text area and tap “OK”.
Installer will refresh your sources. It may close. If so, reopen it.
ScummVM is now available for install in the Games section.
In case you need more assistance in installing it, you can get in touch with the iPhone hacking geniuses themselves over at ScummVM’s official site (link here).
If you have been able to play the LucasArt or Sierra Games on the iPhone using ScummVM, then do share your feedback in the comments below for the benefit of fellow readers.
new version of Adventure 4.4
The Adventure Maker Team recently released their new version of Adventure 4.4 Maker Free Edition, with added support for the iPhone and iPod touch. The software is a free tool that runs on the Windows operating system, and can make games that run in the Safari web browser and can be accessed by the iPhone and iPod touch.
The Adventure Maker creates point-and-click games and virtual tours for the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as Windows and PSP.
The Adventure Maker itself is relatively easy to use. All you need to do is import the images, create hotspots for people to click (or tap), add some puzzles, and click “compile”.
You can learn more about The Adventure Maker 4.4 at their website,
updates from gpsPhone
Continuing with updates from gpsPhone, tonight was indeed another night filled with fun and joy for all of us playing endless hours of our favorite old time Game Boy Advanced games on our iPhone and iPod touches. Tonights release is 0.1.0 with what appears to be one or so new features added to the Emulator.
The new feature(s) can be found after the cut.
After playing around a bit with 0.1.0, it’s noticeable that the sound isn’t as laggy, but still cuts out at some points and lags the game up. One of the new features added was snapshotting the game after clicking “ROM List” to save a snap shot of the game to come back to in the same spot you left off. It’s a pretty nice feature and something that is commonly used amongst all game emulators. gpsPhone can be obtained via installer.app.
exciting iphone game
Today iApp-a-Day brings you another exciting iphone game, this time Christmas was in the air. This is a pretty simple, yet challenging game that takes use of the iPhone and iPod touch’s accelerometer for full control over the game.
The objective of this game is to keep Santa’s sleigh away from the falling ice by tilting the phone or iPod into clear space on the screen.
The game is pretty exciting and it’ll definitely keep you occupied until the next iApp-a-Day app is released. Every day a new app can be obtained by adding the iApp-a-Day source through installer.ap
As noted by iPhone Central, the iPhone web-version of Frenzic has been published at http://frenzic.com/iphone/. Frenzic is described as a fast paced puzzle-based game originally developed for Mac OS X.
Gameplay:
As colored pie pieces appear in the center, place them in the outer circles to earn points. Pieces can only be placed into circles that have a corresponding open slot. Once all six slots of a circle are filled, the completed pie is cleared from the board. If a piece is not placed before the timer expires, a life is lost
Use the fewest colors possible when forming pies for maximum points as each piece of the same color is worth more than the one before it. Pies completed with a single color also earn an extra life. The speed of the timer gradually accelerates, increasing difficulty. Play ends when all of your lives are lost.
A Youtube video which demonstrates the Javascript version of Frenzic (running on a desktop browser).
Maya
On Thursday, Ojom announced that it had released Maya, its first game specifically designed for the iPhone. The game functions as a puzzle in which players have to flip, twist and turn triangle-shaped pieces in order to progress through levels and find the Maya temple deep within the jungle. Each puzzle includes a cluster of triangles with a different color in each corner, challenging players to solve by puzzle by flipping or rotating the triangles to form a pattern where all corresponding colors are connected.
A deluxe edition of the game was released in conjunction with the iPhone European launch last week via Jamster and Jamba while the standard edition is available for free.
An independent group of hackers have just released v0.0.5 of gpSPhone, a GameBoy Advanced emulator for the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s in its early stages right now, so it’s pretty buggy, as are most early releases. While they say “many games are playable”, there are still some issues with the sound output, and the GUI and instructions are still in the works. While it’s not too usable, it’s got a lot of potential.
If you’re thinking about giving it a try, good luck. It requires some hacking. Some things to keep in mind are that it needs to be run from /Applications, and you have to supply your own BIOS and iphone games.
iphone game
In theory this is a relatively simple iphone game. You need to find at least three colors/shapes that are touching and once clicked they disappear. If you’re able to click on a group of more than three you can obtain combos and earn more points. The object of the game is to clear the boards and by doing so get the most possible points.
Once you reach a point in the board where no further combos can be obtained new bubbles will appear. This will continue to happen until no more combos exist and therefore the game is over.
The trick to this game is to look at the board for the best combinations. Anticipate what each move will do for your next move. Play smart and you’ll get hooked.
Our personal best so far is 2980
Give it a try and let us know your high score.
your iPhone
Instead of having a bunch of links filling up your bookmark list on your iPhone, this site is working to centralize all the simple web-based iPhone games. So if you have some time to waste before a meeting, waiting on a cab, or at the bus station, click on through to Knibble’s iPhone site.The site has all the classic casual games for your iPhone on a single website. We’re talking about such classics as Sudoku, Bejeweled, Video Poker, and Minesweeper here. All of them are powered by JavaScript, hence you can play them through the built-in Safari Browser. It’s free and they even promised to add more games in the coming weeks and months. And yes, as it’s an iPhone optimized site the interface is slick and easy to use. Here’s the link. Enjoy!
online web games for the iPhone
Reader Silver sent us his site of iPhone games, basically just a big linklist of online web games for the iPhone. There are buttons there for voting and “favorites,” but I couldn’t get them to work. Still, if you’re looking for a big lineup of what’s out there to play, there you go.
And on that list, I found a pretty cool iphone game that I’d never heard of before called iPhone Assassin. The concept is pretty interesting– basically, you sign up on the web to play, and then whenever you see someone in real life with an iPhone, you call out that you’ve “killed” them, and then on the site, it tracks how many kills have been made and who’s still alive.
Now, yes, it does occur to me that while the idea may sound good in theory, the execution (pardon the pun) leaves a little bit to be desired– I do agree that most iPhone owners probably don’t want maniacs running at them yelling about a kill. And yes, it’s probably true that not many iPhone owners have actually seen this game yet, and so there are probably way too few people in on the joke– more often than not, you’d have to explain the whole thing to anyone you assaulted on the street, and even more likely, they probably wouldn’t be amused.
Still, for the easily amused like myself, the idea seems really fun. If they come up with a way to make it a little more secret (maybe a special phrase that you could drop), and a little more automatic (although I have no idea how they’d do that– can you make iPhones “see” each other over WiFi or Bluetooth?), a real-life iPhone scavenger hunt might be fun.
games in the Apple iPhone
what appears to be a mostly speculative piece about the possibility of games in the Apple iPhone.
Not much new information is provided, but in the past, there had been reports that Apple was courting game developers for the iPhone.
Specifically, Electronic Arts' mobile division had been quoted as saying that they had been talking to Apple about games on the iPhone. Electronic Arts would be a natural fit as they are already amongst the few developers who have been releasing new games for the iPod.
Meanwhile, independent development efforts continue on the iPhone with unofficial applications popping up daily. An NES emulator and non-playable port of Doom have been released for the iPhone. Due to the procedure required to install these applications onto your iPhone, these applications remain available only to interested hobbyists rather than the general public.
Ojom mobile games
As people flock to the shops to pick up the much anticipated iPhone, the team at Ojom has modified Maya Deluxe to utilise the iPhone's innovative touch-screen technology. Released earlier in the year as Maya - Temple of Secrets, this puzzle game was one of Ojom's best selling games so far and is guaranteed to find a large group of new fans within the fast growing group of iPhone aficionados.
iPhone game - Temple of Mysteries
Just like the iPhone, Maya twists and flips as you make your way through the jungle via a series of mind challenging logic games. In the game you must solve a series of puzzles in your quest to find the Maya Temple hidden deep in the jungle. The story goes that, inside the temple, you will find a number of 'golden artefacts' that hold the key to an unsolved mystery. Collect the golden artefacts by solving the puzzles and unlock the secret of the Temple of Mysteries. You will be flipping and twisting the triangles with ease on the iPhone's touch screen and will be trying to master this game at every possible opportunity.
Ojom iPhone game
Thomas Brockhage, General Manager of Ojom GmbH, said: "This is a great opportunity for Ojom to show that we can adapt and innovate to suit new technologies. Maya was one of our most popular games and is perfect for the iPhone's touch sensitive screen. We are proud to release our first game specifically adapted for the iPhone."
Apple's stance on supporting games for the iPhone
Id Software's John Carmack was critical of Apple's stance on supporting games for the iPhone in an interview with Game Daily on Thursday.
Mr. Carmack is well known for developing games such as "Doom" and "Quake." In addition he created "Doom RPG" and the "Orcs & Elves" series for mobile phones. He thinks that the market for games on mobile devices is huge and will grow larger.
"There are 10 to 20 times as many mobile phones as there are personal computers and 100 times as many as there are console platforms," Mr. Carmack noted. "As these things evolve into devices more like the media powerhouses we're used to developing for, there's a possibility we could have a breakout success there."
However, for now, Steve Jobs disagrees. "Steve Jobs and I have not been seeing really eye to eye on a lot of important issues. We were in a fairly heated argument at the last WWDC [Worldwide Developers Conference] and we've had a few follow-ups. I have an iPhone right now and it's a platform I would enjoy developing for but Apple is not taking progressive steps in regards to [gaming]," Mr Carmack said.
Mr. Carmack pointed to the iPod as a not so great platform to develop games for due to the emulation required. He expressed his concern to Mr,. Jobs that the limitation wouldn't carry over to the iPhone. However, Mr. Carmack is not optimistic. "...they're not giving any spectacular signs that it's [game development] going to be a big deal for them in the next year," he said.
Apple's stance on supporting games for the iPhone
Id Software founder John Carmack, the developer genius behind the landmark games DOOM and Quake, has recently been engaged in developing "Doom RPG" and "Orcs and Elves" for mobile platforms. He had a chance to discuss Apple's stance on iPod and iPhone gaming with CEO Steve Jobs at the Macworld Expo 2007 back in January.
Apparently the discussion turned into "a fairly heated argument."
According to Carmack, Apple is not truly supportive of gaming and approaches iPhone development from a strict business standpoint, which he feels hinders the potential of Apple's mobile devices as gaming platforms.
"I have an iPhone right now and it's a platform I would enjoy developing for but Apple is not taking progressing steps in regards to [gaming]."
Carmack feels there are no visible signs of this situation turning around. Perhaps the opening of the iPhone in February will allow third parties to liberate the device for gamers everywhere.
video games on the iPhone
publishes an article hypothesizing about video games on the iPhone. They mention that although there already are games written for the iPhone having to run on Safari, no native iPhone game has been released so far.
PopCap Games, a leading developer and publisher of games such as "Bejeweled" and "Zuma", has been looking at the iPhone as a possible platform:
"There are a lot of passionate Mac users here in the company," said Andrew Stein, director of PopCap's mobile business development. "They looked at the iPhone and thought this would be really cool to do 'Bejeweled' on."
Electronic Arts is also showing interest in the iPhone. The company has recently been closer to Apple with the release of more video games for the Mac and is also making a push in the casual games industry.
"We're huge believers in the iPhone and believe that's going to be a viable market going forward," said Travis Boatman, vice president of worldwide studios for the mobile division of EA. "It has an amazing interface for games and there are lots of beautiful things you can do with that touch interface."
Apple itself is also believed to be working on games. When the company released its iTunes 7.3 update for iPhone compatibility, there were hints in the software code that Apple was indeed planning on introducing games that would install directly on the iPhone.
There were also rumors that Nintendo was working with Apple to release games exclusively for the iPhone and sell through the iTunes store for $29.00.
video games on the iPhone
Remember the golden days of old school games like The Dig, Full Throttle, King's Quest 3 and Maniac Mansion? How would you like to play those on your iPhone? That's the idea behind the latest port of ScummVM, a program designed to let you enjoy "certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games."
The idea behind ScummVM is to let you enjoy these old games provided you still own the original data files (think floppy disks probably). ScummVM today supports over 150 different games by a number of development companies, according to this ScummVM iPhone wiki. The program replaces the executables shipped with the games.
For the iPhone port, ScummVM is still in beta. Games which have thus far passed testing use various iPhone actions to execute commands. A left click, for example, is a single tap. There's apparently been a little bit of chatter about this program already, which is why the developers posted the early beta. Good luck if you try using it and enjoy stomping those old graphical adventure game grounds.
Could a new open source 3D game engine emerge soon for the iPhone? That's the hope of LivingArcana.com, a a community based free MMORPG which uses "GPS to track where the player's location is and allow them to interact with the environment or other players using their internet enabled mobile device."
LivingArcana.com has contracted with Gutemberg Ribeiro, a Brazilian programmer who has developed an open source game engine known as "Conceptus," to port it to Apple's handset. The plan is to keep this port open source, letting it be available under LGPL license to allow "true 3D game development" on the iPhone.
Gregory Ray, an organizer of LivingArcana, said of making it a free offering that "I am trying to stay true to the LivingArcana.com ideal of having a free community ran online game. The 3D engine is vital to the project but it is also only a very small part of a very large project and once we integrate it into the LivingArcana.com project I have no other plans of using it for other projects. Why would I want hundreds of hours to goto waste?"
The first public release of Conceptus for the iPhone is scheduled for early 2008.
iPhone version of the game he called Knock-out
Do you remember the Nintendo game called Punch Out? Well, a guy named William Powers, did an iPhone version of the game he called Knock-out.
Here are the (simple) instructions to play this iPhone game:
- Throw uppercuts to the face or jabs to the stomach by tapping the screen.
- Dodge left or right by tapping the lower left/right corners of the screen.
Quick tips:
- Tap screen *slowly* if you get knocked out. (One of the limitations of DHTML is its response time.)
- Punch opponent directly after he takes a swing at you to get a stun punch.
Have fun with this one!
Marware iPhone Case
UPDATE: Only 24 hours before we select the winner! Enter your comments now for have a chance to win this Marware iPhone Case.
Good news folks! Marware officially released their previously announced iPhone cases. My favourite one? The SideWinder (picture above). It has a very sleek design and the "Sidewinding" retractable cord management system is an innovative feature that makes Marware iPhone cases unique. If you like to watch videos on your iPhone, rotate the beltclip to use the case as a tabletop stand. The price? Don't worry, the Sportgrip Backwinder and the SideWinder have a decent retail price of $24.95. All Marware iPhone cases are available online.
But what about having the SideWinder for free? Interested? Marware is giving away an iPhone case to a lucky iPhonefreak reader. To participate, tell us (in the comments) what you like about Marware iPhone cases or what types of cases you would like to see in the future.
InfoNES on the iPhone
After porting InfoNES on the iPhone, what else could you expect? Many, many things you'd say. But what about the old Duck Hunt Game from Nintendo? Sounds boring? Not at all, it's actually pretty cool.
And what's even more interesting with this iPhone game is that you don't have to download it on your iPhone. You can play the game online right now. No iPhone hack, no jailbreak, no messing around with the iPhone operating system.
But if you feel like playing around with the source code, here it is.
I like this game very much because it turns your brain off instantly. Too much stress recently? Play the iPhone Duck Hunt Game now. You will still feel the stress, but you'll forget why!
EA has produced five games for the iPod
Mitch Lasky, senior vice president of Electronic Arts Mobile, has revealed that the company is currently in negotiations to produce games for the new Apple iPhone.
EA has produced five games for the iPod already and could probably easily migrate those games to the iPhone.
"We have been talking to Apple about games on [the iPhone]”, said Lasky to BusinessWeek
He added, "We see a lot of the technology that we've utilised on the iPod side being incorporated into the iPhone."
PopCap Games, which already produces casual titles for the iPod could also become a game producer for the iPhone.
This is another great news for the iPhone and it’s interesting to see that the games are going to be available rapidly on the iPHone.
Apple launched the iPhone without any games available for it. But games are coming to the Apple iPhone after all.
PopCap Games, a leader in simple puzzle games, has announced an iPhone version of its popular "Bejeweled" puzzle game that is widely available on other gadgets.
Consumers can download it to their iPhones by using the Safari Web browser in the phone to log in at www.popcap.com. Then they can download the game for free. The game has been tweaked to take advantage of the iPhone's unique display and input controls.
PopCap developed the game in partnership with Polish developer Arka diusz Mlynarczyk. The game will be a fast gaming fix for people on the move. Both "Bejeweled" and PopCap's "Zuma" game have been available on Apple's video iPods since last year.
The Java gurus over at Sun have issued an early prediction of when we might be seeing Java be integrated onto the iPhone.
With the much needed SDK being released in February 2008, Terrence Barr, a member of the Sun community says that Java will most likely be able to be integrated into the development of software for the iPhone, opening up a whole new realm of possibilities for the Apple mobile device.
Of course, no one really knows what Steve Jobs and the Apple crew have in store for their mobile users, though more should be known after the upcoming MacWorld annual convention. And to think, it was only last year at this event where the iPhone was announced.
iPhone Games and Applications
These games were optimized for play on the iPhone, although they work reasonably well in most web browsers too.
iPhone users should definitely visit my new web site iPhonePlaza.net too!
Have some fun! Relax a little!
Jake the Snake
Test your reflexes and strategy with this retro action game.
Match 'Em
Uncover sets of matching tiles. Be quick and accurate to rake in the points!
Best Blackjack
Otherwise known as the game of 21. Are you up for a game of cards?
Tic Tac Toe
Can you beat the computer and match X's in a row?
Tip Calculator
OK, so it's not a game. But this useful little app is a must-have restaurant companion if you've got an iPhone!
iPhone Reviewed
Getting to Know the iPhone - A full review of the iPhone in all its glory.
iPhone Links
Links to more iPhone Games, Applications, and iPhone Development Information
These games were all created by me using ASP.NET 2.0 with AJAX
Could a new open source 3D game engine emerge soon for the iPhone? That's the hope of LivingArcana.com, a a community based free MMORPG which uses "GPS to track where the player's location is and allow them to interact with the environment or other players using their internet enabled mobile device."
LivingArcana.com has contracted with Gutemberg Ribeiro, a Brazilian programmer who has developed an open source game engine known as "Conceptus," to port it to Apple's handset. The plan is to keep this port open source, letting it be available under LGPL license to allow "true 3D game development" on the iPhone.
Gregory Ray, an organizer of LivingArcana, said of making it a free offering that "I am trying to stay true to the LivingArcana.com ideal of having a free community ran online game. The 3D engine is vital to the project but it is also only a very small part of a very large project and once we integrate it into the LivingArcana.com project I have no other plans of using it for other projects. Why would I want hundreds of hours to goto waste?"
The first public release of Conceptus for the iPhone is scheduled for early 2008.
beta test of a new iPhone game
I invite you (iPhone user or not) to the open beta test of a new iPhone game
we have created in partnership with renowned board game company Tablestar.
Just go to: http://swatchesgame.com/
It runs on most PC/Mac browsers as well as the iPhone. We will be
supporting additional mobile browsers in the near future as well.
Swatches is a multiplayer puzzle game for 1 to 6 players that features
in-game chat, a game lobby, and well thought out game play that is a worthy
successor to Tetris, Bejewled, and Shanghai. It is very easy to pick up,
but there's some deep strategy here for you to experience.
Enjoy
the iPhone was announced
Since the iPhone was announced, there has been much speculation as to just what its full featureset will be. Surely additional applications tied to the as-yet-unannounced iLife '07 will ship on the unit. Another big possibility that has been widely discussed is the issue of iPod games. Apple is selling a line of games through the iTunes Store for the 5G iPod. Will the iPhone have games? According to BusinessWeek, the answer is a solid, "yes."
BusinessWeek reports that their sources indicate Apple is in discussions with the causal gaming arm of Electronic Arts regarding games for the iPhone.
Apple is mum on gaming plans for the iPhone or Apple TV, but Mitch Lasky, senior vice-president of EA Mobile, says his company is discussing plans for games on the phone. "We have been talking to Apple about games on (the iPhone)," Lasky says. "We see a lot of the technology that we've utilized on the iPod side being incorporated into the iPhone."
The iPhone's wide screen would be ideal for gaming and, while a touchscreen is not what one first envisions when imagining a portable games platform, it does make for some rather interesting possibilities. Games geared specifically towards the touch-screen interface would be a breath of fresh air akin to popular titles developed for the dual screen, touch-sensitive Nintendo DS.
Games for the Apple TV seem a significant possibility as well, claims BusinessWeek. Greg Canessa of small games company PopCap feels it's a safe bet.
"Apple TV is a natural," he says. "It's about an extension device for the content you have on your Mac or your PC. It's a living extension of iTunes—your music and movies—but games are contained in iTunes as well. Once you start looking at a low-cost box that extends those experiences to the television set, that's an interesting consumer scenario."
Let's keep our fingers crossed. We will bring further news on this issue as it develops.
the iPhone was announced
According to www.iphosoft.com, www.macrumors.com, www.macexpo.com,
at Apple’s annual shareholders meeting in Cupertino on Thursday, Steve Jobs and other company executives answered shareholders' questions. Jobs did acknowledge that the company is still struggling to decide if third-party developers will be able to create software that will run on the iPhone. It’s a decision Apple “is wrestling with,” according to Jobs. Apple still hadn't completely decided whether or not they will open the iPhone to 3rd party developers. Apple's choice to limit iPhone development has been the target of a lot of criticism against the iPhone. In the days after the iPhone announcement, Jobs stated that while you will be able to purchase and install additional applications on the iPhone, that this would be limited and in a "controlled environment". As a result, the iPhone has been described as a "closed device" which could make enterprise market penetration difficult.
beta test of a new iPhone game
The big keynote has just ended. We’ll get ‘fabulous’ iPhone ringtone for a huge price, and the iPod line’s been refreshed, with a new member born, the iPhone touch.
Apple fanboys, read no further. The rational analysis and non-reverence to Steve Jobs and his cohorts will utterly shock you. It might even pose a danger to your health. uSheep… Thinkers everywhere, please read on and share your opinions.
As usual, there’s little innovation, and some huge cashcow milking. Everything’s convenient for Apple, everything will be adored by the hordes of fanboys, little is truly outstanding.
Read on for the marvels and delights of the new iPod lineup. I’ll keep it short, because there’s not much to be said…
beta test of a new iPhone game
It's no secret that Apple's been selling games to be played on the (video) iPod through iTunes. They've added a few extra titles over the months since the initial announcement, but it hasn't exactly become the Next Big Thing™—more like an added feature. Well, this little added feature isn't going to go away soon, and Apple is looking to expand its foray into "casual gaming" through to the iPhone.
BusinessWeek says that it recently learned that Apple is in talks with Electronic Arts (EA) to expand its casual games from the iPod to the iPhone when it comes out in June. Truthfully, this new development doesn't surprise me in the least. A cell phone wouldn't be a cell phone without some sort of game on it, even if the iPhone can do so many other fun things while you're bored. "We have been talking to Apple about games on (the iPhone). We see a lot of the technology that we've utilized on the iPod side being incorporated into the iPhone," EA Mobile's Mitch Lasky told BusinessWeek.
Now, before anyone goes jumping down Apple's throat about that whole "no third-party apps on the iPhone" statement that caused all the hubbub in January, five of Apple's already-existing games through iTunes are from EA. If EA works closely enough with Apple on this venture, it's unlikely to be seen as a third-party app, but more like a collaboration between the two companies that Apple will eventually take most of the credit for developing.
Will the iPhone's touchscreen interface make it easier/harder/more fun/frustrating to play games on versus the iPod's clickwheel? I'd hope so, but I'm not a huge iPod-gamer either—maybe some of you are more into playing Tetris with a clickwheel than I am. Personally, I'd rather stick to my DS Lite.
Apple and Nintendo are rumored to be working together to offer exclusive games
Apple and Nintendo are rumored to be working together to offer exclusive games that will be released through the iTunes store for $29.00 each that should be available just a few months after the launch of the iPhone. Due to the lack of controls on the iPhone the games will be controlled by a touchscreen D-pad. According to the report Nintendo does not think that these games will hurt any of the current game markets they are in because the iPhone games will cater to an older audience.
This is one rumor that I will just have to see to believe. $29.00 seems way to expensive for a game that is played on a mobile phone and due to the lack of real controller I cannot imagine the game play being as good. While this all sounds somewhat believable, I am not going to hold my breath.
An iPhone games community
Unless you've been buried headfirst in a sandpit all week, you may have noticed that there's a new handset called the iPhone going on sale in the UK today. It all kicks off at 6.02pm tonight (if you're wondering about the time, it's because it's exclusive to O2 ? geddit?)
Anyway, as we've explained before, Apple hasn't made games a priority for iPhone so far, despite reports that it's working with several publishers for a future launch of downloadable games for the handset.
Assuming this is true, we've compiled a five-point wishlist for what we'd like to see games-wise on the iPhone, both from Apple and its publisher partners, but also from web-based games firms, who can launch their titles via the iPhone Safari browser.
1. Some games, please
The obvious starting point is that we'd like downloadable games for the iPhone as soon as possible, from a range of developers and publishers. The straightforward thing would be to port over the existing catalogue of iPod games, but there's only 13 so far.
We'd like to see Apple signing up more mobile games publishers to bring some of their best titles over. iPhone versions of games like Tower Bloxx, SolaRola, Frantic Factory, Hexic, Critter Crunch and so on should be no-brainers.
2. Innovative touchscreen gaming
We wrote a feature recently about developers' expectations for touchscreen-based mobile games, and the general view was that there are exciting possibilities, but only once touchscreen handsets sell enough units to make it commercially worthwhile to develop games for them. Well, the iPhone fits that bill, provided Apple opens up to more developers and publishers than it has on iPod.
Some games will make the transition naturally to a touchscreen interface. Think all those match-three puzzlers that involve moving gems or other objects around the screen ? they'll become even more intuitive if you're using your thumb to do it, rather than a cursor.
We're itching to see how developers tackle problematic genres though, such as driving games, football sims, and first-person shooters. Can they work on iPhone? People need to try to find out.
3. Music games
One of the coolest trends in iPod gaming is the release of games based around music and, often, the actual music stored on your iPod. So far, three have been released: iQuiz, Musika and Phase.
The iPhone will surely see more of this, especially if Apple makes a concerted effort to encourage developers to exploit the handset's music capabilities. Linking back to our second wish above, we think music rhythm-action games could be a natural fit for touchscreen controls, for example.
4. An iPhone games community
This is admittedly the least likely of our wishes to be granted in the short-term, but what the hell. We'd like to see a connected gaming community for iPhones, run along the lines of Xbox Live with high-score tables and buddy lists.
So, you'd play iPhone games and then automatically upload your scores to see how you rank globally (and even locally), as well as among your iPhone-toting friends. Maybe Apple could even encourage developers to build Live-style Achievements into games too, enabling iPhone gamers to build up a profile of their gaming expertise.
Full multiplayer? Hmm. It'd need to be over wi-fi, so what are the chances of you being on a hotspot for long enough to play a game against someone else? But maybe longer turn-based games would work: iPhone chess anyone?
5. Web games
While Apple gets its strategy for downloadable iPhone games sorted, the gap is likely to be plugged by web game firms launching iPhone-friendly versions of their titles, accessible through the Safari browser. In fact, some already have, such as PopCap's Bejeweled.
We're hoping to see some interesting stuff in this area, beyond the rash of cheap Tetris knock-offs that's already making its presence felt. Web games are a huge industry for PC users, but they haven't really had a chance to target mobile handsets until now.
Safari-based games could be launched by tiny developers as much as the big firms, and with Apple planning to release its iPhone software-development kit, they should also have access to the the new handset's hardware features. So we're hoping to see some innovative titles.
Well, that's our wishlist. But what do you think? Buying an iPhone and have some ideas for gaming? Feel free to post a comment.
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