Freeverse Software, one of those Mac game developers still kickin’, has developed a racing game called Wingnuts Moto Racer for the iPhone. Freeverse is known for their bizarre, offbeat games that appeal to those looking for a hilarious joyride.
As such, they would have loved to give you a preview of the game but due to their NDA they’re forced to edit some portions of their preview detailing the specifics of the game.
So is the preview much ado about nothing? I mean there aren’t any actual in-game screenshots just artwork. The controls aren’t specifically defined rather described by an intern. Supposedly, it’s a racing game for the racing enthusiasts and non-racing folks alike. Pick up and play is the idea behind the games they’ll design for the iPhone.
At the very least, it’s a hilarious read from a free-spirited company. Hopefully, they’ll follow through in delivering games with the same fun factor.
Read
Ubisoft, the publisher of game series such as Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and Prince of Persia, is reportedly very interested in developing games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Pauline Jacquey, Executive Producer of Ubisoft’s “Games for Everyone” recently said,
“At the minute, we’re only showing DS and Wii games, but we’ll be working on all other platforms. We’ll be making games not only on PC, PS3 and 360, but on iPhone and iPod touch as well.”
Hopefully, the iPhone will start with “Games for Everyone” and then extend to deeper, more immersive games such as the aforementioned Rainbow Six or Prince of Persia series. Because currently the “Games for Everyone” lineup is well, uhm, how would you say it, lacks pizzazz?
Ubisoft may be waiting to see how well EA and Sega develop real games for the iPhone and what kind of market there will be for iPhone gaming before jumping in. But no worries Ubisoft, as we stated on TiPb many times before, we love iPhone gaming. And none of us ever want to go back to that mobile version junk.
Read
Trying to break records on your iPhone? Can’t manage to do it with the touchscreen? Well jailbreak nation, it looks like there is a solution—iControlpad!
Though the image above is just a prototype, it takes obvious visual cues from the PSP, just take a look at the button layout and form factor. Supposedly, it works via serial port and is currently supported by GBA, PSX (ZodTTD developed) emulators. They are planning on releasing the source code and SDK soon so hopefully more developers can jump on board.
Honestly, I’m tempering my excitement for this. I personally feel as if putting buttons and an analog stick will trap iPhone’s games ‘in the box’. But emulators are for re-creating the original experience, so I’ll let it slide. Either way, it could be a great idea if utilized the right way.
ReadVia
Posted on Friday, May 2, 2008 by Rene Ritchie
File Under:Featured, Wait-a-Thon; Tags: business, competition, convergence, enterprise, Games, iphone-killer, nintendo, rim, sony, Steve Jobs, Treo, windows mobile
[Ed: We're bringing back the Wait-a-Thon and making it regular again.
Sorry we dropped it off there for awhile, folks. With all those 3G
and iPhone 2.0 rumors flying about these past couple of weeks, it
almost felt like the release was already here. In the meantime,
comment on any post tagged "Wait-a-Thon" for your chance to win a $100
iTunes Gift Card!]
This is not a response to Crackberry.com’s excellent article, Top 10 Reasons Why the iPhone Is NO BlackBerry. Quite frankly, the iPhone doesn’t need a response; it’s the rest of industry that’s so desperately trying to find one to the iPhone.
I don’t know about you, but it’s getting more than a little tiring hearing everyone compare themselves to — and constantly try to rip-off — the iPhone. I can’t surf a website or cruise the main without some claw-handed Crackberry addict, neck-bearded Palm artifact, or frazzle-haired WinMob frustrati glaring and frothing with barely-contained envy at the perfectly balanced, seamlessly integrated, lustfully convergent iPhone held ever-so casually in my grip.
They know the iPhone is beyond cool. Sure, they cling to their once innovative, formerly revolutionary (at least in the case of Palm and RIM) devices, the ones overwhelming nostalgia or massive business infrastructure investment won’t let them slam to the ground and stomp into the call-dropping, web-mangling, constantly crashing oblivion they so richly deserve.
So the comparisons to the iPhone just won’t stop, despite the fact that the iPhone is pretty much incomparable. Don’t believe me? I’ve got ten reasons to back me up. And these aren’t minor feature gripes or personal peccadilloes. In proper Apple fashion, these are just 10 simple little words…
Read the rest of this entry »
Remember that Quake III video running on jailbroken iPod Touches a couple of days ago? Engadget hunted down the developers and wrung us out some more:
According to developers Cameron and Marcia Tofer of Hermitworks managed to get the game up and running on the touches in, “Between eight and twelve hours,” using jail-broken units, no official SDK, and modified code that added basic accelerometer support. The game in the video is being hosted on one of the devices and played over a local network — and the Tofers claim that running a full 64-player match wouldn’t be out of the question.
A couple of developers? 8-12 hours? Without the SDK? Scaling up to 64 players?! Holy FPS! If that’s what a couple of devs can churn out in a day, what can Carmack and the id software team come up with given months and offical SDK goodness? The mind boggles. Boggles and explodes.
While we’ve speculated about the huge potential for iPhone/iPod Touch gaming, is it possible we’re still underestimating it?
Pre-SDK, Engadget brings us word — and video — of Quake 3 absolutely shredding Apple’s little hand-hand revolution. Tilt-to-move, touch-to-fire, wi-fi to multi-player, it looks beyond sweet to me, and this is almost certainly still an early-stage, pre-app launch demo. And I’m not even sure it’s coming officially from Carmack and id Software at this point!
But words don’t do it justice. Check out the video after the break!
Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve covered gaming here a few times already. Now
Roughly Drafted Magazine’s Daniel Eran Dilger chimes in with another of his highly detailed (and highly partisan) articles, this one looking at Apple’s iPhone and how it compares to, and seems poised to disrupt, the established portable gaming platforms:
The most obvious competition the iPhone faces is the leading Nintendo DS and the distant runner up, Sony’s PlayStation Portable. Incidentally, both gaming units appeared on the market in late 2004; the iPhone benefits from being nearly three years younger, and therefore based on considerably more modern technology. However, gaming isn’t an easy market to break into.
Dilger covers whether or not a convergence device like the iPhone can even compete against dedicated gaming handhelds. He runs down the current console market and Apple’s thus far discreet approach to gaming on iPods.
From unit pricing to hardware specs, Dilger makes his case that while the iPhone is expensive, its also a generation ahead in terms of performance, and despite the price, offers features above and beyond gaming.
Potential smart phone rivals, including Micrsoft’s XNA and Nokia’s N-Gage 2.0 are also discussed.
What’s Dilger’s conclusion?
As Apple migrates its 150 million iPod installed base toward the iPod Touch and iPhone, the company will pair a large user base with enthusiastic development efforts. Users will get the gaming environment as a free addition to the phone, media player, and web browser they purchased. Conversely, that also means that lesser phones with plodding web browser capabilities and simplistic media playback–as well as dedicated games consoles that really only play games–will have a hard time competing against the new platform. That should make for an interesting 2008.
Personally, I’ve considered a PSP in the past but could never justify the (then very high) cost for something I wouldn’t use all that often. But I have my phone with me all the time, and if I could get games as innovative as the DS (or Wii!) and as high quality as the PSP on my iPhone, it would be a no brainer. And maybe Apple’s counting on that as a way to “trojan horse” its way into gaming.
On a very deep level, using the accelerometer to fly an X-Wing into the Death Star is something I think the iPhone was forged to do. (You listening, Lucas?)
Craig Hockenberry, the widely acclaimed Mac developer of Twitterific, has had extensive experience developing for jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches. So, when he weighs in on the iPhone SDK, it’s definitely worth a read.
From the 70/30 split to the $99 publishing fee, the lack of information about distributing 3rd party apps to beta testers, the possibility of try-before-you-buy demos, and the mechanism for paid upgrades, Hockenberry pulls no punches:
One thing that disappoints me about the iPhone SDK sign-up is that the entry fee of $99 is too low. I look at the entry fee as a way to filter out developers that aren’t fully committed to the platform. [...] A higher entry fee would lessen the chance of this becoming a bottleneck for getting my product into the system. Please charge me $499 and let move to the front of the line.
Wait… Charge developers MORE? And what, pass the costs on to the consumer?
Not according to former Apple programmer (and writer of Apple’s GeekGameBoard sample code), Jens Alfke. He thinks $0.99 – $1.99 might just set off the perfect high-volume price storm:
So assume you spent some evenings and weekends writing a cool little utility or game. You submit it to the App Store and set the price at $1.43. You get $1 of pure, unadulterated profit from every user of the app. [...] Steve promises us there will be ten million iPhones in the world. If a tenth of a percent of them impulse-purchase your $1.43 app, that’s $100,000.
Alfke also covers the interesting possibility of Xbox-style game expansion packs as revenue streams, and takes a not-to-subtle swipe at carrier gouging and consumer gluttony via the ringtone market.
Hmm, serious developers charging no-brainer prices for “next great platform” apps? I’m in! What about you?
[Photo credit: PhoneMag]
Wait…You mean it’s a phone, an internet portal, an iPod AND a gaming device? Apple is certainly following through with this one-gadget-to-rule-them-all motif. In fact, the game demos pretty much stole the show at the iPhone SDK Roadmap event.
Using the three-axis iPhone accelerometer, multi-touch, and pretty much everything else that the iPhone is capable of doing—portable gaming is officially on notice.
Touch Fighter, an in-house Apple creation, which is akin to Wing Commander, uses the iPhone’s intuitive movements for its controls. Tilt the screen to move the plane, tap the screen to fire the missiles. Who’s going to miss the stylus or speakerphone analog stick, after they get their hands on that?
However, the biggest revelation for iPhone gaming is the developers already on board. EA and Sega both demoed early productions of Spore and Super Monkey Ball. Spore for the iPhone is the full-fledged version complete with all 18 levels. Movement for both games is controlled again by tilting the iPhone.
We’re only beginning to scratch the surface for gaming on the iPhone—these games only show 2 weeks of development. If more developers jump on board, there is no telling how far and how fun gaming on the iPhone will be.
Thursday brings the SDK. You know, the one that needs no other identifier. The one that the entire tech-verse has been chomping at the bit for since roughly 0.001 seconds after Steve Jobs slipped the iPhone from his pocket at Macworld 2007.
But that’s all we know: SDK Event March 6th.
We don’t know whether the SDK will be ready to code that very same day, who’ll be given access to it, how they’ll test for it, what type of approval process Apple will require, how apps will be distributed, how they’ll be priced, and most importantly for the end user: whether or not “OMG teh iPhone can has WoW!!11”
However, that doesn’t stop us from guessing!
Read the rest of this entry »
