20 years before there was Verizon’s iPhone iDoesn’t… and Droid does campaign, there was Sega Does and Nintendon’t.

Be interesting to see if it works out better for Droid than it did for Sega…

[via Daring Fireball]

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Monday Fun Video: Before Verizon’s iPhone iDoesn’t, There Was Sega’s Nintendon’t

Okay, yeah, I rocked a Sega Genesis back in the day, which is perhaps not coincidentally the last platform where Sonic the Hedgehog was really done well. (Sorry, it needed to be said).

Can the iPhone version [$5.99 - iTunes link] make me eat those words, or at least spin me around on them faster than Yoda in a lightsaber duel? Let’s see, Sega does say it’ll make me relive my fondest memories from the Genesis era…

• Blast through Seven Zones including classics as Green Hill Zone and Labyrinth Zone, as well as the Special Stages in an attempt to collect the Chaos Emeralds!

• Classic 2-D Sonic experience on the go for the first time on the iPhone and iTouch!

• Pick-up-and-play accessibility: Play in Full Screen or classic “Arcade” look and play with just the touch of a button.

If you give it a try, let me know what you think!

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Quick App: Sonic the Hedgehog for iPhone

We had mentioned the prototype of iControlPad more than a couple months ago, but it has popped up again looking a little bit more finalized and a lot BIGGER. Back in May, I had compared the original model to a PSP, but I think this edition looks more like the Sega Game Gear from years back. This thing is huge!

It promises to be glossier in the final production model and hopefully it’ll look a little bit nicer. Shouldn’t it look flush with the iPhone? At least steal some of the iPhone’s design cues! I will reserve my excitement and temper my expectations until I see the final product. Because even though it is kind of ugly, it might take iPhone gaming to another level.

ReadVia

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iControlPad Turns Your iPhone Into A PSP Look-A-Like

As gaming developers grow more familiar with the iPhone platform and learning its capabilities, many are doling out their opinions across the interweb. Compared to the DS and the PSP, an EA developer put the iPhone in terms of power closer to the PSP than the DS. That’s nothing new for us at TiPb but now Sega is claiming that the iPhone is more powerful than their last console, the Dreamcast! To remind you: the Dreamcast was home to Soul Caliber, Shenmue, & Virtua Tennis and the console was a competitor of the PS2 and Xbox.

And. the. iPhone. is. more. powerful. than. that.

But powerful as it is, as proven by the current console war, the iPhone is going to need FUN games to succeed as a gaming platform. Let’s give developers some time to see what they can come up with. With such power under the hood, they’ll have no excuse!

Read

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So Just How Powerful is the iPhone?

You’ll probably hear from a lot of people who attended WWDC that the app demo section of the keynote was much too long and even :gasp: boring. But the games showcased at WWDC continue to prove that the iPhone is going to be a force in mobile gaming.

• Super Monkey Ball - First shown in the March Event, Sega has expanded on Super Monkey Ball including over a 100 levels and four classic Monkeys. The graphics in Super Monkey Ball for iPhone is on par with anything from the DS.
• Enigmo - A physics based game using reflectors to put water in a bucket. Ported in three days, looks like frustratingly mindless fun.
• Cro-Mag Rally - A racing game using the iPhone’s accelerometer as a steering wheel. Nine different tracks, 10 unique cars and looks really fun. That too was ported over in three days.
• Digital Legends Entertainment – They demoed a 3D fantasy game that displayed the graphical prowess of the iPhone. It probably didn’t reach the high end level of PSP but it only took two weeks to develop. Available sometime in September.

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WWDC 08: iPhone Games Roundup

Not only did the iPhone serve RIM at the SDK event. But after Apple showcased the demos of Touch Fighter, Spore, and Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone, Nintendo and Sony better watch out as well. Game controls utilized the accelerometer and multi-touch while the graphics were displayed on that crystal clear screen–make no mistake–Apple is ready to revolutionize gaming.

With the early glimpses into the gaming capabilities of the iPhone, we’ve learned that:

1. The possibilities are endless
2. It looks really fun
3. Apple has a potential gaming jackpot in their hands

If we have learned anything from the current console “war” between the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and the Nintendo Wii—consumers are more interested in buying the “fun” games as opposed to those that are graphically superior. At its bare minimum, gaming on the iPhone can be likened to a ridiculously advanced wii-mote. At its maximum potential? Quite possibly the best mobile gaming experience ever.

Earlier today Chad asked about what your favorite gaming experiences on the iPhone might be. But how will Apple deal with the business side of it? How can the iPhone conquer gaming? Find out after the jump.

Present State of Entertainment

As home entertainment becomes busier with multiple types of on-demand entertainment, there is little to no room on people’s TV stands. In a sense, to get a foot into the living room—there would have to be too much investment for such uncertain gain. Hence, the Apple TV has manifested into a ‘hobby’ unit because of the overcrowded entertainment stand. If we can compare this generation’s gaming battle to a war, the living room would be its trenches where little to no room is actually gained.

However, portable gaming as a whole is on an upward rise. Sales of the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP almost always outpace those of their home console counterparts. With total sales of the DS approaching 70 million units worldwide and the PSP with around 25 million units. The global appetite for portable gaming is only beginning to be realized.

Still the portable market has yet to be conquered. People are carrying too many items around—phones, cameras, planners, gaming devices—only because there has yet to be a true all-in-one device. Before the SDK announcement, the iPhone could only realistically cover your phone, planner, and camera (to an extent). But now? If this is entertainment war, the iPhone should be likened to the A(pple)-Bomb.

Portable Gaming Today

Today’s market of portable gaming consists of two titans. The behemoth of fun, the Nintendo DS and the sleek, cool Sony PSP. Comparatively speaking, they come from two different backgrounds. The PSP has a beautiful screen that the DS lacks but makes up for in a touchscreen. The PSP CPU is light-years faster than the DS, but the DS answers back with better games and an easier to learn experience. With these two portable gaming consoles dominating the market, it begs the question–is there room for one more?

Lets take a quick look at the processors and screen quality of all three devices and see where the iPhone stands in the pack.

Nintendo DS

Processor: two ARM CPUs @ 67MHz and 33MHz

Screen Resolution: (2) 256 x 192 pixels

Sony PSP

Processor: MIPS CPU @ 222 or 333MHz

Screen Resolution: 480 x 272 pixels

iPhone

Processor: ARM CPU @ 620MHz

Screen Resolution: 480 x 320 pixels

Using that as a rough barometer of gaming possibilities, we can see that the iPhone is perfectly capable of handling any game that the PSP runs sans ugly UMD and awkward analog stick. In fact, combining the more powerful CPU processor with OpenGL and Core Animation for developers, we truly have the capabilities for great looking games. But again, being more powerful than the next machine doesn’t guarantee victory. What does help however, is having a fun and unique experience.

So taking on the current king, the Nintendo DS, is crucial if Apple wants to walk away victorious. As Nintendo continues to raise the bar in fun gaming experiences, Apple is hot on their heels. Any game that involves touching, the iPhone can match and raise with its accelerometer. In fact, as Nintendo often suggests, touching is good, but as any iPhone users would say multi-touch is much better.

iPhone users really have the best of both worlds in their hands. Not only do they have a machine more powerful than the PSP but they also combine it with a gaming experience on par with the Nintendo DS. The iPhone (and to the same extent, the iPod Touch) certainly has the technological prowess to take the portable gaming market by storm. Include the fact that with Apple’s goal to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of the year and the onset of a 3G iPhone along with more potential carriers across the world, Apple certainly will have enough iPhones in people’s hands to make a dent in the gaming industry.

Where Can The iPhone Fit In?

Looking past the enormous fun-factor in all the games demoed at the SDK roadmap event (and boy, were they fun), we should note something much more important: how quickly the games were developed and how eager the developers are. If developing games for the iPhone was tough, even the most powerful system would squander its potential without the best developers on board. Luckily, the people over at EA and SEGA continually stressed the ease of developing games for the iPhone throughout the entire event. In fact, Sega likened creating games for the iPhone to creating games for any console. The iPhone has THAT much potential.

Using iTunes to promote the games will serve as the perfect billboard for developers. Mobile gaming (and products, for that matter) has never seen an outlet such as iTunes. Gone are the days of searching for fun games on your mobile carrier’s store and scouring versiontracker for the latest build, iTunes is a media outlet that has become near universal. Having your product on the pages of iTunes is on par with being on the shelves at Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

The iPhone’s true soul is being a blank slate—that principle reflects in its design. By building a powerful device from the ground up (that just so happens to be a phone, among other things)—the iPhone has made developers re-think mobile gaming. No longer are they confined to uncomfortably small buttons or screens with horrible resolution—they truly have their blank slate to go wild on.

What Will Apple Do?

But the question remains, does Apple really want to pursue Nintendo and Sony in portable gaming or are they satisfied with being just better than mobile phone gaming? I think the answer lies somewhere closer to challenging the DS and the PSP. They have the technology behind their device, developers already on board, and a cool and fun factor that neither Sony nor Nintendo could match. But if games provide to be too tough to develop (I doubt it) or end up being terrible (Again, I doubt it), Apple can easily back off and claim it never planned for the iPhone to be the next big thing in gaming.

Either way, it is an entirely win-win situation for Apple—portable gaming just adds to the near-perfect resume of the iPhone. Remember folks, the iPhone is already a great phone, the best mobile internet portal, and the best iPod—in one device. Asking it to be the best gaming device, might be a little too much, but that’s how high Apple has set the bar. And I think they just might reach it.

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Is the iPhone Ready to Take on Gaming?

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.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone SDK Event Showcases Games