Joystiq

Joystiq E3 hands-on: iPint

Justin McElroy — 2008-07-18T02:20:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, E3

OK, so this isn't necessarily a sneak preview, as the game's already out on the iPhone App Store for free. Hell, it's not even necessarily worthy of a post. But it is a really great example of the spiritual and mental toll that E3 takes on the people covering it. As lame as this video is, we swear we laughed about it for 20 minutes.

Plus, we figured out a way to make it look like Justin's beer can pour into Kevin's beer, and that's a little something we like to call emergent gameplay. Consider yourself buzzworded.

(Bonus entertainment: Check out how horrified PS3 Fanboy's Jem Alexander is about the entirety of the proceedings.)

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Jobs: 1/3 of iPhone App Store launch apps are games

Christopher Grant — 2008-07-10T11:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Mobile

Little known fact: There's a new iPhone about to launch tomorrow. We know, you can't be expected to keep up with every little cell phone revision, but that's what Engadget is for and, after this morning's launch of the iTunes App Store and iPhone software 2.0, they're all over it. So while you still have to wait until tomorrow for the iPhone 3G, you can get the same software on your totally obsolete iPhone today. And a major part of that upgrade: games! Here's where you get interested ...

Steve Jobs, ruler of all things Apple, hath decreed to the New York Times that, of the first 500 applications to launch on the App Store, "a third ... will be games." As you can see from our undersized graphic above, most of these games range from $4.99 to $9.99 - in fact, according to Jobs, 90% of this first wave of apps will be $9.99 or less, and 25% will be totally free (nothing free in the top 57 games) . We'll be checking out plenty of these games and we'll get you a report soon. Until then, any iPhone owners make the 2.0 bump and load these up yet?

[Via Engadget]

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Hudson explodes onto the iPhone with Bomberman Touch video

Kyle Orland — 2008-07-04T13:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Retro, Mobile

While we still don't think the iPhone App Store makes the do-everything cell phone a threat to the DS, we are impressed with the growing list of big-name franchises being ported to the system. We can now amend that list to include the Bomberman series, with Hudson's with the recent announcement of Bomberman Touch: Legend of the Mystic Bomb.

A video trailer (embedded below the jump) shows what looks like a transparent, touch-screen d-pad placed over the on-screen action to control Bomberman, sort of like the interface for the earlier iPhone PlayStation emulator . According to Hudson, the game will include "classic Bomberman powerups and original special items" and take advantage of "the unique iPhone / iPod touch interface of flicking, tapping, and tilting with a built-in accelerometer." No word on a multiplayer mode, but with the iPhone's Wi-Fi capabilities, a local wireless option would hopefully be a no-brainer.

Bomberman touch joins water-based puzzle game Aqua Forest and the always lucrative Sudoku in Hudson's announced line-up for the iPhone.

[Via Apple iPhone School. Thanks, Kamarul]

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Diablo 3 shipping simultaneously on Mac

Ross Miller — 2008-06-28T10:10:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, RPGs

The Diablo 3 FAQ is being hammered at the moment (we couldn't imagine why), but just in case you were worried, Blizzard assures us that the game will work on Apple computers. So sayeth the website: "As with all of Blizzard Entertainment's recent releases, Diablo 3 will ship for both Windows and Mac simultaneously." As for whether your Mac will be able to run the game, that's an as-of-yet unanswered query.

Gallery: Diablo III

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Pangea demos Enigmo, Cro-Mag Rally for iPhone at Apple Keynote

Ross Miller — 2008-06-09T15:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, Mobile

Following Sega's Super Monkey Ball iPhone demo during today's WWDC Apple keynote, Pangea Software's Brian Greenstone took the stage to show two games they have been working on, Enigmo and Cro-Mag Rally, both games that date back to at least 2003 for the developer. Said Grenstone, both games took "three days to get each game up and running -- totally playable."

No other news is available. Monkey Ball notwithstanding, it's kind of disappointing we haven't seen anything from known iPhone devs Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, id Software or Gameloft. Pictures of Cro-Mag Rally for iPhone after the break.

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Digital Legends' iPhone action-adventure due in September

Ross Miller — 2008-06-09T14:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, Action, Adventure, Mobile

Now this is what we're talking about. Digital Legends Entertainment was the last of three game developers presenting at today's Apple keynote (the other two being Sega and Pangea), and they showed off an action-adventure title due out for the iPhone in September.

Our friends at Engadget had this to say about the game: "Looks a little like God of War, graphics somewhere between DS and PSP. Pretty friggin' impressive. N-GAGE has been after games that look this good for years." We don't know the title, although our best guess is Nightfall Dragons (found on the developer's website). More pictures after the break.

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Super Monkey Ball for iPhone shown at Apple keynote

Ross Miller — 2008-06-09T13:40:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, Mobile, Casual

In case you're currently not tuned into the WWDC Steve Jobs keynote, Apple's Scott Forstall and Sega's Ethan Einhorn showed off Super Monkey Ball for the iPhone. According to Einhorn, after eight weeks of development, the developers have created 110 stages.

While we haven't had a glimpse of the game in action, Engadget had this to say: "Crap, these graphics look unbelievable compared to anything we've seen on a cellphone before. Seriously, these are DS-quality graphics, easily." We'll update with more info and video as soon as we can find it. [Update: video posted after the break!]

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Rumor: Microsoft to announce Blu-ray 360 tomorrow

Griffin McElroy — 2008-06-08T15:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360

Tech blog CrunchGear is reporting that an inside source at Microsoft who was a former member of the company's HD-DVD department has confirmed that the company will announce that the "Xbox 360 will get Blu-ray before Christmas" via a press release set to go out at 9 a.m. PDT. Details about the supposed system are slim, though the tipster confirmed that the new model will cost less than an Elite model ($449.99).

The announcement is supposed to drop one hour before the opening of the Worldwide Developer's Conference in order to steal the spotlight from Apple's annual event. Kind of a bizarre move on Microsoft's part -- we doubt announcing a new model of your gaming console will overshadow an entire conference-worth of Apple-related news stories. As per usual with rumors (especially ones involving Blu-ray 360s), we'll keep our standard level of skepticism at heart as we refresh our mailboxes tomorrow morning.

[Via X3F]

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Is the iPhone App Store a threat to DS?

Kyle Orland — 2008-06-06T15:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Nintendo DS, Portable, Business, Mobile

With the impending launch of the iPhone App Store promising to finally (officially) bring games to Apple's all-in-one portable, a Forbes editorial is again floating the idea that Nintendo's DS may be facing a threat to its market-leading portable perch. The editorial notes that the iPhone combines the touch-screen and microphone of the wildly popular Nintendo DS with the motion-sensitivity of the wildly popular Wii. Add in the support of Sega, EA and Ubisoft, along with the ability to download games wirelessly through the App Store, and you have the makings of a portable gaming game-changer.

The piece makes some good points, but we think we're going to join with The Motley Fool, MacWorld and ZDNet in the ranks of those skeptical that the iPhone is going to take the gaming world by storm. The reasons for our skepticism include the iPhone's high price point, limited on-board storage space and the lack of major announced titles (Super Monkey Ball and Spore will only get you so far).

The MacWorld writer probably summed it up best: "The iPhone, at its heart, is not a gaming machine. Not in the way that the DS is, where every design consideration is given to one task, and one task only: playing games." Hey, since we're already talking about wild speculation, there's always a chance Apple and Nintendo could just merge and make the upcoming "battle" moot.

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No Windows? Use Linux, Intel Macs for PC Gaming with CrossOver

Ross Miller — 2008-05-23T09:32:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, PC

Sure, Mac gaming is becoming less of an oxymoron these days, but if you want to game with a keyboard, Windows is still the way to go. Fortunately, Codeweavers' has concocted a solution for those who want the PC gaming experience on Mac (and Linux!) without using Boot Camp or partitioning drives. Introducing CrossOver Games.

We're not going to get into the technical side of it because, quite frankly, we don't understand it all. The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) has an extensive hands-on and gallery walkthrough (see below) of the $40 program, and found the software satisfying overall, especially for use with Steam. (You can view a compatibility list here.) There's also a 30-day free trial available.

Gallery: TUAW's Hands on with CrossOver Games

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Apple Wiimote-esque patent revealed

Scott Jon Siegel — 2008-05-11T19:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac, Nintendo Wii, Business

Cal us crazy, but we think we've seen this before. An Apple patent filed in November 2006 has just been published, describing a 3D cursor system that's surprisingly similar to Nintendo's Wii remote. The patent is likely related to the company's Apple TV set-top device and, unsurprisingly, references applications to video games in its description.

The patent describes using absolute and relative positioning of a pointer device in relation to two points positioned near a television screen (sound familiar?). According to the patent, this will allow the device to detect the movement of the remote in three dimensions. Apple has a tendency to patent anything and everything that goes through their offices, so odds are this device won't be Steve Jobs' "One More Thing" at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Still, we wonder how Nintendo feels about Apple's cute little idea.

[Via Engadget]

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Quake 3 Arena ported to iPhone/iPod Touch

Griffin McElroy — 2008-04-06T13:30:00+00:00

Filed under: First Person Shooters, Mobile

Advertisements have shown us that the iPhone is a tool with a wide array of functions -- YouTube perusing, calamari ordering, and astronaut deafening, to name a few. But no commercials have warned of the iPhone's (and the iPod Touch's) sinister, newly implemented abilities -- fragging, railgunning, and gibbing. We speak, of course, of the handheld's recently developed Quake 3 Arena application, which uses the device's touch screen and accelerometer to crudely recreate that warm, familiar mouse-and-keyboard feeling. Just thinking of the possible on-the-go LAN parties we'd be able to hold is making us consider finally trading in our Zack Morris phonebrick for Apple's sexy cellular device.

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Ask Joystiq: hunting, singing, hating, saving

Scott Jon Siegel — 2008-03-28T12:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Features, Retro

This week on Ask Joystiq, we tackle Smash Bros Brawl's quirky saving preferences, universal disdain for Metroid II, the Smash Bros Brawl theme song, and the hunt for a classic Apple II platformer.

If you have any burning questions, unsolved gaming mysteries, or just a desire for musings from our knowledgeable cadre of writers, drop us a line at ask AAT joystiq DAWT com (and yes, we write it that way for a reason).

Q: If you haven't noticed by now, you cannot save your [Super Smash Bros. Brawl] game save to an SD card. However, you can save Vault data (Replays, Snapshots, and Custom Maps) to an external SD card. What gives?
-Andy

We asked Nintendo the same thing and got a predictable no comment, but we expect the answer has something to do with forcing players to unlock the game's myriad characters, stages, trophies and stickers on their own. This seems a little overbearing to us, though ... what does Nintendo care if we want to just unlock everything outright? This isn't like Xbox Live, where cheaters get an unfair advantage on the Gamerscore boards -- with SSBB, the only person a cheater is cheating is themselves.

Q: Why all the hate for Metroid II? I think it's pretty awesome IMO.
- M2Fan

We won't disagree with you there, M2Fan, but Metroid II: Return of Samus on Game Boy has always taken a lot of flak from the gaming community. A particularly seething review from 1UP's Jeremy Parish breaks down the hate quite nicely: stiff controls, repetitive background art, artificially constrained level design, and a soundtrack that pales in comparison to Hiroo "Hip" Tanaka's scores for the original NES title.

Of course, we feel that there's still a lot to love about Metroid II. The title introduced some of Samus's most integral weapons, such as the Spring Ball and Space Jump, and nobody can deny that the evolving Metroid designs were quite inspired. What's more, Metroid II brought us more Metroid (on a portable, no less!), and set up the story for the universally-acclaimed Super Metroid. It definitely holds a special place in our hearts.

Q: Back in 1995 or so, I used to play a platforming game on an old Apple computer, and I can't seem to track it down. You controlled a little pixelated man in a hat, collecting coins in an underground maze. The further down you went, the creepier the rooms got. The rooms had conveyor belts, rolling skulls and lots of ladders. Please help me find this missing piece of my childhood!
- Nostalgic Gamer

We had to put on our thinking caps for this one. If the Apple computer was "old" back in 1995, our best guess is that it was the Apple II, which had a number of classic platforming titles. Our first guess was Lode Runner, but the little man was lacking a hat, and there were no rolling skulls to be found. Next we stumbled upon Miner 2049er, which starred the hat-wearing Bounty Bob, but lacked the type of downward-moving gameplay described.

Luckily, we think we've found the game you're looking for: Montezuma's Revenge. The unfortunately-titled platformer has players collecting jewels through the labyrinthine maze of Montezuma's tomb. It's got ladders, conveyor belts and, yes, even skulls that roll. Enjoy.

Q. I really love the Smash Bros Brawl song at the beginning that sounds like an opera, but what are they singing?
- James G

The song is actually in Latin, the lyrics and translation you find out after beating Subspace Emissary. For a more accessible reference, Brawl Central has the lyrics broken down into Latin, Japanese, and English (both a translation and a reprinting of the game's interpretation). Of course, you could always just trust the helpful (and sometimes humorous) "translations" found elsewhere online.

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Gameloft, Id to develop for iPhone

Ross Miller — 2008-03-10T13:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Mobile

Joining the ranks of Electronic Arts in game development for the iPhone, Gameloft and id Software have announced their commitment to Apple's portable. According to its press release, Gameloft intends to develop over 15 titles.

In a post on Slashdot, id's programming wizard John Carmack lauded Apple's 70% royalty deal and distribution deal. As for the SDK, Carmack said, "Just based on the blurbs, it looks very good -- a simulator plus debugging on the native device is the best of both worlds." Id also noted it had to put in an application for development like everyone else. Can we get an official version of Doom now?

[Via Engadget]

Read - John Carmack on iPhone SDK
Read - Gameloft Confirms Plans to Develop For iPhone With Over 15 Titles in 2008

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Video: Spore on the iPhone

Christopher Grant — 2008-03-07T14:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Video, Mobile

News about Spore coming to the iPhone is pretty exciting, sure, but seeing video of the accelerometer and touchscreen-controlled sim really has us sold. Apple finally released streaming video of their iPhone SDK presentation yesterday and, thanks to the magic of YouTube, we have an edited segment of just the Spore component tucked away after the break. iPhone as a gaming console? Like we couldn't see that one coming.

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Spore, 'Touch Fighter' shown on iPhone

Ross Miller — 2008-03-06T14:05:00+00:00

Filed under: Mobile

During Apple's iPhone SDK press conference today, we got a glimpse of the device's gaming capability with two titles: an in-house project dubbed Touch Fighter and Electronic Arts' Spore.

Touch Fighter is a 3D space shooter using OpenGL technology. You use the iPhone's accelerometer to steer (via moving the device around) and touch the screen to fire. Our friends at Engadget (who are liveblogging the event) also noted that an optimization screen showed it was running at an impressive 27 to 30 frames per second.

EA's Travis Boatman took the stage to show off the company's first product to come out of the iPhone dev kit, Spore. Initial pictures indicate that it's the mobile version shared by other cell phones. You use the accelerometer to move your creature and, of course, there are customizing options as well. [Update: EA confirmed that Spore for iPhone should be out in September, and that they're "actively using the new iPhone SDK to develop games for the iPhone OS." John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, said, "The animation technology in the iPhone OS enables us to build awesome games. I think iPhone consumers are going to be blown away by the games we create for this platform."]

More pictures after the break.

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Trism brings tilt-sensitive puzzle gaming to iPhone

Kyle Orland — 2008-02-29T12:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Puzzle, Mobile

While tilt-sensitive cell phone gaming is apparently nothing new in Japan, domestic developers/hackers have been slow to create games that take advantage of the iPhone's built-in accelerometer. Enter Trism, a simple, match-three puzzle game from semi-pro developer Demifroce that twists things around by changing the way blocks fall as you twist things around.

A GameSetWatch interview with the developer reveals more of the story behind the game's ten-day development, and includes an excellent video (embedded below) of the game in action. Unfortunately, the forthcoming demo version will only work on jailbroken phones, but the developer says he'd love to sell the game on iTunes once the official iPhone SDK is unveiled. Apple, are you listening?

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Apple offers Rock Band iTunes setlist ... for $75

Ross Miller — 2008-02-15T11:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Mac, PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Rhythm

Apple is hoping you can't get enough of Rock Band, promoting on its website a playlist featuring 74 songs of the game for a whopping $73.26. At $0.99 per song, that's a savings of exactly 0% -- in other words, resist the temptation to buy the whole package (iTunes link) and feed your Phase addiction by downloading the songs you like individually (from either iTunes itself or via one of its competitors).

While the lack of savings might leave room for pause, at 74 songs (that's main setlist and quite a few of the DLC tracks), Apple still missed some of the best gems -- namely, every single bonus song. A quick search on iTunes led us to finding all but four of the bonus tracks ("29 Fingers," "Outside," "Nightmare" and the power ballad "Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld"). If you're looking for a more eclectic mix, search for the bonus 9 tracks available; that'll only cost you $8.91.

Gallery: Rock Band iTunes Downloads

[Via X3F]

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Apple revises trademark to include gaming devices

Scott Jon Siegel — 2008-02-11T10:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Portable, Business

Apple recently filed to extend its trademark to include gaming-related devices, Trademork reports. This is the most recent story in a long line of rumors and speculation, all suggesting that Apple may be entering the games market sometime in the near future.

The revised trademark will associate "Apple" with a number of gaming-related categories, including "hand-held units for playing video games", and "stand alone video game machines". Of interest here is the specificity of these categories; the iPod may be a device which allows game playing, but it is arguably not a device "for" playing games, leading us to believe the trademark extension may reference an entirely new product dedicated to gaming.

On a possibly related note, Apple posted a job listing in September of last year for a "Game Producer/Designer." The position may be related to game development on the iPod series, however, and not to any new product.

[Via Engadget]

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Today in Joystiq: January 16, 2008

Ross Miller — 2008-01-15T23:59:00+00:00

Filed under: Mac

Apple's new MacBook Air laptop is thin, sleek, very stylish, but we also imagine very easily lost in a pile of stacked paper. Its gaming capabilities? On par with the MacBook, thanks to the same graphics processor (Intel GMA X3100 with 144MB DDR2 SDRAM). We just hope it'll play Spore. Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Readers pick best webcomic: Synesthesia, revisited
The best of WoW Insider: January 8 - 15, 2008
Today's Monday-is-over video: Garfield, Final Fantasy mash-up

News
Smash Bros. Brawl delayed: March 9 in US, January 31 in Japan
X3F talks difficulty concerns with Ninja Gaiden II's Itagaki
British Prime Minister worried over knives in video games
Turok demo now due on Xbox Live
See first trailer for Highlander game
THQ acquires Rise of Nations developer Big Huge Games
GTA IV dated 'March 08' in Micro Center ad
Star Trek Online MMO switches to new developer
Twisted Metal: Head On - Extra Twisted Edition stuffed with features
Square Enix (still) eying Western developers for purchase
Make your own Ninja Gaiden II achievements
Video game industry seeks political clout
No more big-budget bombs for Boll
Spore coming to Mac, simultaneous release with PC this year
Call of Duty 4 engages Mac OS X this May
BioShock devs looking for staff with PS3 experience
Vader & Yoda 'naturally' fit into Soul Calibur IV
SingStar players saddened by understocked SingStore
Surprise! Pair of Midway execs leaving
Disney Interactive hires former Atari exec ... stop giggling!
Wii Worms not getting online multiplayer

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: Hudson working on New Duck Hunt for Wii?
Rumorang: Duke Nukem on XBLA in 'next several months'

Culture & Community
Microsoft's John Schappert to deliver GDC keynote
Nintendo's three GDC sessions: Wii Fit, Wii menu, and Brawl character library
Writer's Guild of America announces nominees for game writing award

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