There's been a lot of talk about the possibility of some sort of physical game controller for the iPhone and iPod Touch. While there have been a few announcements, none of the projects have ever come to market. We never heard for certain, though we'd heard suggestions that Apple might not have previously been allowing official SDK-supported versions to be approved.
22moo seems confident that they will get approved and recently released a new rendering of their planned game controlled hardware add-on. The redesigned device is said to include stereo speakers, omni direction mic, built in lithium battery, and 30-pin connector. More exciting is a note from Manomio's Stuart Carnie that they are working with 22moo to support the Gamebone in their C64 emulator in the App Store — and according to Carnie this will be an official solution that does not require jailbreaking.
There is some ongoing debate about the point of such controllers for native iPhone games. Why do you want to carry an extra accessory around with you? But I think emulators are a clear use example as people do want to relive their emulated games without working with touch-screen controls,
I have played a lot of match 3 games since I got my iPhone and there all pretty much the same. A few like Trism [2.99] and the recently updated Puzzle Quest [4.99] change the formula but there still just another match 3.
Well PlayBrain's soon to be release game called, ‘Babo Crash’ doesn’t change the formula. But it does add a whole lot of insane power ups and gem busting heroes to it.
‘Babo Crash’ uses the cast from PlayBrain’s Madballs: Babo Invasion game for the PC and Xbox Arcade. The object of the game is to collect enough gems in a set time limit to pass to the next level. This part of the game plays just like Bejeweled Blitz, but with a twist.
When you match more than three gems you create a hero gem. Each color of gem creates a different hero, when you use them in a match you activate their special ability. This is where the game gets good. One of the abilities creates a ball on the screen that you control by tilting you iPhone which destroys every gem it touches. There is something very satisfying about destroying gems in this manor.
There was so much going on while I was playing this game that I forgot I was playing a simple match 3 game. Also, when I went back to other match 3 games, they seemed slow and uneventful. This game totally refreshed how I look at games like this. And to think, I almost didn’t even give it a chance because it was “yet another match 3 game”.
PlayBrains is planning to release the game once they finish an update to have it iPad ready, which should be any day now. If you like match 3 games but have been bored with them lately, give this one a try. I think it adds excitement back in to the genre.
iLounge and Macworld are reporting that Apple has banned the sale of film-based screen protectors for its iPhone, iPod, and Mac lines in its retail stores.
In communications with vendors that have been ongoing for "some time n...
Another new universal remote control hardware/app combo has turned up for the iPhone called i-Got-Control. The device plugs into the charge port, has an IR database, and can learn commands from an existing remote.
iLuv has finally announced that the cool iMM190 App Station clock/speaker dock is shipping. The thing has come down $40 since it was first announced to a new price of $89.99.
Sprint has released a new video that offers to make the iPhone run on 4G networks. The 4G upgrade for the iPhone requires a 4G portable hotspot.
Apple today sent an e-mail to users of its iWork.com beta announcing several enhancements involving document sharing and access to the service from the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
Engadget today pointed to a series of Apple ads appearing on Australian site PC Authority appearing to show significantly increased prices for Apple's MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac Pro lines, suggesting that new, more expensive models may...
We sat down with the guys from The Binary Mill late Friday evening at GDC to check out their upcoming shooter, Assault Squadron. The most immediately noticeable feature about the game is the insane frame rate it all runs at, and the developers insist that it even runs at a solid 60 FPS even on the 1st generation iPod touch. These performance levels are important, especially as the game increases in difficulty and you find yourself in "bullet hell," as the developers put it.
The twist of Assault Squadron comes from the two gameplay modes the various levels alternate between. While playing through the game, you'll go through a level where it plays like a vertical shooter with your phone held in portrait mode. Following that, the game might alternate to a horizontal side scrolling level. With each transition you see different sides of both your ship and enemies, and the gameplay feels slightly different as well.
Other than that, Assault Squadron comes with everything you could possibly want in a shooter. There's a crazy scoring system with multipliers galore (and online leaderboards via Crystal), four different ships that all handle differently with their own unique weapon systems, upgrades everywhere, and best yet– Control options that should satisfy everyone between the on-screen touch controls, a virtual joystick, and tilt.
Take a look at the recently release gameplay trailer:
The developers have mentioned they still have balancing a bug fixing to do, but hope to have Assault Squadron on the App Store sometime this spring. For more information on the game, take a look at the thread on our forums which is home to quite a ton of Assault Squadron media.
To say details are sketchy right now on this game would be an understatement, but what we do know is that Japanese developer Media Vision has a job posting [Translated] up looking for developers for a new RPG for the iPhone coming in 2010.
French Final Fantasy fan site, Final Fantasy Ring via Famitsu noted the game is called Chaos Ring and also in their story [Translated] mention that the team behind it also created the Playstation RPG Wild Arms, a personal favorite of mine.
That's all we know right now, the rest is open to speculation. There is an awful lot of time left in 2010, and if Media Vision is only looking for people now, we might have a long wait in front of us to get our hands on Chaos Ring. Regardless, we're anxious to hear more on the game and will post whatever we can dig up from our Japanese sources.
In the meantime, you can swing by the Chaos Ring thread on our forums and join in on the excitement.
The train of Mac OS X 10.6.3 developer seeds continues today, with Apple pushing out Build 10D571 to developers for testing. iPhone in Canada offers the details, which include a request that developers f...
Intel today announced the launch of its new Xeon 5600 series processors, bringing to market a number of new four-core and six-core processors that Apple could choose to utilize in an update to its Mac Pro...
