The iPhone continues to impress in terms of gaming possibility. Raging Thunder isn't actually done yet on the iPhone (obviously -- judging by this video there are more glitches on this thing than a Matrix full of black cats), but once it gets rolling, the award-winning game, put together by Polarbit, looks like a pretty sweet racing experience. The accelerometer actually serves as a nice wheel (with a little help from the Wii wheel), and the graphics aren't too shabby, either.
We've already seen a few different games like this floating around at TUAW (including one from a big developer that we can't tell you about), but with a little bug fixing and optimization, the right tuning, and a horizontal mode, the iPhone could easily have a great accelerometer-controlled racing game available at launch. And that's just launch -- we can't wait to see what happens when a game like the Wii's latest Boom Blox (which lets you push and pull Jenga-type block structures around -- multitouch, anyone?) makes its way over to our little Apple handheld.
Racing Thunder is available right now on Installer.app, but this kind of stuff is what we're really looking for in the SDK when it comes out in June.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-08-2008 @ 7:47AM
automat said...
just pray no one calls you while you're playing :P
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5-08-2008 @ 8:13AM
Jonathan Wise said...
I downloaded this, and its a fantastic little tech demo. Worth installing just to see some great graphics on your little screen...
I can't seem to go fast enough to win any races tho :-(
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5-08-2008 @ 8:31AM
Dman said...
Youtube video quality aside, I can't believe that is running off an iPhone or any year old cell phone.
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5-08-2008 @ 8:51AM
Fernando said...
lol @ the controls, the guy was hitting the walls right on the first straight.
And Dman, this game exists for quite a few phones already, including cool graphics.
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5-08-2008 @ 8:57AM
Mark said...
No good for the Touch...need softkeys.
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5-08-2008 @ 9:07AM
Galley said...
Landscape mode is a must for racing games.
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5-08-2008 @ 9:26AM
Lee said...
Just crashes on my phone constantly
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5-08-2008 @ 9:38AM
bobvilla said...
thats no Wii wheel, it's a JBL sound stage :)
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5-08-2008 @ 10:32AM
Matt said...
Yeah, I noticed that too. I'm not sure if he's joking calling it a "Wii Wheel" or if he really thinks we're going to buy it.
And what is it with people who post this kind of stuff on YouTube? It's like they've never used a camera before. It's not hard to frame something a little better, I don't care how cheap your camera is. I saw a YouTube post of the intro to GTAIV and the guy had set the camera up at 60 or 70 degree angle from the tv and had zoomed in so you couldn't even see the whole image! And that sort of thing is the norm. What the heck?
5-08-2008 @ 10:26AM
5cents said...
I played it and while the graphics are astonishing, getting used to the accelerometer based steering is tricky. I too was hitting walls on the straight. Subtle control is required, impressive demo to say the least.
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5-08-2008 @ 12:08PM
Stephen Lang said...
Thanks for the impressions. I imagine the control could be easily refined, you need a little bit of a 'dead spot' in the middle, plus adjusting sensitivity, user customization, etc.
5-08-2008 @ 12:22PM
5cents said...
You're welcome. Yeah, that's exactly right, it needs a bigger dead-spot on center. That and like the other commenters have noted, landscape mode.
5-08-2008 @ 12:37PM
OmniGeno said...
That's pretty awesome. Wish I could try it out on my iPod Touch, but I don't have the time to jailbreak and make sure everything's working properly. I was going to say that whoever's playing this needs more practice, but I guess that others have said that it's the controls that need refining. Anyway, it looks much better than all the web-based "games" for the iPhone/Touch.
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5-08-2008 @ 1:54PM
Ben K. said...
Can't seem to find this one on Installer.app. What source is it from?
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5-08-2008 @ 1:58PM
Uncle Mac said...
There is a better video clip at the developers site here under downloads but with no sound.http://www.polarbit.com/games.php?mode=game&game_id=0&part=4
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5-08-2008 @ 4:56PM
lucac81 said...
Uhmm great demo
Yes it's very glitchy, needs to be in landscape mode, it's easier to keep the phone while playing.
The controls are tricky at the beginning but manageable, as someone here noted they need only just some tweaking.
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