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WWDC Demo: Zombies, a modern update of Daleks (preview)

I can't count the number of hours I spent at the UT Music Library on a Performa or Quadra or Centris (I had a Centris 610 at the time) playing Daleks. Strangely addicting but incredibly simple, the game mechanic has been repeated often in the casual game universe, and Daleks was essentially a rip of Robots on UNIX. You try to get away from something, one step at a time, as those somethings inch ever closer, one step at a time. It's turn-based "tag." There's a terribly unsatisfying and buggy version called SuperDaleks for OS X here.

Zombies is a bit of an update for the venerable classic, although there's also a classic game called Zombies using the very same mechanic -- nothing new under the sun, eh? But intead of dusting off that old IIsi, you can play Zombies on your iPhone or iPod touch. The developer added spells, allowing you to do something out of the norm each round. So, for example, you could teleport (sometimes seen in variations of this game). You can also destroy zombies with a spell, handy when you're in a no-win position.

The preview you see here is the unfinished version, but it's shaping up to be a pleasant reimagining of a classic. We'll post on Twitter when it's available.

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WWDC iPhone iPod touch

I can't count the number of hours I spent at the UT Music Library on a Performa or Quadra or Centris (I had a Centris 610 at the time)...
 

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llarson2

Daleks has always had teleport and a ray gun that zapped the attackers. This was the first Mac game I ever played, in 1985, on a 128K Mac in an Engineering lab at Princeton... It was a simple, intriguing, and durable game. As you note, it never made it to OSX in a usable way. Glad to hear there will be an iPhone version...

July 20 2009 at 10:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rego

You mean UTK etc? What came naturally at that point was to skip the article.

Fiatry???

July 04 2009 at 7:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rego

Thanks for the info. Is that the same as University of Turin?
What is Fiatry. ( How to drive a Fiat?)

It would be better if blog writers on TUAW elminated or explained acronyms and initials.

July 03 2009 at 2:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Rego's comment
minicapt1

Check the article for the text string "UT Music Library", then do what should be natural. As you do, consider the following: "one-button mouse, or two-button mouse".
Then think of the Renault: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aArSn4IhHI

Cheers

July 04 2009 at 4:36 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rego

What's UT?

July 03 2009 at 4:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Rego's comment
minicapt1

University of Torino, where they teach Fiatry.

Cheers

July 03 2009 at 5:01 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
reilly

So... who is the developer? or did I miss that in the article?

July 02 2009 at 11:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to reilly's comment
Matt West

Hi Sean
I'm the developer of this iPhone game, Zombies. I was lucky enough to catch Victor from TUAW while I was in San Francisco a few weeks ago for WWDC.

I've got quite a bit of work still to do on Zombies before releasing it. I'm aiming for release in September 2009.

I'm delighted with the interest and helpful feedback people have been giving me.

Thanks very much.

Matt.
http://www.westbright.com

July 04 2009 at 9:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rizzle

What, no love for Retrobots?

http://www.ozate.com/retrobots/

July 02 2009 at 6:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Geoff Pado

Bah, someone beat me to finishing this -- I'd had the same idea, and never finished it.

July 02 2009 at 5:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
joe

I like the little (hand-drawn?) TUAW sign on the table in the background.

Also, I love Daleks, and this game looks promising!

July 02 2009 at 5:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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