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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

TUAW at E3: Robocalypse: Mobile Mayhem for iPhone


I'm spending the week at E3, and while iPhone games are somewhat few and far between (odds are that we'll see most of the App Store's goods next week at WWDC), there are a few gems to find out on the floor. In the Vogster booth, I got to play Robocalypse: Mobile Mayhem. It was originally seen on the DS as a classic real-time strategy title, in the style of Warcraft and Starcraft, and it's kept that standard gameplay on the iPhone -- you can create units and control them along with heroes, tech up with different buildings, and control bases and maps. The top screen of the DS has become two panels on the side of the iPhone's screen, but navigation is still pretty easy -- click to select units, click to direct them. Hardcore strategy fans won't find any surprises, but it is a solid, classic-style RTS that runs well.

There will be 17 singleplayer missions shipping with the game, and the team is working on getting multiplayer to work as well -- it currently works over WiFi, and they're aiming to even allow online play before it releases to the App Store in August. Vogster producer Alan Martin even told us that they found developing for the iPhone even easier than the DS -- different factions in the game are shown by applying different colors to the units, and while on the DS they had to make sprites for each color, the iPhone allowed them to simply change the primary colors with a variable. RTS fans especially should be sure to give the game a look

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Rumors, Software, Apple, iPhone, iPod touch

Rumor: Apple considering a $19.99 price point for App Store games?

It's just a rumor at this point, but yes, apparently it's floating around out there that Apple may be considering a $19.99 price point for "premium" games in the App Store. That would be a direct response not only to bigger developers who say a 99 cents to $9.99 price point is too low for them to justify the cost of production, but also to competing game systems like the DS and the PSP -- if the same games were available for the same price on both systems, Apple could use the iPhone's extra features to justify even more purchases.

It's an interesting idea, and actually, though obviously it would cost consumers more, the bottom line in the App Store has always been worth, not price -- there are currently premium games being sold on services like Xbox Live and the Wii's Virtual Console for $20, and gamers are willing to pay, as long as they get the bang for the buck that they expect.

We'll have to see what approach Apple takes here. On the music side of things, they were obviously very hesitant to move up the price points (though even there, they made concessions and did so). As popular as the App Store is, a higher price point, if used correctly, could really open up the kinds of software we're seeing there.

Filed under: OS, Hacks, Cult of Mac, Mods, Flickr Find

Flickr Find: Macintosh on Nintendo DS

While browsing Flickr this afternoon, we came across a shot of a Nintendo DS running Macintosh System 6 in emulation on reader Ken Fager's Flickr stream. Of course, we contacted him to ask how he did it. Here's what he had to say.

First, grab a DS flash card and install MiniVMacDS onto its root directory.

Once that's done, place the Mac Plus ROM into the "vmac" folder along with a System 6/7 install disk (you can make a blank disk image using Disk Utility).

Finally, turn on the DS and select MiniVMacDS. It will boot the disk images. From there, install (minimal) System 6 onto the blank disk image.

Ken notes that it's a bit pokey, but hey, this wasn't done for speed! Have fun if you try this for yourself. Thanks for sharing, Ken! We love it.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Other Events, Apple, iPhone

EA mobile prez: iPhone is hurting mobile game development

Macworld has news out of CES that EA's mobile division president has good and bad news about the iPhone and gaming. The good news is that the iPhone is a terrific device -- but then again, you already knew that. But the bad news is that Apple's handling everything all wrong. By leaving out the actual distribution platform for gaming on the iPhone, Travis Boatman says that while Apple could be doing great things with games on the iPhone, they're actually hurting mobile gaming by delaying or refusing to turn the iPhone into a gaming platform.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Apple is sitting on a goldmine in terms of games on the iPhone (well, they're sitting on a lot of goldmines with the iPhone, but this is another). With multitouch, the tilt monitor, the microphone, the networking capabilities, and the camera, this is a device that Nintendo would dream about building (their DS has half the features and it's selling like it prints money). It's the greatest handheld gaming device ever made. And yet because Apple has been so stingy with the SDK, there's not one official native game on it.

Not to mention that the "distribution platform" Boatman is talking about is iTunes -- there's no better way to get your games sold and out there. Hopefully, we'll see progress on this as soon as MacWorld (and as late as February, when the iPhone SDK is set to be officially released). But Boatman is right: the iPhone begs to have some great gaming experiences on it, and Apple, so far, is just not opening the door.

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