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The iOS gaming thread

Scog

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Camel

Camel

Posted
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Does anyone have the ZX Spectrum:Elite Collection app?

On paper it sounds awesome, a back catalogue of spectrum games, but I can't work out what games you actually get with it, but it seems like they charge you for the app and then charge you again for games which is rubbish.

I've got it. I think you get 4 games with but I can't remember 100% tbh. You do have to buy more game packs though, yes.

It's a good emulator, but the enjoyment you'll get out of the games is highly dependent on the controls. Anything that requires 8 way movement if going to be as annoying as any other game with a virtual d-pad. Manic Miner plays well because it's just left, right and jump. I found Frank Bruno's Boxing surprisingly playable. Stuff like Highway Encounter - there's just no point imo.

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Dr Nookie

Dr Nookie

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Time Ducks is currently free - some kind of mental pixel-art frogger type thing with line drawing and time manipulation. It looks totally crackers, in a good way.

Quite enjoying this. It even comes with bunting...

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Jarik

Jarik

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Without wanting to turn the thread into iPhone vs 3DS/Vita I would like to bring up how i've heard for what seems the billionth time on a Tech Podcast I listen to how the those machines just can't compete with the App Store.

While I love the variety, ease, covenience & price of the App Store, to my mind the lack of physical controls means that there are certain kind of games that it just won't have because not everything is suitable for touch like Mario 3D Land or Ridge Racer, so if I want those kind of games I will have to have a 3DS/Vita as well as an iPhone (which I do).

I only way I can see around this is for iPhone to one day have a model that has slide-out gaming controls like the Xperia Play.  Then Nintendo & Sony may have to change their tune about software support.

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Dudley

Dudley

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I doubt Apple will want to compromise the operation of their device in every other state in order to make a small part of a small part of their function slightly less bad.

The fact they don't even let you keep saves when you delete apps tells me they don't give a toss for gaming.

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MBM

MBM

Posted
Posted
Without wanting to turn the thread into iPhone vs 3DS/Vita I would like to bring up how i've heard for what seems the billionth time on a Tech Podcast I listen to how the those machines just can't compete with the App Store.

While I love the variety, ease, covenience & price of the App Store, to my mind the lack of physical controls means that there are certain kind of games that it just won't have because not everything is suitable for touch like Mario 3D Land or Ridge Racer, so if I want those kind of games I will have to have a 3DS/Vita as well as an iPhone (which I do).

I think most of us here feel that way. When people talk about competing with the App Store, I think they mean in terms of sales, not so much whether a touchscreen is a replacement traditional controllers.

There's a chance that the dedicated handheld market may shrink due to competition from smartphones/tablets, but even if it happens it'll be a long while before they disappear completely.

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DukeOfEarlsfield

DukeOfEarlsfield

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to my mind the lack of physical controls means that there are certain kind of games that it just won't have because not everything is suitable for touch like Mario 3D Land or Ridge Racer, so if I want those kind of games I will have to have a 3DS/Vita as well as an iPhone (which I do).

Ridge Racer Accelerated is absolutely bloody marvelous though. iOS can do virtual d-pad's perfectly well as long as the controls are kept simple and a little thought is put into them. Games that limit themselves to left/right on one side and jump/shoot or fast/slow on the other tend to work just fine. In fact many of my favourite games use that system: Soosiz, Pix n Rush Love, Bean's Quest, RRA, 8-Bit Rally, Retro Racing.
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toythatkills

toythatkills

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iOS can do virtual d-pad's perfectly well as long as the controls are kept simple and a little thought is put into them.

That's absolutely not true. It can do virtual d-pads to an average standard at best, tell me you wouldn't rather play every single one of those games you mention on a proper controller.

When iOS works it works because a game has been designed for a touchscreen. Angry Birds. Temple Run. Cut the Rope. Tiny Wings. There's a reason why those games are the big sellers and it's because they don't control like shit.

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Stanley

Stanley

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I think most of us here feel that way. When people talk about competing with the App Store, I think they mean in terms of sales, not so much whether a touchscreen is a replacement traditional controllers.

There's a chance that the dedicated handheld market may shrink due to competition from smartphones/tablets, but even if it happens it'll be a long while before they disappear completely.

The app store is a drop in the ocean revenue wise compared with Nintendo.
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MBM

MBM

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The app store is a drop in the ocean revenue wise compared with Nintendo.

Possibly. Have I said otherwise?

EDIT: Well, I have now further down :) . Even if the App Store was a drop in the ocean when compared with Nintendo's revenue, I still don't see, how that makes what I said wrong..

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SaintM

SaintM

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What data is that based on?

My own (very amateur) investigations (read: Google search) show that the App store had $1.782 billion sales in 2010 and Nintendo's income in FY 2010/11 was $946 million.

Obviously the app sales are not all money coming in for Apple (they get 30% I think), and assuming that the Nintendo also includes hardware which the Apple figure does not, I'm still not sure it's right to say the app store is a 'drop in the ocean'.

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MBM

MBM

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What data is that based on?

"Drop in the ocean" is probably going too far. According to this the App Store generated $1.9 billion in Q2 this year:

http://www.appolicio...-revenue-for-q2

But that's not games alone. Nintendo had revenues of $8 Billion this fiscal year ending March 31:

http://www.dailytech...px?newsid=24556

EDIT: As far as I can see the App Store seems to be accelerating in revenue when compared to the same quarters the previous years.

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DukeOfEarlsfield

DukeOfEarlsfield

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It can do virtual d-pads to an average standard at best, tell me you wouldn't rather play every single one of those games you mention on a proper controller.

Isn't 'average standard' good enough though? It's true that I'd rather be playing the games I mentioned on a decent d-pad when I'm sat on the couch. But I'd rather have the touch screen controls when I'm on the train as it means my iPod Touch can fit in my pocket. And all of the games I've mentioned work well enough to the point that they are all in my 'favourite games' list. I'm not arguing for one type of control over another (the vast majority of the best games on my iPod don't use virtual d-pads) just saying that, well, Ridge Racer Accelerated is bloody magnificent fun that I've played for many, many hours.
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MK-1601

MK-1601

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Ridge Racer Accelerated is absolutely bloody marvelous though. iOS can do virtual d-pad's perfectly well as long as the controls are kept simple and a little thought is put into them. Games that limit themselves to left/right on one side and jump/shoot or fast/slow on the other tend to work just fine. In fact many of my favourite games use that system: Soosiz, Pix n Rush Love, Bean's Quest, RRA, 8-Bit Rally, Retro Racing.

Virtual pads can work passably well in certain rare circumstances (driving games certainly) -- Pix'n Love Rush's controls are absolutely awful though.

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Broker

Broker

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Bought a few games this morning as I've upgraded to an iPhone 4 and can now run swanky three year old apps. Clear Vision was very enjoyable (if a bit short). It did a good job of blending simple sniper gameplay into a funny little story.

Magnetic Billiards is an utter mindfuck, not really sure what I'm doing (despite having watched/read the tutorials), and the amount of feedback is a little mesmerising. The infinite type mode is interesting, really like that.

Scramble with Friends is Boggle with Facebook friends. I imagine it might absorb me completely for a few weeks.

Got Infinity Blade as well, will try that later. Can anyone reccomend any RPG's? Prefer turn based with a bit of exploring.

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The Bag

The Bag

Posted
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Without wanting to turn the thread into iPhone vs 3DS/Vita I would like to bring up how i've heard for what seems the billionth time on a Tech Podcast I listen to how the those machines just can't compete with the App Store.

While I love the variety, ease, covenience & price of the App Store, to my mind the lack of physical controls means that there are certain kind of games that it just won't have because not everything is suitable for touch like Mario 3D Land or Ridge Racer, so if I want those kind of games I will have to have a 3DS/Vita as well as an iPhone (which I do).

I only way I can see around this is for iPhone to one day have a model that has slide-out gaming controls like the Xperia Play. Then Nintendo & Sony may have to change their tune about software support.

Sony is rolling out the PSSuite to Vita and PS Certified devices (some phones, their tablets) which is essentially the App Store for those. It's in open beta for developers just now and has been in closed beta since last year - the tools and sdk they provide are much more geared towards game development than Apple's. They're also aiming at the $99 a year dev license.

Anyone mentioned Ski Safari, great variation on the endless runner genre.

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dreamylittledream

dreamylittledream

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Curses. That'll teach me to read less good. Still fuck the Square rubbish though :)

Nah the FFIII conversion is one of the best portable RPGs I've ever played and I really hope they use the same code for FFIV

Both (actually all 3) Chaos Rings games are worth the time too - pricey mind

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bcass

bcass

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Sony is rolling out the PSSuite to Vita and PS Certified devices (some phones, their tablets) which is essentially the App Store for those.

Have you (or anyone else) had a tinker with this yet? How do the libs compare to XNA? I know it uses C# so I'm guessing it won't be too difficult to get XNA stuff up and running on it.

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