(Insert stupid Blog name here)

Word Lens is impressive, though I think it'd be better on the 4 than my 3Gs due to the faster processor.

Played through Game Dev Story for the fourth time - still no perfect "10"s.

 

I've just about played the game out, now. It's still fun, but once you get the hang of how to build up your staff and what systems to develop for, the game is pretty easy to beat.

 

I suppose what I could try next time is making a really bad game, to see if I can get one of the "Worst Game" awards. Or maybe bankrupt the company and see what happens. Or develop a game for its equivalent of the Virtual Boy, and see how badly that tanks. Or try to clear $1 billion for my final score (last time I got $994,312,700). So I guess there's still more to explore.

I picked up the impossibly cute (and very fun) Tiny Wings (99¢). This has nothing to do with Angry Birds (other than the cute, tiny bird aspect). It has a very simple play mechanic and a really incredible look to it. It's great to see game development being pushed in so many diverse directions, where any offbeat idea gets a chance to see the light of day.

 

Reminds me a bit of the good ol' days.

 

Also picked up MLB.com at Bat '11. Pricey at $14.99, but it allows me to listen to every Mariners game, live, anywhere. And since I live 1000 miles south of Seattle, that's a pretty good deal, as far as I'm concerned. Hopefully they won't stink out loud again this year.

 

Lastly, I haven't bought this one yet, as I'm not quite sure what to make of it...

 

 

The description says...

 

"You'll be charmed by his strange and beautiful world." Andrew Podolsky - Slide To Play

 

If Albert receives enough encouraging, other mini-games will come to see the day light, so do not hesitate to give this game many stars on Itunes.

Spend one day with Albert.

Have fun !!!

 

Well, I hate to say it... but I think Albert's been lying to us.

 

He's not busy working at an arcade. In fact, I can't find a single mention of it in his iPhone app at all.

 

 

More disturbing... is that Albert apparently has trouble getting out of bed in the morning...

 

 

Can't bathe himself without help...

 

 

Can't match up his socks on his own...

 

 

Or cook for himself... (and note how late he's eating breakfast!)

 

 

And let's not even discuss his run-ins with the law...

 

 

I think we may need to stage an intervention.

 

On the plus side, it's kind of a cute iPhone app. But it's definitely geared for very young kids. And even though it's only 99¢, it's hardly what I'd call biographical.

 

 

Elsewhere, there's Pix'n Love Rush. A cute platformer which has a very retro vibe to it. As you play, you unlock different classic game appearances, from Game 'n' Watch to vector games, Game Boy to Pong, and more. The drawback is that I find my fingers are often in the way of the graphics, due to the onscreen controls. But it's still got pretty good gameplay, and the graphics are a lot of fun. And, it's 99¢.

Angry Birds Seasons has released a free St. Patrick's Day update.

 

(Well... free if you already own the app. )

Played through Game Dev Story for the fourth time - still no perfect "10"s.

Boom.

I suppose what I could try next time is making a really bad game, to see if I can get one of the "Worst Game" awards. Or maybe bankrupt the company and see what happens. Or develop a game for its equivalent of the Virtual Boy, and see how badly that tanks. Or try to clear $1 billion for my final score (last time I got $994,312,700). So I guess there's still more to explore.

Finished my fifth time through with $1,290,930,100. Didn't beat my all-time best-selling single title, or total units moved though. I also haven't tried to bankrupt the company yet. (If I do... I'll name the company "Infrogrames" when I play. )

Big update!

 

First, I tried a couple of camera apps:

 

Camera Plus Pro ($1.99)

and

almost DSLR ($1.99)

 

I was looking for something that had a locking exposure setting on it. Camera Plus Pro does not. It listed "Exposure Control" which apparently isn't the same thing.

 

almost DSLR does feature "Exposure Locking", but unfortunately it doesn't actually lock. At least, not when shooting video (and it's supposed to). So, that was a waste or almost four bucks. Hopefully, they'll fix this in a future update.

 

 

Next up: Angry Birds Rio. More Angry Birds. More levels. Movie tie-in. 99¢. Why not?

 

 

Next, a freebie: TurboTax's MyTaxRefund. If you e-file with TurboTax, you can track your refund's progress. Supposedly. It keeps telling me that it can't process my request, and to try later.

 

I'll probably have my refund by then.

 

 

And now, the biggie. (Thanks to Flojomojo for the heads-up.)

 

Now available in the App Store™ - Atari's Greatest Hits*

*that they own the rights to

 

This is an arcade and 2600 emulator (no 5200 or 7800 due to the word "Hits" being in the title ), which is completely free!

 

Unless you want to play something besides Pong, that is. Only Pong is free. Yay Pong.

 

There are some 100 games available, in 99¢ packs:

 

Asteroid Pack

1. Asteroid

2. Asteroid Deluxe

3. Asteroids 2600

4. Canyon Bomber – Bluetooth Multiplayer

 

Battlezone Pack

1. Battlezone

2. Red Baron

3. Air-Sea Battle – Bluetooth Multiplayer

4. Submarine Commander

 

Centipede Pack

1. Centipede

2. Millipede

3. Centipede 2600

4. Millipede 2600

 

Black Widow Pack

1. Black Widow

2. Space Duel – Bluetooth Multiplayer

3. Desert Falcon

4. Space War

 

Crystal Castles Pack

1. Crystal Castles

2. Crystal Castls 2600

3. Surround – Bluetooth Multiplayer

4. Maze Craze

 

Gravitar Pack

1. Gravitar

2. Gravitar 2600

3. Radar Lock

4. Demons to Diamonds – Bluetooth Multiplayer

 

Star Raiders Pack

1. Star Raiders

2. Liberator

3. Star Ship – Bluetooth Multiplayer

4. Human Cannonball

 

Missile Command Pack

1. Missile Command

2. Missile Command 2600

3. Fun with Numbers

4. Flag Capture - Bluetooth Multiplayer

 

Lunar Lader Pack

1. Lunar Lander

2. Sky diver - Bluetooth Multiplayer

3. Video Pinball

4. Code Breaker

 

Super Breakout Pack

1. Super Breakout

2. Breakout - Bluetooth Multiplayer

3. Off – the - Wall

4. Circus Atari - Bluetooth Multiplayer

 

Tempest Pack

1. Tempest – Bluetooth Multiplayer

2. Tempest 2600 – Bluetooth Multiplayer

3. Outlaw

4. Atari Video Cube

 

Majar Havoc Pack

1. Major Havoc

2. Secret Quest

3. Sentinel

4. Yars Revenge – Bluetooth Multiplayer

 

Warlords Pack

1. Warlords - Bluetooth Multiplayer

2. Warlords 2600

3. Combat - Bluetooth Multiplayer

4. Combat 2 - Bluetooth Multiplayer

 

Adventure Pack

1. Adventure

2. Haunted House

3. Return to Haunted House

4. Save Mary

 

Tic-Tac-Toe Pack

1. 3d Tic-Tac-Toe

2. A game of concentration

3. Backgammon

4. Brain Games

 

Fatal Run Pack

1. Fatal Run

2. Dodge ‘Em

3. Night Driver

4. Street Racer – Bluetooth Multiplayer

 

Quadrun Pack

1. Quadrun

2. Slot Racers – Bluetooth Multiplayer

3. Stellar Track

4. Math Gran Prix

 

Casino Pack

1. Casino - Bluetooth Multiplayer

2. Slot Machine

3. Video Checkers

4. Video Chess

 

Sword Quest Pack

1. Swordquest Earthworld

2. Swordquest Fireworld

3. Swordquest Waterworld

4. Sprintmaster

 

Championship Soccer Pack

1. Championship Soccer - Bluetooth Multiplayer

2. Golf

3. Double Dunk

4. Basketball

 

Football Pack

1. Football - Bluetooth Multiplayer

2. Home Run

3. Miniature Golf

4. Bowling

 

Real Sports Basketball Pack

1. Realsports Basketball - Bluetooth Multiplayer

2. Realsports Boxing - Bluetooth Multiplayer

3. Realsports Tennis - Bluetooth Multiplayer

4. Realsports Baseball - Bluetooth Multiplayer

 

Real Sports Football Pack

1. Realsports Football - Bluetooth Multiplayer

2. Realsports Soccer - Bluetooth Multiplayer

3. Realsports Vollyball - Bluetooth Multiplayer

4. Video Olympics - Bluetooth Multiplayer

 

Battlezone Pack

1. Battlezone 2600

2. Super Breakout 2600

3. Super Baseball

4. Super Football

 

Hangman Pack

1. Hangman

2. Black Jack

3. Steeplechase

 

Or, you can just buy them all for $14.99, which is what I did. Sure, they'll probably go on sale for $5.99 in a week, but I figured I'd support old-school gaming, yo. Besides, I've spent $14.99 on worse things.

 

The 2600 titles are generally pretty weak, without most of the better-known arcade ports in there. Maybe I'm just spoiled by homebrews now.

 

That said, what is there is very faithfully emulated. Even Quadrun's wonky screen-black-out-voice sounds right.

 

You have to press an on-screen button to get to the console switches, which means if any game requires switches to be flipped in-game, you have to go through an extra step to get there (this could probably be worked around easily enough).

 

 

The controls take some getting used to though. Especially since they put the joystick on the LEFT side of the screen, and you can't move it.

 

And a pink fire button?

 

This is a picture of 2600 Asteroids. You don't see anything, because the flicker is emulated, too. It doesn't use frame blending like Stella. But it's so fast, it actually looks pretty realistic.

 

As with all on-screen iPhone controls, my thumbs tend to get in the way, plus there's no feedback whatsoever. So this can be very hit-or-miss, depending on the game.

 

The arcade games fare somewhat better. Some of the trak-ball games (Missile Command, Crystal Castles, etc.) let you actually drag your finger around the screen to control the cursor or character. They've also added a clever offset feature, so your finger doesn't have to be right on top of what you're moving. It's pretty-much automatic, and works very well.

 

 

Other games take some getting used to. Red Baron never had decent controls, so it's even worse than usual. Battlezone (my favorite game) works okay, but I can't always seem to get my thumbs to hit exactly the right spots. Plus it's hard to fire while moving.

 

Asteroids uses some downright weird controls, the best of which includes a sort-of vertical wheel device to rotate your ship.

 

 

The wheel reappears in Tempest, which works pretty well, but they need to make the sensitivity of the controls adjustable.

 

 

Control issues aside, the sounds are mostly spot-on, and the emulation itself is silky-smooth. An iPhone 4 or iPad would really be the way to go though, because these games would really benefit from the extra resolution. On my iPhone 3GS, I'm often squinting to see what's going on.

 

Overall, I think the arcade games are worth getting, the 2600 games much less so. There's just too much early dreck in there like Math Gran Prix and Home Run. There are a few prototypes in there as well, including Save Mary and the dreadful 2600 version of Tempest.

 

Would it have killed them to re-license Ms. Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Berzerk, and some of their other good 2600 arcade ports?

 

Yes, yes it would have.

 

Also disappointing is the lack of the obscure Atari arcade game Quantum. If ever a game was tailor-made for a touch-screen device, it would be Quantum. (Rampart would work great as well, although the rights to that are owned by whomever owns Bally/Midway/Atari Games/Williams this week.)

 

The game select interface works well, and also includes a handy list view to zip through games by category or alphabetically. There are also game manuals for the 2600 titles, and flyers for the arcade games. They did, however, "borrow" 2600 box scans from the AtariAge database.

 

A couple of examples:

 

Compare with the AA scan. Note along the left edge of the box, even with "Atari". They did, at least, Photoshop out the price tag.

 

 

Compare with the AA scan. Look carefully at the wear patterns around the edge of the box, and in the "O" in "Dodge 'Em".

 

It looks like most if not all of the other production box scans were taken from AtariAge. I didn't see AA listed in the credits so I don't know if they asked. I'm not sure how that works, copyright-wise, since technically, Atari owns the rights to those images in the first place.

 

Some of the box art they slapped together for the prototypes is downright shabby. Bad five-minute Photoshop hacks. Sheesh guys... next time drop me a line and I'll swap you some decent mockups for the price of the app.

 

The menu music is typically awful, as is usually the case with classic game compilations. An option to use music of my own there would be nice (like an all 80's playlist).

 

Anyway, it's worth checking out. The app is free, and buying a game pack is only the cost of playing four games in an arcade anyway. And maybe, just maybe if it sells well enough, they'll add some better, licensed game packs for it.

I plan to get it if it works with iCADE.

Hi Nathan, thanks for the detailed review! We did talk to Albert about use of the scans (about 1/3 of the scans are from AtariAge), and AtariAge was credited in the DS release. The AtariAge credit missing was simply an oversight, but we'll fix that.

 

FWIW, the box art for the prototypes was intentionally meant to look low-tech, so that there was no mistaking it for a released game.

 

We also appreciate the feedback on the controls. Touch screens can be tricky. Personally, I liked working with the DS best for controls' sake because we could switch between tactile buttons and the flexibility of touch screen as best suited the game.

Jeff - thanks for putting so much work into this collection. I'll post some more feedback on the controls in the main AtariAge forum thread as I have more time to play the games. I think most of the issues have been brought up already though.

 

 

More apps...

 

Falldown 3D - which takes the rolling metal ball of Labyrinth, and combines it with Fall Down. It's pretty good. Definitely worth the price - free.

 

Death Rally ($2.99). A top-down, drive-around game where you buy weapons to destroy other cars and try to win races. It's not bad, but I really hate the controls on it - a left-handed analog virtual thumbstick which controls speed and direction, while my right thumb merely mashes down a fire button. If I wanted controls that bad, I'd still be buying games for the PSP. C'mon developers, give us the choice of WHICH thumb we want to use for precise controls.

 

I've recently started pulling games off my iPhone that I just don't play. They were starting to pile up and take up space, and if I haven't finished them by now, I probably never will. Besides, in some cases I had both games and their sequels. There's not much point in keeping Real Racing and Real Racing 2, or Asphalt 4 and 5. I do wish though, when you pulled an app off your phone, your data for it remained backed-up on your computer so the next time you loaded it, it would pick up where you left off. But oh well.

It's been awhile.

 

I'd like to mention that the Atari Greatest Hits Collection has seen an update with some nice additions to the controls. Still needs a little work, but I can't complain since I've been pretty lax in writing up feedback about it.

 

Death Rally has seen a ton of updates. I always appreciate when a developer keeps adding new content to their games. Especially when it's free.

 

But I have bought a few new apps recently:

 

I'm probably the last person on Earth to pick up Bejeweled 2. But I did. I suspect it's going to turn out to be one of these games that's really addicting for about a week, then I never play it again. (See also: Cut The Rope, Tiny Wings, Labyrinth 2, geoDefense, geoDefense Swarm, Osmos, Trism, Asphalt 4 and 5, etc.) But yeah, it's fun. And cheap.

 

Arkanoid is an excellent (and official) translation of the classic arcade game. At $4.99 it's a bit pricey, but I paid way more than that for the

that came out nearly 25 years ago. It's not an exact copy of the arcade game, since it has some different levels and power-ups, but the controls are flawless, and the graphics and sounds are spot-on.

 

Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a decent update to the arcade classic, although it's hardly Space Invaders anymore. Rather, the game evolves into a more modern shooter as the game progresses. While it's fun, I've never been a big fan of modern shooters where zillions of enemies are thrown at you, and you have an endless supply of weapons to blast them with. Those games aren't so much "shooters" as they are "dodgers". The skill lies less in accurately hitting anything, than it does in avoiding the onslaught of enemies and firepower being dumped down on you from above. But still, the graphics are kind of cool. Again, at $4.99 though, it's kind-of pricey (and doesn't even include the original Space Invaders, which is a separate game entirely at $4.99).

 

In a completely different genre...

 

I picked up "Weird Al" Yankovic's app for his children's book "When I Grow Up". It's a charming book (I have the actual, physical book), and the app is cute, but completely lost on the iPhone. While Al's narration is fun, the graphics and text are often too small to really see very well. I'm sure it's much better on the iPad. There are a couple of wacky games on there but they're obviously aimed at very small children.

 

And at the absolute opposite end of the spectrum from that one...

 

Today I Die Again is... well... odd. I'm not sure how to describe it. But basically, there's a girl who has been tied to a rock, and is drowning. And you have to somehow free her by rearranging words to a poem, which changes things, and then you have to do different things with each change. Is she drowning herself? Was she thrown down there? Is it some metaphysical existential metaphor for breaking free from our own inner turmoil?

 

Man, I don't know. I just saw it reviewed somewhere, and it looked cool. Hey, for 99¢, there are a lot less interesting things you can put on your iPhone. The graphics have a nice retro look, and the whole thing plays out like some sort of story that you are watching from the outside, without really being told anything about what's going on. Including how to play it. But that's the idea - immersing yourself into the experience.

 

Also, I picked up radio.com, so I could listen to K-Earth 101 on my phone. It's free.

Just picked up Reckless Getaway, from the makers of Reckless Racing. Reckless Getaway is a third-person above-and-behind-view driving game, where you run away from cops, pick up powerups and giant, floating gold coins, and avoid traffic. It's a pretty fun game with physics reminiscent of the original Driver, although the view needs to be a bit further back, since more often than not, you won't see something you need to pick up until it's too late. Also, the game is on rails, so you can't do much other than steer left and right (although this does help in remembering where powerups and coins are located). Basically, it's an iPhone version of Bump 'n' Jump. Wait until it drops to 99¢, then it'll be a worthwhile diversion.

 

Meanwhile, Reckless Racing is probably the game I go back to and play more than anything else. The "Delivery" mini-game is perfect for replay value. I just wish they'd add some more tracks to it.

 

I'm still playing Bejeweled 2, but it's starting to wear a little thin.

A couple more:

 

LogYourRun is a GPS/pedometer mileage tracker for when you're out running (or walking) and want to know how far you've gone, and in what time. It maps out your course, and lets you store and recall them. Pretty sweet.

 

Cut The Rope: Experiments is the 15th-or-so game in the series. I've lost track. Anyway, more cute physics puzzles, with a few new elements. The added twist is that this time, you play the role of an evil scientist out to perform experiments on the cute, green, candy-munching monsters that are invading peoples' i-devices. Sadly, no dissecting is involved.

Okay... this is just completely unfair.

 

One of the most addictive games on my iPhone (or ever, for that matter) is Game Dev Story. If you haven't bought it yet, do so.

 

But now... they same company has come out with another hopelessly addictive game: Mega Mall Story. And of course in this game, you build a mall. Buy plans, build stores, upgrade them, expand the mall, manage costs, etc. But you also invest in the communities surrounding you, to bring in more customers. The goal is to become a 5-star mall by the end of the game (at 15 years, although you can continue to play beyond that without raising your high score). The game takes into account the economy rising and falling, holiday sales, public transportation, etc. It took me a little while to get into it, but I've been playing this non-stop all evening, and in fact had to plug my iPhone back in to recharge it.

 

Definitely worth checking out, for $3.99, it's hard to beat.

 

Here's my Mall... nicely rolling along. Someone just spent $9600 at the toy store!

 

 

And someone else just spent $10,400 at the movie theater! (Probably bought a large popcorn and a drink.)

 

At one point, I had my profit up over $1.1 million. (And that was after spending at least that much on expansion.)

 

But then, some jerk opened up a new mall down the street from me.

 

Then the recession hit...

 

 

Look familiar? Yep... I've seen a lot of malls with a whole bunch of empty store fronts just like that. I had to close probably half the stores in my mall just to stay afloat. Lesson learned: don't open a video arcade in 2011.

Managed a nice recovery! I had over $11 million at the end of fifteen years, a 5-star rating, and was ranked #1. Plus, I put two competing malls out of business! (Take that competitive marketplace!) I rebuilt the video arcade (which, when coupled with a bowling alley is doing nicely now), and have 82 stores spread out over 11 floors, including an observation deck, planetarium, and helipad. Plus, I've just gotten permission to build a casino (although it's after the official end of the game now, but I'll probably keep playing for awhile anyway, just to see where it goes).

Picked up Grand Prix Story (from the makers of Game Dev Story and Mega Mall Story). Haven't gotten very far in it, but it's not so much a racing sim, as a racing team sim. Create a team, hire drivers, build cars, gain sponsors... you do pretty-much everything except actually race. You enter the races, but then can only watch them unfold. Sort of like Gran Turismo's B-spec mode. But then Kairosoft's sims are fun because they're immersive, not because they're action-packed. (Speaking of which - I'm on my second game of Mega Mall story, and am doing a lot better this time through. If anything, it may be a little too easy to succeed. But it's still a lot of fun.)

 

At the other end of the iApp spectrum (that would be the useless end) is Star Wars Blu-ray: Early Access. This is nothing more than an ad for the Blu-ray release of Star Wars, but if anything, contains less useful information than most online reviews or advertisements. Every item you can "preview" has to be downloaded, one at a time, and what's there is sparse at best. I guess on the plus side, it means you don't have to waste bandwidth on Episodes I-III, but there's absolutely nothing compelling in the app that would entice even the most rabid, die-hard Star Wars fan to keep it on their iDevice for more than five minutes - and half of that is time you would waste downloading stuff.

Free is good. I picked up Temple Run and Tiger Woods PGA Tour '12, both for free.

 

If you already have the previous Tiger Woods game, there is absolutely no reason to get this one. In fact, I never would have, if it weren't free. I don't know if it offers more courses or whatever, but I can see absolutely no improvements over the previous game in terms of gameplay or graphics. Maybe it looks better on an iPhone 4, but hey - I don't have one. Still, if you don't have the previous Tiger Woods game, the new one is still currently free, and it's a good golf game.

 

Temple Run is sort of a from-behind version of Pitfall. You're an archaeologist who has stolen an idol from a temple, and you have to run away from skull-wearing monkeys that are trying to eat you. You jump, duck, and collect coins. Collect enough coins, and you can get better power-ups. That's about all there is to it, but it's a pretty fun game, and definitely worth downloading for free.

 

Presumably, both games are free because of all of the in-app purchases you can buy to shortcut upgrading your character. Whatever. I don't do that, because I'm cheap. And if the game is too hard to do it without paying, then I'm not interested.

 

I also picked up Asphalt 6, which is a nice step up from Asphalt 5. However, it pushes my iPhone 3GS a bit too hard, so there are some frame rate issues with it that harm playability. But it's a nice racer for 99¢, and has some Burnout-like gameplay elements to it which is a point in its favor.

 

I still haven't gotten back to Grand Prix Story, although I did finish my second go-'round of Mega Mall story. Still fun, but a little too easy to succeed. I don't think I ever had to close any stores or go into debt this time.

 

Finally, I picked up Tapatalk Forum App which is supposedly a better way to view the AtariAge forum than the default mobile theme built into the board. I'm not impressed. It's okay for the most basic reading I suppose, but doesn't do a very good job of tracking where you've already been, it doesn't seem to let you filter out forums you don't want to follow, and it has absolutely zero support for the blogs, which makes it effectively a waste of $2.99 as far as I'm concerned.

Two freebies. Two non-freebies.

 

First, after iOS 5 came out, Apple released iTunes Movie Trailers and Airport Utility. Both free. The trailers app is a nice way to view movie trailers - better than Flixster or Fandango. That's about all it does, but it does it well. Airport Utility is handy if you have an Aiport Wi-Fi Base Station, and need to make changes without a computer available. I always use my computer for that, but it's nice to have a back-up. (Of course, since the Base Station has to be working in order to connect to it with an iPhone, it would be kind of useless for troubleshooting.)

 

Then, I picked up Where's My Water and Scribblenauts Remix. Where's My Water is a physics puzzler where you dig through dirt to bring water to a naked crocodile who will die without it. It's all quite horrible and graphic.

 

Oh wait, that's not right. Actually, he just wants to take a shower. But he is naked.

 

It's all quite horrible and graphic.

 

Actually, it's a fun little game. Nothing terribly new, but still cute, clever, and cheap at 99¢.

 

Scribblenauts is a port of a game that was a big deal on the Nintendo DS. You don't actually scribble anything, you mostly just type. They idea is to solve puzzles by creating and using a variety of objects. You may have to fill an aquarium with a variety of sea life, for example. Or help a character get across impassible terrain. The cleverness of the game is that you can type in a lot of different weird items to use. Need to make a horror movie? A psychopathic hamster will work. Need to give a farmer some animals? Well, you could give him a velociraptor, although it will eat any other animals there. Probably not a good idea. That's part of the fun - is seeing what some of the things you create will do, or how they will interact with other things. They obviously spent a lot of time thinking this through, too. You can type some pretty wild, obscure things, and they'll actually appear. They may not do want you want, but that can be fun, too. (I wouldn't for example, recommend watering flowers with a tsunami.)

 

Some of the puzzles are too simple, and have rather banal solutions. But there are others where you can just come up with weird, fun, bizarre things. And it's also a lot of fun to just play around and fail a level too. At $4.99, it's not the cheapest game out there, but any game where you can accidentally beat a clown to death with a golf club is certainly worth a few bucks.

I have Scribblenauts for the DS and it's fun, up to the point you get stuck. Then it's pure frustration trying to figure out what object the game wants you to enter to solve the puzzle.

I have Scribblenauts for the DS and it's fun, up to the point you get stuck. Then it's pure frustration trying to figure out what object the game wants you to enter to solve the puzzle.

Yep - it's the same on the iPhone. The levels where you're creatively solving a puzzle and not just filling in the blanks are the most fun.

Sometimes I wonder for ongoing threads like this one or Clone Wars or the WRC if I'd be better off just making new entries each time, rather than just piling more comments on...

 

Nah.

 

So - several Neo-retro games. For lack of a better term.

 

First up - Groove Coaster. In this game, you watch a dot travel along a vector path, and tap the screen when the dot runs into other dots, in time with some music. This is a very well-reviewed game... by other people. I could take or leave it. I think it'd probably be easier to play with the music off, because it often serves as more of a distraction. Maybe I'll try that. The graphics look cool though, I'll give it that. Frankly, I think $2.99 (plus all of the optional buy-ins) is too pricey. This is a 99¢ game - tops. If it goes on sale, check it out.

 

Next - Infinity Field. It wants to be Robotron. It wants to be a Capcom-style shooter. It fails at both. Lots of flashy particle effects and pseudo-vector graphics don't help what is a really muddled game design. I'm just not a fan of "spew billions of bullets at billions of enemies" shooters. Plus, no matter which control layout I tried, there wasn't one where my thumbs didn't block part of the game screen. I wanted to like it, but didn't. Too much clutter.

 

Then, because I'd never played the original before - Boulder Dash Vol. 1. I suppose I could've dug up an emulator to play it on, but this version includes the original levels (and graphics), and I figured it was easier to do it this way, than try to find the ROM and an emulator that actually works on OS X Lion. I'm lazy like that. $4.99 lazy.

 

I'm guessing it's probably pretty accurate to the original, only because it plays very much like the 2600 version, which is also supposed to be very accurate to the original. So um... yeah. I guess that means it's a good translation.

 

As a plus, you can play vertically or horizontally and you can pinch to zoom in or out to see the whole level. Nice.

 

 

 

 

There's also a version with modern graphics, but frankly, it looks terrible, and your character - Rockford - moves sluggishly. So stick with the classic. I suspect if you like Boulder Dash, this will work for you. It's growing on me. I'm not all that convinced it's much better than, say, Dig Dug though. Or Mr. Do (which has yet to make it into the App Store).

 

Finally, one of the worst games to ever darken the 2600's doorstep - Miner 2049er. The Tigervision versions are awful. Clunky graphics, clunkier controls, inexcusable collision detection, grating sound effects, irritating music... and since they couldn't fit all the levels onto one cart, you had to buy two to get the whole game. I'm really surprised this doesn't show up on more "worst of" lists. The big hoopla surrounding the game (which is basically a combination of Donkey Kong and Pac-Man) was that it was one of the first games to get released on pretty-much every platform of its day. Like Boulder Dash, the iPhone version also offers a re-creation of the original home computer version, which I figured had to be pretty-good, in order to get so much attention and distribution back-in-the-day. Right?

 

Wrong. As it turns out, the 2600 version was a pretty faithful conversion of what was a pretty terrible game. At least based on what I see here. Again, maybe I need to dust off an emulator to do the original justice. Lousy (and I mean really lousy) iPhone controls don't help at all. Plus, while you can actually download the game for free, to unlock the classic (and I use that term loosely) version, you have to pay 99¢. Cheaper than Boulder Dash, but not nearly as good of a game, either. Skip the iOS version and emulate it instead if you must. Oddly enough, in this case, the version with modern graphics is actually better. But it's still effectively just polishing a turd.

Piece of junk blog software. I spent ten minutes typing up a comment, and the stupid thing barfed it up when I hit "Add Comment". So I guess now I have to copy and save any text I want to actually get posted so it doesn't get lost in the void. I'm really getting fed up with this garbage.

 

So again... from memory...

 

I picked up GarageBand recently, and have been playing with it. It's quite a lot of fun, and pretty amazing for something that runs on a phone. It reminds me a bit of playing with SynthCart. Wish I knew more about music though. So much for seven years in band class.

 

I also downloaded Sleep Machine, which could be called Noise Machine, depending on how you use it. It has a number of sounds (waves, wind, rain, fireplaces, crickets) which you can play to help lull you to sleep, should you find yourself in a room that's too quiet, or has unfamiliar sounds. You can mix up to three of the included sounds together, or add music from your iTunes library. So you could have waves gently crashing on the beach while soothing music played in the background. Nice.

 

It also has a number of sounds which I don't associate so much with sleeping - factories, vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, trains, etc. No jackhammers though. Too bad - since someone around here apparently thinks that jackhammers are perfectly acceptable in the early morning hours, and I wanted to practice sleeping through them. It also has a nifty built-in clock which would be handy for traveling, and it lets you save your favorite sound combinations.

 

I suppose you could also use it as a practical joke on someone else, since there are a lot of water-related sounds you could play while they were asleep, and that could lead to... well...

 

For the next few days, Namco games are on sale. There are remakes of Pole Position, Rally-X, Dig Dug, Galaga, Pac-Man, etc. But I don't know if I'm going to get any. Can't say I care much for remakes, and even the classics tend not to play very well on iPhones, due to touch controls not working very well in place of joysticks. But the sale runs through Friday, so maybe I'll pick something up.

Whenever an app rises to the top of the bestsellers list, has the ratings to back it up, and only costs 99¢, I figure, "Why not?" So that's why I picked up Amazing Breaker.

 

Now, is it "Amazing"? No, but it is good fun, and well-worth 99¢.

 

It combines elements of Angry Birds, Arkanoid, Qix, and Bust-A-Move. Not a bad pedigree.

 

You slingshot bombs at ice sculptures (which look more like crystal, but whatever), and using different types of bombs (ones that split, phase through ice, cause chain-reactions, etc.) you blow up as much of the sculptures as you can. The goal being at least 90%, which requires some puzzle-solving skills, as often you'll have to manage your existing bombs properly in order to pick up additional ones needed to finish a level.

 

It makes for a solid iOS game - well designed for the interface and the size of the screen. Plus it has some 80 levels, so it should keep you busy for awhile.

 

(Still hoping Quantum makes it to the iPhone someday. Hello... Atari?)

A few more recent acquisitions:

 

Smash Cops - Sort of like Burnout: Takedown, in which you take cars out by ramming them off the road. Also see: typical L.A. rush hour. This is a top-down racer, with good graphics and fun physics. The control scheme is a little weird, in that you sort of push your car from behind to steer. On the one hand, it's clever because it keeps your hand out of the way, but on the other hand it's a little like pushing around a shopping cart... backwards. Still, it's fun.

 

Tilt to Live - A retro-ish top-down shoot 'em up (like Robotron, Black Widow, etc), where you tilt to avoid bad guys and collect power-ups to blast them. I bought it mainly because while trying out the free version, I was so annoyed by the incessant ads, I decided I'd rather cough up the money to get rid of them. It's a pretty good game, except for the fact that you start off with only one life, so it's a bit too unforgiving. Also, while I appreciate that the game is completely centered around tilt controls, frankly, I think a virtual thumbstick would work better.

 

Paper Toss 2.0 - I downloaded it since it was written up as something free worth downloading. Not really. You flick pieces of paper or other things into a trash can, taking into account wind direction (from an office fan). That's about it. Played it a few times and deleted it.

 

There's some new downloadable content for Scribblenauts Remix. For 99¢, why not?

 

Reckless Racing 2 - I haven't stopped playing the first Reckless Racing since I bought it. I've been replaying the Delivery mini-game over and over, trying to beat my previous scores. Well, now the sequel is out, and they've spruced up the graphics, added performance upgrades, a career mode, and... well, took a lot of what made the game fun, right out of it. It lost its "Dukes of Hazzard" vibe (the original game's title was supposed to be "Deliverace"). The country settings, banjo music, "Good ol' boys" car selection, the "Yee-hah"s, and yes - the Delivery mini-game - all gone. Now, what's left is still a very good racing game. Maybe even excellent. But the charm is gone. I would've rather had more tracks and cars added to the original, frankly. But I'll keep playing it because it is still a good racing game. But that's all it is, and little left to distinguish it from the pack.