EricBall, on Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:17 AM, said:

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.

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div>So... there&#39;s this funny commercial for ice tea.... wait. Is it &quot;ice tea&quot; or &quot;iced tea&quot;?</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>(Google.)</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>So... there&#39;s this funny commercial for iced tea with superdeformed Darth Maul and Yoda doing battle.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>And they mention that you can download a free <a href="http://itunes.apple....>Brisksaber</a> app for your phone. So, why not?</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Well, think <a href="http://itunes.apple....845?mt=8">Fruit Ninja</a> with lightsabers, and you have the basic idea. Sounds fun, but it&#39;s not all that great. Plus, it takes forever to load the first time (or after a content update), and despite me telling it not to send me notifications, it did anyway.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>So, off the phone it goes. Bye!</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Besides... it&#39;s mostly just an advertising ploy to try and get people to go see Phantom Menace in 3D, and drink canned iced tea.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Didn&#39;t work.</div>

That, right there, is a lovely, horribly broken comment. Think I'll just leave that as-is, and see if I can put in what it's supposed to look like, below.

So... there's this funny commercial for ice tea.... wait. Is it "ice tea" or "iced tea"?

(Google.)

So... there's this funny commercial for iced tea with superdeformed Darth Maul and Yoda doing battle.



And they mention that you can download a free Brisksaber app for your phone. So, why not?

Well, think Fruit Ninja with lightsabers, and you have the basic idea. Sounds fun, but it's not all that great. Plus, it takes forever to load the first time (or after a content update), and despite me telling it not to send me notifications, it did anyway.

So, off the phone it goes. Bye!

Besides... it's mostly just an advertising ploy to try and get people to go see Phantom Menace in 3D, and drink canned iced tea.

Didn't work.

<p>Three words: Midway Arcade.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Umm... Sale.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Yeah, that&#39;s three.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Recently, I wrote up about <a href="http://www.atariage....t/">Namco&#39;s misguided efforts</a> to bring their classic arcade games to iOS devices.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Well, it&#39;s nice to know someone at Midway reads my blogs (okay... I can&#39;t actually back that up), since they&#39;ve just released Midway Arcade, which does this sort of thing the right way.</p>
<p><br />
First - price is 99&cent; up front (introductory sale). For that, you get&nbsp;Spy Hunter, Rampage, Joust, Root Beer Tapper, Defender, Arch Rivals, and four non-video arcade games: Air Hockey, Arcade Basketball, Pool, and Roll Ball.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>For a buck.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Paying attention, Namco?</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Then, you can buy three-packs of other games (NARC, Total Carnage, APB and Gauntlet, Gauntlet II, Wizard of Wor), also for 99&cent; each.</p>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>The whole thing is nicely presented in a <a href="http://www.cinemarca...4.html">virtual arcade</a> (and it looks like they&#39;ve left a lot of room for additional games), including a redemption center for tickets you can earn. A nice touch.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Emulation (presumably) so far is spot-on. Defender and Joust are both excellent, if a bit slow (something I&#39;d attribute to my iPhone 3GS).</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Midway bought out Atari Games, so hopefully we&#39;ll get to see even more of their classics added to the mix as well. And while Wizard of Wor is available, it may be too much to hope for Gorf, since it included both Taito&#39;s Space Invaders and Namco&#39;s Galaxian in it. But maybe we&#39;ll at least get to see <a href="http://www.cinemarca...html">Kram</a>. </div>

Three words: Midway Arcade.

Umm... Sale.

Yeah, that's three.

Recently, I wrote up about Namco's misguided efforts to bring their classic arcade games to iOS devices.

Well, it's nice to know someone at Midway reads my blogs (okay... I can't actually back that up), since they've just released Midway Arcade, which does this sort of thing the right way.

First - price is 99¢; up front (introductory sale). For that, you get: Spy Hunter, Rampage, Joust, Root Beer Tapper, Defender, Arch Rivals, and four non-video arcade games: Air Hockey, Arcade Basketball, Pool, and Roll Ball.

For a buck.

Paying attention, Namco?

Then, you can buy three-packs of other games (NARC, Total Carnage, APB and Gauntlet, Gauntlet II, Wizard of Wor), also for 99¢ each.

The whole thing is nicely presented in a virtual arcade (and it looks like they've left a lot of room for additional games), including a redemption center for tickets you can earn. A nice touch.

Emulation so far is spot-on. Defender and Joust are both excellent, if a bit slow (something I'd attribute to my iPhone 3GS).

Midway bought out Atari Games, so hopefully we'll get to see even more of their classics added to the mix as well. And while Wizard of Wor is available, it may be too much to hope for Gorf, since it included both Taito's Space Invaders and Namco's Galaxian in it. But maybe we'll at least get to see Kram .

And yes... I once again intentionally left a broken blog comment in place. That is exactly how it posted the first time, so I'm leaving it there, and I'll continue to do this until this stupid blog software gets fixed!

(Edit: That sounded a bit grumpy, didn't it? Here, this should make it all better: )

I'm less than impressed with the controls for Midway Arcade, at least on my iPhone 4S.  The graphics are nice (although the arcade itself is a little over the top), but the controls seem to be flaky (at least in the default "fixed" configuration, and Spy Hunter in tilt mode).

Hmm... if WB/Midway thinks they can make money at $1 on the iPhone, I wonder if they could sell 'em on Steam at a reasonable price.

I don't know if they'll ever get traditional controls to work right on a touchscreen device. The lack of tactile feedback just makes that an uphill battle all the way. I figure if they can get it reasonably playable, that's about as good as we can expect, short of using some sort of add-on.

Spy Hunter is pretty-much uncontrollable, I'll admit. But then, it's really hard to replicate its controls anyway (analog steering and gas, gear shifter, multiple weapons buttons, etc).

I thought Joust and Defender worked pretty well, except for a sluggish feel (which I can only attribute to my 3GS, without having played it on newer hardware).

Well, it's that time of year. Spring - when optimism reigns, and the cold, harsh realities of life haven't yet reared their ugly heads. Where anything seems possible, and hope springs eternal. Of course, I'm talking about baseball, and my annual purchase of MLB.com At Bat. The app that lets me listen to the Mariners lose wherever I happen to be. (Although at the moment, they're 6-1 in Spring Training, but that doesn't count.) I may be buying an Apple TV soon, so I'm hoping if I upgrade to MLB.tv for the season, I get some sort of discount.

There are a couple of apps coming up I'm looking forward to - Burnout: Crash and Angry Birds: Space. I'm a big fan of the PS2 Burnout titles, and Angry Birds w/Space Wars physics - what's not to like?

And while not an iApp, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Intuit FINALLY released an OS X Lion-compatible version of Quicken. Admittedly, it's Quicken 2007, but it means that finally, after almost five months, I can at last unplug my old G5 iMac, which I'd kept around solely to balance my checkbook.

This sums up my feelings about Quicken.  I switched to iBank last year, a month or two before Lion came out to make sure it would work for me.  It did - I'm never switching back to Quicken.

I considered switching and would have, if they hadn't announced they were going to do this. I figured I'd wait it out and see what happened. It doesn't bother me that it's five years old, since it does everything I need it to, and it finally works on my new iMac.

That doesn't mean I'm particularly fond of Intuit or how they treat Mac users, but for less than the cost of a pizza (which is my benchmark for spending money, oddly enough ), I figured it was worth getting. It works just like the old Quicken, which is fine with me. That's all I wanted.

Of course Mountain Lion will probably break it all over again.

I'll give them this much - at least they actually called it what it is: Quicken 2007, and didn't try to pass it off as Quicken 2012.

And then...

I picked up MLB.com At Bat for 2012. It's an annual tradition. Plus, if you like baseball it's well-worth getting (and I only sort-of like baseball), and I like having the ability to listen to any game from anywhere.

This year, I went a step further though, and also got MLB.TV Premium. This lets you watch almost any game from your computer, iPhone/iPad or Apple TV (and several other supported consoles). For less than a buck-a-game, it's not a bad deal, but it's still pretty pricey. Hopefully the Mariners will make it worthwhile.

Yeah... well... hope springs eternal and all that.

I also picked up Netflix and got a free trial, because just being able to watch 162 baseball games on my iPhone didn't seem like quite enough video. Although that had more to do with buying an Apple TV than anything else.

To further expand my iPhone's usefulness, and because I had to drive up to Fresno and back recently, I picked up a Belkin TuneCast Auto Live, which is a transmitter that plays your iPhone music library through your cheap, factory car stereo via FM, when you don't have an auxiliary input, cassette deck, or any other means of plugging into it. You can also download ClearScan Live, which uses GPS positioning to help you lock in unused radio frequencies, but frankly, the device itself did that just fine without the app. The audio quality is fair, stereo separation is almost nonexistent, but hey - I can now listen to my iPhone in my car, and didn't have to replace the stereo. I only ran into interference once, although I suspect keeping my radio's antenna retracted probably helped. Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with it. At some point, I'll get a proper stereo, but for now, this works.

Then, I bought Angry Birds Space. This expands the Angry Birds formula with variable gravity, small worlds to orbit around, and, of course, space. It really adds a nice extra dimension to the game. Some people are complaining that you have to pay an extra 99¢ to unlock extra levels, but all I have to say about that is... it's 99¢ you whiners! You can't even buy a can of Coke™ for that anymore. Get over it. Buy the game and the extra levels. For $1.98, it's good, time-wasting fun.

Then, so I could watch even more video on my iPhone, I downloaded the free The Master Golf Tournament app. But that's over now. Anyway, it was free, so keep an eye out for it next year. Leader board updates, live video feeds of Tiger self-destructing. Can't beat that.

Kairosoft (makers of the excellent Mega Mall Story and Game Dev Story) released Epic Astro Story. In this RPG, you're colonizing an alien planet, sending out away teams (with characters like James Turk and Jean Vicard), battling aliens, building habitats, drawing in visitors from other worlds... this is a deep sim. I've only scratched the surface of it, but it's already proving to be just as fun as Kairosoft's other games, and even more so because of its sci-fi connection. Check it out!

And finally, a game I've been waiting months for: Burnout CRASH! The crash mode in the PS2 Burnout games was excellent. You'd fly your car into a busy intersection or freeway, and smash up as much traffic as you could, using explosions to propel your car around and rack up points. Ah... good times. Good times.

Unfortunately, the iOS version of Burnout CRASH! is terrible. The controls (which involve lots of swiping) are all-but-useless. They should have tilt controls, or an optional D-pad. Or something. The graphics are so tiny they're effectively illegible on my iPhone. And worst of all, the game just isn't fun. There are many, many other, better racing games on the iPhone (including ones where you crash into stuff), and this is completely unlike the console Burnout games in every way, shape and form. Avoid, avoid, avoid! Maybe consider picking it up for an iPad next time EA has it on sale for 99¢, but for all other devices at any other price, it's a complete waste of time.

let me know what you think of Netflix.  I've just signed up with Amazon Prime and have watched a few things(Forbidden Planet, Sons of Anarchy, Farscape, Mythbusters) so far via my PS3.  Picture quality's quite good, though they're letter boxing everything, making people look short & fat.  I dropped them a note and apparently it wants to be configured for 720p, but my HDTV only supports 480i, 480p and 1080i via component video (it predates HDMI by a couple years) so it's using 480p.  They just added PS3 support and I suspect they wrote it with the assumption that 480 is only found on a 4:3 display while 720 is 16:9.  The help desk forward my comments to their video team, so I'm hoping they fix it in an update.

Over the air supplemented with streaming video is part of my plan to ditch DirecTV later this year.

I'm going to write-up a separate blog entry for Netflix pretty soon. So far though, I like it. Well worth the $7.99 a month, I think.

Just picked up Edge, since it was recently available for free and is well-reviewed. It's an interesting platformer, where you roll a cube around a blocky terrain (think Marble Madness - with a square marble). The controls could use a little work, since I often find myself overshooting where I want to go, but the game has got a very cool look to it, and some neat puzzle elements. Haven't tried the sequel yet.

Midway Arcade has been updated with iCade support, although that doesn't do much for my iPhone.

I've had an FM transmitter for the iPod for year (replaced the cassette adapter).  The problem I find is the antennas in my cars are too good - they manage to pull in stations which are very weak.  This makes finding a quiet frequency next to impossible.  There's also regions of the city where we get a lot of interference and some LED traffic lights seem to kick out a lot of RFI.  One of the items on the next car wishlist is an AUX jack of some sort (along with parallel park assist).

not yet, but there are new iCade models in the pipeline that'll work with your iPhone.  I'm planning to get the iCade Mobile.  The iCade 8-Bitty looks slick too.