(Insert stupid Blog name here)

$1.99 marked down from $27.99. Now that's a bargain!

It's still overpriced.

Yeah, Defender is just horrible. Stargate / Defender II is amazing by comparison!

 

Thanks for the writeup on the iPhone 5, Nathan. The photo of the Defender box is astounding for a camera phone. It's amazing how far we've come in such a short time. My iPhone 4S takes good photos, but obviously they've further improved the camera in the 5. Thanks also for the photo of the various connectors--I hadn't realized the Lightning connector was quite that small, and I'm glad to hear it clicks into place (is it magnetic?). The old dock connector was such a pain, especially in the car.

 

A Bluetooth car stereo would be awesome. I wonder how the fidelity compares to using a cable?

 

..Al

I don't think there are any magnets used in the Lightning connector - I think it's just a spring clip in the port that grabs tiny detents in the sides of the connector. Far and away better than the Dock connector, which always felt uncomfortably "crunchy" when plugging it in.

 

I would think a Bluetooth car stereo should work pretty well. Maybe not as good as a cable, but a lot better than an FM transmitter. Bluetooth or not, I do want to get something better than the stock unit my Subaru came with. It's not critical since I don't do a ton of driving, but it's on my "someday that would be nice" list.

Re-trying more games that ran marginally on my old 3GS. I already mentioned Real Racing 2 and Asphalt 7 (both highly recommended - the former being Gran Turismo-ish, the latter being more like Burnout), so I also decided to give Batman: Arkham Lockdown another try.

 

It's still a lousy game. The graphics look better now, but no matter what hardware you run it on, it's still just another stupid random-flailing beat-'em-up fighting game.

Okay... now this is fun. My old iPhone had limited ability to stream content to my Apple TV. But my iPhone 5 can fully stream whatever's on my iPhone to it.

 

Better still, some apps - in this case Real Racing 2 - can use the Apple TV as a second screen. The iPhone becomes the control (with handy info, like a full course map, split times, etc) while the Apple TV (and my HDTV) becomes the display. The graphics are astonishingly good, too. Somewhere between a PS2 and PS3, I'd say. It's amazingly fun, and works really well.

 

Not so well, is Asphalt 7. I just get a black screen and a rear-view mirror. Not so helpful. I'm guessing a software update must be down the road shortly.

 

Other games will also display on the HDTV, too, but if they aren't designed to work with it, there's a lag that gets introduced that makes them unplayable. It'd probably be fine for something like Game Dev Story. However, if it's a touch-based game, you still have to look at the iPhone to see what you're doing. Still, it's a lot of fun. Great also for mirroring videos, music, or just the audio from whatever game I'm playing. It's been some time since I've had a game of any type hooked up to my TV.

 

I'm not sure now if this makes me want to buy a PS3 more, or less.

 

On to another couple of revisits.

 

One of the last games I wrote up in the previous iBlog was Crystal Caliburn. Still great fun - and check out the difference between how it looks on my 3GS and my 5 (click for full-size):

 

 

Also, I decided to check out the Atari's Greatest Hits collection again. Not so successful... seems an update is in order here, too:

 

 

In the new games front, I decided to give Activision's remake of Pitfall! a shot. (It wasn't supported on the 3GS, so I couldn't get it before.)

 

It's an endless runner, very similar to Temple Run. But it does add a few twists of its own, which help distinguish it from being just a copycat game. For one, you have a whip.

 

And... I'm sure there's something else, too.

 

Well, at some places, you can choose to run up ramps, instead of on the main path.

 

And... oh yeah, the camera. It moves way off to the side sometimes, apparently to try and mimic the look of the original Pitfall! more. But I think it's more distracting than innovative. Still, if you can pick it up for 99¢, it's a pretty decent game, and a nice variation on the Temple Run genre.

Picked up Super Mega Worm because a friend recommended it, and more importantly - because it was free.

 

I guess it's a throwback to the SNES/Genesis era. You control a huge segmented, carnivorous worm digging through the dirt, and have to eat whatever is walking around on (or flying above) the ground to keep going. And that's pretty much it. Sort of like the movie Tremors, but without Kevin Bacon. For free, it's entertaining for a short time, but I doubt I'll be revisiting all that much. Just not enough... depth.

A Bluetooth car stereo would be awesome. I wonder how the fidelity compares to using a cable?

We drove up to Wisconsin in my folk's new Passat, it has bluetooth support. Sound isn't as good as the direct connect in my car, but I suspect most people won't notice the difference and it is much better than FM transmitters that I've used in the past.

 

Only thing I didn't like about the bluetooth connect is that when the car connects to the iPhone, it starts playing music on the iPhone even if BT isn't the selected source. The bluetooth connects right away as the car has hands free calling - it'll even dial via voice commands. The car does the voice commands as "call my brother" doesn't work when dialing with the car, like it does when dialing with Siri, so I have to say "call Shawn".

When I say "call Shawn" I get an entirely different person. Weird.

Carmageddon is here!

 

No, not the boring California version.

 

Rather, the 1997 classic hit-and-run driving game in the same vein as Exidy's Death Race (or Death Race 2000).

 

I played this thing to death on my Mac. I even bought a 3Dfx card for it. I also bought the Splat Pack expansion pack, which wasn't even made to run on Macs. But someone had figured out an AppleScript that would install the necessary files to make it work, so I played that to death. Then I bought Carmageddon 2 and... well, you get the idea. More playing. More death.

 

There was another sequel that never made it to the Mac (just as well - the original developers weren't involved, and by most accounts it was pretty bad), and some ports/adaptions on other systems, but then nothing. The original developer (Stainless Software) didn't have the rights to the game, and nobody else seemed interested.

 

Then not too long ago, they bought the rights back with the intent of making a brand-new version of Carmageddon. To help fund it themselves, they ran a very successful Kickstarter campaign, and now they've released a port of the original game on the iPhone (and eventually the Android... but whatever*).

 

Originally, they were contracted to port the game to the Gizmondo. Although that fell through, they were able to build off the work done on that for the iOS version.

 

The end results are fantastic! Sure - the game heavily shows its 15-year-old origins - the models are low resolution, the people in the game are 2D sprites (think Wolfenstein 3-D), and it lacks much of the polish of current games. But the over-the-top, goofy cartoon violence of the original is intact. It's still a fun game to play, and it actually looks and runs better than the original ever did on my old Mac. The frame rates are smoother, the graphics look better, the load times are fast, and the overall experience is considerably better**. Even the touch controls (which are fully customizable) work really well - once you dial them in to your liking. You can also create, edit and upload instant replays to YouTube directly from the game.

 

It's not everyone's cup of tea, of course. Either you get it, or you don't. The nice thing is that for the first 24 hours (check your local time) it's FREE. Even so, I would have gladly paid for it. But I really didn't want to wait an extra 24 hours for the privilege.

 

Anyway, I highly recommend you check it out. If you were fan of the original - they did everything right in bringing it to the iOS. If you never played the original, well, grab it while it's free and give it a shot.

 

Hopefully, it will be successful enough for them to add the Splat Pack as downloadable content.

 

 

*I find it interesting that there's this whole culture of Android users with a superiority complex who absolutely hate the iPhone, iPad, all related iOS products and their users. And it ironically grew out of people who used to call Apple users "arrogant".

 

**It still amazes me that the phone I carry around now has more RAM, more storage, a much faster CPU and far better graphics than the Mac workstation I bought in '96 - even after repeatedly upgrading it over the course of eight years.

Some more apps for the new phone...

 

Mikey Shorts released a special Halloween version. I think it was free, because I downloaded it. More of the same, but still a good platformer.

 

Okay... I may be the last person on Earth to "discover" Spotify, but it's awesome. Well, at least it was until the free trial ran out. The desktop app, fortunately, still works, albeit with ads. It's great to be able to listen to a lot of oldies that I would usually just listen to on the radio, but wouldn't actually buy on albums. Lots of greatest hits stuff - Chicago, Doobie Bros., etc. The problem? Almost no ELO. Shame on 'em. I can live with the ads. Free is good. The iApp however, is not.

 

He-Man: The Most Powerful Game in the Universe. A tongue-in-cheek throwback to He-Man, which I used to watch on TV (and I'll admit - I wasn't exactly a kid when it was on, but even then it was campy fun). The game is a pretty standard beat-'em-up. But if you liked He-Man, you could find worse ways to spend 99¢.

 

Wreck-it Ralph. Not to be confused with Fix-it Felix, Jr. Felix is free, Ralph is not. But Ralph includes Felix, plus two other games loosely based on the movie (which I have yet to go see): Hero's Duty (a top-down, dual-stick Robotron-esque shooter) and Sugar Rush: Sweet Climber (a Doodle Jump clone). They updated Felix as well, rounding out the gameplay so it feels like a more polished, complete game, but not quite fixing the controls enough. Two words Disney: customizable layout. Learn it. Live it.

 

Also played my way through Carmageddon. Twice. Still a lot of fun after all these years, but doesn't take all that long to play through (unless you go for all achievements). Still, despite it being free when I got it, I would have gladly paid for it. Here's hoping they add the Splat Pack someday.

Got my eye on one of these. Hope it ships soon... it's gone through seemingly countless revisions, but looks like they've really got a solid product now (I was one of the ones suggesting they ditch the analog stick in favor of a D-pad, since tiny little analog sticks never work right).

 

So, onto the recent acquisitions, shall we?

 

That would be Angry Birds Star Wars. I was also going to get Need For Speed: Most Wanted, but I'll wait until EA has a 99¢ sale again.

 

Anyway, Angry Birds Star Wars is pretty awesome. They did a great job bringing the two together (see also: chocolate and peanut butter), by loosely retelling Star Wars using Angry Birds. They've updated the birds' abilities (The Force, Lightsabers, lasers) and it all works really well, and adds some new dimension to what had become a bit of a tired formula. There are also more levels on the way from Empire and Jedi, so that makes the 99¢ well worthwhile.

 

The only thing that could make it more awesome? Lego Angry Birds Star Wars.

 

Now we're talkin'!

Tons of games on sale this weekend in the U.S.:

 

EA/FireMonkeys/Chillingo/PopCap

 

Gameloft/Sega/Everyone else

 

So why wait in line at a store to spend money, when you can do it from the comfort of your own computer? Go forth and buy some games! (I did.)

Want:

 

Got a whole bunch of new games, thanks to various Thanksgiving weekend sales:

 

Vectrex - The Vectrex emulator is finally out, and it's free! If you just want to play MineStorm, that is. You have to pay $7 if you want the rest of the games, but it's well worth it to support a project like this. Not all of the games are available yet, but more are to come, and they're also offering homebrews (which they refer to as "indies") as DLC as well. It's pretty cool, although better suited for an iPad than an iPhone, since some of the graphics get so tiny, they're very hard to see. Also, it seems as if the overlays don't quite line up on an iPhone 5 - but without comparing it to the real thing, I can't be sure of it. Anyway, grab it!

 

Lili - A very highly regarded game, and on sale for 99¢, so I picked it up. It's like a very soothing version of Tomb Raider, with a pre-teen Lara Croft. But without guns. Or action. You walk around, meet characters, and casually explore. The graphics are lush, and the controls are superb. There's not much in the way of action so far, but I don't think that's really the point. I haven't played very far into it, but I'm looking forward to more.

 

Need for Speed Most Wanted - On sale last weekend, this is worth the full price. It's probably the best arcade racer on the iPlatform yet. The graphics are incredible, and the gameplay is a blast. It seriously made me wonder why I was buying a PS3 last weekend. Games like this are why consoles are going to become the niche market in video games.

 

Crazy Taxi - Speaking of consoles, I own a Dreamcast (it's somewhere around here), and if you own a Dreamcast, you probably owned Crazy Taxi. This is a spot-on port of the original. While I was never a fanatic about the game, it's fun for a quick blast once in awhile. And again, it was on sale.

 

Galaxy on Fire 2 - Hey, it's free! Free is good. It's a third-person shooter with a convoluted storyline. I'm waiting for the action to pick up, but I guess I have to slog my way through some more asteroid mining to earn some weapons and a better ship. Graphics are great, controls are decent. But again - free.

 

And a couple of non-game apps:

 

Black Friday Survival Guide - Very handy app if you went out shopping on Black Friday. It pulled ad information into one handy place. Don't know if they're going to update it for Christmas sales or not. Once last weekend was over, I was done with it.

 

Alaska Airlines - I generally fly Alaska Airlines, so I thought this would be handy. I was hoping I could search for fares/seats/tickets, but you can't. It's basically just to use with already-booked flights. So we'll see how it works next time I actually go somewhere.

Can more fun be had for 99¢ than an app that talks like William Shatner?

 

I don't think so. Or rather...

 

Ya' miss me? Well, I was gone for several weeks on vacation in Seattle. And while I was there, I discovered something about my iPhone 5.

 

LTE is fast.

 

How fast? 9.35 Mbps download, 9.27 Mbps upload.

 

Outside of the city, it "slowed" to 5.49 Mbps down, 2.5 Mbps up.

 

By a point of comparison, my AT&T U-Verse Wi-Fi typically runs about 5.25 Mbps down, and .9 Mbps up. I can't get any faster speed than that, either - the phone lines in my building can't handle it.

 

I'm thinking Time Warner is starting to look good to me again.

 

Anyway... I picked up some apps over the holidays.

 

Smash Cops Heat is a sequel to Smash Cops. It's a top down car-chase game where you ram bad guys off the road. It's a decent game, good graphics, but it's real selling point? It's free. (Although they'll happily sell you in-app purchases, of course.)

 

Google Maps is back, baby! And it's free! And it has turn-by-turn navigation! It's only noticeable downside? It can't access your Contact list. But I would think they'll fix that at some point.

 

Arc Squadron is an on-rails space shooter. It's not bad. I think it must have been on sale or free when I bought it though, since I can't see spending $2.99 on it. You fly, you shoot, you buy upgrades, you do barrel rolls. It's powered by the Unreal™ Engine, if that tells you anything. It reminds me a bit of M.A.C.H. 3.

 

Disney Super Speedway - ugh. It's a Disney XD/Channel cart racer of sorts, with pretty bad controls and graphics. But again - it's free. Or go play it online.

 

Super Hexagon is super-hard. Very highly regarded/reviewed game, but be prepared to lose. A lot. Another one I must have picked up cheap or free, because again, not something I'd spend $2.99 on. Cool-looking though. Might play better on an iPad, since the widescreen of an iPhone puts you at a disadvantage in how much of the rotating playfield you can actually see.

 

Lost Treasures of Infocom - I can't tell you how many hours I spent playing Zork on the UW Vax back in the day. Zork is free - other games are in-app purchases (sadly - no Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Do I really need to read the leaflet to you?

 

The Weather Channel Max - why they named it Max, I'll never know. But I was in Seattle... so I needed a good weather app. This one is top notch. There's also a free version available, but it doesn't have as many goodies, and has ads. Well worth $3.99 if you need to know what the weather is going to be doing.

 

Finally, there's WRC: The Game. Wonder how I missed this one? Anyway, it's a rally racing game, featuring cars and drivers from the WRC. Also based on the Unreal™ Engine. It's a decent game, especially for being free. Controls aren't as fluid as some other racing games on the iPhone though. Maybe they'll improve them for next season.

Something new has been added...

 

 

I can finally play my iTunes library in my car! My original factory stereo had no hookups, aux. jacks, cassette player, nothing I could use to connect my iPhone. I've used an FM transmitter, which worked fine for a trip up to Fresno, but anywhere near a city and forget it. Plus, the sound was never that great.

 

This (a JVC KD-R80BT) has USB connections, an Aux input, and Bluetooth. Bluetooth is the business, too. No plugging in. Just start the car, wait a moment for my iPhone to connect, and it just plays audio through the car stereo! There's some controllability of the iPhone via the JVC, but I haven't delved into it much beyond Previous/Next Rewind/Fast Forward. I haven't gotten into selecting songs from menus and such. Frankly, I'd just as soon set up a playlist before I leave, and forget about it. I don't like to fiddle around with the iPhone while I'm driving.

 

USB will charge the iPhone and also provides controllability as well, but I don't have a spare Lightning cable for the car yet. I don't plan on using the Aux connector, or the included mic for "hands free" calling. I don't want the mic cable strung all over my car. Plus, again, don't like using my phone while driving. Even hands-free. Too distracting. And frankly, annoying. If I really want hands-free, I'll buy a Bluetooth Uhura-ear-thing. So both connectors remain buried behind the dashboard. The USB cable I routed behind the dash and into the unused ashtray. Neatly tucked away until I need it.

 

The unit also plays CDs (I probably won't get much use out of that, but wanted it anyway), and you can play Pandora (whatever) through it. Plus you can play music off USB sticks. Again, something I'll probably never use.

 

What I like about the JVC is it isn't like a lot of after-market car stereos I've seen that are just horribly designed, with unreadable interfaces and idiotic control layouts. This is pretty simple, easy to read, and doesn't want to make you run an ice scraper across your eyeballs. This is simple, clean, and could almost pass for factory gear. Which brings up one of the cooler features - you can color-match the lighting to your liking. The controls let you select from about 30 presets, or use RGB sliders (!!) to fine-tune the colors. In my case, I wanted to match the almost-green of the rest of my dashboard (it's especially effective at night). Or, if you want, you can have it run in a sort of free-for-all demo mode where it changes color all the time. Uh... no thanks. I'm pretty sure tacky is still "out".

 

Crutchfield is a good source to buy from, since they have car-specific instructions for most makes and models of cars, and included the necessary wiring harness (although I had to do the soldering). The instructions weren't perfect, but they showed me 99% of what I needed to know (the other 1% being minor stuff like needing to leave off the trim ring around the faceplate, in order to get the dash back together). Not sure yet if I'll replace the stock speakers or add a small under-seat subwoofer, but given that I can listen to whatever I want to now, whenever I want, I'll be more inclined to consider it.

MAME has sneaked its way back into the AppStore, courtesy of Gridlee.

 

It's free. It can run other MAME ROMs via i-FunBox. Grab it now. You just know Apple is going to yank it. Don't say I didn't warn you!

More fun!

 

Back when my 3GS was dying (the battery wouldn't hold a charge) I debated whether to try and wait for the iPhone 5, or get an interim 3GS through Apple's "Battery Replacement" program (which doesn't so much replace the battery, as the entire phone).

 

Since I didn't think my 3GS would make it, I opted to get the replacement for $79. Fair price, I thought, for tiding me over. Plus, I could then pass the phone along to someone else to use, since it would be a perfectly good, brand-new phone.

 

Almost...

 

Y'see, the 3GS was definitely new, but I don't think it was "new" new. I think it was "new old stock" new. Why? Well, while the battery fully worked and held a charge much better than my old one, it still didn't fully hold a charge in stand-by mode for more than a few days. It would completely drain down, with no usage. That, plus the 3GS's ever-diminishing compatibility with new apps, made me think it was probably just as well not to pass an old-new-old phone onto someone else (when they'd still be stuck with AT&T anyway, and might as well get a newer iPhone 4 for free).

 

So what to do with it? Well, Reuse, Recycle and Resell. Apple has a Recycling program for their gear (in partnership with PowerON). So I plugged in the stats for my 3GS, and guess what it was worth?

 

$75. Shipping and packaging was even free. Admittedly, that's in Apple Store credit, but I'll spend that no problem. So in the end, the replacement 3GS cost me $4. Not a bad deal.

Cool! Asphalt 7: Heat is free today, and Need for Speed: Most Wanted is on sale for 99¢. Grab 'em up!

Hey look! More stuff...

 

Cubed Rally Redline is a sort-of endless-runner version of the earlier racing game Cubed Rally Racer. Nice isometric graphics, and fine for a quick pick-up-and-play.

 

Temple Run 2 - well, if you haven't figured out what this one is, you've probably been hiding under a rock. Some nice improvements in this sequel - curved paths, zip lines, and other stuff probably borrowed from other games that essentially ripped off Temple Run in the first place. Still good fun though.

 

The Act - a modern day take on the Dragon's Lair genre of interactive animated cartoons. Here though, instead of merely reacting left or right or with a fire button, by swiping more or less to the left or right, you control the degree and type of action your hero takes. Too much, and other characters will react negatively. Too little, and he won't accomplish his goal. Absolutely gorgeous animation and character design, and a fun story once you get into it. Highly recommend, and a very different iPhone experience. The free "lite" version is called The Act: Arcade.

 

Gridlee - the obscure arcade game prototype manages to defy all odds and remain in the app store. I have yet to try adding other... "features"... to it yet. Need to try that.

 

THX tune-up - a simple but effective home theater calibration app. Only really useful if you can mirror video out via HDMI or an AppleTV. No substitute for a proper calibration disc, but it's cheap and it works. Plus if you like annoying your neighbors with the THX "Deep Note" you can play that from the app, too.

 

EDGE Extended - First there was the puzzle game Edge, now there's its sequel. More puzzles, more variations. A pretty cool game, but the controls still make it too easy to make fatal mistakes.

 

Google Drive - Got Google e-mail? Use Google apps? Want to use them on your iPhone? Well... don't bother. Even with this, the experience is pretty terrible. Probably works okay on an iPad, but iPhones were not meant for spreadsheets.

 

And finally...

 

Hackycat - Yes - it is exactly what you think it is: Hacky Sack played with cats. And it... is... awesome. Now I actually like cats, but is there anything as fun as trying to keep a bunch of them in the air by kicking them repeatedly? No, no there's not. At least not until the novelty wears off. But the thing is - besides being a ridiculously funny concept - the game is actually fun! The gameplay is oddly similar to Circus Atari. Except instead of clowns, it's cats, and instead of balloons, it's "cheezburgers". Yep - keep the cats in the air, and collect floating "cheezburgers". There are different cats you can "adopt", power-ups you can earn, and characters you can unlock. And the cartoony graphics are funny, appealing, and really well done. Good sound effects, too. Oh, and watch out for the exploding birds. Cat owners who don't have a sense of humor need not bother. For the rest of us, this is another one of those games that comes along that's perfect for the iPhone. A quick pick-up-and-play game, appealing graphics, perfect controls, and if you feel somewhat guilty - remember that by keeping the cats aloft, you're actually saving them. From exploding. How can anyone object to that?

I bought the Act and managed to play it though (although I think I had to resort to a walkthrough). Like DL, it's beautifully drawn but the controls are weak. The idea of changing the character's actions by swiping left & right is good, but for some of the scenes it's simply not intuitive what you need to do. And there's a whack of timing too - the right move a little early or a little late fails too.

I agree - most of The Act seems to be trial and error. I bought it more for its lush animation than anything (it was on sale for 99¢ at the time). I was never a fan of Dragon's Lair back in the day. I thought it was a really cool idea, but more fun to watch than play.