jbanes

FYI, this is the last day you can get the game for $0.99. After today it goes up to $4.99. So grab a copy NOW! Especially if you want to enter the High Score Contest. And who knows? If your download is the 10 billionth download, you could win $10,000 from Apple!

@Howling - Nice of you to drop by! There are some great people here, so if you like classic gaming, I highly recommend following this site! @Jess - Cute. It's too bad there were never commercials for the computer game itself. BTW, there's a high score contest going on now. You can win some cool prizes! Details and official rules can be found at http://www.infinitesands.com.

If you have an iPad and enjoy classic, hardcore gaming, then you need to enter this contest! Simply purchase Coverfire HD ($0.99 this weekend, $4.99 after that) and get on the Game Center leaderboard by the end of the month. The top 5 scores will be awarded a free game of their choice -- up to $9.99 in value*! Details and official rules are available at: http://www.infinitesands.com Note that there are only 13 scores on Game Center as of this writing. That means that you only have to surpass 8 players to win! So get your copy for only a buck and win a prize! * US gamers will be gifted the game through the app store. International players will receive a PayPal transfer.

I was about to complain that what's REALLY needed is Radiant Silvergun. (I know, I know. Not actually published by SEGA.) Then I found this:

Absolutely! Why, I once ran it on a furby! BTW, where are all the new high scores, guys? I thought you guys ate hardcore games for breakfast! Don't let a measly 19,000 points stop you! Nah. AtariAge wouldn't wimp out on me. Would they?

I just got this from OnLive: What are you waiting for? Go play some free games!!!

I can't speak for Apple's rules since I don't know what happened with Kripto. I can say that Coverfire HD follows the rules religiously and (AFAIK) does nothing they'll yell at me for. The game passed through approval without comment. As for the game itself, I guarantee you'll get mired in it. The addiction is that strong. Don't believe me? Take one of the promo codes below and find out. Please remember that Coverfire HD is iPad only. MATWPAFNWX9N XNMWF7PEWK66 7YEHJHYLLMJ7 XPMRK7LWYAFR P3WPTRAEJNXK (If you take a code, please post here to let people know which one you took. Thanks!)

I'm sorry to hear that. I'll keep an eye out for your multi-game collection! Shhh! You're giving away the trade secrets! Yeah, I am looking at an iAds supported version for the future. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks Kripto! Let me know if you're interested in a promo code and I'll send one your way. I see you are also iOS developer? I grabbed a copy of your game and checked it out. Nice work! I love pinball games. I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more attention. Do you have any plans for a Universal release?

Depends on the game and how it handles the situation. Most games seem to have regular save points, so I have not lost any real progress yet. FWIW, I was extremely cynical that this was going to be a real, working product back when it was announced. As a software engineer by trade, it just didn't seem like it was feasible. But I have to admit, OnLive did it! They've managed to keep latencies low enough to where games feel just as good as playing them on a local console. Just with BETTER graphics. (Shocking! I know!) Even more impressive is that OnLive takes care of their customers like they're kin. For example, I bought a game for ~$3.00 when it was on sale. Just so I could say that I own a piece of the OnLive cloud. They rewarded me with a free month of their all-you-can-play service. No strings attached, just logon and play! It's too bad I don't like modern games more, because there was a lot of stuff there! (Don't worry. I did play some of it. ) I've heard of similar gifts being given to early adopters and people who ordered the console. Thanks to their generally excellent handling of customers, I ended up purchasing an unlimited play pass for Braid. Which works just fine with my Street Fighter IV game controller! Truly an excellent product. As it stands, I have a custom-built quad-core i5 system with 16 GB of RAM in front of me. There is very little it can't run. But with service this excellent, no-hassle execution of games, the ability to watch other people play before taking the plunge, time-limited demos of FULL games (which remember your progress if you buy them!), and other great features, OnLive is on my list of favorite companies. The only real down side (other than requiring a beefy internet connection) is that their game selection is limited. This is changing slowly, but changing nonetheless. I'm hoping that time will resolve this little problem. Especially once publishers realize that OnLive games can't be pirated and pre-release games to OnLive months ahead of console and PC. (Mark my words. It will happen.)

There seem to be a lot of fans of the original Crossfire. Yet none of the clones (the few that there are) really capture the original. So I set out to create the best clone yet! Coverfire HD captures the intensity, speed, and addictiveness of Crossfire. All with crisp graphics, edge of seat sound effects, and trace inducing music! More info here: http://www.infinitesands.com Would you believe that Crossfire was the first video game I ever played? I was five years old and my mother got our family a used PCjr. (Which I later realized had been upgraded to not suck quite so badly. ) It came with Links, Microsoft Flight Sim, and Crossfire! It seems kind of cruel now to let a 5 year old play such an insanely difficult game. Yet the game clearly left it's mark. And not at all a bad one! I have a few promo codes to give out if anyone is interested. Just post here if you want one and I'll PM it to you. Remember that you need an iPad to play! Sorry, the iPhone and iPod will not work! Enjoy everyone! What players are saying:

Those of us with iPhones have been playing the game for some time now. It's a pretty decent title, though a bit generic at times.

I don't think it's as big of a problem as it seems at first blush. The viewer is generally going to be looking at the screen from an angle. (Above looking down.) That angle appears to mostly clear the area blocked by the joystick. So it should be kosher should ThinkGeek decide to manufacture these items. FWIW, I can't help but think that they went to a surprising amount of effort to create this. Perhaps they are using April Fools to test the market a bit?

Just wait until the second generation of iPads is released in 6 months. After that, you'll be able to get the first gen for a song and a dime. As a bonus, older generations tend to be easier to jailbreak. So you'll be more able to run something like MAME on it.

FWIW, ThinkGeek has actually turned April Fools products into real products in the past. It's all about customer demand. If everyone uses that form on the "purchase" page to tell ThinkGeek they want one, ThinkGeek might actually start making these cabinets.

Didn't think you needed an iPad? Think again! CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW!

The floor dots were an EPIC idea! It made it so much easier to explain to random lost people how to get where they're going. "Just follow the stickers on the floor. You'll find it!" The Sheraton definitely felt *different*, but not necessarily bad. If anything, the MGC has grown so much that it's absolutely killing conference centers. It almost needs to take over two or three big conference areas in some of the really large hotel conference-centers like you find in Wisconsin Dells. Or perhaps it's time to move up to an Expo Center? Any way you cut it, it was a great time! There was so much *stuff* it was overwhelming. In addition, the presentations were pure awesomeness followed up by even more awesomeness! Eugene was great, as was the Sword of Fargoal guy, and the IDGA meetings managed to be quite interesting. I'm sorry I only managed to spot a few Atari Agers. I seem to have bumped into quite a few more Commodore Computer Club folks. (Who are all members of the WI IDGA? I'm sure I'll figure it out someday. ) Hopefully next year I'll run into even more of you guys! Thanks again to the organizers, vendors, hall owners, presenters, and anyone else I missed for a great time! You guys are pure awesome!

If it's not too late, I'll take a badge too. (If it is, don't worry about it! I'll dig up my old one. ) I'm looking forward to seeing all of you guys again and catching up on what I've been missing over the last year! If anyone is interested, feel free to stop me and chat for a bit. I know I've been gone for a while, but I've managed to fill that time with some pretty cool classic stuff for the Wii, DSi, and now the upcoming iPad! Can't wait to see you all again!

I see someone else is familiar with Microsoft's business practices. Kudos, sir!

You guys really aren't following the words I am writing, are you? Well, never mind then. It's a waste of my time to explain. Milo is fake. That much is clear. Think what you will about the rest.

As you said. We'll see. I think you're a bit confused. What I'm complaining about with Microsoft is a more systematic problem than just overpromising and under-delivering. If that was all it was, Microsoft would have been out of business years ago. I'm specifically complaining about their use of calculated techniques intended to disrupt the market and prevent competition from getting a foothold. Insomuch as gaming is concerned, we haven't seen a lot of that. Which I've been thankful for. But the Milo demo tells me that Microsoft is back to their old tricks. Microsoft could have simply shown Natal as it was and life would have been good. But instead, they made a calculated play to convince consumers that they want to wait for the "something special" that Microsoft is doing. Such a play won't work in the gaming industry for the reason you mentioned. i.e. It's quite common to over-promise and under-deliver. But just the fact that Microsoft is falling back on their old tricks has me annoyed. Especially while they fight hard to keep their piece of crap web browser on the market while simultaneously singing the praises of web standards. In short, Microsoft's bullshit transcends gaming and really has nothing to do with this three-way horse race. I'll probably insult half of the users here by saying this, but anyone who believed Sony's hype was a fool. Sony lives in their own little dreamworld where game consoles have better graphics than professional rendering packages, evil terrorists import PS2s to make nuclear bombs, and the "emotion engine" is the most powerful processor EVAR. (Note: PS2 was the weakest system of the last gen.) Thankfully, the vast majority of PS3 users had slightly lower expectations. I think everyone was used to Sony's hyperbole by the time they were releasing the PS3. The mistake the market made was in thinking that Sony would continue to dominate just because they dominated the last generation. That honor belonged to the company who had set the lowest expectations in the market.

You're right. Aunt Trish will not go to the store for Wii Motion+. Aunt Trish will be going to the store and asking the nice salesman if they've got that new Wii Sports with the frisbee throwing she heard so much about. And therein lies the secret to Nintendo's success with motion controls. They distill down the most basic version of a lot of fun activities, then package them up in a non-threatening presentation that suggests they have as little to do with "video games" as possible. Then Aunt Trish buys it because it seems like so much fun and she doesn't have a place to put up her badminton* court. If new hardware is required, they just bundle it. The bundling gives the hardware an instant 25-50% penetration of the Wii console market. * I love badminton. I wish I had a place to put up a badminton court.

Just saw this on another forum. This is awesome! (Make sure you listen to the audio.)

Looking back at what I wrote, I don't see anything that would suggest that. Still, I apologize if you got the wrong impression. The Wii Remote is an interesting problem. To a certain degree, it did revolutionize gaming. At least insomuch that it introduced motion control as a viable control method. The fact that competitors are trying hard to implement competing solutions says that Nintendo succeeded in that respect. Where Nintendo fell flat was in setting expectations. They tried to show off some neat stuff the remote could be used for and the market ended up getting the idea that it could do 1:1 control. Of course, there was a huge disappointment when sword fighting was just slashes, when golf had imprecise putting, and when objects couldn't be manipulated without the assistance of the on-screen cursor. The introduction of the WM+ is obviously intended to repair that oversight. That's true for the Wii today, but it's not really true for the 1:1 control schemes. The 1:1 options will allow actual manipulation of on-screen objects. At least, in theory. Both Nintendo and Sony have proved the necessary precision. Microsoft... not so much.

In all fairness to Microsoft, they purchased a company who was developing a binocular camera system for tracking objects in 3D space. While I think Microsoft is overplaying Natal's capabilities, I also think that the system they acquired probably gives them a bit more capability than most camera tracking systems. IMHO, Sony's approach was a bit smarter. The bulb on top of the remote is easy to track, thus giving 3D positioning with television orientation thrown in for "free". I suspect it also has a gyroscope for rotation (like the Wii Motion Plus), thus giving x,y,z coordinates AND the rx,ry,rz rotational information. Obviously a key advantage there is that there's far less need to rely on dead-reckoning, thus removing the calibration step required by WM+. My only concern with Sony's system is precision. I expect the same issue to crop up with WM+. Here we get into a philosophical difference where many of Nintendo's games won't require as much precision, with the common exception (FPSes) being better covered by the IR/sensor bar scheme. The difference can really be boiled down to realism (Sony) vs. arcade (Nintendo). Consumers will decide which one they want more.