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Activision Anthology in the App Store tonight!


Flojomojo

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Yeah, it didn't show up for me in the appstore when I read this, but it did later in the day. Very well done app, with manuals, trivia/tidbits, lots of control options, and faithful to the originals. After the Pitfall! update, Activision is on a roll with these retro favorites!

Edited by moving2
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Just downloaded this a little bit ago. Very good pricing - $6.99 to unlock every game is spot-on.

 

Haven't played it much yet, but already ran into one issue - the blue colors in Seaquest are so close to each other, I can't see the divers (it's worse on my iPhone under room light w/reflections):

 

post-2641-0-07054400-1346315369_thumb.png

 

For comparison's sake, Stella:

 

post-2641-0-81685900-1346315409_thumb.png

Edited by Nathan Strum
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It won't run on my second generation iPod Touch (of course not! silly me for thinking such a graphically powerful title would!) but I already have this collection on GBA anyway so it's no big deal.

 

How would you say this compares to the GBA version? I would guess Kaboom runs better, trying to play that with a d-pad is impossible, but as to the other non-paddle games, is this new collection better or worse than the GBA one?

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the blue colors in Seaquest are so close to each other, I can't see the divers

 

Thanks for catching that. An unfortunate thing is that I have atypical colour vision. Low sensitivity in red, high sensitivity in blue. So, I didn't notice this. I kinda rely on QA to catch these things. :)

 

Touch controls in general don't work well for classic games. And so far, that applies to these games too.

 

Which scheme(s) are you using?

 

 

It won't run on my second generation iPod Touch (of course not! silly me for thinking such a graphically powerful title would!)

 

It's not so much the graphics power as the iOS version (though the front end is 3D). A lot of 3rd party support is abandoning iOS below 4.3. So, for example, I don't think the Game Center or Facebook functionality would be fully available below iOS 4.3.

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Which scheme(s) are you using?

 

Virtual D-pad + button. I haven't played around with it much yet. The problem is largely due to the lack of a physical, centering joystick and tactile feedback. One thing that would help, is that when you moved the joystick onscreen, you would see it move. You see the direction points light up, but don't see the "stick" part of it move with your thumb. Also, being able to control exactly where the directions of the joystick are triggered would be nice. You can scale it to some degree, but I mean being able to have absolute control over the threshold where it registers a movement.

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Which scheme(s) are you using?

 

Virtual D-pad + button. I haven't played around with it much yet.

 

You should try the Follow Touch modes.

 

Also, being able to control exactly where the directions of the joystick are triggered would be nice. You can scale it to some degree, but I mean being able to have absolute control over the threshold where it registers a movement.

 

That is what the scaling does. It registers movement when your finger leaves the centre circle, which is the dead zone. By scaling it up, you make the dead zone bigger.

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That is what the scaling does. It registers movement when your finger leaves the centre circle, which is the dead zone. By scaling it up, you make the dead zone bigger.

 

 

Ah... I thought that was just making the control pad larger or smaller. The onscreen instructions only say it's adjusting its size - not the dead zone. I looks like you're adjusting the size of the virtual D-pad, and it took me awhile to figure out it extends out far beyond the graphic. Maybe the control setup screen would be clearer if it showed the area covered by the D-pad (broken into 8-zones for each direction), and overlaid on that was the dead zone/center. I wasn't sure how much area the D-pad covered.

 

Anyway, I found that scaling it down as small as it will go seems to work better. The Follow Touch modes always seem to result in my finger getting in the way of things I need to see.

 

Also, I'd suggest making the onscreen fire button red-orange. Green just seems wrong somehow. ;)

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On a 3GS, the picture is really "dirty" and "washed". On a Retina iMachine (iPhone4, IpodTouch4, etc), the picture is "clear" and "nice". The 3GS picture should be fixed: it's very horrible.

Also, colours seem to suck in many games; they seem so "wrong".

Perhaps a "pause" button in the upper left corner should be great (better than clicking on "options" for a pause).

 

Is the emulator good enough ? Can I try my own homebrew game with it ? Or does it work only with real genuine Activision games ?

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So, just curious, what can those of us running Android devices use in terms of hardware controls? I've been trying to use a Wiimote that I have (though it has analog issues with the Classic Controller), but what about other devices like an iControlPad, Zeemote, PhoneJoy, or a PS3/360 pad connected via USB?

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So, just curious, what can those of us running Android devices use in terms of hardware controls? I've been trying to use a Wiimote that I have (though it has analog issues with the Classic Controller), but what about other devices like an iControlPad, Zeemote, PhoneJoy, or a PS3/360 pad connected via USB?

 

My understanding is that Android devices can use any USB controller. I have yet to try any, so I couldn't tell you if anything works better. I suppose it is time to do some research.

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Well, it depends if it's an emulator or a port of these games.

I have the feeling it's a port, and so it will prevent you from adding your own games to the library.

- It's an emulator.

- Roms can be found in app's directory.

- One can put another rom by overwritting a genuine rom.

- But... emulator is not perfect. Some things seem hardwired with genuine roms.

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I picked this up over the weekend as well -- my 15 y/o son actually found it first and showed it to me. He's actually been playing a few of the games in between the more modern games he also plays on his iPad. And I'm just happy that I can play Pitfall and Pitfall II anywhere I happen to be -- my GBA has been retired to the game shelf for a while now, so this is a much appreciated app.

 

As for older devices, it's not as much the capability of the device as it is Apple's support for the device. iOS has been progressing at a very fast rate over the past 5 years and it is much easier to support the most recent iOS versions rather than trying to go back and support them all. Apple has made things a lot easier for developers in later versions. And with those improvements, developers can spend more time on the things that matter more in the app rather than replicating functionality that Apple provides on earlier versions of the OS.

 

EDIT -- wanted to also point out that it appears that the TV screen with the game preview is actually running the emulator. If you watch closely, you'll see that the screen image transitions to full screen when you start a game. Very cool, IMO. Also shows just how powerful these devices are -- it's emulating a 2600 while also running a 3D UI as well. I still remember machines that couldn't emulate the 2600 at full speed back in the day... :)

Edited by SmileyDude
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On a 3GS, the picture is really "dirty" and "washed". On a Retina iMachine (iPhone4, IpodTouch4, etc), the picture is "clear" and "nice". The 3GS picture should be fixed: it's very horrible.

 

The problem with 3GS vs. 4 is that the 3GS is lower resolution: 480x320 vs. 960x640. Scaling the Atari 2600's 160x224 (or so) image up to 480x320 without antialiasing causes noticeable aliasing. That is, the pixels end up all different sizes. The only alternative is anti-aliasing, which smooths out the image, but smoothing means it will be less crisp. So, what you're seeing on the 3GS is the lesser of two evils. If it's any consolation, we felt this was the better solution since the original Atari 2600 on an NTSC television was far from crisp.

 

Also, colours seem to suck in many games; they seem so "wrong".

 

Earlier in the thread there was a mention of a blue balance issue in a couple games. FWIW, NTSC means "Never The Same Colour" :) and our reference may have been off. We'll tweak that next chance we get.

 

Perhaps a "pause" button in the upper left corner should be great (better than clicking on "options" for a pause).

 

We didn't want to clutter up the screen with extra buttons when Options practically does the same thing.

 

- Jeff

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I just wanted to commend the Code Mystics team on another great job. The controls could still use a bit of refinement, but "follow touch" works especially well on paddle games... i.e. Kaboom! I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for an Activision Anthology on the iPhone and I have played Kaboom! on my phone every day all week.

 

Pitfall II is tough with the touch controls though.

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I just wanted to commend the Code Mystics team on another great job. The controls could still use a bit of refinement, but "follow touch" works especially well on paddle games... i.e. Kaboom! I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for an Activision Anthology on the iPhone and I have played Kaboom! on my phone every day all week.

 

Pitfall II is tough with the touch controls though.

 

Thanks!

 

Yeah, unfortunately there's no perfect way to do a joystick on a touch screen. Even when someone likes it, what works for one person may not work for the next. We try our best to provide a number of options to different tastes, but there's no getting around the fact that twitch games need some sort of tactile feedback. (It's always frustrating when App Store reviews say "fix the controls" as if there was an obvious solution.)

 

- Jeff

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@JeffVav I think something else some people might not get is that with the joystick games, movement isn't going to be instantaneous. If you hold the joystick in a particular direction, you're going to move in that direction at a fixed speed. That doesn't translate well to the touchscreen and doesn't feel the way people expect it to.

 

Therefore... it's all your fault, right? ;)

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