iPhone Games Catch-All

I'd really like to see civ, risk, warcraft, or axis & allies on the iphone. That would be awesome.

Toy Bot is a lot of fun so I think I'll give Shaky Summit a chance.

SommerMatt wrote:
polypusher wrote:

Supposedly they made a change where you have to have purchased an app to write a review about it. Should improve the overall quality of reviews, since people are less likely to pay $5 to badmouth something.

Its not perfect, but it'll help. I imagine reviews will be much slower to build up now though.

God, what took them so long? Half the older game reviews were just people Female Doggoing about the price.

Hey that would be awesome if Amazon does something like that also

So far the best games I've played for the iPhone are Enigmo and Galcon. Simple concepts, good controls and solid execution. And Aurora Feint is a fun puzzle game--I love how rotating the iPhone integrates with gameplay--but I've found it gets repetitive and boring after a little while. Beyond that, I've tried CroMag Rally (decent, and worth the $2), Billy Frontier (garbage), and a smattering of free games. I can't resist artillery games so CannonGame has a place on my iPhone, though it's a too easy to hold my interest for long. And BlueSkies seems great in theory but the game just doesn't work for me in practice--I don't think I've ever actually shot down a blimp, I end up crashing into all of them instead.

Any suggestions? I haven't seen any big-name titles that I'd actually pay for (Star Wars, Spore). Frotz is a godsend, but I can't always have a piece of paper and a pen with me to take notes for the games it provides.

magnus wrote:

Another non-game post, but the iPhone Shazam app is freakin' amazing. At happy hour last night, a song came on, someone wondered what it was. I tagged it with the app and 10 seconds later had the band, song name, iTunes link to buy and a Youtube link to watch the video. Amazing that it works in a bar with loud background noise.

Very cool. I haven't had a song yet that Shazam was able to identify, but I remain hopeful

So at the moment i've got 8 months left on my horrific Sprint contract. The Treo is a total piece of crap phone. I'll never buy a phone with Windows Mobile again. It never tells me I have messages, doesn't lock & calls people from my pocket all the time, I have to re-set up my email configuration once every week or so to get it to download my email, emails I send from it take FOREVER, features seem to disappear for months at a time.. its just awful.

Does anyone know a good way to get out of a sprint contract? I'm going insane with this inoperative phone.

Wurdle is an excellent Boggle clone. The only improvement it could use would be dictionary links to the missed words that it shows after the time's up.

Does anyone know of an Aurora Feint manual or FAQ?

Edwin wrote:

Damn this looks good.

Yes it LOOKs good According to Touch Arcade there isnt much behind that pretty facade

Also, Apple lifted the NDA today on released software, so devs can at least talk about -finished- apps, making valuable post-mortems etc legal.

Edit: Has anyone tried Reign of Swords? It looks atrocious but it sounds like a pretty cool strategy game.

The Aurora Feint update adding community support has launched. Here's my friend code:

6g54l0rf

Name: Destrin

Add me! Add meeeee!!!

So, I lost all my games. I'm not sure which update caused it, but they are all gone. I have the free ones, just none of the ones I purchased.

- Super Monkey Ball
- De Blob
- Enigmo
- Bejewelled

Checked the iTunes default storage location, which has not been moved. All my music is still on there unscathed. Somehow it did not like the games I bought, but sure doesn't mind the free ones!

My only option is to buy it again from what I've been Googling, or if I beg them they will give me a "one time shot" and let me get everything again, but that sounds like a hassle.

Searched high and wide for the *.ipg files, etc. Very annoying. I don't understand how Xbox Live will let me re-download things I've purchased but Apple is being a stick in the mud. I'm not buying another thing on iTunes ever again if this means randomly losing my stuff due to crappy software or DRM with such a chokehold it screws legitimate customers.

Well, at least my music is fine, and I'm only out about 35 bucks. Could be worse. /rant

You should be able to re-download them without having to pay for them again. I've had to delete all my apps before and didn't have to pay for anything. Apps purchases (don't know about music) are linked to your account just like steam.

I get to the point that says "We will charge your credit card right now, is this ok?" and I bail. Shouldn't it be a little more intuitive?

Fieldrunners is a great Tower Defense game.
http://toucharcade.com/2008/10/06/fi...
No sound and only one map but it's a lot of fun. The map that is there has one open space and a lot of possible setups for the defense. There are four different tower types. Each has a specific function and each can be upgraded. The graphics are cute and remind me of Warcraft. The gameplay is addictive. Like Warcraft or Civilization it encourages you to play one more round. Like most iphone games it allows you to pick up where you left off. So far it is the one iphone game that has kept me up at night.

Touch Lux was just released. It is a Risk clone and it is free. The screen is a bit cramped (no support for zooming), there is only one level of difficulty (it is fairly easy), and you can't resume your game. The full version promises more ai modes and the ability to resume games. It is a decent risk clone but the additional ai modes and game resuming will probably be worth paying for. Not sure about the full version but you don't get to pick your countries or place armies before play begins. The enemy ai on the free game is a bit weak. They can easily be tricked into not attacking if your country isn't an easy kill. They don't seem to care about trying to take a continent away either. It lacks the graphics and polish of Fieldrunners but it is Risk and beating the computer is fun (at least for a while). Well worth trying the free version to see if you'll enjoy the full version.
http://toucharcade.com/2008/10/13/ri...

Dude..

Rogue is out.. and its Free.

Puzzle Quest coming sometime in December. I have a feeling it will drink aurora feint's milkshake.

I'd like their to be more meaty games for the platform. I know that goes against the ethos of the quick casual game that you can play on the bus, but I'd love for Civ Revolutions or a fairly deep RPG to get to the platform. I bet it's coming, the developers are just getting their sea legs.

The problem is that it's getting increasingly difficult to sell a game for more than a few dollars, so developing a meaty game is not economically possible without some other revenue stream. Even though the hardware can support DS or PSP level games, the market can't right now. I'd certainly like to see it expand in that direction though.

So what are folks playing consistently? I discovered Lux last night thanks to Souldaddy and I hadnt heard of it before (risk-like game) so I figure there are more.

Games I actually play daily:
-Field Runners (Great tower defense style game, worth every penny)
-Sudoku Unlimited (generates puzzles in 5 difficulty levels so it never gets stale)
-iChess Pro (Chess game with 8 difficulty levels and 2 player local play possible)

Really, you like Field Runners? Compared to other TD games, like DesktopTD or Onslaught, Field Runners just has no depth at all. Only 4 types of tower, linear 2-step upgrades, no combos, limited enemy variety, small map, no additional gameplay modes...

I paid for it and played it twice, wish I had my money back to put towards a better game. I recommend skipping this one.

Games that I'm playing fairly regularly:

Galcon Lite
Aurora Feint
Enigmo
SmartGo (not really a game, I suppose)

I've been disappointed by most of the other highly rated games I've tried. So far, iPhone games seem to lack depth or breadth of play, so I tend to stick with the games that do something simple very well. I'd like to see a solid RPG for the iPhone though. I had a bunch for the Palm Pilot so I figure it's only a matter of time before we see one.

Games I play:

Topple
Lux Touch - Has the full version come out yet?
Word Warp - Free
Sudoku
Vay - Final Fantasy 5 type RPG - Free
Jelly Car - It's free and I can guarantee you the music will be stuck in your head for days on end. It's great.

sa7an7 wrote:

Does anyone know a good way to get out of a sprint contract? I'm going insane with this inoperative phone.

Depending on which state you live in, you could get out of paying Sprint's early termination fees entirely.

Serengeti wrote:

Really, you like Field Runners? Compared to other TD games, like DesktopTD or Onslaught, Field Runners just has no depth at all. Only 4 types of tower, linear 2-step upgrades, no combos, limited enemy variety, small map, no additional gameplay modes...

I paid for it and played it twice, wish I had my money back to put towards a better game. I recommend skipping this one.

Those aren't on iPhone are they? :p I think Field Runners holds its own against those two. Its got great DS level graphics and a great degree of freedom when establishing your strategy, considering you play on an entirely open field. I like the upgrade options in Onslaught and it would be cool if they added those.

A recent patch added sound effects, a new map featuring crossing enemies and several creep types. If development is ongoing, it will only get better. I am hoping for more competition with Tower Defense games on iPhone though. Its a great platform for this type of time-waster.

Vay shows up as $5 on a current itunes search. Was there a promotion I missed?

polypusher wrote:

Those aren't on iPhone are they? :p

Well, they would be if apple would get off it's ass and allow safari to support flash. It's almost enough to make a guy switch to a googlephone!

polypusher wrote:

Vay shows up as $5 on a current itunes search. Was there a promotion I missed?

I don't think it was a promotion. I grabbed it within a few days of it being available and I do remember downloading it specifically because it was free. They must have tacked on the price after it had been out awhile.

Serengeti wrote:

Well, they would be if apple would get off it's ass and allow safari to support flash.

Don't hold your breath. My Verizon contract is up in March I'm hoping there will at least be a jailbroken solution by then.

For the old timers there is now Rogue for the iPhone.

A favorite on college Unix systems in the early to mid-1980s, Rogue popularized the dungeon crawling computer game dating back from 1980 (and spawned entire class of derivatives known collectively as "roguelikes"). gandreas software now presents the classic for the iPhone/iPod Touch:

Playable in either "ASCII" mode, or graphics mode (just rotate the device to switch)
Obscure keyboard commands replaced with a simple taps for movement, or a handy command picker.
Commands can also be activated by a unique gesture based command - want to search for a secret door? Swipe across the top of the play area (all the gestures are shown on the command picker for easy reference)
Graphics can be zoomed in/out via pinch
Completely faithful Rogue experience (all the levels, monsters, potions, scrolls, etc...)
Explore the Dungeons of Doom and retrieve the Amulet of Yendor, or die trying!

farley3k wrote:

For the old timers there is now Rogue for the iPhone.

I played this briefly yesterday. I like that it switches between text and graphics mode when you rotate the iPhone, even though I find the Rogue graphics to be too non-specific to be practical for serious players. Response is incredibly sluggish to the point where I thought the game had frozen a few times, and from there I learned that double-tapping a direction makes you run that direction (as opposed to queuing up successive moves). The command-list is handy, though I don't recall being able to "swipe" it to work my way down the list quickly. Overall, I'd say that Rogue on the iPhone is better than no Rogue on the iPhone, but the implementation still needs some tuning.

[edit]

Maybe next we'll see Nethack, Angband, or Omega for the iPhone!

Omega

Want now!

Nightmare wrote:

Omega

Want now!

Someone call me (on my iPhone natch) when Tarn gets Dwarf Fortress onto the iPhone. World creation in the palm of your hand.

But seriously, I wouldn't bug him so that he can get done what he's trying to do with the next version of Dwarf Fortress. I read his development notes and I start drooling somehow...