iPhone gaming: a preview

Apple’s history with gaming is best left unmentioned. One of the company’s first memorable forays was the Pippin, a “multimedia platform” introduced in the mid-1990’s that saw little development and was discontinued soon after its release. The Mac platform, meanwhile, has long played second fiddle to a booming Windows gaming market despite repeated attempts to spur development. Anytime excitement builds around an Apple gaming initiative – id Software’s John Carmack appearing on-stage alongside Steve Jobs at WWDC, rumors of the company hiring high-profile game engineers – it seems to fizzle soon after.

With the iPhone, however, Apple has a fresh opportunity to assemble a robust, sustainable gaming platform with a wide installed base.

WWDC demos Third-party gaming titles filled the first two software demonstration slots during Apple’s recent WWDC keynote presentation: a clear statement of Apple’s intent.

Ethan Einhorn from Sega demonstrated Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone. The game features 110 levels, all four of the classic monkey characters with graphics on par with other handheld gaming platforms like the Nintendo DS. It’s controlled by tilting the iPhone, thereby exploiting the unit’s accelerometer, and will retail for $9.99 in the App Store.

Brian Greenstone from Pangea Software, a Mac game developer, showed off two games they had ported to the iPhone: Enigmo – a physics-based puzzle game and Cro-Mag Rally – a 3D caveman racing game. Both games also utilized the iPhone’s accelerometer for game control and will retail in the App Store for $9.99 each. The last game demonstrated and perhaps the most promising, comes from Digital Legends Entertainment. Due to be released this Fall, the title demonstrates the surprising graphics horsepower generated from the iPhone’s hardware.

Albeit expected during Apple-sanctioned demonstrations, developers heaped praise upon the iPhone SDK and the development process in general, claiming quick concept-to-product cycles.

A lot of these developers were praising the iPhone for it’s hardware and SDK. Both they claimed made the iPhone an easy and productive platform to do game development on. That’s good news for iPhone users.

Underground gaming

Apple’s focus on the SDK belies a thriving – in terms of usage, if not profit –unofficial iPhone gaming market. On jailbroken iPhones developers have written emulators for many popular video game consoles. Apple’s SDK agreement theoretically forbids such emulators, meaning they likely won’t make their way into the AppStore. Among the more popular packages:

• iPhoneNES emulates the popular Nintendo gaming console.
• GpSPhone is a Gameboy Advance emulator for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
• Genesis4iPhone is a Sega Genesis and Sega CD emulator for the iPhone.
• Playstation is a PS1 emulator for the iPhone.
• ScummVM is an emulation engine that allows you to play popular LucasArts and Sierra games.

More iPhone Games Ambrosia Software, Inc. is developing a mobile version of their Aki Mahjong for the iPhone which is currently in a closed beta. According to their Web site:

“Ambrosia’s first game for the iPhone elegantly blends the ancient Chinese game of Mahjong with an enchanting journey across Japan. Designed from the ground up specifically for iPhone, it’s a modern fusion of two ancient Asian cultures, and is as much an experience as it is a game. Aki is easy to learn even if you still haven’t mastered chopsticks, so don’t hesitate to dive right in. We think you’ll soon find yourself captivated.”

Majic Jungle Software’s David Frampton is developing the game Chopper for the iPhone porting a program originally written for the Mac. David’s game according to an interview at Touch Arcade will be “controlled exclusively by tilting the iPhone forward and back, left and right. It actually means that unlike the desktop version it is possible to hover easily, and there is a fine control over the amount of movement.”

Freeverse has announced Wignuts Moto Race for the iPhone and they are providing a first look at the game limited by the SDK’s NDA. You can see the teaser information here.

EA and Popcap also claim to be developing games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. EA has released very little information about their activities outside of brief involvement with the iPhone Software Roadmap event in March. There they demonstrated Spore running on an iPhone and that announced other games were forthcoming.

Popcap already has a web-based version of their popular game Bejeweled online for free, and is planning additional titles.

Gaming hardware

With third-party iPhone games may come third-party iPhone gaming accessories. The iControlPad is an under-development but somewhat suspicious hardware docking station that provides physical buttons for the iPhone. The company designing the device claims that it will allow you to easily dock and undock your iPhone/iPod Touch and that no modifications are needed. The vendor is also providing source code and SDK support for developers. Their claims to have the support of “some of the biggest iPhone devs”. It should be interesting to see how this project takes off.

A waiting flood

Apple’s NDA states that members of the developer program shall not disclose any information regarding the functionality or makeup of the currently available, beta software development kit (SDK). As such, many developers are unsure regarding what exactly constitutes an NDA violation: pushing screenshots of SDK-developed applications to a Web site?; discussing application, but not SDK features with the press?

Specifically, Apple’s NDA reads:

“You agree that the SDK licensed hereunder, the terms and conditions of this Agreement, and any other non-public information that You learn about Apple’s products, designs, research, development, know-how, or Apple’s business, finances or personnel, or non-public third party information, in connection with this Agreement or in connection with Your use of any part of the SDK will be deemed ‘Apple Confidential Information’ under this Agreement.”

As such, a number of developers have remained quiet about their development plans — a situation that should change rapidly after July 11th.

Feedback? info@iphoneatlas.com.