@Cpt_Bongwater:

the iPhone is one of the best portable gaming systems out right now

Ok, seriously, you should have stopped before this sentence!

EnigmaNemesis

Although there ain't jack shit out officially for the phone or touch, you guys realize you can run Scummvm on an iPhone or touch. Monkey island, Sam & max, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Broken Sword 1 & 2 just to start...the iPhone is one of the best portable gaming systems out right now

Cpt_Bongwater

Well, the SDK will be usable on iPod Touch as well.

Llydis

Apple just needs to make a deal with DoCoMo to port moble games in Japan's mobile phone network to America. How many gamers wouldn't pay to play the many beautiful games that have been released on the platform? Granted, we have our PSPs and DSs for our mobile gaming fix, but the Japanese game developers have turned the mobile phone into a robust gaming platform. One which, a deal like Apple/DoCoMo would not only bring great games to the US, but might seal Apple's hold on the mobile phone market.

Even if it's not through Apple, I'd still love to see Japanese mobile phone games in the US. Besides, I want my Final Fantasy 4: The After: Return to the Moon GODAMMIT!

WillSerenity

do i pod touches fit into the category of mobile gaming? As in will we be seeing games coming too it?

lifeinthefridge

Apple still doesn't have completed the iPhone SDK to give to us third-parties. And even when it comes, our options will be Cocoa and Smalltalk :(. Or a yet incomplete homebrew GCC4.x toolchain. The former runs under OSX, the latter - under Linux. Nothing for the vast majority of developers, who use Windows. [we have a tonne of Win32 tools to make mobile games with, nothing on OSX or Linux]
[though, I haven't plunged into the subject yet, as we have a heap of projects to complete beforehand in our company].

The four good features about the iPhone are: a good 620MHz ARM cpu; a single screen-size with touchscreen; high-capacity storage; high count of customers. But honestly this is far from groundbreaking, revolutionary or even evolutionary. Been there, coded for that.

somarix

I'd be interested in mobile phone games if most of the ones I've played were good. Playing Sim City on my mobile phone is kind of depressing. I mean it's nice to play Sim City, but the play area is small and if I wanted the same experience I'd probably be better off buying the DS Sim City.

Llydis

Meh, it just sounds to me like this Boatman guy is just whining because more and more people are buying the iPhone instead of the Nokia where his company's crappy games are being released on without getting a piece of the pie.

If you've got a good idea for a mobile game- put it on a handheld system, not a phone. If you're just producing shovelware, don't whine when nobody wants to buy it.

crosswayboy

Apple are supposed to be releasing dev kits Q1 this year I think? It'd be awesome if the Kingdom Hearts cell phone game was on it.

XAnthonyX

The real problem with mobile gaming is the simple fact that phones aren't a very good gaming platform. The best phones are reasonably small, lightweight and designed around one-handed usage. The best mobile gaming systems (ala` DS) are controlled with two hands, have larger screens, gaming-specific controls etc.

The iPhone is arguably one of the worst platforms; with no physical buttons, you're limited solely to the touchscreen for input and touchscreens suck as D-pads - no tactile feedback. (Not that there won't be plenty of innovative and good games for it, but there'll always be inherent limitations.)

freakout

@Bonz117:

that's really unnecessary. excessively unnecessary.

Anyway, onward and upward. While mobile gaming is a very popular medium (and hugely popular), I've seen a constant theme of having very shallow games on mobile phones. While it's kind of unfortunate that (a sub-section of) industry feels that the iphone is a detriment to the industry, I wonder if when the distribution platform is advanced... would the iphone be a badass little game playing machine?

viciousvariable

@Bonz117: ...

What are you talking about? Also, I think you meant unlock. Unless your unlocking attempt resulted in bricking it. Whoops.

Grave

I'll prolly get bant for this but just had to.
Bitch: Having a high opinion of your looks and a sense of entitlement when people compliment you. Your ego is usually punctuated with a "hottie" shirt, which makes you slightly less tolerable to be around than children, and slightly more tolerable to be around than a saucer of goat cum.

Man, that's funny.

Bonz117

"Red lipstick makes you look like a clown"
Bermashave

Bonz117

I'll take the woman on the right please.

Digitalguardian (GOD DAMN EWOKS!)

That Iphone is pretty nice if you can unbrick it. Ebay's got software to free it all up quite nicely. With a touch secreen it has potential for quality games, if it'll ever get around to it. Probably a new device will be in place by then.

Bonz117

=D That site rocks, to stay on topic, I don't really know if it alone is killing the mobile gaming market, I don't really care though for the most part phone games suck.. But the Iphone is wasting a lot of it's potential with Apple's craziness.. If it wasn't for itunes, I would go out and buy an Ipod Touch right now..

Meh, my posts sounds so weird, /tired..

katorok

@katorok:

"Truck Balls" as a suggestion for those who bought Crocs ... ROFL!

EnigmaNemesis

When will women notice they look GOD AWFUL with red crimson lipstick, see this link for more scroll down to the red lipstick part =D!!

[www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net]

katorok

@eleventeen: Constipation? I'm sure they wouldn't be thinking anything else... :|

freakout

@Draconis: Yup, I agree. It's well-suited to simple puzzle games and stuff like Brain Age - and devs are certain to come up with creative new control methods based on finger gestures and the like - but the bottom line is that certain genres (action, fighting etc) will never be as much fun without buttons to mash.

freakout

@Draconis: If they put Puzzle Quest on the iPhone, my bathroom breaks at work are going to get longer and longer. People are going to think something is terribly wrong.

eleventeen

@eleventeen: Yeah, I should've been clearer in what I meant by "a lot of mobile gaming." I was thinking of games that couldn't be easily controlled via a stylus like the ones you mentioned. And to add to that, I think Puzzle Quest could work well on the iPhone, too.

Draconis

@Draconis: The problem with this logic is that it discounts a pretty impressive handheld market that uses a stylus, the Nintendo DS. I could easily see simple Bejeweled and Sudoko games iterating on the iPhone and doing very well.

eleventeen

ok, ok I should have said "has the potential to be" first

Cpt_Bongwater

"New and Improved Joker Products!"

@freakout: The first mention about the possibility of video game emulators on the iPhone is what made me consider the limitations that a touchscreen and no physical buttons places on the possibility of the games could turn up for it.

If you've seen how the controls are set up for the iPhone PSX emulator that was recently shown, you can immediately realize how uncomfortable it would be attempting to play anything on it. The iPhone's touchscreen just isn't a feasible substitute for a standard pad, and I think that is what's going to hurt its chances of seeing a lot of mobile gaming.

Draconis

As cool as the iphone is it's pathetic how little the hardware is being taken advantage of. It's incredibly powerful for a phone and right now the most intensive thing it does in google maps. Not that any other cell phone games are good in the first place, but the potential is there as is being totally untouched right now.

t0yrobo

@L_K_M: Certainly takes more brainpower then being a fanboy for any one brand/company. I kid I kid!

TKWarrior

Oh, the lipstick, the LIPSTICK!!

Rule of thumb: unless you're a 1950s movie star in a black and white Chandler adaptation, you cannot wear firetruck red lipstick... Or unless you're Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction.

Huh, on topic: nah, nothing, sorry.

パラノイア

@Latonone: And by "worst," you mean "least insulting," right? You can burn every iTunes song to CD. You can put every iTunes song on up to five computers and an unlimited number of portable devices. Compare this to FairPlay, please, and explain to me how Apple's is the worst DRM.

@Moonshadow101: Except that Apple actually does release DRM-free music for all the publishers which allow them to.

It must take a lot of brainpower to find some reason why Apple is bad in every given situation. Why don't you people use your brainpower for something positive instead?

L_K_M

"Great news for Apple, crap news for the rest of the industry."

Actually, a kick in the pants of the mobile phone industry was much needed and is a good thing. Maybe we'll get some non-crappy phones now (i.e. phones that actually work the way they're supposed to, instead of trying to implement every damn feature under the sun).

Also, in february, Apple will release the iPhone SDK, and after that, we'll probably see a bunch of official iPhone games. I'm already playing a ton of games on my iPhone; ScummVM works really well, there's a port of Crayon Physics, and a ton of the usual suspects; Othello, Backgamon, Mines, four in a row, Solitaire and so on.

L_K_M

@Marlor: Similar to devs who claim that they wanted to give away maps on Live for free and Microsoft made them charge, you really shouldn't trust someone sitting on a boat in a sea of money, screaming "I really don't want all this money! Really! I wish you could have some of it!"

Moonshadow101

@Latonone:

Apple haven't been that bad with DRM. It's really the music industry that is demanding it, and Apple have been trying to convince them to switch to DRM-free music:

[www.apple.com]

Marlor

Apple is the company with the worst DRM in history. but ooh it looks so pretty and the design we love it...

friends with ipods complaining about itunes but when the nano came out they were all over it like cake jokes over gaming sites.

Latonone

Basically it just means people are giving up open-develeopment platform (razr/PC) for a platform ruled by a dictator(iPhone/Nintendo). You won't see any thing new and inovative from the genius indepedent developers, but you will still see games from the big companies like Gameloft and EA-Jamdat.

ssh83

@t0yrobo: Well, that's if it's unhacked... er... "ungodlified"

Krackatoa

I'd say the primary reason that there aren't more touch games being developed for the iPhone is that, as many users as it has, it is still such a microscopic piece of the market. There are about 1 million iPhone users out there, but over 250 million phones total. Any game developed specifically for the iPhone probably wouldn't turn as much of a profit as a game for standard devices.

That's not to say I don't agree developers should be taking a blow to their pockets to advance the market...just wanted to make that clear.

StealthBear

Speak for yourselves, the iPhone hasn't really made that much of an impact outside the US

brooza

Dont talk crap about Sarah shes is a very good person. The post is about the Iphone and not her.

ishadow

@StealthBear: The primary reason there are not more touch games for the iPhone is that there is not SDK.

L_K_M

lol iPhone. All I want from a cell phone is the ability to call people. If I wanted to play portable games I would buy a DS. So I did. MKDS>>>tetris knockoff.

ZinkO

Hi Brian, thanks for posting my photograph. Guess what? I just dyed my hair blonde. Now you can see what I look like with blone hair here:

This photo was taken today:

[sarahmeyers.wordpress.com]

sarahm

iWhat? Honestly, I don't know anyone who even owns one of these things. They're a massive pile of wasted potential from what I hear. Only Apple could go "Let's make the best damn mobile phone ever, but not let anyone make any software for it!". It's right up there with the single-button mouse in the reasons I think Apple are retarded.

Sabre_Justice