http://www.osnews.com/story/15846/Top_Ten_Requests_for_Future_iPod_Games Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2012, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:08:33 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://www.osnews.com/thread?162637 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162637 I do not own an ipod so am not aware if these games are already included in it. But here goes...

Snake - love playing it. And it can be played with the scroll wheel

tetris - Involves rotating the blocks that fall down and then a left or right movement.

rallyx - a game where you try and retrieve all the flags before fuel of your car runs out or your car gets caught by those chasing you.

ChromiumBSU - a game in linux which is remarkable in its graphical effects as much as its simplicity. It is built using opengl.

MsPac - the sister/girlfriend of PacMan ;-) much tougher to win but more enjoyable than pacman.

dig dug - Another great classic game

Pengo - a game where you control a penguin to slide the blocks to trap and kill all the ghosts.

I know a lot more ... but these are those that come to my mind as of now. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 08:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (jbalmer) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162638 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162638 I am afraid all the ones you mentioned either exist (pacman, tetris), or they are completely unusable with the scroll wheel. Snake and DigDug are impossible to move correctly for example. Only for Pengo might be possible. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 08:45:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162639 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162639 As someone who played bomberman a lot, I really don't see how it could be made to work properly with the wheel.
You need to be able to change direction very quickly and sharply, and the wheel doesn't seem conductive to that.

Having played it both on various concoles and on PC (Atomic bomberman), I think that without any doubt the best input device for that game is the keyboard. Atomic bomberman is much, much faster than most versions of bomberman, yet it is very playable thanks to the keyboard. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 08:52:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (MORB) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162640 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162640 Yup, which is why I noted in the article that if Pacman is actually among the games currently I don't see why a slower version of Bomberman couldn't. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 08:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162645 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162645 Snake and DigDug are impossible to move correctly for example. Only for Pengo might be possible.

I have snake game on my mobile phone. So I do not think it is a problem to play using scroll wheel. Since there is only the X and Y movement, scroll wheel can be no problem to use. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 09:23:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (jbalmer) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162646 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162646 Well, problem is that the clicking buttons of the scroll wheel are used mostly for menus instead of movement. If you use the four buttons as movement how are you going to exit the game? The scroll wheel must be the movement, and that's why Snake wouldn't work well. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 09:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162647 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162647 By the way, rockbox includes several games (including doom). It's a good way to see what works and what doesn't.
I tried it on my ipod nano. Exiting games is often a problem as they don't seem to have figured a standard way to do it (in doom for instance you need to flip the button locking switch twice to get to the ingame menu)

Using the wheel buttons as directions didn't seem very practical either. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 09:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (MORB) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162651 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162651 Well, problem is that the clicking buttons of the scroll wheel are used mostly for menus instead of movement. If you use the four buttons as movement how are you going to exit the game? The scroll wheel must be the movement, and that's why Snake wouldn't work well.


So how would bomberman work well? I really can't see the difference between digdug, pacman, snake and bomberman in this respect. I can't imagine an easy wheel interface for chess either.

Your other 8 though would be pretty neat on an iPod. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 10:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (danio) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162658 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162658 What about DOOM 3? Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Vai777) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162659 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162659 Frogger

Master Mind

Donkey Kong

Sokoban

I wonder if Apple will release a iPod game development environment - integrated in Xcode ;-)
That would be cool! Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:14:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Ralf.) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162661 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162661 SquereEnix made Final Fantasy for every platform they canned.
The I&II version il simple enough to use with iPod. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:24:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (JohnOne) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162664 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162664 Won't work, too much poligons for the actual iPod hardware. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (diegoviola) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162674 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162674 It's not a real gaming platform unless it's had James Pond 2 ported to it :3 Fri, 15 Sep 2006 12:10:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162677 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162677 AcidSolitaire for the Palm has the most brilliant control scheme ever. All you need is "down" to highlight playable cards, "select" to select cards, and "up" for undo. That's it! Fri, 15 Sep 2006 12:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Galley) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162679 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162679 Pong. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 12:29:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom_Holwerda) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162684 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162684 Well, if Apple provides an SDK in the near future there are many developers that would jump right in at the opportunity (including me)

In the mean time, this is what is currently known:
http://www.bensinclair.com/article/whats-inside-an-ipod-game
http://ipodlinux.org/IPodGames Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (PowerMacX) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162686 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162686 Having some little experience in the amateur games programming field, I was wondering where and how can one write a game for the iPod?

Thanks for the links. It looks like it can't be done "so far". I was thinking about "Galaga" Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Gryzor) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162691 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162691 The must port one/two button game of all time: "Bouncing Babies". Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Sphinx) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162697 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162697 I'd like to see a multiple player setup, using the included USB cable and plugging into a central hub. This would work especially well for the Hold 'Em game.

I used to have something similar (albeit, more primitive) on my old TI-85 calculator; I was able to play a 2-player Tetris game, "sending" cleared lines to the other player. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (LobalSurgery) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162698 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162698 Pong.

Hehe. Well gen5 iPods already come with a "Breakout" clone, that's like son-of-Pong :-). Pong's only fun against other humans anyway. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Tyr.) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162699 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162699 The "Galaga-like shoot'em up game in a circular axis" that you mentioned was called Gyruss. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (benhourigan) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162700 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162700 I'd like to see a multiple player setup, using the included USB cable and plugging into a central hub. This would work especially well for the Hold 'Em game.

Why not buy a deck of cards ;-) ? Seriously though, the other day I saw a woman on the train with a 17" wide screen laptop. She was using it to play Solitaire ! Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:10:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Tyr.) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162705 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162705 it'd be neat if they'd come out with a small gamepad/joystick that would connect to the dock connector to facilitate more games. I'd buy it. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:42:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (polaris20) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162708 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162708 I am surprised no one has said it yet....

Scorched Earth It would be perfect with the interface and its got to be one of the best games of all time. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Dually) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162710 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162710 Seriously.

Interact, pickup, throw etc with the middle button and walk in different directions klicking N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W and NW on the scroll wheel.

"You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully."

A lot of old games have been very well rewritten for the Sony PSP and it is not impossible to do the same for the iPod. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:09:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Network23) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162719 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162719 I own a 4Gb iPod nano. Apple says that the games are only for the 5th Gen. iPods, not iPod nanos. Yet someone said there were 3rd party games for the iPod nano?

Back to Graphic/Text adventures. I'd love it. Especially, if they did an updated version of Penguin Software's (now called Magic Tree) "The Quest" and "RingQuest" by Dallas Snell. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:41:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Luposian) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162738 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162738 Haha. I am sure a music player can handle real-time lighting, shadows, high polygon count, high resolution bitmap textures, etc.

However I think there is classic Doom for iPod? Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:00:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Xaero_Vincent) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162753 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162753 You upload a high contrast image of yourself to the iPod. It uses crops out everything from the image except your body. A black outline is defined and you add joint points on the image. Now the iPod draws a version of you dancing around like one of those fruit pies in the Apple commercials as a visualization.

Not really a game, but it would be pretty hilarious. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (setuid_w00t) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162755 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162755 At the arcade it used a joystick with a rotating handle to rotate your character so he could shoot and shoot in another direction. Maybe it could be like rotate with the scrollwheel click on the directions on it to move around and press the middle button to shoot. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (smoke) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162765 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162765 Thanks, I updated the story with the information and added a screenshot. Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162771 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162771 ZX Spectrum has many classics

Trans Am, a drive around the States game; catching flags.

http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/01/trans.html

The pics tell what it's all about! Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:51:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (akauppi) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162774 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162774 Another vote for this game!!!! It would be perfect on the iPod! This and bejeweled .... Fri, 15 Sep 2006 18:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (badtz) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162802 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162802 As someone who has actually played these games, I think you don't understand how versatile the controls can be.

For pac man, you do not "scroll" the wheel.  The wheel is divided into four sections (up, right, down, left) and you tap in the appropriate direction to move pac man.  It's very natural and similar to a gamepad (though admittedly larger).

Any game that can use a game pad and a single button could use this interface effectively.

Disclosure:  I am currently finishing an internship at Apple, though not in the iPod group.   Fri, 15 Sep 2006 21:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (redson) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162920 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162920 Snake could work with a wheel. I remember using a snake clone that I controlled with the mouse (right/left). Instead of making 90 degree turns, you had a more "fluid" motion. Sat, 16 Sep 2006 08:03:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (kmarius) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162942 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162942 And, cut the crap about slower games for older people... we invented this world. :-) Sat, 16 Sep 2006 12:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (imoretti) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162951 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162951 GAMES?!? FROM APPLE?!? Mein gott, that's like the Vanilla Ice, Snow, Eminem and Kid Rock getting together to tour - an impending sign of the apocalypse...

Oh wait, what's that? Half games that were old a decade and a half ago and limited if no REAL gameplay because you're stuck using that crappy little wheel which sucks for controlling audio playback, much less something more complex? Gameplay that's outdone by most cell phones introduced five years past?

Ok, sounds like Apple again. Sat, 16 Sep 2006 14:12:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (deathshadow) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?162971 http://www.osnews.com/thread?162971 Several of these or clones of these games such as chess & Puzzle Bobble are already availlable for the iPod. Atleast I have them on my iPod mini. I'm using Rockbox instead of the original software.

Some of them look like interesting additions though. It would never be something I would pay for though. (But I also wouldn't pay for music, so it's quite possible others will.) Sat, 16 Sep 2006 17:29:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Z_God) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?165263 http://www.osnews.com/thread?165263 I like some of the suggestions but my #1 is Lemmings! The control can be done by using an outer button to toggle between tool mode or lemming assign mode and then using the wheel to scroll through tools or through remaining lemmings. Select chooses tool or lemming to operate tool depending on current mode. Another outer button can be pause/continue.

I hope they also make a sudoku game (that is my #2). I play that all the time on planes while listening to my iPod right now - it will be nice to ditch the paper and pencil. Mon, 25 Sep 2006 03:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (rangernine) Comments