A developer behind the iPhone port of the FPS classic DOOM recently spoke out regarding the port project as well as iPhone development in general.

Developer Psychochromatic explains: “Looking at the hardware specs, I knew iPhone would be able to play a simple game like Doom no problem as it was open-source and already ran on the click-wheel iPod running Linux. I knew Stepwhite, who I work with on Mac projects, and as he’d just bought himself an iPhone and was working with the unofficial tool-chain I jokingly told him he had one week to port Doom to iPhone, and all it had to do was run; he didn’t have to implement controls. One week later, he proudly linked me to his Doom port homepage.”

The first build of Doom saw 15,000 downloads on the project site alone, even without a way to control the game. Once controller input had been included that version received over 25,000 downloads.

Behind the ease of development lies the iPhone’s inherent support for a full scale OS. “The iPhone runs OS X. It’s a full UNIX system in your pocket, with brilliant Objective-C frameworks that make coding beautiful and powerful applications a dawdle,” explains Psychochromatic.

Psychocromatic is not the first developer to expound the virtues of the iPhone’s rich, versatile, open development environment.  While writing iPhone apps was once a challenge, Apple’s release of the free iPhone SDK has made such projects “trivial.”

Apple’s iTunes App Store launches in June and the list of games that will be available at launch grows daily.  Stay tuned to keep up to date on just what download to expect on launch day.

In a bit of news from Down Under, retro gaming fans waiting anxiously for June’s arrival of the iTunes App Store have reason to rejoyce.  Developer Stuart Carnie has used the iPhone SDK to port Frodo, a popular Commodore 64 emulator, to the iPhone.

It appears that in only three days, Carnie took his project from concept…

As an Objective-C / Objective-C++ / XCode / iPhone development learning experience, I have began porting the Frodo C64 emulator to the mobile OS X platform. I chose Frodo, as I have experience with this code-base, and there is a certain satisfaction of seeing the READY prompt for the first time.

…to initial success; he has a working Commodore 64 up and running on the iPhone simulator.  Carnie indicates that his next steps will be to create a user interface to manage the user experience, such as implementing save / resume states, a file browser, auto-launching for games, and an on-screen virtual keyboard and joystick.

Interest in retro gaming today is huge — a quick look at the large number of retro remakes on XBOX Live and the Playstation Network confirms it.  The Commodore 64 is the most popular computer in history and boasted arguably the best graphics and sound of any 8-bit home computer of its era.  As such, thousands of excellent game titles were developed for it — arcade conversions as well as orginals. The promise of being able to scratch that retro itch by firing up a few of these classics on an iPhone or iPod touch while on the go has us rather excited, indeed.

A potential roadblock to mobile C64 gaming bliss on the iPhone is Apple’s possible stance on distributing emulators through the iTunes App Store.  The experience of using an emulated C64 is, by nature, a cryptic one to most users.  What’s more, emulators of this sort are usually dependent upon ROM images of the emulated system’s firmware which usually cannot be distributed legally.  Apple may have reservations about allowing such an application into the store.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed that Carnie’s effort will not be resigned to use only on jailbroken devices.

In March, Int13, a French mobile game developer, posted a preview video of their upcoming Crazy Kart 2 racing game for the iPhone. The Youtube video shows off their early efforts in porting to the iPhone with the official SDK. The final version of the game is due for a July release with the following features:

- 320 * 320 pixels playing area
- Touch controls with a virtual steering wheel
- 3 vehicle classes (karts, motorbikes, hovercrafts)
- 6 characters with different vehicles
- Downloadable content (new vehicles, new tracks)
- Wifi online multiplayer with match making and up to four simultaneous players

The developer states that the game runs at 60 frames per second and that they have plans for a full 3D accelerated sequel to the game in the future.

The iPod Observer has recently posted a review of EA Mobile’s iPod version of Hasbro’s classic roll-the-dice game, Yahtzee [iTunes link].  This modern reinvention features easy scorekeeping, multiplayer game modes, and simple click-wheel controls.

The iPod is a personal device: You listen to your music on it, watch your movies and videos, you get podcasts and audiobook that you like loaded up on it. It’s a small device with a small screen that is meant for private viewing.

Yahtzee, on the other hand, was created to be played with at least one other person, someone you can kid around with. Yahtzee solo just ain’t a lot of fun and playing against the computer is no good either. You need another person to play with.

That’s not to say Yahtzee for the iPod is not a well executed game, in fact I think its a game ideally suited for the iPod. The screen is simple and easy to see, the controls are equally simple and an absolute joy to use, and this version of Yahtzee is faithful to the original, almost to a fault.

I also believe that in situations where you and several folks are cramped into a small space for 30 minutes or more, on a road trip for instance, you’d be hard pressed to find a more suitable and fun game to play. You can’t hear the dice shaking in the cup, however, unless everyone has earphones of some sort. But then, that might not be such a bad thing because it’s likely everyone will be talking anyway.

Yahtzee works with the iPod (5th generation), iPod classic and iPod nano (3rd generation) and can be purchased through the iTunes Store at a price of $4.99 USD.

Boygeniusreport reveals that the latest iPhone 2.0 beta released to developers will allow users to watch embedded Youtube videos within Safari.

Finally we have YouTube support in the web browser! Don’t get extremely excited though; this is not Flash support. It’s a plugin that enables you to click on an embedded YouTube video, which will then in turn open up the movie player and stream the video.

While this is not directly gaming related, it will make it easier to navigate sites such as Touch Arcade where we embed a fair amount of Youtube content to demonstrate upcoming games.

While we wait for the official iTunes App store to launch in late June, I thought I’d highlight some of the better web-based games that have emerged since the iPhone’s launch.

Popcap ported their popular Bejeweled game to the iPhone and is accessible by pointing your iPhone/iPod Touch’s browser to Popcap.com.

The game works reasonably well over an EDGE connection and can be a good way to pass some time. The gameplay is simple: use your finger to swap adjacent jewels in order to line up 3 or more of the same color.

Polarbit has released an early version of their Raging Thunder racing game for Jailbroken iPhones.

Raging Thunder is a gut-churning, tire burning racer developed for a broad range of mobile platforms and handheld devices. Race against time, CPU controlled opponents or up to three other speed addicts in this fast paced and exhilarating coin-op style racing game.

A Youtube video of the gameplay was posted to Modmyifone. The game is available via Installer.app (BigBoss repository) for those of you with Jailbroken iPhones.

Ok, it’s not Mercury…but it just might be the next best thing.  And it’s definitely more of a “classic” than Archer MacLean’s modern take on it.  It’s Labyrinth for the jailbroken iPhone and iPod touch.  And it’s awesome — my personal favorite iPhone game, right now.

Everyone has seen the classic, physical manifestation of this game, where the player controls the slope of a wooden labyrinth by way of two knobs, the goal being to get a steel ball from start to finish without falling into one of the many holes along the way.  Good fun and frustrating as hell.  We’re happy to say that the iPhone is quite similarly fun and frustrating thanks to the extremely accurate ball physics the author has implemented.  As can be seen from the video, the on-screen ball behaves exactly as one would expect from its real-world counterpart.

The game’s realism is furthered by the care the author has put into the graphics.  As of v1.0.3, sub-pixel rendering is utilized to increase the graphic realism and animation smoothness.  That’s effectively rendering the game at a resolution of 480×960 pixels!

Labyrinth is a free trial download and can be registered for $7 which funds further development and enables downloadable levels.  Don’t miss this amazing title.

As most anyone who follows iPhone news is surely aware, a new iPhone which uses 3G data (as opposed to EDGE) is expected to arrive soon.  All signs from the rumor mill point to a June 9th announcement at Apple’s WWDC conference.  We can’t wait.

3G isn’t the only thing expected from the soon-to-be newest member of the iPhone family; rumors point to a true GPS, as well.  And then there are all the software advances that the “iPhone 2.0″ firmware will bring to the equation.  But it’s another rumor that has particularly piqued our interest.

There is talk of Apple licensing haptic feedback technology from Immersion for integration into future touchscreen devices.  Palluxo claims that a source within Apple indicates that the two companies met twice last week to discuss the matter.  What’s more, Immersion announced last week that former Apple exec Clent Richardson has been appointed President and CEO of the company.

As Wikipedia defines it,

Haptic technology refers to technology which interfaces the user via the sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations and/or motions to the user. This mechanical stimulation may be used to assist in the creation of virtual objects (objects existing only in a computer simulation), for control of such virtual objects, and to enhance the remote control of machines and devices (teleoperators).

An obvious reason that Apple is pursuing this technology is the criticism the iPhone receives for the lack of tactile response associated with its on-screen keyboard.  With integrated, localized haptics, the iPhone (or other, future touchscreen device) could provide a real tactile feedback experience with each keypress, and from the particular screen region where the keypress took place.  This would obviously be a true user interface win for the iPhone, but the benefits would not end there…

Immersion’s technology is behind the rumble feature of Sony’s new DualShock 3, a game controller some critics consider to be the best designed controller ever devised.  The potential for the use of localized haptics in gaming is immense.

It’s worth reiterating that the next generation iPhone that’s only weeks away may not include this technology, but it seems clear that before long the iPhone’s cold, glass screen will sport a great deal more character.

iPhone gamers may want to have a look at Connextion.  It’s a Pipe Dreams sort of game where you are presented a screen of randomly oriented pipes with the goal of properly connecting them by clicking on various pipe tiles which rotates each tile’s pipe.   Connect all the pipes and the game is won.

Connextion is a web-based title that plays fine on any iPhone or iPod touch.  It’s simple, it’s fun.