Freeverse was one of the early development houses who jumped into iPhone gaming. Freeverse has been a long standing Mac developer with dozens of gaming titles.
The much anticipated Wingnuts Moto Racer [App Store] is amongst their first games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The OpenGL 3D racing game offers accelerometer (tilt) based controls in a classic arcade-style racing game.
By “classic arcade-style" we mean that this is a racing game in which you are motivated by making checkpoints and racing against the clock. Controls are dead simple with the use of the iPhone’s accelerometer (tilt control) for steering and a simple “Gas" button on the left of the screen to accelerate your motorcycle.
The iPhone’s accelerometer works remarkably well for steering and requires no specific configuration. Since only tilting left and right is enough, there are no issues with compromising the screen’s viewing angles.
The game offers 10 levels of impressive 3D scenery and allows you to chose from 3 different drivers (though this is just for appearance, it seems). To keep things interesting, there can be cars on the roads and belligerent bikers that try to slow you down. A “fight" button actually appears that allows you to punch the other bikers.
Overall, however, Moto Racer has a relaxed driving feel and if this appeals to you, you’ll enjoy this game. Alternatively, “Kart" racing fans may be disappointed by the less frantic gameplay. This embedded YouTube video demonstrates the basic gameplay, while this video provides additional shots of scenery and cut-shots.
Game Details
Name: Wingnuts Moto Racer
Developer: Freeverse
App Store Link: Buy
Price: $9.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod Touch
OPEN MAILBOX
TAKE BRASS LANTERN
GUNCHO KRILL
Ah, the memories.
Don't forget that Colossal Cave Adventure (aka ADVENT) is also available as a stand-alone game for the iPhone.
@Lhasapso: thanks!
You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
My favorite IF game is "The Gostak" which won 2001 Xyzzy Best Medium and Individual Puzzle awards. It's for people with some experience in how "those games" play, with a linguistic twist. You have to figure out the language used in the game!
Check out the Xyzzy awards to see games to try out. There's an IF Archive at www.wurb.com as well.
Woot, you can find me at Flood Control Dam #3!
I own a good number of Infocom titles (as in purchased, box disk and all). I'd like to be able to move the .z files to the iPhone for Frotz playing. I wonder how simple it is to set up one's own repository for specifically that (private) purpose? Should be no legal issues there.
@blakespot
Just did that very thing myself, using FileMagnet, a $4.99 utility available through the App Store. Worked a treat, and now I can play all the old Infocom classics on my iPhone using Frotz.
Gnusto rezrov!
blakespot, apparently you can set up your own website for this as well (you go to "Search" in the app and just type in the URL of your website where you have the IF files uploaded. Not sure if it works if you password protect it or not, but I would guess the easiest thing to do would be to set it up, download the .z files you want, and then delete them from your website when you're done.
Doesn't the iPhone SDK agreement specifically prevent a load of these features? http://www.infoworld.com/ar...
You can password protect your website/url using your host's control panel very easily. If the iPhone doesn't pop up the login, you can do it via the url. When you type in your url, just add the user name and password at the beginning, e.g. http://username:password@an.... That's how I go to boardgamegeek.com, because I hate the zoom and login process.
Note this is not the most secure method, but it will protect your stuff from casual access. If somebody sniffs your password, it's not state secrets we're talking about.
@Nick: Maybe Apple figured there's only so much damage a rogue Z-code file can wreak on an iPhone.
Wow - didn't even know this was there! Awesome!
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