Last year, Jordan Mechner teamed up with Liquid Entertainment to create a modern remake of his 1984 beat 'em up classic, Karateka. The modern, 3D recreation of Karateka [$1.99] (which we reviewed in December) does an excellent job of conveying the tragic tale of the poor, imprisoned princess Mariko and the bold quest to rescue her to today's gamers using modern visuals, an original score, and unique, new fight mechanics. Another thing it does is give old school gamers a real itch to go back and play through the 8-bit original. Happily, as of tonight, that itch is easily scratched.
As word of the Karateka remake hit the news towards the end of last year, Mechner began hearing from lots of these gamers expressing a desire to replay the original game on their modern devices. And, so, he teamed up with Olivier Goguel of FTA to bring the original Karateka to iOS (and Android) by way of Goguel's Apple IIgs emulator, ActiveGS (which we first highlighted back in 2011). (more...)
It seems like the longer you play Magic: The Gathering, the more massive your collection of cards inevitably grows, and the greater the urge is to somehow digitize it all becomes. Whether it's because you've got tens of thousands of dollars of cards you want record of for insurance purposes, a neurotic need to catalog everything, or maybe just to quickly view your mana curve in a deck, that itch is definitely there. The problem is, every other app I've tried that serves this purpose has involved loads of typing. It's just the nature of any data collection app, as the first step of analyzing any data is actual often irritating data entry.
CardSplice [Free] aims to change all that. Using technical wizardry that straddles the line between optical character recognition and feeling like straight up black majiks when it's working properly, all you need to do is wave your cards in front of your iPhone camera to enter them in to the app. Admittedly, it's far from perfect, and there's a bit of a learning curve in regards to how you need to hold your phone in relation to the card, how ambient light needs to be hitting the card, and other finicky things that makes the card recognition stop working.
The good news is, the developer is totally on top of this with two options for making papercraft stands for both your iPhone and the cards themselves. Whether you fashion this apparatus via elaborately folding paper or the (seemingly much more simple) cutting a few junk Magic cards up, removing all the variation of holding the phone, holding the card, and making sure the image isn't blurry seemed to make things go substantially better.
Late last year the original AppShopper app was removed from the App Store due to some conflicts with Apple's ever-evolving app approval guidelines, but the companion app for our sister site is now back and better than ever. It's called AppShopper Social [Free], and it leverages the power of AppShopper.com with a friends list system so you can constantly stay up to date with what friends of yours are downloading, and things they want to download. Keep in mind, this is a totally different app, so if you've still got the O.G. AppShopper app on your phone, this new app won't conflict with that at all. The new version retains all the core wish list functionality, while adding loads of discovery potential for new and cool things and there's even in-line reviews from various app/game review sites.
If you like the TouchArcade app [Free] be sure to give AppShopper Social a try. Also, if you're looking for friends to add in the app, add the user "TouchArcade" to have games pop up in your feed as we review them. Neat, right?!
With PAX East going on this weekend and GDC 2013 kicking off next week, there's going to be a ton of upcoming game news blasting through the TouchArcade space. It can be overwhelming, both for us covering it but also for you guys following along at home, since stories can sometimes move at a much faster clip than our normal posting cycle.
With that, it seems like an appropriate time to remind you, dear readers, of the virtues of using our TouchArcade app [Free] and its Watch List functionality. Basically, whenever we post a story about an upcoming game, you can choose to add it to your own personal "Watch List" and whenever we post a news story about said game or when it finally gets released you'll get a handy push notification to let you know.
So, what do you need to do to make sure you're in the loop? It's actually incredibly easy. Obviously, you'll need to download the TouchArcade app from the App Store and install it on your device(s) if you haven't already. It's free and Universal, so feel free to throw it on all your iOS devices. Once installed, fire up the app and tap the gear icon in the upper left corner to enter the Settings.
From here you can sign into the app using your existing forum account, or if you don't have a forum account you can quickly create one from right there inside the app. It's free and all you'll need to provide is a username, password and email. A forum login isn't required to use the TouchArcade app or its Watch List, but it does offer a lot of additional benefits like subscribing to game threads, social groups, private messaging and an entire community of iOS gamers and developers to chat and interact with.
The actual act of adding games to your Watch List is as simple as clicking the binoculars icon that's near the upper right corner of an upcoming game article inside the app. You'll get a brief pop-up message that the game in question has been added to your Watch List. Clicking that same binoculars again will remove any watched game from your list, if you choose. See these screens below.
Now, any time we post information about any of the games added to your Watch List you'll get a push notification about it – as long as you have the push notification option enabled. We don't want to bug you with unwanted pushes, so you can control which kind of push notifications you get and even disable them during specific times of day all right from the Settings menu.
You can access your Watch List at any time from the main screen of the TouchArcade app, which gives you the collection of all available articles for each upcoming game.
A side bonus of using the Watch List is that once a game is released, it will move over to the "Released" side of the list, and you can get notified of any news or price drops even after it's already out. It's not as robust as the functionality you get using the AppShopper website or the (soon to return) AppShopper app, but it can still be handy.
And that's pretty much it! Be sure to keep track of all the upcoming games that we'll be posting about over the next couple of weeks using the Watch List feature, and join in on the forums to be a part of our huge community of iOS gamers and developers. The TouchArcade app's usefulness isn't just limited to conference season though, and is in fact the best way to stay in tune with what's happening in the world of iOS games throughout the year. But if you haven't started using these features yet, now is the perfect time to get started.
It certainly isn't the first time someone has snuck on to the App Store, and I can almost promise it won't be the last, but if you're big into grabbing things you "shouldn't" have (per Apple's approval process) then Awesome Baby Names [$1.99] is something you need to snag immediately. What initially appears to be a very simple and silly baby naming app is actually a fairly full-featured Gameboy Advance emulator.
Accessing it is simple, load up the app, tap the top left corner three times, the middle button once, then immediately above that once. Presto, you're thrown into a ROM listing for a Gameboy Advance emulator. You'll need to use iExplorer or something similar to load a Gameboy Advance bios as well as the actual ROMs into the app, but once you do that, it's (reasonably) smooth sailing.
For help with getting this all running, definitely check out the thread in our forums. Admittedly, getting this all working is a little trickier than playing your typical iOS game so if fiddling with your phone's file system via iExplorer sounds over your head, this might not be for you.
Update: Aaaaaaaand just like that, Awesome Baby Names joins the many other similar trojan horse apps that have been released. Apple seems to have just pulled it from the App Store. If you were able to grab it, store that .IPA somewhere safe. I recommend snagging a free Dropbox account and just using it to permanently store apps like this so you'll always have a copy in the cloud if you ever need it again.
So, hey, Sony announced the PlayStation 4 this afternoon and, as was rumored, it'll have some neat mobile and tablet functionality. Via "applications" on your phone or a tablet, you'll be able to browse players' videos, converse with them, and also challenge them to a match. The presenter at tonight's event added that we'll be to "keep in touch with the revolving world of game," too, whatever that means.
And here's something else: Sony seems to be pushing Remote Play via PS Vita pretty hard with this console. From what we're gathering, this functionality will be built into the hardware this time around courtesy Gakkai's architecture, which should make it snappier and much nicer looking. Phones or tablets weren't mentioned for this, but who knows? It would make sense -- and line up with the "control your console with your phone" part of the rumor we heard this morning.
So, if you're not in the loop, get this: today, in New York, Sony is widely rumored to be announcing its next-generation console. We probably won't see the console or hear a price or even a firm release date. If we had to guess, we'd say that most of the event will revolve around sizzle reels and a whole bunch of talk about digital downloads and the "cloud" and the social functionality of the console. Who knows, though? Maybe Sony will unveil a new take on its PlayStation Plus service. Maybe it'll show off a bigger, more touch-friendly controller. Or maybe, just maybe, we'll hear about some new cross-compatibility features -- features that might let you use an iPhone or an iPad with the console. That's neat, right?
The latter is what we're interested in. Word on the street is that the PlayStation 4 will allow owners to use a phone or tablet to access theirs consoles. At least, that's what a Kotaku source is saying. Here's part of the report:
New information revealed by our source suggests that on top of all that, you'll also be able to control the PS4 remotely from your tablet or smartphone. You'll be able to use a mobile device to chat with your PS4 friends or buy games which are then automatically downloaded to your machine, our source says.
We've seen similar support for the 360 in the form of the SmartGlass app, which for what is, works pretty well. The PS3 doesn't have an app like this, which is kind of a bummer.
We'll be keeping an eye on the event this afternoon since our Spidey Sense is tingling. We have a feeling 2013 is the year both Sony and Microsoft fall all over themselves to mention "social" and "mobile" as many times as possible before their new consoles hit. Surely, this'll be a good thing!
Yesterday, a game that was developed in 1982 for arcade hardware, but never officially released, quietly landed in the App Store. Gridlee [Free] is a simple game where you maneuver a little green fellow about a grid that stretches off into the distance, blasting upwards at bouncy red figures that try and squash you. That's Gridlee, but that's not the crux of the matter with this app.
As developer David Loureiro explains, Gridlee was developed for the Bally/Sente SAC I cartridge-based arcade machine. It has been brought to iOS devices by way of an emulation wrapper...namely MAME4iOS.
A lot of exciting news came out of today's Nintendo Direct. A new Zelda was announced. A Wind Wakerre-release was, too. And a new Mario 3D game was teased. But one announcement in particular was more relevant to our interests than the others: apparently, an actual Mii-verse app is headed to smart phones this spring. Shacknews writes that it'll launch as a basic browser of the 'verse with "more functionality" slated to hit later.
Mii-verse browsing with a phone or a tablet was announced at last year's E3, but nothing Nintendo said at that event had us thinking it intended to make a dedicated app. Today's news kinda has us excited, as a dedicated app can do so much more than a web page. Here's a promo shot of the functionality from E3:
It'll be interesting to see how this shakes out, what Nintendo decides to throw into the app, and how well it supports it down the line. We've got a lot of waiting to do before we know, though.
Neat: Ubisoft finally got around to alerting people to Far Cry The Outpost [Free], an official Far Cry 3 companion app that's been kinda hiding on the App Store since the freeze. With the app, you can decode your weapon mods and swap your multiplayer load-outs on the fly. You also get access to the game's stat-tracking functionality, allowing you to see exactly how much time you've been piddling away in the game's competitive modes.
Basically, The Outpost is just like ever other multiplayer-focused companion app we've stumbled across so far. That's not necessarily a bad thing if you're rolling deep in the game's competitive modes and decoding mods like a demon.
The app is free and available now. There's also a Google Play version, too, if you've got an Android phone handy.
That Pokedex app we were talking about last month has appeared on worldwide on the App Store as a Universal app. With an initial purchase, you'll get access to every Pokemon available across the "Unova region" in the games. Additional $5.99 purchases unlock all the other regions. There's a total of four other regions, to be a little more specific.
Pokedex for iOS [$1.99], as its called, is a digital encyclopedia of Pokemon that tells you how to find a specific Pokemon, how a given Pokemon fights, dishes out details on evolution, and gives you the skinny on its ability tree. The app includes 3D models of every Pokemon and supports retina visuals. Here's some screens:
Late last month, Rantmedia Games leveled up the state of retro in the App Store with the release of Vectrex Regeneration [Free], their effort to bring the authentic Vectrex experience to iOS gamers. We took a close look at this vectorscopic one-stop-shop, and found that they had largely succeeded, but with a few rough edges just out the gate.
I'm happy to report that the folks over at Rantmedia have been listening to feedback and quick to respond to issue reports and general suggestions. The first update to Vectrex Regeneration, since it debuted, has gone live and addresses a number of issues voiced in my review:
Earlier devices supported — The original iPad and the iPhone 3GS are now supported, with performance improvements on the iPhone 4.
Wireless controller improvements — In the initial release, there was a problem with non-diagonal directional control, which is now fixed.
Joystick sensitivity — Joystick sensitivity settings are now saved per-game, rather than the previous same-setting-for-all situation.
Black screen — A fix for certain (jailbroken...) devices experiencing a black screen on startup.
MineStorm — Garbled lines appearing on level 2 have been addressed.
Box art & instructions — Minor corrections to box art and instructions have been made.
This update notably improves this already-excellent virtual game console, which should not be missed by anyone with any kind of fondness for retro gaming.
Interest in the retro gaming scene has really expanded in the last few years, thanks in no small part to the proliferation of capable mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad and the App Store behind them. As such, retro-minded iOS gamers have a wide range of games to choose from, such as retro-inspired new releases, retro remakes, as well as the actual games of olde brough forth through faithful emulation. It is in the last arena that, early this year, Rantmedia Games decided to toss its hat, sharing word of their upcoming Vectrex Regeneration, a one-stop-shop for fans of the much vaunted, early '80s Vectrex console.
We have been following Rantmedia's progress closely since then, and are pleased to have finally had an opportunity to put their Vectrex emulation / game library through its paces. Vectrex Regeneration [Free], a universal app for the iPad (2 and up) and iPhone (4 and up), is now live in the App Store, and here's the low-down.
First, some needed history. Released in late 1982 by General Consumer Electric (GCE), the Vectrex is a highly unique game system. Unlike every other console of the time, the Vectrex features an integrated CRT display -- but not of the standard, horizontal-scan variety. The Vectrex utilizes a vector monitor, which is similar to an oscilloscope and draws its graphics on the screen in a fashion similar to the display process of a laser light show. It's the only console from gaming's past defined by a complete lack of jaggies.
Since August, we've been tracking the upcoming bundle of glowing vector goodness known as Vectrex Regeneration, a universal iOS app that emulates the much vaunted Vectrex game console of the early '80s. The app will come bundled with the system's entire original game library (nearly 30 titles in all) and will offer indie titles released after the Vectrex left market (in 1984) as in-app purchases, along with various feature packs, such as the multiplayer Controller Pack and the iCade pack.
Developer Anton Faulconbridge over at Rantmedia Games has been keeping retro fans closely following this one up-to-date via the Vectrex Regeneration twitter feed, where he's currently counting down to release -- just three days left now -- and offering peeks at the system in action. (more...)
If you're the kind of person who has spent a ridiculous amount of time building scale Minecraft replicas of things you wish you had in the real world, Minecraft Reality [$1.99] is going to be right up your alley. Created by 13th Lab, and officially supported by Mojang, using the app is as simple as uploading your .mca files to the Minecraft Reality site, waiting for them to process, then using the camera on your iOS device to plug things into the real world via augmented reality.
Check out the video:
Minecraft Reality seems pretty cool, although the actual web uploader does seem a little clunky right now. The good news is, said uploader is loaded with messages about a new significantly more user-friendly version coming soon.
Last year, Jordan Mechner teamed up with Liquid Entertainment to create a modern remake of his 1984 beat 'em up classic, Karateka. The modern, 3D recreation of Karateka [$1.99] (which we reviewed in December) does an excellent job of conveying the tragic tale of the poor, imprisoned princess Mariko and the bold quest to rescue her to today's gamers using modern visuals, an original score, and unique, new fight mechanics. Another thing it does is give old school gamers a real itch to go back and play through the 8-bit original. Happily, as of tonight, that itch is easily scratched.
