It’s not a particularly new jailbreak iPhone game, but it’s the one that’s been driving me crazy (in the good way) on my daily commute of late.  The title I speak of is Block Puzzle from Soneso.

Block Puzzle is, as one might expect, a puzzle game in which the player must slide a large red block through the exit by sliding it and other blocks of various colors and sizes around the playfield. There are 10 levels, each with a different combination of block sizes.  A gameplay timer effects the score, and as incentive to get times as low as possible, the game is tied to an online, web-based hi-score page allowing players around the world to see how they rank.  A nice touch.

It sounds like a rather basic game–and it is, but somehow it seems to just “get it right.” If you’ve got a jailbroken iPhone, you won’t want to miss it.

Block Puzzle and Soneso’s other iPhone games and apps can be acquired through their Installer.app repository: http://www.soneso.com/iphone.

Darxun Games has recently released their first iPhone game, a port of their 3D mobile Mech-style shooter, Cybersaurus.

Cyber-Dinosaurs!
Our planet was their home for millions of years. Now they want it back!
The ultimate mix between a 3D shooter and an adventure game.
Explore 6 stunning planets (11 maps fully 3D) with outstanding backgrounds!
Navigate through the solar systems using the interactive 3D map and destroy the robosaurs!

Features:

• 11 full 3D levels, 6 different planets and environments
• 3D engine with “astonishing” lighting system
• 3D audio engine
• Full 3D animations
• Different characters–every enemy has different AI
• Adventure gameplay style

The game features a combination of accelerometer and on-screen button controls for negotiating the landscape, selecting weapons, and firing.  While movement in the 3D world is currently fluid, Darxun points out that an update due in approximately two weeks will utilize the iPhone’s 3D hardware acceleration and improve the game’s framerate and render quality. (Cybersaurus is currently using a software-based rendering engine.)

Cybersaurus can be installed on any jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch via Installer.app and can be found at Darxun’s repository: http://iphone3dgames.com. Users can try out the game in demo form with the option to unlock the full title for $9.99 USD.

We’re all anxiously awaiting the launch of the iTunes App Store in early July.  That said, there’re plenty of great jailbreak iPhone games out there.  The one I’ve been most enjoying of late is Passionfools‘ title CubicMan (video link).  A remake of the Flash game Bloxorz, CubicMan presents the user with an isometric game grid and the challenge of manipulating a rectangular object in such a way as to stand it up on a designated grid square, thereby moving to the next level.

The game is great fun and makes good use of the iPhone’s accelerometer for screen orientation and multitouch display for pinch-and-zoom playfield manipulation.

CubicMan can be had via Installer.app from the ModMyiFone repository for users of a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.  We hope to see this available through the iTunes App Store at launch.

One of the more interesting Jailbroken applications that appeared for the iPhone and iPod Touch has been Moo Cow Music’s instrument apps which turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a Piano, Drum, Guitar or a full Band. Youtube movie:

It appears the developer is reworking the applications for official SDK release in the future, but the most interesting discovery is that the iPhone is capable of 5-point multitouch. The video above shows 4 point multi-touch, but the developer’s site indicates that up to 5 distinct points can be detected simultaneously.

From a gaming perspective, this means that complex controls can be implemented with up to 5 points of contact. While its hard to imagine a situation where 5 points of contact would come in handy (maybe the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique?), it’s nice to know the number of detectible presses will not be an issue.

The iPhone and iPod touch are about to receive an injection of retro gaming goodness thanks to iPhone developer ZodTTD. He is in the process of developing temper4iphone which is an iPhone port of Temper, an NEC TurboGrafx-16 and TurboGrafx-CD emulator written by Exophase for the GP2X.

A fourth-generation game console that debuted in the late ’80s, the TurboGrafx-16 (known as the PC Engine in Japan) was arguably the most powerful 8-bit game console. Featuring particularly advanced graphics hardware for the time, the TurboGrafx-16 ran some of the most accurate arcade conversions of the day and is very highly regarded by retro gaming enthusiasts. Some of the best games available for the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console are TurboGrafx-16 titles. Youtube movie:

As the above video demonstrates, the emulator is already running smoothly and with working audio.  The ability to play the many great TurboGrafx-16 titles on the iPhone, whenever the mood strikes, is something any retro game-loving iPhone user should be excited about.

temper4iphone is currently in beta.  Stay tuned for more information about this project as it nears release status.

Last month we covered a web-based 3D Rubik’s Cube game for the iPhone and iPod touch.  If you have a jailbroken device and enjoyed that title, you will want to have a look at iCube.

iCube is a “native” iPhone app that can be installed via Installer.app (just addhttp://repo.ispazio.net to your sources list and the game will show up in the Games category).  Being a native app, users will find it to be more responsive than the aforementioned Rubik’s Cube game.  Depending on preference settings, iCube can be played with cubes anywhere from 2×2x2 to 5×5x5 blocks in size.  There is also a race-against-the-clock mode to add a bit of urgency to the gameplay.

[ via Phones Reviews ]

Simiotica, a Ukrainian iPhone development group, has announced the release of their iPhone and iPod touch game aMaze! via Installer.app.  aMaze! is an accelerometer-based adaptation of the classic game Labyrinth, similar to Labyrinth for the iPhone which we covered earlier this month.

Like the classic wood and steel Labyrinth, aMaze! challenges the player to maneuver a playfield filled with holes and other obstacles in order to reach a set goal location.  Some levels require the player to pick up bonus stars along the way, adding variation to the standard Labyrinth formula.  The game features over 70 levels, most of which can be completed in under 90 seconds, making it a rather ideal pick-up / put-down time killer.

Simiotica CMO Alex Dubov indicates that, while an Installer.app title right now, aMaze! will appear in the iTunes App Store when it goes online.

Large multi-touch screen, OpenGL ES and OpenAL support, built-in accelerometers make iPhone most powerful mobile gaming device on the market. We have developed aMaze to meet expectation of the iPhone owners for games with innovative gameplay not yet possible with other devices. While awaiting the launch of the official App Store, we make it available through the Installer.App to let iPhone entusiasts enjoy it as early as possible

A 10 level demo version of aMaze! can be downloaded for free, while 70 additional levels can be unlocked for a $9 USD registration fee.

The latest in 3D iPhone gaming comes from developer Marco Giorgini. He has released a pre-alpha version of Kingdom Lores, a 3D fantasy adventure game based on an OpenGL ES rendering engine of his own design.

The game presents an over-the-shoulder view of the player’s avatar in the 3D game world.  On-screen controls are used to negotiate the terrain, do battle with enemies, collect treasure, etc.  Both portrait and landscape orientations are supported and on-screen indicators keep the player aware of current health levels, selected weapons, etc.

The author indicates that Kingom Lores is and will remain a free game but he is uncertain as to whether it will appear in the iTunes App Store due to the fact that he has no Mac and, as such, no access to the iPhone SDK (the game is being developed using Win Toolchain on the PC).

The game is not currently available through Installer but can be downloaded here and manually installed via FTP/OpenSSH on any jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.

A video of the game in action can be seen here (3:30 into the video).

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.