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?!
There are a ton of Magic: The Gathering utilities on the App Store to assist in playing the card game. I've always been partial to using a combination of TCG Buddy [$4.99] for game tracking and Orcish Librarian [Free] for checking card values. If the thought of dabbling in the third party Magic app market never appealed to you, you're in luck, as Wizards of the Coast just launched Magic: The Gathering Toolbox [Free].
Wizards has already detailed all the features, but it includes life counters, a card search, a deck builder, and even the ability to test your deck to see what a sample hand would look like-- All with full card art. With everything though, there's a catch. Magic: The Gathering Toolbox will initially be free, but as they release new sets of cards being able to access those cards for deck building inside of the app will require "a small fee to update the deck builder with the latest content." No word yet on what that "small fee" will be.
We're taking a break from our regularly scheduled iOS game programming to get the word out about a really sweet rapid prototyping tool for the iPad released by Two Lives Left, creators of Wheeler's Treasure [$2.99] and Pilot Winds [Free]. It's called Codify [$7.99], and utilizing the Lua programming language along with a ton of clever touch-based interface elements lets you quickly and easily throw together whatever game prototype you might be dreaming of.
I've heard more than a few developers attempting to create similar tools for the iPad, but all of them have hit various roadblocks in the Apple approval process because they all (in one way or another) allowed you to get code and assets onto the device and execute it. Codify sidesteps this by coming with a wide variety of assets, but unfortunately all of your creations will be trapped on your own device. Right now, there's no way to export (or import) anything, although Two Lives Left have told us they've submitted an update to Apple that has this functionality and they're planning on working with the approval teams to come to some kind of solution.
Either way, Lua is easy to learn and even with your prototypes stuck on your own iPad Codify can be an incredibly useful tool. If you come up with a game idea, you can quickly toss it together and see if it's worth pursuing. In fact, I'd almost say keeping these prototypes trapped on your device is a good thing as it serves as a fantastic rough draft to then redo in a more serious development environment.
If you're an online gamer that utilizes TeamSpeak to communicate to your guild, clan, tribe, improv group, or whatever else you might be doing that requires voice communication, here's some awesome news: An official TeamSpeak [$4.99] client has hit the App Store. The down side, if you'd even call it that, is it only works with TeamSpeak 3, giving you even more reason to upgrade to the new TeamSpeak software if you haven't already.
Being an official app, it sure doesn't seem to skimp on features. Not only is it universal, but it also sports all the functionally you need to use it as your main TeamSpeak client. It's got multi-server connectivity, both push to talk as well as voice activation. There's even support for common admin functions, contact management, and text messaging.
I've always thought the early Fallout games would work great on the iPad, (and to some extent they do, if you were able to download iDOSbefore it got pulled) but like many ancient PC games, the Fallout IP is securely locked up in a twisted web of developers and publishers that have been bought and sold over the years. In the case of Fallout it was originally an Interplay project, which got rolled into Bethesda, which now is part of ZeniMax. There's even been some brutal legal drama as who owns the rights to a Fallout MMO has been duked out in courts. What I'm getting at, is I'm not holding my breath for an iOS Fallout anytime soon.
So, having totally written that off long ago, imagine my surprise when I stumbled across PipClock [99¢ / Lite] randomly browsing the App Store today. In a nutshell, it takes the "dashboard" style clock and weather apps, but applies a glorious level of Fallout-esque style to it. Seriously, just check out the screenshots:
The functionality is basically what you'd expect out of one of these sorts of clock and weather apps, although everything has a wonderful Fallout spin. For instance, here in the "Ruins of Los Angeles" in "California's Wastelands" it's 85 degrees out with "poisonous fog not detected". Oh, there's a faux geiger counter built in too. Each element also has subtle animations, with static, scan lines, and even sparks.
Since upgrading to an iPad 2, I've been looking for a good use for my original iPad outside of checking to make sure games we're reviewing still run on it. With PipClock, I'm thinking I might have to relegate it to night stand duty as PipClock just looks too awesome to not be running all the time. It's universal too, so you could do the same with an old iPod touch if you've got one laying around.
Believe it or not, E3 wasn't all big name developers and publishers, even though the insane show floor would make most believe otherwise. No, actually, it turns out that there were quite a few indie developers around enjoying the sights and sounds that I was able to catch up with. The first of which was the guys from Muteki Corporation, who had a few really rad things to show off.
Dragon Fantasy - There's already a thread in our upcoming games forum, but here's the gist- Muteki, like most of us old school gamers grew up with all kinds of fantastic old school RPG's. The battle system is basic, the graphics are pixelated, and the story is gloriously cliche... And that's just the way we like it. Dragon Fantasy is an homage to these games of yore.
Give it a look:
Next up was Game Studio, a neat little utility that we got a semi-secret look at during GDC earlier this year. It's in the same vein as Game Salad and other similar easy game creation suites, except this one exists entirely on the iPad. My favorite feature of it is the drag and drop game logic portion.
Check out this extensive walkthrough:
Last, but certainly not least, was a look at an impending update for Super Jetpack Dragon IV [Free / HD]. It shifts the gameplay style from an endless running kind of thing to a level-based platformer. It's pretty neat, and more features and functionality in existing games is always welcome around here.
If you are amongst the millions of iPhone owners who also happen to have PS3's, I've got the perfect app for you. Behold, PSN Status [Free]. This free app will tell you both quickly and easily whether or not PSN is up. Sure, it would have been much more useful last month, but it will be handy to keep around if/when PSN goes down again.
Oh also, on the subject of PSN being down, if you're like me and really only use your PS3 for watching BluRays, don't forget to claim your free games. Even if you weren't really affected by the downtime in any real way, you're still eligible for two free PS3 games and two free PSP games. The selection is surprisingly decent, too.
On a somewhat related note- If you're a proud PS3 console warrior and your pride has taken a substantial hit over the last month as you were the brunt of countless "PSN is down" jokes from your Xbox 360-loving friends, don't forget to also download i360Emu [Free]. It's a shockingly accurate emulator of early Xbox 360's, or, it was, before they changed the power-on animation.
Recently I embarked on a quest to see if there was a way I could stream my PC games to my iPad using the various remote desktop apps available on the App Store. Initially, this resulted in countless hours (and dollars) wasted, only to be disappointed time and time again. Some apps had no audio, others were nowhere near responsive enough, and some of them just flat out didn't work-- Then came Splashtop Remote Desktop [99¢ / Lite / HD].
Splashtop is a remote desktop client that streams your PC or Mac screen directly to your iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone with amazingly fast response times, and full streaming audio. Installation and setup couldn't be easier. All you do is install the desktop software and download the app and you're up and running. Keep in mind, using Splashtop outside of your local network will require fiddling with port forwarding, and unless you've got an insane internet connection, will bring the response time down to be almost unplayable. However, on the same network, Splashtop is basically a 1:1 representation of what is happening on your PC, and is totally enjoyable to game on.
I travel a ton, both for many of the conventions and events we cover on TouchArcade, as well as because staying in one place for too long is boring. Traveling a lot is liberating for many reasons, but mainly because you realize just how little of the stuff you own you actually need. Specifically, from a computing standpoint, I've got my entire infrastructure down to a single laptop bag which houses absolutely everything I need for TouchArcade and all other things I use my computer for.
When bag space is at a premium, you rarely have room for any "unitasker" as Alton Brown puts it, which sadly leaves many traditional gaming accessories without a place in my mobile arsenal. I've made a special exception for the Fling iPad joysticks, but I haven't had an actual USB gamepad for ages. Normally this isn't much of an issue, but since 2011 is the 25th anniversary of both the Metroid and Zelda series, I've taken it upon myself to replay both series in emulators as carting my originals (and associated consoles) around just isn't realistic.
This is where Joypad [$2.99 / Lite] comes in. Utilizing a small iOS app combined with a companion program running on your Mac or Windows PC, you can use your iPhone as a game controller. Setup is simple, and basically just amounts to having both your computer and iPhone on the same wireless network while having both the iOS app and the companion program running. In the Joypad Connect computer program you'll then select one of the pre-sets for mapping buttons to keys, then select your iOS device from the list of devices and you'll be good to go. If you're playing an emulator or game that uses different keys, you can create a new profile for that, and go to town mapping the controls it uses to the virtual buttons of Joypad. It all works really well.
This will be somewhat obvious if you've played the various emulated games that Sega has released on the App Store, and other classic titles released by other developers... but often times these classic games simply require the precision and tactile feedback of a real controller. So, how well Joypad works is largely dependent on two factors: 1. How good you are at handling virtual controls. 2. The control demands of the game you're emulating and whether or not those will even jive with Joypad. Specifically, games that require super-precise D-pad dancing aren't so great. Also, games that require you to hold down more than two buttons can be hit or miss depending on what buttons they actually use and how often you need to use that button combination.
Another issue I've randomly run in to is that Joypad is highly dependent on a low-latency WiFi network. It has worked great in most locations, but this week I've been staying in an area of Barcelona with so many WiFi networks that my menu to select them on my Mac scrolls for ages. With the local WiFi signal spectrum this jam packed, I've had issues just browsing the Internet, so it's not much of a surprise that Joypad also suffers. I don't expect this to impact most people, but if you live in a super-crowded urban environment just be aware that your game controls will only perform as well as your local WiFi climate will allow.
That being said, Joypad is without a doubt one of my favorite non-game apps that I've tried lately. Sure, it was released almost a year ago now, so it's very existence will likely be old news for some. However, if you're like me and never really had reason to look for something like Joypad before, now you know about it. $3 for the app is also considerably cheaper than any worthwhile USB gamepad, and while it is by no means a substitution for real physical controls, it sure is a great travel companion.
In-game achievements are a super way for developers to add play incentive to games, and are something Microsoft got right early on with Xbox Live. Happily, thanks to the likes of OpenFeint, Plus+, and Apple's own Game Center, iOS gamers have been racking up achievements for some time now. And, while we've seen achievements land in titles outside of the Games category -- in Education, for example -- we were intrigued to hear of a new Photography app that boasts achievements for in-depth usage.
Kotaku recently took a look at noted photographer Tray Ratcliff's release of 100 Cameras in 1 [App Store], a new photography app that hands out Game Center achievements in an effort to get people to take more photos, and to have fun with them.
"I think it is fun to have some sort of comparative measurement of your experience with the app," he said. "The more you use it, the more achievements and points you get. We also use the achievements to encourage you to discover all the features of the app that you might not otherwise see.
"I think it's fascinating how achievements are both completely unnecessary but really satisfying! Also, there's something about being rewarded when you were not really expecting it. It's like a small Swiss child running up to you in the street and offering you a piece of chocolate, just for being an awesome dude."
100 Cameras in 1 features an impressive 31 different pieces of chocolate to be doled out by the small virtual Swiss children that are the app's integrated achievement system. Taking certain paths through the app or using a certain set of filters triggers the various achievements, which are as interestingly named as the 100 different visual filters that the app places at the user's disposal. Thanks to its ability to combine multiple filters, some rather interesting effects can be rather easily achieved.
With 100 Cameras in 1, Ratcliff wanted to deliver a faster and cleaner picture taking experience, with more flexibility than the alternatives. Having run through the app fairly extensively (grabbing achievements along the way), I feel that he's pretty much met his goals here, and perhaps most impressively on the speed front; despite the complex filter systems, moving through the app and getting to the end product is smooth and super fast.
I like what Ratcliff and developers Lavacado have done here, both for the creative, outside-the-box use of achievements as well as for delivering a solid, artistic photo application. I'm anxious to see what other non-game areas are well met by the use of achievements. Chase Bank, Wells Fargo -- an in-app check deposit seems well worth an achievement, eh??
Now this is a curious development. According to the PlayStation Blog, Sony is on the verge of releasing an official PlayStation iPhone app. In the initial version, which is launching "very soon," players will be able to connect to PSN to see their trophies and see what their friends are doing. In addition, you'll be able to browse through game listings, get hardware information, see announcement, and then share those things via Twitter, Facebook, and Email. The free app is also going to be updated with "tons more features" in the future.
What's got us scratching our heads about this is that it's no secret that the iOS platform is a fierce competitor not only to the Nintendo DS, but also to Sony's own PSP. Historically, console rivals have taken great pride in the exclusivity of their associated networks. You can't access PSN via a Xbox 360, much like how you can't access Xbox Live via a PlayStation 3. Microsoft has even had apps removed that connect to Xbox Live profiles.
Either way, we're incredibly curious what these additional features are going to be. Just for the sake of wild speculation-- The Psx4iphone emulator available for jailbroken devices can run PSone games at respectable frame rates on newer iOS devices, meaning that eventually this PlayStation app could technically be capable of running the same PSone classics currently available for sale on PSN. Realistically, we don't ever see that happening, but at the same time... Who ever thought we'd be playing Sonic games on a non-Sega console?
We'll have to wait and see what this app evolves in to, but in the meantime, I can't help but wonder what Marcus thinks of all this.
We first heard of Blizzard's plans to improve the functionality of the Mobile Armory [Free] app to include access to the auction house back in February. MMO Champion has all the details today on the recently released Remote Auction House functionality of the existing Mobile Armory app which currently only works for a small number of World of Warcraft servers as part of a beta test of the service.
To use the Mobile Armory you will need a World of Warcraft or Battle.net account, with most of the features requiring an active World of Warcraft subscription. If you're lucky enough to play on the hand full of servers currently supported, using the existing Mobile Armory app you will not only be able to buy items on the in-game auction house, but also sell any item from your character's bags, bank, or mailbox as well as manage all the gold generated from said auctions.
Currently, this functionality is free but limited to 25 total transactions a day, a number which will be increased at launch, according to Blizzard. At the conclusion of the beta test, the auction house features of the Mobile Armory will split in to free and paid functions. Without paying for anything, you will be able to browse and view the auction house along with getting real-time notifications when your auctions sell, expire, or you are outbid or win an auction. For $2.99 on top of your existing WoW subscription you'll be able to do all the buying and selling mentioned previously.
Towards the bottom of the new Remote Auction House site is a chart that details the feature differences of the two subscription tiers.
We've repeatedly praised the iPhone SDK and its OS X frameworks for the paradigm shift in game quality they will bring to users of the iPhone, the smartest "smartphone" on the market. There's simply no comparison between what's already been demonstrated on the iPhone and the kludgy, low resolution Java games that run on most cellphones and smartphones. But hey, maybe it's a case of "the more, the merrier." At least New Zeland firm Innaworks thinks so. They have announced AlcheMo, a technology built with the iPhone SDK that allows developers to "instantly" port standard Java mobile games to the iPhone and iPod touch with no code changes required.
AlcheMo opens the door for countless existing mobile games to land on the iPhone platform...but is this a good thing? If developers go the extra mile of taking advantage of AlcheMo's ability to utilize the iPhone's accelerometer and multitouch technologies, it could be.
AlcheMo will open the door. Time will tell if the neighbors are welcome.
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.
