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.

One of the games we spoke of in our recent WWDC games coverage was Kroll from Barcelona, Spain-based Digital Legends.  A side-scrolling, 3D fantasy adventure game, Kroll takes full advantage of the iPhone’s unique control system; players jump with a jerk of the iPhone, thanks to its accelerometer, and use touchscreen controls to activate weapons and otherwise move about the game world.

While Digital Legends is an award winning development house with PC, console, and smartphone games under its belt, the iPhone was a new platfrom for the team.  Impressively, the demo shown during the WWDC keynote was put together in under two weeks.

With this first iPhone outing, the company is being particularly sensitive to its gaming audience and the context in which players will be enjoying the title.  Macworld spoke with Digital Legends’ CEO Xavier Carrillo Costa, who commented,

“If you’re waiting for your latte, probably you want to play and have a rewarding two-minute experience.  So iPhone games need to be compelling, easy to play, and graphically very appealing, but at the same time having enough depth to play for an hour while you’re commuting.”

Kroll is not expected to debut until September, giving the Digital Legends team time to evolve and refine the gameplay to as ideal an iPhone gaming experience as possible.  The company hopes that Kroll is the first in a long line of titles it will be developing for Apple’s mobile platform.

“The Mac community is a very close community,” said Costa. “It’s very strange for me to come here [to Moscone West] and not know anyone, compared to the Game Developers Conference, where I can’t walk ten feet without seeing someone I know. But a lot of people who are outside the traditional Mac market and are watching and interested in what happens with iPhone.”

Kroll will start life as an iPhone exclusive and, depending on its success, may be ported to various other platforms.  We can’t wait to get our hands on the finished product.

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).

Adventure gamers of old will surely recall that some of the best adventures available were SCUMM titles.  No, not a slanderous term, SCUMM (or Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) is a LucasArts scripting engine that was used for the creation of interactive graphical adventure games. And very good adventures, as it turned out.

Modern computers can play these games thanks to the ScummVM interpreter, and happily ScummVM has been ported to the jailbroken iPhone / iPod touch.  As Gizmodo points out, the arrival of ScummVM to Apple’s new mobile platform is really a marraige made in heaven.

After a long wait, here is the application that makes the iPhone absolutely perfect: ScummVM, the emulation engine that allows you to play LucasArts and Sierra graphic adventures, is now fully working on the iPhone. After trying it I can tell you that if there’s a platform designed to play these kind of games,it’s the iPhone. In fact, these are the only games that truly feel at home on the iPhone, thanks to its great touchscreen support, even better than Apple’s native software.

The list of fully supported games is long and of quality:

• Day of the Tentacle
• The Dig
• Flight of the Amazon Queen
• Full Throttle
• Gobliiins
• Gobliins 2
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• King’s Quest 3
• Loom
• Maniac Mansion
• Monkey Island 1: The Secret of Monkey Island
• Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
• Sam & Max Hit the Road
• Simon the Sorcerer
• Simon the Sorcerer 2
• Zak McKracken
• Alien Mindbenders

And the control scheme is as close to a perfect touchscreen adaptation as one could hope for.

ScummVM fully supports multi-touch to simulate the behavior of the mouse using gestures. With a single tap you left click, but for a right click you hold one finger and tap with another. To toggle click and drag, which is necessary in some games like Monkey Island 3, you “hold one finger on screen, swipe another up from bottom to top.” Then you can drag something, lift your finger to drop it and it will automatically switch back to normal.

The games play wonderfully and bring to the iPhone and iPod touch some of the best adventure gaming moments the desktop PC has ever known.  Don’t miss the chance to experience these rich titles for yourselves.  (And on the go, if you like!)