Thanks to a handful of savvy developers out there, iOS retro fans have been able to enjoy classics from a variety of different platforms of old on their Apple mobiles. Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, the Atari VCS, the Amiga -- the list goes on, and I'm happy to report that it just got one platform longer. At long last, the RetroVex Advanced Games System is being accurately emulated under iOS!

Surely our oldschool readers will recall the RetroVex. Come on -- little cabinet, cartridge slot up front? No? Well, you can be forgiven if that one seems to have passed you by, as it's actually only been spotted at the labs of Upside Down Games. And, only in the mind of the studio's two-man crew, at that. Developer Greg Michael, lead programmer on Alien Trilogy and Forsaken on the Playstation, and Ned Langman, artist on Silkworm, SWIV, and Rodland for the Amiga, have recently released the first in a series of retro-inspired titles to be published for their virtual RetroVex game console that lives exclusively within iOS.

They duo explains what they're going for in this playful effort of theirs,

We want to try and capture the elements of our favourite classic games like Robotron, Galaga, Berserk, Tempest, Tron, etc. A lot of those old Williams games had an edge to them that most retro revival games haven't quite got. Mostly to do with the sound. The sound is really important. If you play Defender with the sound off it isn't quite right!

We love the humour and quirkiness that the old games had, like Manic Miner and Llamasoft games. That kind of content is only achievable by independent developers.

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It's almost a certainty that no one who considered themselves a Mac gamer in the late '80s or early '90s could be unfamiliar with John Calhoun's Glider.

Perhaps the quintessential early Mac game, Glider was first released as a black & white shareware title in 1988 under Calhoun's Soft Dorothy label. The game challenges you to fly your paper glider from room to room through a series of houses while avoiding a wide range of obstacles and using only basic controls and updrafts from floor air vents to keep yourself aloft. It sounds simpler than it was, and what it was was a whole lot of fun. After the original release, Calhoun followed with several new versions of the game -- Glider 3 perhaps being the most well known -- and finally, in 1991, partnering with now-defunct Casady & Greene for the commercial release of Glider Pro (which is now available for free).

We're happy to report that iOS gamers will soon have the chance to experience the magical little game that is Glider in Calhoun's upcoming App Store release of Glider Classic. I recently had a conversation with Calhoun, who left Apple after 16 years this past summer in order to bring Glider to iOS, to find out more about his coming release.

After parting ways with Apple, Calhoun wasted little time jumping into the iOS game scene, releasing Lab Solitaire [App Store], a photo-realistic version of Free Cell, last month. After that was out the door, his full focus moved to Glider Classic, which is now complete.

The iOS version, from a play mechanics standpoint, is something of a mix of several of the early versions of the game. (The developer, and a number of the game's fans, felt that Glider Pro deviated a bit too significantly from the spot-on formula of the original.) All of the graphics used in the game have been re-created with pen and paper, through a process that Calhoun details on his blog, giving the game a very clean look, evocative of the original's artwork.

Glider Classic features tap-based controls and is a universal application that runs natively on both the iPhone and the iPad. In the first release, iPhone 3GS and 3G iPod touch devices will be the minimal supported platforms, though earlier devices will gain support in an update soon to follow. Calhoun indicates that a Mac App Store release of Glider Classic is also likely at some point, given that Glider Pro for the Mac is PowerPC-only and will not run under OS X Lion. In fact, we might one day see a desktop "house editor" emerge, allowing players to create their own houses for both the iOS and the likely Mac OS X versions of the game.

Calhoun told me that, from the view of an old-school designer, he absolutely loves iOS as a game platform. He got out of game writing way back when largely because the "big guys" came in and basically stole the show from indie developers like himself. He sees iOS as an excellent opportunity for indies to get their work out there and embraced by gamers, and it's a notion backed up by so many one-man home runs we've seen since the App Store went live. Calhoun has a number of other iOS projects in mind to follow Glider Classic, and I'm anxious to see what we've got to look forward to.

In addition to Glider, Calhoun released several other games for the Macintosh in the distant past, including Glypha III (there's an iOS version by another developer), Pararena, and Stella Obscura. For a bit more history on John Calhoun's days as a Mac game maker, I recommend checking out Bitmob's excellent article entitled "Dreaming of a thousand-room house: The evolution of Glider," as well as MacScene's two part interview with the man in question.

Glider Classic is expected to arrive in the App Store this week at a launch price of $0.99. We'll post a closer look at the game when it lands.

About a year ago, Hypership Out of Control [$0.99]made its debut on Xbox Live Indie Games, better known as that place where good games go to die. Thankfully it's come to a platform where it might get a bit more attention, as it should. It's crazy fun.

Here's the score: you pilot a spaceship that's lost its brakes. The accelerator is floored. Your ship is speeding out of control and it's up to you to keep it from crashing. Don't even think about blinking until you've made it through safely.

Hypership Out of Control doesn't stray far from the archetypal vertical shooter. The ship flies and shoots ever upward while obstacles pass around it. Relative touch controls are the order of the day - that is, the ship echoes the movements of your finger, no matter where you touch the screen. They're precise and effective, which is for the best. Where this game diverges from the norm is in speed, and a lot of it.

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It's been about a year since decades-old studio Elite Systems brought their ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection [iPhone, iPad] and the first wave of its retro titles to the App Store. Since then 150 titles have become available through their Spectrum emulator, giving retro fans much old school gaming goodness to play with.

Since then, Elite has been hard at work engineering a completely new system through which to bring an even broader range of retro classic to iOS gamers. I recently had a conversation with Elite co-founder Steve Wilcox who filled me in on some of the titles that are on the way in the coming Elite Collection of 8-bit home computer games, as well as details surrounding their newly completed proprietary technology that went into it. The new system is a facilitator, of sorts, that was designed in such a way as to not incorporate, reference, or in any way rely upon third-party property and that is able to deliver, to iOS, games that originated on platforms other than just the ZX Spectrum in near-100% original form.

Elite has been busy licensing classics from a wide range of developers and it sounds like iOS gamers are in for a trove of titles to be delivered through the studio's new system. The first stage in the deployment consists of nine games developed across North America, the UK, and Germany.

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It was back during GDC 2011, during Eric Chahi's Classic Game Postmortem presentation, that we first learned that the French gamemaker would be bringing a 20th Anniversary Edition of his acclaimed classic Another World to iOS [App Store] with the help of DotEmu, through BulkyPix. A few days back, I interviewed Chahi and shared his thoughts on the coming App Store release and the iOS game scene in general. Since then, I've been playing through the release version of Another World for iOS and wanted to take the opportunity to post an early review of the title so readers know what they've got to look forward to on the game's September 22nd App Store launch day.

Another World (which was also known as Out of this World in certain markets) is a cinematic platform adventure originally released on the Amiga back in 1991. The game tells the story of physicist Lester Chaykin. As is illustrated in the game's introductory sequence, Lester returns to his underground laboratory one stormy night to continue work on a particle acceleration experiment. Shortly after the experiment is underway, a bolt of lightning strikes the laboratory, sending millions of volts into the accelerator and resulting in the freak teleportation of Lester to a far-away alien planet.

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Last month we posted a short preview of the upcoming GoatUp [link] (then to be called Goat Goes Up) from ungulate adoring game developer Jeff Minter. GoatUp is a retro-inspired platform game -- Llamasoft's first ever, in fact -- and is a title I've spent a great deal of time with over the last week or so. The game has just gone live in the App Store, so let's take a look.

GoatUp is a platform game of the endless climber sort that, according to Minter, draws inspiration from several oldschool platformers, including the Atari 2600 title Man Goes Down, Nebulus / Tower Toppler, and Rainbow Island. The game puts you in control of a cute little nanny goat faced with a never-ending, downward scrolling tower bristling with platforms. Your job is to climb as high as you can by deftly jumping from platform to platform as they scroll off the bottom of the screen. It's a mechanic that's pretty well represented in the App Store, but GoatUp is full of twists (so to speak) that make it something special.
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Ever have one of those games that you desperately want to hate but can’t? You know there are better games on your phone and that by all definitions you’re essentially wasting your time by playing it, yet you can’t seem to escape the grind. That’s Pygmies-Hoglet [$.99]. It’s the digital equivalent of a menthol cigarette: it’s in no way what you originally planned to smoke, but the flavor is weird enough to see you through while you get your fix.

I don’t want to come across too harshly, but in good conscience I need to spell out up front that this game may quickly turn off some folks. That disclaimer behind us, this game has an innocent, playful charm I can’t seem to shake and some simple tweaks to classic RPG mechanics that kept me from dwelling on its shortcomings. If you liked the movie Rudy even ironically, you may consider giving this scrappy underdog (underhog?) a try.

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I've long been a fan of Jeff Minter's unique take on game design, and his iOS releases are in my list of best games to be found in the App Store. His titles all drip definite old school appeal, and so I was extremely pleased to see his recent tweet indicating that he has worked iCade support into all of the iOS titles where it makes sense.

Jeff has posted a lengthy video demonstrating iCade gameplay in his imminent upcoming title GoatUp, as well as Minotuar Rescue [App Store] and Minotron: 2112 [App Store].

All titles mentioned should be getting an update soon that includes the demonstrated iCade support and GoatUp should arrive any day now. We'll be bringing an in-depth look at the latest title when it lands.

We recently brought news of the BulkyPix announcement that the much anticipated iOS port of Eric Chahi's Another World will be landing in the App Store on September 22nd. Xavier Liard of DotEmu, the studio developing the iOS version, put us in touch with the game's renowned author to discuss details of the upcoming release.

As we indicated yesterday, Another World for iOS will feature both the graphics of the original game as well as re-mastered "HD" graphics done specifically for this release. (A two-fingered swipe up the screen will toggle the visuals at any time.) In speaking with Chahi, I learned that this 20th Anniversary Edition of the game is running a tweaked version of the core script from acclaimed 15th Anniversary Edition, as executed by Chahi's own custom script interpreter that has been converted from 68000 assembly to C++. All of the sounds in the game have been re-mastered as well, to deliver an enhanced audio experience as compared to the original.
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Back at GDC we had our greasy hands all over Éric Chahi's iPad which was running a very promising looking early build of Another World. Today publisher BulkyPix announced that the game will be available as a universal app on September 22nd for $4.99. The iOS port will sport a choice of both remastered "HD" graphics as well as the original pixel art, along with both touch controls and a virtual D-pad. In addition, Another World comes with three difficulty levels: the original, as well as a harder and an easier setting.

Originally released in 1991, the game was known as Out of This World in North America. It was among the first games to rely on cinematic effects, sounds, and cut scenes to tell the story, and has since gone on to be ported to a ridiculous number of platforms. The original game has a difficulty level which I feel comfortable describing as "brutal," as you'll die in one hit, and a big part of the game is discovering and learning what can kill you and how to avoid it. I'm concerned with how the controls will translate to the touch-based interface of iOS devices, but remain optimistic that Another World will play just as awesomely as I hope it will.

Last month we posted news that DotEmu would soon be bringing retro classic Rod Land: A Fairy Tale [link] to the App Store as the fifth game in their Jaleco series. The game has just been released and we've got a closer look to share.

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Here's one I'm so anxious to share that I'm fumbling over my fingers here at the keyboard. Brandon Williamson over at Nyarlu Labs just sent me the heads-up on some major updates to one of the very best games I have ever played in my entire life, on any platform. The game in question is the modern retro title Forget-Me-Not [App Store] that easily got a five-star rating in my March review (which I urge the unacquainted to read, to get an idea of what the game is all about).

Brandon, yesterday, made a post to his blog announcing the release of a Mac OS X and Windows version of Forget-Me-Not that can be downloaded from his website. And it's freeware! It's not just some dumbed-down, redheaded stepchild build of the game, either -- no, no. The free Mac and PC versions of the game are, in fact, the latest, most full-featured versions of the game, bringing many enhancements over the current iOS version.

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We've recently been given an exclusive heads-up on two interesting looking upcoming titles from Digital Concepts, who brought us the early iOS pick-up RPG Loot Master [iPhone] as well as the space age tower defense title Starfall [iPhone, iPad].

The first bit of news Digital Concepts' Douglass Beck shared with us should be of interest to all the Minecraft junkies out there. Doug is working on a game that started out as something of a "pet project," but is now evolving nicely and should make it to both App Stores (Mac first, then iOS) sometime down the road. The as-yet-unnamed title is a single- and multi-player Minecraft-like game that is already quite functional in its early state of development.

That's about all we can share right now in the way of media and details on the studio's Minecraft-alike, but we'll bring more before the game goes live.
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There is no shortage of fantastic retro-RPGs in the App Store at the moment, but Muteki Corporation's Dragon Fantasy [$2.99] hopes to set itself apart from the rest with tongue-in-cheek dialogue and an authentic 8-bit look and feel.

The game sticks to its roots in more than just its look, the world is populated with things you've seen before like trees, mountains, plenty of grassland and monsters. But where most retro-RPGs are content to ape not only their context, but also their story and heroic mannerisms, Dragon Fantasy sidesteps the hero-journey slightly by offering a different take on the hero and his enemies.

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This morning while making my morning coffee and browsing through my email, I came across the most amazing announcement I've seen come out of Sega since the Dreamcast. (Yes, I realize Sega has made other, potentially better announcements since then, but still.) Sonic CD is coming to the App Store. If this doesn't have you squealing with glee, you must not have been alive during the Sega CD glory days, as Sonic CD is by far the absolute best Sonic game. It comes from the era of gaming before everyone felt the need to shoehorn needless 3D into games that are perfectly suited to be sidescrollers, and it was packed with the various benefits the Sega CD could offer: Full motion video, a fantastic soundtrack, and tons of content. There's even a radical time traveling mechanic where you can travel between the past and future on the same level.

Now, before we (justifiably) start grumbling about the quality of Sega's various emulated ports, there may be a glimmer of hope out there that Sonic CD might be everything we could ask for and more in an iOS Sonic game. Long-time readers might be pickin' up what I'm puttin' down. If you're new to the scene, let me introduce you to this video from over two years ago:

To make a long story short, in the summer of 2009, pioneering iOS developer Christian Whitehead announced his "iPhone Retro Engine" and "Retro Engine Development Kit." Sonic CD was the proof of concept Christian used to show just how incredibly well his technology works. We quickly followed up with an interview with Whitehead who got into some details, and made mention that he did in fact pitch this whole project to Sega.

Not long after that, all traces of the Retro Engine and Sonic CD running in it vanished from the internet. All of the communication after the fact was strictly off the record, but one could easily assume that when someone approaches Sega with a working proof of concept to not only port their games to tons of platforms, but do it quickly, easily, and with great performance, they're going to jump all over it.

If you're not quite ready to equip your tinfoil hat and go with me on this, consider this: Everything from Sega's PR blast this morning perfectly describes Sonic CD as we saw it running on the iPhone two years ago. It's hitting multiple platforms, widescreen graphics, "special iOS features," achievements, and more. If this were anything but Christian Whitehead's Sonic CD, my gut is telling me that it'd be running in some wacky variation of the Sega CD's original 320x224 resolution wrapped in a crazy emulator and not enhanced in the slightest… Because, really, that's how Sega rolls.

We likely won't have to wait too long to find out either, as it should be playable this weekend at PAX. Hopefully they've got the iPhone version there, and I'd put my money on it looking almost exactly like the above video.

Update: It turns out my gut is calibrated particularly well today, as Sonic Retro has confirmed that Christian Whitehead (via his online alias "The Taxman") is involved with this port and it is in fact using the Retro Engine. Sega's even provided a teaser trailer:

Seriously, can't wait.

Update 2: We were contacted Christian, who again confirmed his involvement in this release but mentions that only the Xbox Live Arcade version will be playable at PAX. Bummer! We'll be keeping our eyes out for the iOS version, that's for sure.