Fans of the classic Amiga artillery game Worms will be happy to hear that ZodTTD (whose TurboGrafx-16 emulator we covered in a previous post) is working to get Hedgewars ported to the iPhone.  Hedgewars is a free, turn-based strategy game modeled after the aforementioned Worms that features network play and is currently available for Windows, Linux and FreeBSD.

Each player controls a team of several hedgehogs. During the course of the game, players take turns with one of their hedgehogs. They then use whatever tools and weapons are available to attack and kill the opponents’ hedgehogs, thereby winning the game. Hedgehogs may move around the terrain in a variety of ways, normally by walking and jumping but also by using particular tools such as the “Rope” or “Parachute”, to move to otherwise inaccessible areas. Each turn is time-limited to ensure that players do not hold up the game with excessive thinking or moving.

A large variety of tools and weapons are available for players during the game: Grenade, Cluster Bomb, Bazooka, UFO, Shotgun, Desert Eagle, Fire Punch, Baseball Bat, Dynamite, Mine, Rope, Pneumatic pick, Parachute. Most weapons, when used, cause explosions that deform the terrain, removing circular chunks. The landscape is an island floating on a body of water, or a restricted cave with water at the bottom. A hedgehog dies when it enters the water (either by falling off the island, or through a hole in the bottom of it), it is thrown off either side of the arena or when its health is reduced, typically from contact with explosions, to zero (the damage dealt to the attacked hedgehog or hedgehogs after a player’s or CPU turn is shown only when all movement on the battlefield has ceased).

Have a look at the game in action:

Worms was amazing.  Hedgewars with its online gameplay takes the fun to the next level. This is a most welcome addition to the iPhone game library that you won’t want to miss.

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.

The iPhone packs a rather notable punch when it comes to CPU horsepower for a mobile computing device of its size and class.  The 620MHz Xscale-based ARM core in its chipset is no slouch–in fact it’s one of if not the most powerful extremely-low-wattage mobile processor out there.  But, that’s not to say that the iPhone is up to any and every computer gaming challenge.

Here, we look to the work of an Intel research group in Israel that is striving to develop technologies to allow mobile devices of modest power to run graphically tasking applications such as heavyweight MMORGPs like World of Warcraft and Second Life. 

Second Life and World of Warcraft are among the most prominent MMOGs. They demand lots of computing power – both from the CPU and Graphics. These demands overload any mobile device of today or near future, even including MIDs. By the time the mobile clients have caught up, the performance requirements for MMOGs will grow higher yet.

The 3D Streaming technology developed by Comverse and Intel computes and renders the MMOG content on a powerful backend server, then smartly compresses and streams the graphics onto a client. A network gateway designed by Comverse allows streaming over both WiMAX and 3G cellular networks. With advanced software optimizations including SSE usage, a single Xeon 5400 backend system can serve simultaneously up to 14 clients.

A demonstration video featuring Alexander Sterkin, Sr. SW Application Engineer in Intel’s Software & Solutions Group–but not featuring the iPhone or iPod touch, explains the project further.
 

This is an interesting technology to follow that may enable the iPhone or iPod touch to act as clients to games and applications more demanding than the platform would normally allow.

Details have emerged surrounding what developers wishing to distribute games and other applications through the iTunes App Store will face as far as control over their content and store limitations.

AppleInsider reports that people familiar with the matter indicate that developers will have wide-ranging control over the manner in which their applications are presented.

…the iPhone maker is said by those aware of the submission interface to be offering a significant amount of control over how and where apps are delivered.

A web-based portal lets developers manage a large number of business and store presentation elements. It also lets these creators set the compatibility of the app with the iPod touch, the global regions where program should be distributed, and even game content ratings that roughly match American and European standards, warning parents of particularly sexual or violent content during play.

Some limitations developers will encounter concern application size and price.  Applications uploaded to the App Store via the iTunes Connect service have apparently been given a maximum file size limit of 2GB. Apps that need to draw on an extensive, local database may be limited by this restriction–but 2GB does not seem claustrophobic for a device such as the iPhone.

Apple is reportedly implementing a tiered pricing system in the App Store.  Developers wishing to charge for their applications can set the price as low as 99 cents or as high as $999.99.  Movement in price between those extremes occurs in increments from between $1 and $100, depending on the relative price of the app.

According to AppleInsider sources, Apple will not sell titles through the App Store that would merit an “adult” rating.

As for just when the App Store will make it’s debut, there is evidence that the “early July” launch that Apple has spoken of will coincide with the July 11th launch of the iPhone 3G.

When customers will have their own turn at the App Store isn’t clear from the information Apple is sending out. The company has officially stated “early July.” However, those familiar with the App Store submission process say a ’sell-on date’ option included as part of the application submission process currently defaults to July 11th, the same day as the iPhone 3G first goes on sale. Others who’ve spoken directly to Apple about the launch date have also been told July 11th.

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 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.

Major mobile applications developer Handmark has announced, at Apple’s WWDC conference in San Francisco, that it intends to develop a variety of games and applications for the iPhone.

“Handmark has an unmatched level of experience and expertise in developing top-quality games and applications for nearly all of the leading mobile platforms in the market today,” said Paul Reddick, Handmark CEO. “As new mobile platforms successfully emerge, like the iPhone, we view it as a great opportunity to expand our licensed titles and help others develop their titles for a new mobile audience.”

UK-based Astraware, the Handmark Game Studio, will play an integral part in the development of various game titles for the iPhone, the company indicates.  Astraware was one of the first companies to develop games for the fifth-generation iPod in 2006.

A few of the many mobile gaming titles release by Handmark:

• The Sims 2 for Windows Mobile Pocket PC
• Sims Bowling for Windows Mobile Pocket PC
• Konami Frogger for Windows Mobile Pocket PC
• Super PAC-MAN for Palm OS
• Galaga for Palm OS
• Contra for Windows Mobile Smartphone
• EA Tetris Mania for Windows Mobile Smartphone
• Dig Dug by Namco for BlackBerry
• Monopoly Here and Now for BlackBerry

iPhone developer Binary Square has released gameplay videos of two native iPhone game titles currently under development: Space Out and Spinblox.

Space Out, “a tribute to old school arcade games,” is basically Space Invaders meets Arkanoid.  The game presents a Space Invaders-style monochrome game screen, but rather than controlling a movable turrett, the player is in control of a sliding paddle with which he/she must destroy the advancing alien horde by deflecting a bouncing ball.  Like Arkanoid, power-ups fall from certain enemies when destroyed with the ball.

Spinblox is a colorful puzzle game in which the player swipes his or her finger over two adjacent blox in order to spin them.  The goal is to line up three or more of the same color blox in order to create a set.  All sets are removed with each wave, every few seconds.

Binary Square CEO Dan Bliss indicates that both titles will be sold through the iTunes App Store.  There are no details on pricing at this time.

Following Monday’s WWDC keynote, Apple placed an iTunes App Store info page online highlighting several forthcoming applications.  One of the featured apps is Sega’s Super Monkey Ball, which was first demonstrated during Apple’s iPhone SDK rollout event back in March and shown again, complete with over 100 levels, during Monday’s keynote. The page features a demonstration video of the game mapped onto a an animated iPhone, illustrating the title’s accelerometer-based control system.

Super Monkey Ball will be available as a $9.99 download at the launch of the iTunes App Store in early July.