$1.99Reviews

A Quick Look at ‘Torus’ for the iPhone

Mark S. Morris recently released a Torus [App Store], a fun little accelerometer-controlled puzzle game that can be a bit frustrating.  As the developer describes it,

Catch tori as they fall from the sky by tilting your device to slide the base hook around the play area.  You take damage each time a torus hits your base or the floor, but you can replace health points by catching the glowing green tori that appear when you are in danger.

It’s a super-simple game, but is an amusing pick-up diverison set to a relaxing audio trackset.

See a simple gameplay video posted by the developer:

Torus is available for $1.99 through the iTunes App Store [Store Link].

34 Comments

  1. blakespot

    Before this, iPhone users had to use Frotz along with IF Quake... :-)

  2. Jack

    Looks nice, just the buttons are covering the whole screen! I wish the accelerometer was an option (course... I guess it might not work).

  3. NotYou

    That's going to be awesome. I'm sure it'll have some shortcomings, but it'll still be awesome.

  4. Jonathan Allen

    How does one shoot when using accelerometer controls?

  5. Eric5h5

    I don't see how this will make it into the App Store...the Quake engine was open-sourced yonks ago, but the assets are still ©id software and can't be distributed last time I checked.

  6. Eric

    I played this all the time before from Cydia and its nice to see the rest of the features are working, but its so hard to play with the on screen controls, I never made it past level 2 lol. Hard if you can't strafe left and right. I did hear id was suppose to be porting its own games to the iphone, I assume quake would be one of them, so gonna be interesting to see if it gets takin off cause of that. Still waiting for quake 3 thats gonna be awesome, if quake 1 has network play over internet I am sold with deathmatch play.

  7. mek

    so what do you think will be better, this or cube.....both are free

  8. Eric

    Its hard to tell, it would have to come down to controls, I never played Cube so that would be what I wanna play cause everyones played quake already and has it all memorized. But with mods, deathmatch, customization on quake 1 if that can all be done then quake 1 will be awesome, but I am sure both are the same type of game just different controls, both look amazing on the phone and run good. They both will be free? I know I am gonna play the crap outta both. To me its gonna come down to which game is more playable

  9. Sean

    Does Quake work with the First Generation iPod Touch?

  10. blakespot

    @mek: I recently downloaded Cube and have been playing it on my shiny new MacBook 2.4GHz. I play and have played Quake (or GL Quake, which is what the coming title really is) on this laptop and many other machines. While some of Cube looks a little better, being a more recent title, Quake is by far the better game.

    Many consider Quake to be the perfect formula as far as control and general feel. Quake II and Quake III look nicer, but they don't feel as good as Quake.

    Spend some time with GL Quake on a modern Mac or PC. It's worth a look.

  11. Alza

    Would this even be allowed? id soft wouldn't let it happen will they? Blakespot, do you know?

  12. Nagromme

    Odd that the green logo at the beginning is the Quake 4 emblem, with the 4 tabs.

  13. popcorn

    Why was this ported and not Doom, a game originally made for simple keyboard-only play? Doom was specifically made so you only needed forward, back, turn left, turn right, and shoot to play it.

  14. aen

    great stuff! i'll be certainly on it! thanks!

  15. Chuck Smith

    Looks like this app will be interesting once the iControlPad is released...

  16. Barry Ward

    I will miss my strafing

  17. Sean

    Looks great.
    I guess this is one of those instances where having a keyboard on the iPhone would be really useful :-(

  18. Tony

    As much as I enjoy Quake, I'm really just not sure this is going to be terribly playable. The speed is quite impressive, but Quake was made with concepts like circle strafing and mouselook in mind and the controls seem a little less than perfect for the task.

    That said, I'm sure plenty of Quake players never mastered either. Since it's a free port, might as well check it out.

  19. Neos

    Don't complain! as much as i enjoy playing quake with freelook i still remember when i've first beaten it, it was with arrows and a/z buttons to look up and down.

  20. NotYou

    I see no reason to complain. A free port of quake is going to be great no matter what. When I first played it, I only used the keyboard. I was used to Doom and the whole looking with the mouse thing was irritating. It'll play fine with keys.

    I do think they should have option of using accelerometer control.

  21. blakespot

    @NotYou: I do think they should have option of using accelerometer control.

    Agreed.

  22. Malu05

    This is fully legal, the source code was just made opensource and not GPL or something like that. Almost any platform have a copy of Quake and Quake 2 and as long as its just the "demo" and as long as noone will take any money for it, it is fully legal.

    Im sure IDSoftware will contact ZoddTTD so eighter they toghter can make a official release or that IDSoftware will take it down and they will make their own copy.

  23. Finch

    the G1 almost has a mouse and keyboard, agreed, an android version would rock.

  24. Chris B

    Thanks for putting the effort into accomplishing this!!!
    Quake was one of my all time favorite PC games, and having it everywhere I go is a dream come true. Hats off to you.

  25. Eric

    What ever happened to this game, was it approved or not approved? or still pending?

  26. joe

    yea what happened? or does apple only push through apps that have a price tag attached to them and free apps get put on the back burner

  27. Jezz

    Still looking at this with hope and searching the app store for quake on a regular basis.

  28. NotYou

    About the licensing thing:

    I don't think Apple can turn them down because the rights belong to ID. There's a chance that ID might threaten them and they'll have to remove it, though. If it eventually comes out, I think it'd be smart to grab fast before it's pulled. I'm not saying it will be pulled, but I wouldn't doubt it.

  29. sean

    how much longer ? i cant wait for this

  30. Hutch

    Still waiting!!! Anymore news? Urge to kill rising... rising...RISING! Need For Quake: Unleased.

  31. Wabaam

    did this get kicked out?!!??! D:

  32. Wabaam

    luckily i have the jailbroken version.....lol!

  33. Jelkster

    i think "mouselook" can be implemented by simply moving your finger on the screen. this way it can become a mouse so to speak. im thinking have most of the screen designated to the "mouselook" function, while the lower corners can be used for the other controls.

  34. parranoya

    Where did this app go? I thought it was sent to the app store a while ago? Did it get regected?