Jailbreaking can give you access to some awesome things. I’ve been holding out—it’s such a hassle to do all the requisite research and retrieve my Sync cable from under the bed—but this latest announcement might push me over the edge. Developer ZodTTD is working on an N64 emulator for the iPhone 3GS and 3rd-gen iPod Touch!

ZodTTD has quite the resume: he’s already created a few App Store games as well as a number of ports for the iPhone, including original games like Quake and emulators for the GameBoy Advance, Sony PlayStation 1, and Super Nintendo. Porting the N64 seems like a logical next step. Apple needed to produce better hardware, however, before the programmer decided to tackle the system. Speaking of the iPhone 3GS and the 3rd-gen iPod Touch, he wrote, “They’re the fastest Apple handhelds in term of raw CPU performance.” There are also a few other technical details that make the 3rd-gen iPod Touch and iPhone 3GS superior to their cousins, and thus the emulator is designed to work for them alone. (Note that the current 8GB iPod Touch model is apparently equivalent to a 2nd-gen iTouch, while the 16GB and 32GB models sport the faster performance.)

Needless to say, there are plenty of iPhone users who’d love to get Mario or Link in the palm of their hand, but since Apple and Nintendo are nudging closer and closer to direct competition for the handheld gaming market, any official ports of Nintendo titles are highly unlikely. The reason why I talked about jailbreaking? The N64 emulator isn’t headed into the App Store, as both Nintendo and Apple are likely to frown upon it. Instead, it will likely be released through App Store competitor Cydia. Non-jailbroken iPhones can’t access the unofficial store.

Details on ZodTTD’s emulator are scarce—he says he wants to “balance the hype” and won’t promise top-notch game performance—but excitement is building nevertheless. “Things look good for this project,” he writes in his post, and “you may soon see N64 on your favorite Apple device.”

There are still some caveats to be worked out. Controls, for example, will be a tough nut to crack correctly—while the GameBoy’s controls make sense as on-screen overlays, the N64 had many more buttons, as well as the joystick. Check out the original post for more information or to suggest solutions to the problem of controls.

Camden, London based iPhone development studio Origin8 has announced that to celebrate this years Bomfire night here in the UK, they’re launching a special offer in which the first edition to their tower defense series, Sentinel: Mars Defense, will be discounted. Starting today, November 5th at 6PM GMT and originally priced at $0.99, Sentinel: Mars Defense will be FREE for a whole week!

“It’s Bonfire Night in the UK, and the thoughts of the nation turn toward really big explosions. Thanks to London-based development studio Origin8, iPhone/iPod Touch gamers worldwide can share in the joy of blowing things up today, as their breakout sci fi strategy game “Sentinel: Mars Defense” will be FREE for a week from 6PM GMT.”

Originally released in February of this year, and in case you’re not familiar with the game, Sentinel: Mars Defense is a 2D tower defense game which brings with it fully immersive 2D (but with sort of a 3D-effect) graphics. The game is centered around stopping ‘waves’ of creeps from reaching an end point. Along the way to aid you in this battle you’ll have to use different powered space-like weapons, each with their own specialties and strong points. The aim is to destroy all alien lifeforms, before they have to reach a series of ‘gates’. If your end defenses are destroyed, it’s game over.

Sentinel: Mars Defense has been described as: Incredible, with stellar graphics, and a great amount of ‘content’ in-game. Having played the game myself, I can add to the fact that that it was definitely worth it at the low price of $0.99, but now you don’t have any excuse. Sentinel: Mars Defense is now FREE, and I highly recommend you go and snap it up!

Update: While the offer doesn’t seem to have started yet, it’s well and truly past 6PM here in the UK, so I’m sure we can expect the change to propagate to the App Store soon!

Sentinel: Mars Defense

Our Rating: :: STELLAR

Category: Games / Strategy
Released: 2009-02-27
Price: $0.99 ON SALE: FREE

Ryan posted earlier last week about Apple’s growing pains. Yes, Apple has approved over 100,000 apps, and we’re long since past the 2 billion download milestone, which is great. But alongside the explosive growth in the App Store has come explosive growth in another, not entirely unexpected direction: piracy.

I’m not going to pretend that piracy is a new or even an unusual phenomenon. Grabbing the latest album or movie off of the internet takes about as much effort as wiggling your pinky finger. But App Store piracy is a bit unique. First of all, we’re hearing a lot more indie developers speaking out about it. And secondly, those developers are extremely restricted in what preventative measures they can take, thanks in no small part to Apple.

The real power is in the numbers. Recently, Fishlabs reported that they experienced first-day piracy rates of 95% for Rally Master Pro. This is far from unusual; Smells Like Donkey claimed to experience rates as high as 90% in the week following the release of their newest game, Tap Fu, and ngmoco regularly experiences first-week rates of 50-90%. These rates decrease over time as pirates lose interests and more legitimate customers download the game, but indie developers are hit the hardest, with many enduring lasting piracy rates around 50%. Worst of all, hotly anticipated apps are cracked not within hours, but within moments of their release.

Needless to say, many are frustrated. Smells Like Donkey wrote that they felt “totally screwed over” after seeing just how rampant piracy was. And who can blame them? There aren’t many viable ways to protect applications.

Developers can attempt to check for pirated apps, but they often feel compelled to tread lightly. There’s nothing worse for PR than blocking a legitimate customer after a piracy check generates a “false positive.” (I.e., a genuine buyer gets mistaken for a pirate.) In the App Store, word of mouth is often what makes or breaks a game. Some insert pop-up notifications when a pirated app is detected, asking the user to buy a legal copy of the application, while others revert their games to a “lite” mode; most are loathe to permanently disable the apps.

Continue reading App Piracy and Why Apple Needs to Help »

There have been many recorders on the App Store since it’s debut. From nFinity’s Quick Voice to BIAS’ Pro Recorder and Polar Bear Farm’s sleek looking Record. But although they all do the job in recording background noise, spoken memos and notes, not one has introduced the one feature you’d expect, phone call recording.

Today, in what could be seen as a controversial move by some, the guys at Retronyms (also the people behind the iPhone music mixing studio Dopplerpad) have done just that. They have successfully integrated the ability to record audio from a phone call, straight from within their app ‘Recorder’.

The new feature comes in the form of a separate in-app purchase, and each full hour of recording will cost you $1.99. If you feel you need more than that though, there is also an option to purchase a staggering 8 hours of call audio recording time, although this will cost you $12.99. Of course with any app containing one-tap purchase abilities, the cost through in-app purchasing are sure to rack up – fast – especially for the odd power user. But, in the case of the general user just looking to record short amounts of in-call audio, this is a great addition to the usual bog-standard App Store recorder.

The update is already on the store, so what are you waiting for!

Recorder

Category: Business
Released: 2008-07-11
Price: $0.99

When taking photos on the move, sometimes it pays to have photo editing apps. After all, you’re not going to tweet that picture without a bit of increased contrast, or brightness – right? It’s a well-known fact nowadays that the majority of photos we see on the web have being edited in some way in a graphics package such as Adobe Photoshop. But what if you can’t get to your computer and need reliable and feature filled editing applications on the move?

Being a keen photographer and designer, I thought it’d be fun to give you my low-down on the photo editing apps I personally think you should have on your phone. I’ll explain why I think you should have them, and what features and benefits I like most about each application. Here we go!

PhotoForge

Definitely one of the more fully-featured photo editing App Store offerings, PhotoForge (in my opinion) should have you pretty much covered for your mobile editing needs. Just like all the editors I’m about to feature, the app will allow you to open, edit and save a photo to your iPhone’s camera roll. What makes PhotoForge a great pick for this over it’s competition is it’s feature set. As well as allowing you to rotate and crop your photo, the app also offers a wide range of both adjustment and visual effects which are comparable to Adobe Photoshop on a mobile level.
Continue reading Four Of The Best Photo Editing Apps For Your iPhone! »

It’s a fairly big week in the app store for game releases. Maybe the developers and Apple are teaming up to scare us reviewers (get it, Halloween… I thought it was clever) into working overtime to get all these reviews done. Just to name a few of them, we now have Doom Classic, Command and Conquer, Eliminate, NBA Live (last week), Asphalt 5, and Alice in Bomberland running wild in the app store, most of which are just dying for a review.

Productivity, Lost

I must say that working for an app review website is just about the best thing ever, but there is a major drawback. The reason half of the apps were made was to completely wipe out productivity. Some of the apps that are self proclaimed ‘master time wasters’ are in fact master time wasters. Every once in a while I’ll download something, you know, for work, and it’ll just decimate my productivity. This time, the culprit is ‘Words With Friends’, a Scrabble-like game that takes me back to my days of playing Scrabulous on Facebook. The game is paced however fast you and your opponent choose to play, and you get a handy push notification when it’s your turn.

If you ever want to play, my SN is chris148apps. Let’s make a pact though that if you beat me, you won’t tell too many people… I have a reputation to maintain!

Words With Friends

Our Rating: :: ADDICTING

Category: Games / Word
Released: 2009-07-19
Price: $2.99

There will be a new iPhone… shocker

I love reading Apple rumors, and today I found one that blew me away (brace for it). There may be a new iPhone sometime in 2010. Over at Gizmodo, they have pictures, from a seemingly reputable source, of what they are calling the ‘iPhone 4 Generation Midboard’.

Does anyone else see that Verizon logo in the bottom of the left panel? No? Am I just trying to start something?

My US pride is hurt
ngmoco:), the only company happy enough to put a smiley face in their name, made me quite sad last week. While waiting for Eliminate to grace my iPhone, I discovered that the Canadians… CANADIANS!!!(????)… got the game first. What, first the Winter Olympics, now Eliminate? What’s next… more new games, the iPhone, the next Taco Bell taco?

They can't have it!

Worried about the devs
I’ve talked to quite a few developers in my time, and they all seem to have a similar concern. They are just not sure how they are going to make any money in the app store without breaking into the top 100 apps, and even then are worried that the 99 cent pricing structure ruins their chance to make any money at all. After taking a look at the top grossing apps in the App Store, I can see why they are concerned. Only one app in the top 20 is made by an ‘indie’ dev, and the game, Pocket Devil, is just a knock off of Pocket God. Maybe EA’s $9.99 price scheme is really the way to go, as they have 9 of the 20 top grossing games out there.

This weeks sign of the apocolypse
There are so many fantastic apps in the App Store, but while digging through the list of top grossing apps, I found that the 28th app on the list is ‘Truth or Dare – 18+’. This makes me sad.

Truth or Dare - 18+

Category: Entertainment
Released: 2009-09-25
Price: $1.99

ngmoco:)’s hotly anticipated titles, Touch Pets: Dogs and Eliminate, have finally made their way past Apple’s approval process. For those who don’t know, Touch Pets is a pet sim that focuses on raising and training “the ultimate puppy” and also includes a wide array of social features. Eliminate, meanwhile, is a multiplayer online first person shooter. Both games will be free (yes, you read that right!) but will feature In-App Purchases. Note that IAP’s won’t be necessary to play the game; you’ll just need them to unlock extras. With Eliminate, for example, you get to play a certain number of games per day before your “energy” runs out; you can play without energy but you won’t be able to earn any in-game credits.

While both apps are approved, don’t get too excited: ngmoco is doing a Canada-only release first, to make sure that “all Eliminate systems are online and all puppies are house broken before unleashing upon the world,” according to their tweet. It’s an interesting strategy that will have non-Canadian fans grumbling, but given that ngmoco is releasing two extremely hyped games with heavy online components at once, it makes sense. Once the games make their USA debut, we’ll post our reviews; for now, you can check out our preview coverage from earlier this month.

Update: Eliminate is now out worldwide. Make sure you grab it! It generally takes a few hours for new apps to show up in the App Store, so don’t worry if you can’t see it yet.

Canadians can get Touch Pets here, though the rest of the world is still waiting.

With geoDefense Swarm being my current favorite game in the App Store, I decided that it would be fun to post a complete solutions guide to all of the levels (that can be beat, I omitted the endless levels) on our forum. Two weeks and countless angry moments of defeat later, my guide is finally finished, sitting on the forum for all to enjoy. Here is the link!

Now that it’s done, I feel that my life is an empty void… I need another game to post a walkthrough for. Leave me some ideas in either the comments section or in the forum.

On November 28th 2008 Apple hit a landmark for their iPhone App Store. They reached 10,000 approved applications for their device. Less then a year later, Apple has hit another landmark in approving their 100,000th app. This number is mind boggling when you think about the amount of development man hours that have gone into it.

Recently I’ve read some other saddening numbers in that some developers are seeing piracy rates of upwards of 90% on their applications. I firmly believe that Apple’s recent move to allow developers to sell in game purchases in their free apps is a direct response to the massive pirating we see going on. If developers, publishers, startups and the like are going to make money consistently on the device in a complete sea of pirates and the race to $0.99 they are going to do start thinking and doing things completely differently. A lot of people are starting to expect a lot of game for almost no money. The problem is very few companies can exist by merely selling their app for such a low price, but then you’ll almost never get noticed if you price yourself higher. It is definitely a catch 22 for many devs. What I see happening in this space is that the devs who take the model of giving their game away for free and then convincing me to go farther by spending $0.99 or $1.99 will more likely succeed. The other approach is to lock people out of the game based on a timed events similar to how iMob does it. There may even be a 3rd or 4th solution to this problem that has yet to emerge.

This flood of apps will not stop, and some analysts are saying that we’ll see 250,000 applications by this time next year and that number may even be low if we look at the growth pattern over the last year and half. Crazy as it sounds, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg that will be the app store. Everyone will be developing stuff for the iPhone. At some point, Apple will be changing it’s slogan to “There are 100 apps for that” as extreme over saturation hits in all areas. Even Adobe is releasing a Flash game converter that allows you to make your Flash game into an app and with that every Flash game will get converted in no time.

Continue reading 100,000 apps and growing pains. »

EA is looking to release three classic board games in time for the holiday season: Battleship, Connect 4, Monopoly Classic.

Battleship

EA will bring a few twists to the classic game of skillful coordinate guessing. You’ll use touchscreen controls to battle your enemies in three different modes – classic, salvo, and super weapons. Not wanting to miss out on the social aspect of the game, EA has included local multiplayer (both bluetooth and Wifi).

Connect 4

While EA couldn’t quite recreate the joy of pulling the lever at the bottom of the board and watching all of the pieces crash to the ground, Connect 4 will nonetheless be a faithful recreation of the timeless game. Connect 4 will contain single player and multiplayer (local Wifi, bluetooth, and one device sharing). Single player includes classic, challenge, and advanced modes with Powerchips, Max Score, and PopOut. In addition, EA has included 25 unlockable achievements and some fancy visual effects.

Monopoly Classic

While EA has already released Monopoly: Here & Now onto the App Store, they will provide a more traditional experience with Monopoly Classic. Because the cutthroat intensity of property management doesn’t quite transfer over to single player mode, you’ll be able to play your friends on the go with local Wifi, bluetooth, and single device “pass and play” multiplayer. EA is also including some nice iPhone features such as progressive save, an accelerometer shake to role the dice, and the ability access your iPod library in-game.

Check the jump for more screenshots.

Continue reading Upcoming EA Games: Battleship, Connect 4, and Monopoly Classic »

Following on from the immersive RPG that was Return to Mysterious Island, iPhone publisher Chillingo have announced they’re bringing a sequel to the store, announcing Jules Verne’s Secrets of The Mysterious Island is coming to both iPhone (and iPod touch), shortly. The first of the series hit App Store shelves in May of this year, and like most adventure based titles seemed to go down in a storm with the iPhone crowd. Recently I seem to be saying that a little too often about various titles, but having actually owned (and played) this title myself, I can say quite honestly say the adventure was thoroughly enjoyable to play through.

Based on a graphic novel by Jules Verne’s, and carrying on from titles such as 1112 and Cassandra’s Journey, the game sees you take the role of Mina, a sailor who becomes stranded on an island, somewhere in the Pacific ocean. As you trail and tap your way around the island, trying your up-most to survive, and finding objects and (more importantly) food along the way, you try to unlock the mysteries hidden within.

Described by Chillingo as an experience which will mirror that of Robinson Crusoe, this new release will carry on from where you left off. The game will start off with a helicopter crash, and continuing the theme of being stranded, you will have to guide Mina to safety. This time will also see you visit new locations including: Captain Nemo’s base and scouring the ruins of an unknown civilization. Eventually, you will realize the cause of the threat to the island, and will aim to prevent it.

For approximately 700 Mb, the player will find out the end of the adventure of Mina. Jules Verne’s “Secrets of The Mysterious Island” contains stunning 3D graphics, many ambient sounds, music designed to enhance the mysterious atmosphere and feel.

Continue reading Preview: Jules Verne’s Secrets of The Mysterious Island »

Remember .™? If you don’t, the title was the debut of London-based iPhone development studio ustwo™. The game was 2D and involved the user guiding a white dot around a playing field, trying to avoid red matter (triangular), and collecting blue matter (circular). It hit the mainstream for a number of reasons, firstly for its design ethics, but secondly and most importantly being that it was the first ever application to have hit the App Store, whilst having been designed from concept to final within a 48 hour period.

This had never been done before. The thought of developing a polished title such as .™ within such a short period of time, to most other developers I imagine may have started their worst nightmare. There are going to be 6 titles within this ‘exclusive’ set of apps – sorta a “collect em’ all” diddy. The first was .™ which we profiled a few weeks back, and the next is supposedly Inkstrumental™ CRAZO™ (although as we mentioned in our previous first look, the studio themselves isn’t sure if that’ll ever see the light of day, yet.)

In the meantime the studio isn’t standing still, today announcing the sequel to their debut hit title. Calling it ..™. Having not seen the game yet myself, or had chance to play with it, I can only go off this visually stunning teaser trailer which the company has just released above, which to me seems to convey we might just be in store for some 3D goodness – (well .. I hope so)! While it’s not clear if this sequel will follow the 48 hour development method ustwo™ are now famous for, you have to admit that ..™ trailer is pretty damn trippy.

Having played .™, it’s addictive nature tends to bring with it high replay value, and as with any title, high replay usually means value for money. With no word on price yet, it’s hard to judge if ..™ will live up to it’s original – but according to ustwo™ we won’t have to wait long to find out. The title is expected to hit very, very soon.

Update: In a stark move, the studio has created a fully interactive online version of the upcoming game. Part of their new ‘48App’ section, you can now play both .™ and ..™ flash versions – here. Looks like ..™ will be 3D after all! Although, it’s still unclear whether the game will use touch and drag gesture controls, or take advantage of the accelerometer. We’ll see!

.™

Category: Games / Kids
Released: 2009-09-17
Price: $0.99

The famous children’s song “he’s got the whole world, in his hands” has been taken to a whole new level, thanks to Apple’s iPhone and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Now you have the entire universe at the flick of a finger.

The application “makes extensive use of built-in iPhone features and usability to offer compelling yet concise information in a clear and intuitive way. Receive and share dynamic NASA mission updates, out-of-this-world images, and intriguing video links. Follow the path and progress of space exploration in real time while tracking the global orbits of your favourite spacecraft, all in the palm on your hand.”

We’re holding off on the review in light of a new version somewhere on the horizon, which should bring the much-awaited NASA TV (live) right to the iPhone as well as a plethora of minor upgrades and new features. Until then, just photos:

Note: NASA app uses a data connection download photos and videos.

StoneLoops! of Jurassica is fantastic marble-shooter that Bonnie proclaimed “sets a new standard for Zuma-style match-3s” in her initial review. Have you rushing off to the App Store? Well, don’t bother. Recently, StoneLoops was removed from the App Store by Apple and is no longer available for download. As it turns out, this act was perpetrated by MumboJumbo, the developers of the main genre competitor, Luxor.

According to the developer of StoneLoops, Code Minion (full blog post here), MumboJumbo’s reason for doing this was StoneLoops’s success. In fact, this assertion seems to be largely substantiated. When they both existed as PC games, Luxor far overshadowed the little-known StoneLoops. However, when it came to the iPhone, the tables turned. Code Minion beat MumboJumbo in the race to the App Store, and StoneLoops enjoyed a sustained high rank in the top paid apps list while Luxor languished.

The full story goes like this: a few weeks ago, Apple relayed Code Minion a formal complaint and request to remove StoneLoops from the App Store, originally filed by MumboJumbo. According to Code Minion, the complaint involved “infringing Luxor copyright, confusing customers, stealing Luxor’s look & feel and even stealing their source code!” Most of these claims are simply outrageous, and if you’ve ever played the two games, the differences are apparent. Code Minion replied to Apple, refuting the claims that they found erroneous and even offering to change a few things on StoneLoops’s app description. Code Minion assumed Apple ruled in their favor when weeks passed without any reply, but discovered otherwise when they learned StoneLoops was no longer available in the App Store.

There are several reasons why MumboJumbo’s actions are repulsive and hypocritical. First, of course, Luxor is not an original game. All marble shooters are derived from the 1998 Japanese game Puzz Loop, and most established iteration on the formula is Popcap’s 2003 game Zuma. In addition, there are multiple other Zuma-like games on the App Store, though MumboJumbo only chose to attack their closest competitor. Ironically, when Code Minion was deciding on a publisher for StoneLoops, they talked with MumboJumbo before settling on Playcreek. MumboJumbo was shown the game, and never expressed any doubts about possible copyright infringement. This incident sets a dangerous precedent in the App Store that could be easily exploited by other developers.

Please note that MumboJumbo has not yet commented on the incident with their side of the story.

Alive 4-Ever
Sure, it may not the scariest thing ever, but it’s really really dark, and your chances of beating it are really really bleak. The story is your typical Resident Evil style experience with a pharmaceutical company creating a drug that unintentionally turns everyone into a zombie. Keeping to script, you are in charge of zombie destruction, and can either play as one of the two government agents or one of the two survivors of the zombie infection. The game is a top-down shooter, like iDracula and MiniGore, but with some RPG character building elements built in. Expect a ton of blood and some intensely awesome gun fights.

Alive 4-ever

Our Rating: :: FANTASTIC

Category: Games / Action
Released: 2009-08-26
Price: $2.99

Hysteria Project
Hysteria Project was an interesting app to play through. It’s not the newest app in the store, but it is one of the first, and best, attempts to create a super creepy movie-like horror experience on the iPhone. You start the game tied up on the ground, and without an idea of what’s going on, you must frantically run from a creepy guy with a hatchet that, for whatever reason, wants you dead. As I said in the review, “There is always a driving sense of urgency, even at the beginning of the game when the axe murderer has yet to be revealed. You just know that, at all times, the axe murderer is right behind you and ready to strike.”

Hysteria Project isn’t the longest app in the app store, but the high quality video along with the intense sound effects might just provide the scariest experience in the app store.

Hysteria Project

Our Rating: :: CAUTIOUSLY RECOMMENDED

Category: Games / Adventure
Released: 2009-04-08
Price: $1.99

Doom: Resurrection
Sure, maybe it’s not a typical horror game, and it may not be indie enough for some, but Doom: Resurrection provides some of the most intense horror/action sequences in the app store. Unlike any other game in the series, Doom: Resurrection is an on-rails shooter that makes sure to put you in the worst situations possible to kill the monsters around you. The controls are tight, the graphics are quite impressive, and the sound effects are just the right amount of creepy. Make sure you play this one with headphones, because the sensation of hearing something growl behind you but not being able to turn around right away is surprisingly creepy.

DOOM Resurrection

Our Rating: :: PLATFORM SHOWCASE

Category: Games / Action
Released: 2009-08-05
Price: $6.99

Resident Evil: Degeneration
I just had to do it. What list of horror games is complete without Resident Evil? Being the most successful horror series in video gaming, we were quite excited to play Resident Evil on the iPhone. Fortunately, we weren’t disappointed by the experience. Expect your typical fare of creepy zombies and even creepier sound effects, along with a ‘made-for-iPhone’ experience. One thing that was disappointing though was the lack of blood. If I shoot something in the head, it should explode in a shower of red, not a whole lot of nothing.

Besides the blood, RE: Resurrection provides one of the creepiest experiences on the small screen. It’s definitely worth the price of admission.

Resident Evil: Degeneration

Our Rating: :: AMAZING

Category: Games / Adventure
Released: 2009-05-12
Price: $4.99

Hope you enjoyed the list! Join the discussion about the definitive scariest iPhone app ever on our forum. I’m never wrong, but I do like others opinions. Ha. Happy Halloween!