Far too often gaming is heinously thrust under the microscope of the media by organizations like Fox News and CNN.  In most circumstances an ill-informed host or reporter with an obvious bias is very outspoken and condemning of an hobby that more and more of us have come to know and love.  Sure, recently PopCap received quite a bit of good press for their work with the Make-a-Wish Foundation, but more often than not things lean towards the negative.

Five teens from the rural community of Rye, Colorado, along with Phil Hassey of Galcon fame, thought that it was time to once again show the positive side of gaming. After deciding that they wanted to try to help raise funds for a new community center in Rye, the team spent two days designing a brand new game from scratch. When the dust settled, The Exterminator was born.

So how does one decide to make a game about a motorcyclist that is humanity’s last line of defense against mutant bugs?  Here is a snippet of Hassey’s rundown of the project’s creative process:

“Wes really wanted to do a motorcycle oriented game and Shamoa was interested in some kind of game where we’d destroy mutant bugs.  By combining those ideas we came up with ‘The Exterminator.’  From there we spent two days developing the artwork, music, sound effects, and the actual game.  Matt put together the electric guitar soundtrack using GarageBand.  Wes, Shamoa, Shadrack, and Cameron all worked on the artwork.  Most everyone did some sound effects.  We also spent a lot of time eating food and generally goofing off.  We wrapped up the project with some solid play-testing and tweaking and we were all really happy with how it came out.”

First of all, hats off to Phil for making this project possible.  I’m sure these creative teens brought tons of amazing ideas to the table, but it takes the experience and expertise of a professional to bring all of those ideas together into a cohesive product.  Secondly, it is awesome to hear of the selfless generosity of Wes, Matt, Shamoa, Shadrack, and Cameron, all in the name of a good cause.  Well done to everyone involved.

If you are interested in supporting this very charitable cause, you can download The Exterminator when it goes live on the App Store, August 17th.  All of the proceeds from the game will go towards the efforts to establish a community outreach center in Rye, Colorado.  If you would like to learn more about the project and their progress towards raising $200,000, you can check out their website or like the game on Facebook.   Also, be sure to check out the trailer below to both see the game in action and meet the teens that made this project possible.

Another weekend, another great multiplayer game. This weekend, we’re designating the great strategy game Galcon as our weekend fun. Come join us.

Galcon is a game of conquest. Your goal is to fight against the other players and capture as many of the planets as possible. You do this by directing your ships (you have a specific number at each planet you control), from your planets to other players planets or uncontrolled planets. The planets that you control also produce new ships. So the more planets you control, the more ships you produce.

Once control of all of the planets has been achieved by a single player, that player wins. You can play many different variations as a single player game to get used to how the game is played. But when you are ready, hit the multiplayer version.

Besides the great strategic gameplay, Galcon also has a killer multiplayer version. The iPhone version, known as just Galcon, offers up to 4 player multiplayer games. You can play over the internet with others, or you can play locally over Wifi and Bluetooth. The online multiplayer is where it’s at. There’s never a time you can’t find a game to join.

The iPad version is an enhanced version of the game with many added features over the iPhone version. Not only are there more single player versions of the game to play, there are also 6 different multiplayer variations you can play. In addition, the multiplayer version on the iPad supports up to 12 players. And Galcon Fusion is the same as the desktop version. This means that you’ll be playing on your iPad against Windows and Mac users as well.

What other multiplayer games would you like to see us feature on Weekend Fun? Let us know in the comments.

We got word from Galcon developer Phil Hassey that he had decided, nearly last minute, to port over his new PC/Mac Galcon Fusion to the iPad. Galcon was one of the first really great games on the iPhone and Galcon Fusion is just a lot more of the same great things.

One of the really cool features of Galcon has been it’s multiplayer features that allow you to play over the Internet with anyone else that has the game. Galcon Fusion takes that a step further and allows you to play against not only other iPad users, but also other Mac, PC, and Linux users of the game!

Galcon Fusion will be available when the iPad App Store opens up on April 3rd! Hit the jump for more great screen shots and details about Galcon Fusion.

Continue reading iPad Game Preview: Galcon Fusion »

This afternoon, Phil Hassey released a surprise sequel to his acclaimed strategy game, Galcon. Galcon was recently given an aesthetic facelift, and Galcon Labs not only incorporates these aesthetic changes but also adds four new game modes. Oh, and in addition to many AI single player difficulties with random maps there’s still fully-featured online multiplayer!

Galcon was one of the earliest strategy games on the App Store and remains one of the best with simple and addictive gameplay. You and an opponent are placed on a battlefield of planets. You each start out with a home planet, and your goal is to eradicate your opponents fleet. To do this, you send out a certain percentage of your ships from one planet to another. Based on the size of a planet, ships will grow at a certain rate. This sounds simple, but the game quickly becomes frantic as players set up satellite planets, fight for key strategic outposts, and eventually wipe their opponent off the face of the galaxy.

In addition to this “classic” mode, Galcon Labs features four new game modes:

Billiards – play in a battlefield of constantly moving planets.
Stealth – enemy ships are invisible.
Crash – ships battle mid-space.
Assassin – each player is designated a target planet. The first player to conquer their target wins.

Currently at only $.99, Galcon Labs is by all accounts a bargain. Expect a full review soon!

Sure, Apple is dead to Jason Calacanis but we think the old rainbow fruit might still have a little life left in her — therefore, here’s the latest iPhone app store news.

Duke Nukem 3D is awesome and disappointing. Today, Richard takes a look at Duke Nukem 3D. He’s a lot more generous with the app than I think I would have been. Such is the way with reviews. While it’s amazingly cool to see Duke on the iPhone screen, that excitement was greatly diminished once I started to play it. The controls are just awful. To me they just show a complete lack of understanding of the platform. Something you’d expect to see of an amateur developer but not from a developer with this much experience. They must have just had to rush it out for some reason. Also, seems as though they aren’t limiting the speed properly. On a 3GS, the movements are extremely fast. Oh well, it’s still cool to see. Let’s hope the controls get fixed up soon. For nostalgia’s sake I’d love to actually be able to play it rather than just show it off.

Galcon 1 year anniversary brings a facelift. We’ve heard from Galcon creator Phil Hessey that he has submitted an update that gives it “shiny real-game feel instead of a made in some guy’s basement feel.” While we think the original looks fantastic, take a look at this sample image to see what awesomeness is to come. The update marks the 1 year anniversary of Galcon being in the app store.

If you’re not familiar with Galcon, it’s a great single / multiplayer real time strategy game. It’s a fantastic game if you like a little strategy with your arcade, check it out. The update has been submitted and is a free upgrade to anyone who has bought the app. It should be available soon.

SlingPlayer Mobile 1.1 to work over 3G — outside the US. So if AT&T has no say in what apps get approved, why is AT&T the only carrier who’s customers will not be seeing an update to Slingplayer to allow streaming of content over 3G? Viewing content over 3G is just one of the features planned in this rumored release recently submitted to Apple. Other purported features in this update include 16:9 viewing and an updated user interface for Dish Network users. Via TUAW.

eTextbooks may finally be here. CourseSmart have released an iPhone application that interfaces with their online textbook rental service. According to their site the usual rental is for 180 days and is about 50% the normal cost of the book. The downside is of course that there is no trade in value. So in the end it’s about the same as buying and then selling a textbook yet considerably more convenient. The app is free and requires an account from their site to use.

USAA bank brings virtual check deposits to the iPhone. USAA have updated their mobile banking app and included a new feature they call Deposit@Mobile. The feature allows their customers with iPhones to take a picture of the front and back of a check to deposit it. Once that’s done and it’s verified at the bank, the check will appear in your account just like you deposited it at an ATM. It’s a pretty big advancement and one that’s sure to see some scrutiny from security experts. But, it’s a step in the right direction.

The IGF Mobile awards were announced at the Game Developers Conference this week, and the iPhone, less than a year after commercial games became available for it, swept the awards winning all categories.

In celebration of these awards and due to extra publicity by Apple in the App Store, have reduced their prices to help increase sales for the nominated applications. Here’s a rundown of the winners:

Best Mobile Game – Fieldrunners
(on sale for $2.99, down from $4.99 iTunes Link)

Best iPhone Game – Zen Bound
($4.99 iTunes Link)

Innovation in Game Design – Galcon
(on sale for $0.99, down from $4.99 iTunes Link)

Mobile Achievement in Art – Fieldrunners
(on sale for $2.99, down from $4.99 iTunes Link)

Technical Achievement Award – Real Racing
(Not yet released – target release date: late April, 2009)

Mobile Audio Achievement – Zen Bound
($4.99 iTunes Link)