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Earlier this morning we posted news that Firemint would soon be bringing an update to Real Racing 2 HD [App Store], with support for full-screen 1080p video-out on the iPad 2. This news got us wondering about the overall situation that the iPad 2 and it's new PowerVR SGX543MP2 graphics processor(s) present to existing games that already utilize TV-out by way of Apple's earlier component and VGA video cables for iOS devices.

I chatted up Keith Shepherd of Imangi, author of Max Adventure [App Store], which has supported TV-out via the aforementioned cables for some time now, to see what he thought the iPad 2's 1080p capability means for existing titles. While he hadn't tested Max on an iPad 2 personally, he felt it likely that the newly supported resolution should be there among those presented to an application by iOS, and therefore presented as an option in his game.

And, he was right.

With an iPad 2 connected to a 1080p HDTV by way of the Apple Digital AV Adapter (the HDMI cable), I fired up Max Adventure to see how it runs on the new hardware. Max, which supported a maximum resolution of 1280×720 on all previous devices, presents the option to run at a full 1920×1080 on the iPad 2. And, when chosen, the game runs beautifully in full 1080p.

I also loaded up MajicJungle's Chopper 2 [App Store], which has supported TV-out since day one, and noted that it runs in full 1080p on the iPad 2, where it, too, was previously limited to 720p.

It's great news that existing apps like these got an automatic upgrade courtesy of Apple and Imagination Technologies.

Since I was caught up in waving around my HDMI cable, I decided to try it out on the iPhone 4 running iOS 4.3, which we already knew supports TV-out via the component and VGA cables. I loaded up Max Adventure and my HDTV lit right up, with full audio and video coming through just fine, but at a maximum resolution of 1280×720 due to limitations of the device's earlier generation graphics chipset. Still, this is great news, as HDMI delivers a nice, clean digital signal while the VGA and component cables provide analog output only (and lack audio information).

Speaking of those older cables, a quick look at Apple's website indicates that the VGA cable will also deliver 1080p video when used with the iPad 2, but that the component cable is limited to a maximum of 576p on recent devices and just 576i on older hardware.

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One of the (many) cool things about PAX East is that it hasn't been entirely overrun by iOS-related things like GDC and WWDC. I'm not saying that's a bad thing by any means, but it is nice getting a chance to see what the rest of the industry is up to. Anyway, when the Mac App Store launched, we did some barebones coverage of some Mac games, and a few sales. We also made some suggestions that the Mac App Store could serve as a glimpse in to what could potentially be coming to the iOS App Store.

As it stands, that still hasn't really happened, but what has been curious to watch is how popular iOS apps trickle out to other App Stores. The App Store in this particular instance of note is Intel's initiative called "AppUp". Originally targeted at netbooks, AppUp is home to apps that basically run on almost any Windows-based PC with plans for supporting the MeeGo tablet platform.

It would be easy to write this off as yet another clone of the App Store, but consider this: AppUp likely has the absolute largest pool of potential customers out there. The apps they're selling are targeted at the meager system specifications of your typical netbook, which means most of them will also likely run on any reasonably recent PC. Also, they've managed to meet the benchmark of a legit App Store by offering Angry Birds as well and it's hard to deny the power of Intel as a company when it comes to shaping the world of computing.

I'm not sure where AppUp will go, but I have to admit I do find the whole thing oddly intriguing. If you're on a PC, give the client a download and check it out. I can't wait to see how all of these different markets settle out in the next 5-10 years and what effect they have on the App Store. AppUp seems to have a significant advantage due to the sheer number of capable hardware out there, Intel just has to make people aware of the service.

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On Thursday, prior to the launch of the iPad 2, we posted a look at some early numbers from a suite of benchmarks run on a pre-launch, iPad 2 media unit. These included a custom benchmark written by Guy English to gauge the graphics performance of an iOS device, which showed Apple's new tablet to boast a dramatically improved fill-rate as compared to the original iPad.

For example, on my original iPad, with 200 on-screen sprites, the framerate dropped to 45 fps. On the iPad 2, with 400 on-screen sprites, the framerate remained at 65 fps. On the iPad 1, Guy’s demo app dropped below 60 fps with about 100 animated sprites; on the iPad 2, it didn’t drop below 60 fps until there were over 750 animated sprites.

Since then, we've seen the iPad 2 land in stores and additional performance reports start to surface, now that folks can get their hands on one. One such report was posted by AnandTech who has put the iPad 2's graphics processor through its paces using GLBenchmark 2.0, an application written to gauge OpenGL ES 2.0 performance. They are also indicating that Apple's new A5 system-on-a-chip contains a dual-core configuration of Imagination Technologies' graphics processor, the PowerVR SGX543MP2, which comes as no surprise.

Architecturally the 543MP2 has more than twice the compute horsepower of the SGX 535 used in Apple's A4. Each shader pipeline can execute twice the number of instructions per clock as the SGX 535, and then there are four times as many pipes in an SGX 543MP2 as there are in a 535.

The full report of the benchmark results can be seen over at AnandTech, but I've compiled the key numbers for quick review, below.

As you can see by the results, the iPad 2 markedly outperforms both the original iPad as well as Motorola's new Android-based Xoom tablet with its Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset. GLBenchmark shows it moving nearly 5x the number of triangles per second as the iPad and fetching textures nearly 7x faster than the Xoom. Truly impressive results.

Coinciding with the launch of the iPad 2, we've seen a number of developers release updates to their titles that take advantage of the new device's muscle. (And, most every existing title is benefitting from the extra horsepower as well, we're seeing.) But, really, it's going to take some time before we see the power of the iPad 2's A5 truly exploited, as developers have a chance to really test the limits of the new hardware and craft titles that are dramatically more complex than anything we've yet seen in the App Store.

And, of course, we'll keep you posted.

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We're just one day away from the iPad 2 launch, as every schoolchild knows, but early reviews of the unit have already begun to appear, and they all indicate that the iPad 2 is notably faster than its predecessor. No surprise there, given Apple's claims that the iPad 2 features "up to 2x faster CPU" and "up to 9x faster graphics," as compared to the original iPad.

But, how fast is it, really?

As gamers, we're quite anxious to see just how well Apple's new tablet can push the pixels and polygons with its A5 processor. This new system-on-a-chip features 512MB of RAM, two (dynamic-stepping) 1GHz CPU cores — ARM Cortex A9-based — and a new graphics subsystem, which almost certainly utilizes at least one Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX543 core, the same GPU used in Sony's upcoming NGP (in quad-core GPU configuration).

Until game developers widely get their hands on the new device, we can only look to early benchmarks taken on the few press evaluation units Apple has provided to key media, in order to try and glean a feel for the iPad 2's performance as a game platform. Happily, developers will be able to grab their iPad 2 just over 24 hours from now, but as those are going to be a long and painful 24 hours, let's take a look at some benchmark data.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball has posted one of the aforementioned iPad 2 reviews, in which he shares his reactions to the device as well as some benchmark numbers. And, Gruber's suite of benchmarks is a little more interesting than most that we've seen so far.

He posts the results of the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark that everybody with an iPad 2 has been running, for both the iPad and iPad 2, showing the latter to come out on top due both to improved hardware and, more directly, iOS 4.3's bundling of Apple's Nitro JavaScript engine into the iOS 4.3 version of Mobile Safari. He posts Geekbench results, as well, which show the iPad 2 performing 159% faster than the original iPad, overall. But, what's rather more interesting are the results of a benchmark custom-coded by Guy English of Kickingbear (who did some work on Tap Tap Revenge), written to measure specifically the graphics capabilities of the iPad 2, from a developer's perspective.

The custom benchmark in question renders thousands of sprites moving about the screen, with gravity, while tracking up to three touch points. The results show the iPad 2's graphics improvements to go well beyond simply those of the dual-core CPU.

For example, on my original iPad, with 200 on-screen sprites, the framerate dropped to 45 fps. On the iPad 2, with 400 on-screen sprites, the framerate remained at 65 fps. On the iPad 1, Guy’s demo app dropped below 60 fps with about 100 animated sprites; on the iPad 2, it didn’t drop below 60 fps until there were over 750 animated sprites.

After I showed him the results, Guy told me, “The results show that the iPad 2 is easily about twice as powerful as the original and that this speed gain is a freebie — you don’t need to change your code structure in order to see significant gains. The differences in the amount of time spent rendering indicates that the GPU is really much faster than the original."

English indicates that the original iPad has a comparatively weak fill-rate and that the new device's much more powerful graphics subsystem should allow for some really incredible visuals in games and applications written (or updated) to take advantage of the native hardware.

"Up to 9x faster graphics"? Based on what these benchmarks are showing, it doesn't seem that Apple's claim is too wide of the mark. And, I'm guessing that there's more than one PowerVR core in that A5. (I tried, but was unable to squeeze any clarifying info out of the Imagination Technologies folks on the GDC expo floor.) We'll find out soon enough. But, whatever the case, it's clear that the iPad 2 is going to be an iOS gaming powerhouse. Developers, your work is cut out for you.

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Yesterday morning before the keynote I met with our friends at Firemint who were excited to discuss their upcoming game, Agent Squeak which was announced earlier this week. We mentioned the premise before, but you play as a mouse who collects cheese and must make it to his mouse hole on each level. Gameplay hinges on a really clever and fun stealth/avoidance mechanic where you control the mouse using your finger to draw his path.

Obstacles not only include a wide variety of objects that you need to avoid, but also an array of cats who want to eat you. The time I was able to spend with the game was somewhat limited, but it was really clever how Firemint combined both a stealth and avoidance mechanic with their familiar line drawing control method that was perfected in Flight Control. They weren't willing to let me shoot any video or provide any screenshots just yet, but I got a look at an early cut of an upcoming trailer that showed an amazing amount of variety later in the game.

On the subject of Real Racing 2 HD, the inevitable upcoming iPad version of Real Racing 2, Firemint assured me it was still coming and the extra development time has been spent on truly optimizing the game for the iPad hardware. Also, yesterday's announcement of the iPad 2 threw an interesting wrinkle into RR2 HD's development that Firemint explained they were already anticipating:

While we were not aware of the specs for iPad 2 before the keynote, we made some educated guesses about where we thought the hardware might head, so for many months now we have been developing a much more graphically intensive version of Real Racing 2 HD to take advantage of the anticipated performance improvements. Real Racing 2 HD has been significantly enhanced beyond what could work on existing devices, and our efforts have definitely given us a head start on iPad 2.

We're excited to see what's coming from Firemint, and I can't wait to post the inevitable Agent Squeak trailer. Will it be the next Angry Birds? It's hard to say, but it's hard to argue the fact that Firemint has had an amazing lineup of games on the App Store.

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Last week Apple invited media to come to San Francisco and "see what 2011 will be the year of." This morning TouchArcade attended the Apple media event and discovered that, as expected, 2011 will be the year of the iPad 2, according to the tablet maker.

To the surprise of most, Steve Jobs, who is currently on medical leave from Apple, took the stage himself to unveil the successor to the company's hugely popular iOS-based tablet. Jobs unveiled the new tablet to the gathered media, detailing the various innovations Apple's engineers have rolled into this new, most powerful iOS device.

The iPad 2 is physically similar to the original iPad, but with a few notable changes. The new unit weighs in at 1.3 pounds, lighter than the original 1.5 pound iPad. It's 33% thinner than the original unit (8.8 mm vs. 13.4 mm) — that's thinner than the iPhone 4. Despite its new, svelte enclosure, the iPad 2 manages to hold onto the 10 hour battery life of the original thanks to a reengineering of the battery, says Apple. Front and back cameras have been added, as well as the FaceTime and PhotoBooth applications. And, the iPad 2 will be available in both black and white versions (fascia color) and in both WiFi-only and 3G versions — on both the AT&T and Verizon networks — on day one, which is March 11 in the states and March 25th abroad. An updated iOS 4.3 will also be landing on March 11.

The changes don't stop there, and this is where things get very interesting for iOS gamers. The iPad 2 features a new CPU, called the A5, that contains two processor cores as well as a dramatically improved graphics unit that Apple claims is capable of up to 9x the performance of the iPad's (and iPhone 4's) GPU. A likely candidate for the GPU used in the A5 is the PowerVR SGX543 which is capable of pushing 35 million polygons per second at 200MHz and one billion pixels per second. The SGX543 is able to run in multi-core configurations and supports OpenCL for offloading computation to the GPU core(s). A gyroscope sensor has been included, as well, which, of course, enables more precise reading of the unit's movement in space.

Even without solid confirmation of the A5's exact GPU configuration, it's clear that the iPad 2 is a dramatically more powerful mobile gaming machine than any of the current iOS devices. This was evidenced by the impressive demonstration of the new iMovie and Garage Band apps during today's event and even in the few minutes we spent in the hands-on session.

Apple allowed the media to spend some time trying out the new iPad 2 in a hands-on session following the morning's presentation. The first thing I noticed about the iPad 2 in my time with the unit is that it conveys an overall "smoother" feel, with the outer aluminum shell being slightly receded at the edge of the polycarbonate face plate. Playing into this was the reduced weight and thickness, which is readily apparent — it definitely feels like a less substantial device, while maintaining a very solid, rigid feel. The new apps, which are very heavy on animation, as wall as iOS in general felt very smooth and responsive. I did a bit of text entry on the unit I was playing with, as lag during text entry is pretty much my only iPad gripe, and found no lag whatsoever. Unfortunately, the test device I used was not heavily loaded with games to try out, but there is no reason to think that virtually every title in the App Store won't benefit from the iPad 2's more powerful hardware.

And the Smart Covers — they are just brilliant. I couldn't stop snapping it on and off the side of the iPad 2. I'm sure other tabletmakers have already begun sketching out copy designs.

Steve Jobs and the other members of the iOS team that took the stage today made frequent use of the term "post PC" to describe the iPad 2. It's an ambitious term, certainly, but based on what was demonstrated today and looking at the hardware sitting under the hood of Apple's new tablet, it's not a term I feel inclined to laugh off.

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This has been a crazy week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. I saw a ton of different kinds of mobile phones, tablets, and other devices running all sorts of non-iOS apps and operating systems. Overall, it was really interesting checking out what the competition has to offer. Unfortunately, it was rather difficult to truly gauge the relative gaming performance of these new phones and tablets, as curiously enough, most were just loaded with a smattering of ports of last year's Gameloft games (or older, in the case of Shrek Kart) and Angry Birds. When asked, despite superior hardware, most developers still seemed reluctant to invest too much time or energy in to building games for these new devices, really making me wonder how much longer this "wait and see" approach will persist.

Anyway, the reason I was even in attendance at Mobile World Congress in the first place was to participate as a judge in the International Mobile Gaming Awards. The whole process was incredibly elaborate, with everyone involved taking the whole thing very seriously. It was great deliberating games with an international pool of judges, and seeing what people from particular regions tended to prefer. I hope to play a bigger role in the event next year as well, and hopefully can get some more developers to submit their games for judging than we saw this year.

Oddly enough, even though all mobile platforms were allowed entry, iOS games swept the awards:

Best Casual Game: Plants vs. Zombies, $2.99 – [Review / Forum Thread]
Best Real World Game: AR Invaders, 99¢ – [Forum Thread]
Best Sports Game: Snowboard Hero, Free – [Forum Thread]
Excellence in Design: Infinity Blade, $5.99 – [Review / Forum Thread]
Excellence in Game Play: Beyond Ynth, $1.99 – [Review / Forum Thread]
Most innovative Game: Papa Sangre, $6.99 – [Review / Forum Thread]
People's Choice Award: Perfect Cell, $4.99 – [Review / Forum Thread]
Operator's Choice Award: Snowboard Hero, Free – [Forum Thread]
Grand Prix / Game of the Year: Beyond Ynth, $1.99 – [Review / Forum Thread]

I'll try to raise more awareness to the IMGA when entries for 2012 are starting to be accepted as after I posted about the nominees being announced, I got confused instant messages from quite a few developers who weren't even aware they could enter. Regardless, some great games won, and hopefully we can get some even better games submitted next year.

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This might be a long shot, considering this event seems to be overrun by Android and other non-iPhone mobile devices, but I will be at Mobile World Congress all week this week in Barcelona, Spain. In addition, I will be on two panels of sorts this coming Thursday, one announcing the winners of the International Mobile Gaming Awards and a second "live pitching session". If you happen to be in Barcelona either for the event, or just because you happen to live in the area, I'd love to meet up with you if you've got something new, cool, and/or exciting to show off.

If you'd like to schedule a meeting, send an email off to tips@toucharcade.com and be sure to include "MWC 2011" somewhere in the subject so it properly gets filtered in my inbox. Keep in mind, I'm very much a typical American and really only speak fluent English. If you don't (wait, how are you reading this?) I'm still totally willing to meet up, but communication might be difficult.

For everyone else not at the event, I'm really not sure what to expect. I've been told this is the "CES of mobile phones". I sort of thought CES was the CES of mobile phones, but you never know. If I see anything neat on the show floor that pertains to iOS on any level, you can look forward to finding out about it on TouchArcade. The show hasn't even started yet and I've already seen some flat out insane Tegra 2 tech demos, and I seriously can't wait to see what is coming in the next round of Apple hardware if it's anything like that.

Here's Galaxy on Fire 2 running on the Tegra 2 chipset:

That's just crazy for a mobile device.

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Early last month, noted gamemaker Jeff Minter released Solar Minotaur Rescue Frenzy [App Store], the first title in his Minotaur Project, an effort to release a series of new games in the style of the hardware of days long past, but without any of the limitations of the original platforms. Over the past weeks we've noted with anticipation (and some fear) Jeff's tweets, providing hints at the progress of the second game in this effort — at least, we seriously hope that's what all those tweets were about… In any case, Jeff has just given us the best hint of all: an exclusive preview build of the game, known as Minotron: 2112, which turns out to be an enhanced iPhone / iPad (universal) remake of his 1991 shooter Llamatron: 2112.

Llamatron, which was originally released as shareware for the Atari ST, was a shooter inspired by Eugene Jarvis' Robotron: 2084. The game plays more or less like a single-stick version of Robotron — wander about the playfield shooting baddies and not getting killed, but you're a llama instead of a superhuman and its beasties instead of helpless civilians you're rescuing. Minotron plays basically the same, but this time around, you're a minotaur, and things have gone dual (virtual) stick, so what you get feels a whole lot like Robotron, but on acid (which is a phrase that could be used to describe a great many of Jeff's creations).

Minotron offers four modes of play: Normal, which is the standard "dual stick" mode with lots of power-ups to be had; Assisted, where you are assisted by an indestructible helper droid and less power-ups are available; Simplified, where the player only has to move and avoid being killed, aiming and firing are automatic; and Hard, where only the power-ups from the original Llamatron are available.

The game's control system features temporally separated movement and aiming touches; the first thumb to contact the screen becomes the movement thumb, and the second becomes the aiming thumb, which provides a nice bit of control flexibility. (The developer suggests players may find that the use of an occasional swipe to alter the firing direction, as opposed to a constant touch to the "stick," is the better way to go and minimizes thumb obscuring screen.) And, in any playmode, the trippy visuals provided by Llamasoft's new Neon 2 engine are in full effect, as is the amusing cacophony of explosions, blasts, and bleats.

See our brief gameplay video of just the first few levels of the game.

As mentioned previously, the game is not quite finished; Jeff indicates that about a week or two's worth of finishing touches — level balance tweaks, new enemy graphics, leaderboards and achievements, etc. — should get it in order for submission to the App Store. And when Minotron: 2112 lands, unless one of the last minute tweaks is to scrape off all the awesome that's smeared all over this preview build, retro fans and arcade shooter fans alike are in for some serious, white-knuckle beastie saving.

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