Archive for the ‘Wikipedia’ tag
‘Dark Void Zero’: The Fun Retro Remake That Isn’t
In the year 198x the was the first arcade cabinet to feature two interactive screens. Capcom soon began developing a game to make use of this advanced technology. This groundbreaking title was called Dark Void. Unfortunately, the PlayChoice-10 was discontinued and the project was cancelled. In the year 20xx, Capcom found the project buried deep in its vault. It's concept inspired a new adventure of the same name. But… The original game… Locked away for decades… Is now back from the void.
As Capcom's release indicates, this elusive lost title is now back from the dusty recesses of obscurity and has landed on the Nintendo DSi, the PC, and — that's right — the iPhone, as Dark Void Zero [App Store]. The tale is an absolute retro gamer's dream!
Well…retro gamer's dream or no, it is a tale — and a tall one at that… Not quite the reborn rendition of a legendary classic, Dark Void Zero started out (here in the modern day) as a sort of joke within Capcom. The decision was later made to turn the concept into an actual retro-styled, side-scrolling platform game with a bit of a tongue-in-cheek backstory to go along with. A fun little promotion of the much larger title. The initial DSi version landed in January and the iPhone release hit the App Store earlier this week.
And, despite its lighthearted beginnings, Dark Void Zero is actually great retro platformer fun.
It all goes down something like this: For years, an evil race of aliens known as Watchers have coveted Earth, our home. The only thing that has stood in the way of a full invasion all these years is the unstable nature of the portals that exist between our world and theirs. Lamentably, the aliens were finally able to create a stable portal, Portal X, through which they can lay siege to our world. A group of humans were chosen to take on the Watchers, Nikola Tesla among them. [You read that right] Tesla has used his inventions to enable these human warriors to survive in the Void between our worlds. You, the Void-born test pilot Rusty, have been chosen for the daunting task of closing Portal X and saving humankind.
Gameplay involves running about the three available levels, searching for lost journals, keycards, and the like in an effort to get from area to area and, ultimately, shut Portal X down. Plenty of armed enemies stand in your way and the terrain can be rough at times. Tesla's five experimental weapons and prototype rocket pack can help you along the way.
The game features an 8-bit graphic style, along with a chiptunes soundtrack composed by Bear McCreary (known for the Battlestar Galactica score). It's all done very well and it really does feel like an NES platformer. It's something like a cross between Mega Man and Metroid. It plays very well and the touch controls (virtual stick and onscreen buttons), which Capcom claims have been carefully refined, really do seem to be one of the best examples of such controls in an iPhone game. In my experience, they work just fine.
With but three levels in all, Dark Void Zero is not a particularly lengthy game, but replay variation is helped by all levels being unlocked from the start and a God Mode thrown in for good measure. Thanks to OpenFeint integration, leaderboards and achievement tracking is solidly in place. (It was probably a real task to work that into the 25 year old codebase.) My only real complaint about the game is the fact that the blocky, 8-bit pixels aren't quite uniformly scaled — the renderer is clearly scaling up the display to the iPhone's full screen, the size of which is not a clean multiple of the source bitmap. It's not a huge issue, though.
See Capcom's trailer for the DSi version of the game, which is very similar to the iPhone version, only the level map display is accessible through the pause screen on the iPhone (where it's shown on the upper screen of the DSi).
I agree that there's much about the story of this game that would make it seem as if it's something of a "light" title or not a "real" game, in and of itself. I can assure you that's definitely not the case, and our forum readers . are even calling Dark Void Zero a stronger title than its modern console namesake. Any platformer fan — retro or no — might just find this one worth some space on their home screen.
App Store Link: Dark Void Zero, $2.99
[]
‘iBASIC’: One for the True Retronauts Only
Do you recall hours of sitting in front of a monochrome CRT, tapping away at the keyboard of one of the first home computers to hit the market, enjoying the magic of very BASIC but highly enjoyable, early text-based computer games? If your memory (and gaming life) goes back that far, then AkeySoft Group's recently-updated iPhone title, iBASIC [App Store], may be for you.
iBASIC is an app that delivers a collection of some of the most popular computer games from the late '70s and early '80s. Each game is launched from and run within a retro-looking 40-column text display with an onscreen keyboard for text input.
The titles presently included in the app:
- Text Adventure
- Tictac
The author indicates that a future update will likely bring in-game saves as well as handwriting recognition for text input in landscape mode. There's also a free, lite version [] featuring a subset of the paid release's bundled titles.
Be warned: iBASIC gives an interesting look at (very) early gaming, but the paid version is definitely for the hardcore retro nut only.
App Store Link: iBASIC, $1.99,
[]
Some Early iPad Games that Have Our Attention
Today the iPad App Store opened up, revealing a great many iPad launch titles to those itching to see what they'll be loading onto their iPads when they arrive on Saturday. The amount of iPad app news this has generated today has us feeling as if we're standing in the middle of a tornado, admittedly. And so, without a great deal of rhyme or reason, I've chosen a few iPad games, now in the App Store, to highlight, the only real criterion being that they're titles we've not recently covered and are ones that I'm personally anxious to get my hands on.
So, without further ado…
Minigore HD from Mountain Sheep — $4.99
The iPad adaptation of Minigore sounds better than ever with 14 playable characters, "guest stars" from Hook Champ, Zombieville USA, Sway, and Envrio-Bear 2010, and redone graphics to take full advantage of the iPad's screen acreage.
Warpgate HD from Freeverse — $7.99
Freeverse's real-time strategy title Warpgate is here for the iPad, but not yet for the iPhone. Who would've guessed? (The iPhone version should be making its debut any day now.) All that we've seen indicates that this is a RTS title not to be missed.
Sam & Max Episode 1: The Penal Zone from Telltale Games — $9.99
Inspired by Steve Purcell's comic series , Lucas Arts in 1993 released the SCUMM-based adventure to much critical acclaim. Sequels followed and the odd, starring duo gathered something of a cult following. Those in the cult will be happy to see the just-released iPad title from Telltale Games, Sam & Max Episode 1: The Penal Zone.
Cogs HD from Chillingo — $4.99
In January we took a look at steampunk puzzler Cogs and very much liked what we saw. Cogs HD is now in the App Store and rendered on the iPad's 10-inch screen,
Mirror's Edge for iPad — $12.99
We recently posted about Mirror's Edge for the iPad, but at the time, it was to be a $14.99 title. While still premium, it seems to have made its debut at $12.99 — just a shade less dear.
Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies from Activision — $14.99
This bundle of zombie smackdown is the most expensive game on our list, but it does look like fun. Bigger screen = more menacing zombies.
Fieldrunners for iPad from Subatomic Studios — $7.99
Fieldrunners. Everyone's favorite tower defense game. Well, my favorite, anyway. And it's here in full-screen iPad glory.
Touchgrind HD from Illusion Labs — $7.99
Touchgrind is a highly unique iPhone skateboarding game. Skateboarding for your fingers, really. But the one limitation? Screen size. The iPad version should have no such limitation.
Ocean Blue from Com2uS — $9.99
Ocean Blue falls under the Entertainment category — it's not really a game. But it looks pretty fun. It has the distinction of being "the first realistic diving experience on the iPad." We're anxious to check it out.
Scrabble for iPad from Electronic Arts — $9.99
Scrabble. On a big multitouch screen. Not cool enough? How about this:
Scrabble Tile Rack for iPhone / iPod touch — Free
Use your iPad as the Scrabble board and connect wirelessly from your iPhone or iPod touch to use it as a private tile rack while you are playing Scrabble.
Harbor Master HD from Imangi Studios — Free
Imangi has produced an HD version of their chaos management game and is giving it away for Free.
There are plenty more announcements, screenshots and info about upcoming iPad games in our .
It's hard to track everything that's happening in the App Store right now. This is going to be a rather insane weekend for everyone connected with the iPad. Don't worry, our usual iPhone and iPod Touch game coverage will also resume but over the next week there's going to be a lot of news and attention on the iPad.
[]
‘Intellivision for iPad’ Brings 6 Classics Back to Life
iPad screenshot
VH! Classic is bringing back six of the original games from 1981. Intellivision for iPad will be launching on April 3rd alongside the iPad and will be delivering the following 6 games:
- ASTROSMASH – Spin. Blast. And drop into hyperspace to avoid a killer asteroid shower. Power on. Attack computer engaged. Fire a quick burst at the alien antagonists. Got 'em!
- CHIP SHOP GOLF – Fore! Select an easy or a hard course, or put together your own from a selection of 99 holes, many based on the most famous holes in the world!
- NIGHT STALKER – You're on the run. Your attackers are relentless robots. Destroy one and it's replaced by an even smarter, faster robot. It's a nightmare.
- THIN ICE – You control Duncan the penguin. Skate around the other penguins, dunking them in the pond. Avoid or dunk the seal and polar bears. Gobble shrimp cocktails for extra speed.
- THUNDER CASTLE – Guide your knight through the deadly mazes of Thunder Castle, slaying evil dragons, sorcerers and demons as you go.
- SKIING – Take a deep breath, dig your poles hard into the snow, push off…and you're speeding down a world class slalom course.
No word on when/if an iPhone version will be arriving, but the iPad version will cost $2.99.
Update: It appears an iPhone version is on the way.
[]
‘Star Keep’: One for the ‘Star Castle’ Fans Out There
Earlier this month mobile developer AdAdo released a retro space shooter that's pretty sparse on eye-candy, but should have definite appeal to oldschool gamers who have fond, long-ago memories of feeding quarters into a certain video game known as . Star Keep for the iPhone [App Store] is pretty much a straight-up clone of Cinematronics' 1980, vector-based classic.
Like Star Castle, Star Keep challenges you to use your laser-equipped spaceship to obliterate a powerful enemy turret that lies at the center of a series of rotating, regenerating shield rings. In order to destroy the turret, you must eliminate outer shield segments, exposing segments within, and so on, until you've laid the turret bare and can get off a clean shot. But be warned, the turret is always tracking you and firing homing bolts that chase your ship. As the levels progress, other enemy craft emerge from the shields, bent on turning you to space dust.
The game is controlled via on-screen buttons: Left / Right, Fire, Thrust. The controls work well enough, but even the arcade cabinet, which utilized botton Left / Right controls, would've benefitted from a rotary knob. The trick is to keep moving and to think ahead, so as not to let your momentum get away from you.
For Star Castle fans, this is probably a no-brainer grab. For those unfamiliar, be aware that Star Keep delivers very basic gameplay by modern standards. If you can enjoy basic (and challenging) arcade action without a lot of flare, then maybe you, too, will find fancy with this simple (but sometimes mind-bending) formula.
App Store Link: Star Keep, $0.99
[]
‘Nimp – Nymph In My Pocket’ – An Adorable Virtual Pet Game
Nimp – Nymph In My Pocket [App Store] seems to lie somewhere in between the craze in the mid-90's, toys, and maybe even a little hint of Little Big Planet in the game's art style. While Nimp is more of a virtual pet simulator than a game, the level of detail the developers have put in to it is very impressive for the first release, especially when you look back to how basic games like Pocket God were when they first hit the App Store.
In Nimp you start with one nymph, with a second that you can get via a free in-game purchase with more presumably available in the future either as free or paid DLC with the first being a ninja nymph coming soon. Your nymphs can interact with each other, dance to your iPod music, and do other silly little activities to raise their stats.
If you're not a virtual pet person, Nimp doesn't seem to bring anything to the table that is likely to suck you in, but seems great for what it is. If nothing else, watching the two nymphs dancing to your terrible music maybe worth the price of admission alone.
App Store Link: Nimp – Nymph In My Pocket, $2.99
[]
PAX East – A Gamer’s Paradise & ‘Space Miner’ Update Details
officially came to a close this evening, following three solid days of gaming insanity. The Penny Arcade Expo originally started as a small gaming convention on the west coast in 2004 has grown in to an unstoppable juggernaut that is by far the convention to go to if you're a gamer. The entire event actually has , especially considering its meager beginnings with only a few thousand attendees. But, like most things Penny Arcade touches, (such as the charity) it's not entirely surprising what a runaway success the event has become.
PAX East is a spinoff of the main west coast PAX (affectionally referred to as "PAX Prime") and as such, was a much more intimate event. This didn't stop anyone from having a great time, whether you're in to pen and paper RPG's, card games, board games, handhelds, or console and PC gaming, PAX East had something to offer. If you're an iPhone developer, there are much better events to go to such as GDC or WWDC, but if you're a gamer of any kind, you really owe it to yourself to at least give some serious consideration to attending the nearest PAX.
Attending the event with a media badge is a little awkward, since as someone who loves every subcategory of gaming, there's nothing I would have liked more than to spend the whole weekend playing Magic: The Gathering, D&D, and every pick up game of Settlers of Catan I can get my hands on… But, in the age old TouchArcade tradition of taking one for the team, I did everything I could to meet up with everyone who contacted me including fan favorites like Venan Entertainment as well as fans of the site who just wanted to talk iPhone and forum drama.
We're going to have more followup posts in the upcoming week as everyone gets back home and starts sending us assets for things from PAX, but in the time being, here are some things to look forward to:
Space Miner is getting a substantial update. We absolutely loved the game in our review, forum members are crazy about it, and it's one of the few iPhone video games I've played in a very long time that I enjoyed so much I immediately restarted on the next higher difficulty upon completing the game.
If you're like me, and have almost extracted everything possible out of Space Miner, you'll be happy to know that they're expanding the end-game to include more licenses, weapons to buy, new alien tech to find, and new Plus+ awards to earn. They're calling this a "HD update", as in addition to the gameplay tweaks, they've also implemented new shaders and other graphical effects to make the game look even better.
But wait, there's more. If the included difficulty modes weren't enough for you, they're also implementing a HardcORE perma-death mode. While there's no doubt that perma-death gameplay modes aren't for everyone, I really like the thrill that comes from the potential of losing everything from dying, and judging by the popularity of iPhone rogulikes, I doubt I'm alone on that.
But wait, there's even more. (I realize I'm starting to sound at Billy Mays at this point.) Space Miner Blast is in the works, a spinoff game that they hope to be done in a month or so. Venan is taking the basic framework of Space Miner, and turning it in to an arcade style action game where you fight an onslaught of robots and asteroids and get upgrades on the fly. Details are scarce right now, but I can't help but give a massive thumbs up to turning Space Miner in to a pick up and play action game.
Best of all, Space Miner 2 also apparently is currently on the whiteboard at Venan. Right now we know even less about the sequel than Space Miner Blast, but I've been assured it will be even more awesome in every way imaginable. Finally, Venan is looking forward to the iPad, but really want to get physical devices to test on before committing to anything.
Overall, PAX East was amazing, and as I mentioned earlier, you've really got to figure out a way to go to one regardless of what kind of gamer you are. If you have the choice, I'd attend the main PAX Prime, but if traveling across the country is an issue, PAX East is just as good. Stay tuned to TouchArcade, as we will have more details on the games I've mentioned in the PAX posts as soon as we get them.
[]
Upcoming ‘The Jim and Frank Mysteries – The Blood River Files’
At GDC 2010, iPhone developer showed us what they have been working on as their next major iPhone title. The Jim and Frank Mysteries – The Blood River Files is an adventure puzzler in the vein of the game series.
In the Jim and Frank Mysteries, players assume the role of Jim and Frank who uncover a mystery left by their grandfather. As they follow the story and clues, they start to unravel the mysteries and must solve the various puzzles along the way. The game is an original iPhone title with 60 puzzles and an estimated 20-30 hours of gameplay.
The game is story-driven with 60 puzzles, 4 chapters, 8 mini games and 27 different characters. The puzzles are designed with the iPhone in mind and take advantage of iPhone specific inputs such as touch and tilt.
A hint system is also included so you can get help along the way. Here's a few screenshots of some of the in-game puzzles.
The Jim and Frank Mysteries is due in late April, early May.
[]
GDC 2010: Further Reflection on ‘Sword & Sworcery EP’
While out in San Francisco covering GDC 2010 I saw many games for many platforms, the iPhone among them. And I'm happy to report that I didn't encounter a single "bad" iPhone game at any point during the week. The trip reinforced the fact that iPhone gaming is just huge — and it's growing. And iPad gaming, based on what I saw from numerous developers, is going to be amazing.
But of all the solid titles I spent time with, the one I'm most excited about is Sword & Sworcery EP which we took a brief look at earlier in the week. The game recently won an achievement in art award in the IGF Mobile 2010 competition. It's a stylized, artistic adventure developed by + + that dazzles with its rich and mysterious atmosphere established by a unique pixel art graphical presentation, an ethereal soundtrack that sets the mood for every screen, and sparse instructional cues on the outset that make you, the player, feel like a truly small entity in a large, alien world.
The designers call it "i/o cinema."
Right now I can't fully setup the scene for you, as the whole of the scene is still in the minds of the game's creators, not yet entirely implemented on the iPhone. What we were shown at GDC 2010 was meant as a teaser, a taste of the world that will be fully realized in the estimated three months between now and the game's App Store release. But what we did see was, in a word, moving.
In Sword & Sworcery EP, you control a female character exploring a mysterious world. Armed with sword and shield, you begin to explore your edenesque surroundings, tapping and holding in the intended direction of travel. You walk along paths, climb up and down stairs carved into the landscape, wander into the depths of the backdrop — even walk upon water. Brush a finger across a tree or bush and it responds to your touch.
But why are you here? What is your mission?
As you wander about this strange world you hear the chirping of insects, see various fauna dwelling in the bracken. Before long you encounter a strange being of obvious intelligence peering out at you from the wilderness. It retreats in response to your chase and gives little indication as to whether it is friend or foe. Eventually you follow it into its lair and are challenged to a fight. As you rotate your iPhone to enter the game's fight mode, you begin exchanging blows with this curious character. With some savvy you bring it to its knees, rendering it helpless, waiting for your final blow.
But…do you end this creatures life? Will you deal out death upon this helpless being whose world you have infiltrated? Or will you show mercy?
I will tell you that, in playing the game for less than five minutes, my feeling was that this strange creature was not an enemy. When it came time to deliver the killing blow, I very much felt that it would be wrong to do so. In the interest of fully demonstrating the game, however, I went ahead and ened its life. I regretted having to do so and found that, for hours after I set the game down, I felt guilty for having slaughtered what may have been a peaceful and benevolent creature. The experience absolutely saddened me.
This, from about four minutes of gameplay in a title that presently exists only as a teaser that presents but a portion of the creators' total vision. I consider my reaction to this experience to be highly telling. I honestly can't recall ever playing a game so emotive, so affecting.
Now, I don't mean to sound like an elitest gamer, or one that looks down my nose at other players, but if all you are interested in is button smashing and explosions, then Sword & Sworcery EP is probably not for you. (And, mind, I do, myself, enjoy a great many button smashers.) But if you are open to a game that can take you on an emotional journey, cause you to examine your own system of morality, and deliver an experience quite unlike anything you have known before, then Sword & Sworcery EP is probably worth your while. (And this is a game, not merely an artistic curiosity — discussion with the designers about what's to come assured me of that.)
The comment thread trailing from our initial look at the title is lengthy and rather polarized. People seem to either love what we've shown of the game, or hate it. The love points mostly mirror my own, presented here, while the hate points bemoan things like "unsightly", pixellated graphics, "lack of visuals", obviously "boring gameplay", "rehashed crap", and a misspelled title.
The pixel-art graphics serve a two-fold purpose, in my opinion. Use of such a graphical presentation necessarily adds a certain degree of vagueness to what the player is able to know about the onscreen avatar. This vagueness forces the player to become closer to the main character because the image of just what the character looks like exactly involves a bit of imagination on the part of the player. Additionally, the graphics style is a clear nod to Eric Chahi's 1991 classic (a.k.a. Out of this World) which delivers a somewhat similar play atmosphere and was a major inspiration for this title, as designer Craig Adams of Superbrothers revealed to me. And so, if there's any "rehashing" going into Sword & Sworcery EP's equation, it's of Another World, which few would call "crap." And that's not to mention the fact that, as far as pixel art goes, in Sword & Sworcery EP it's original and very well done.
Wanting to share a bit more of the title than is revealed in the released this week by the developers, we recorded some gameplay on the expo floor at the Superbrothers + Capy + Jim Guthrie in the IGF Mobile area. Thanks to Craig for the fingers.
All of us here at TouchArcade find Sword & Sworcery EP to be an amazing piece of work and are extremely anxious to get our hands on the final version in order to discover more about the nature of this mysterious game world. And, if you think what you see here holds little interest for you, well — you may be right — but if ever there was a game that might just take you by surprise, I'm guessing this is it. It's a situation that really makes me hope that the developers offer a free, lite version so the haters can at least give it a shot before passing it by.
At any rate, we'll take a very close look at Sword & Sorcerer EP when it hits the App Store mid-summer and let you know what we find.
[]
GDC 2010: ‘Kerplinkus’- A Fresh Take on Block Elimination [Out Now]
During last night's iPhone Developers Union party, here at GDC 2010, I had the chance to sit down with Dan Bliss of and have a look at his new, retro-styled block elimination title Kerplinkus [App Store].
Now, many of you out there are surely thinking you need to see another block elimination game like you need a hole in the head, but Dan has managed to deliver a fresh take on the formula that's simple and highly challenging — in fact, it can be downright panic inspiring. It works like this: you start off with a playfield consisting of upwardly advancing rows of differing blocks. Particles that match the rising blocks fall from above and, in the case of a match, eliminate the blocks they hit (and any bordering blocks of the same design) or, if the shapes don't match, add a block to the column in question. The goal of the game is to see how long you can keep the tallest column from touching the top of the screen. The real strategy lies in the fact that you can swap any two of the advancing blocks by tapping one and then the other. The trick is to wisely determine which columns to focus on to keep the game going. It's a pretty frantic affair.
Like BinarySquare's earlier title, Space Out [App Store], the game features a highly-retro, pixellated graphical treatment that lends the title a distinctive look that some gamers (like me) will love. Old school music and sound effects, created using the Commodore 64's famous , are also featured.
While it's true that the App Store is flooded with block elimination games, Kirplinkus really does deliver a fresh twist on the formula. See BinarySquare's demonstration video for a look at the gameplay.
App Store Link: Kerplinkus, $0.99
[]
