The Mixed Outlook for iPhone Gaming

With everyone talking about Apple's big announcement, it's unsurprising that commentators are discussing the possibilities of gaming on the iPhone. The DS and the PSP are both on N'Gai Croal's list of who is afraid of the iPhone, and with good reason. Touchscreen gaming on a high-resolution screen? Sounds like fun. TIME's lengthy run-down on the iPhone even mentions the possibilities of games on the small screen. Just the same, it's not all roses: Kotaku talks about the developer unfriendly nature of the platform, and how that could throw up barriers to the first game on the handheld.

Why even worry about it?

[StarKruzr]

You can't USE the damn thing for anything beyond what Steve envisions.

There will be no free games for the iPhone, and the pay ones will all cost way more than they are worth.

All of the potential of OSX and Cocoa will be locked up in the Apple ivory tower. GG, Steve. GG.

Re:

[ceeam]

C'mon - the question of whether or not is totally political as everyone can clearly see. If there's enough backlash (and there is enough) Jobs may change his mind. It's not that hardware is not capable of running 3rd party software.

And even if not - the thing will be hacked in two days, devkits leaked and Apple will have to allow it de facto. See the story of Boot Camp.

Re:

[anothy]

and you know this how?

a few quotes from an editorialized article recounting an informal interview do not a definitive statement on the subject make. Jobs has said that the software distribution model won't look like it does today; can we give them at least a little time - since we're still 5-6 months before launch! - to describe what that model is before we announce the death of third party applications on the iPhone?

Apple has Slashdot's "Favored Monopoly" status

[Anonymous Coward]

Now of COURSE Apple is going to brutally clamp down on anything the iPhone (or whatever it's going to be called) can do: their ENTIRE history has been one of brutal exercise of monopolistic policies toward all things Apple.

First they killed the Apple-compatible market. Then they killed non-Apple vendor sales. Then they killed non-Apple retail sales.

They also killed off non-Apple software, attacked non-Apple music sales, and are even attempting to lock in PC users of iPod/iTunes.

Apple is, was, and always h

Re:

[iendedi]

Apple is, was, and always has been a brutal monopoly. They are a relic of the days of "proprietary computing"... but due to their fanatic user base, they have never seen any reason to change.

So I suppose that is why they based OS X on BSD, give their developer tools away for free and innovate heavily in open standards?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[binford2k]

So I suppose that is why they based OS X on BSD

OS X is based on NeXT, the OS kernel based on XNU. XNU is made primarily up of a Mach kernel and a BSD subsystem...
 
I wouldn't really say OS X is based on FreeBSD.

He didn't. He said BSD. Do you not read what you quote?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[yandros]

Also, many of the early core Darwin/MacOSX people were recruited directly from FreeBSD...

Re:

[oohshiny]

So I suppose that is why they based OS X on BSD, give their developer tools away for free

Apple is using a bunch of open source libraries, software, and open standards, but so is Microsoft.

Apple deliberately keeps key parts of their platform proprietary, thereby effectively making the entire platform proprietary. And they do that even when equivalent or better open source alternatives are available.

and innovate heavily in open standards?

Like what?

ah, but what choice do those poor people have?

[oohshiny]

<sarcasm> But what choice do those poor people have? After all, according to Cingular and Apple, Cingular apparently has such a flaky network that if you allow any third party applications on it, the entire network will go down, and Apple's platform is so susceptible to viruses that the only way to secure it is to lock it down.</sarcasm>

Re:

[Mike Buddha]

I think Steve Jobs should be applauded for doing so much to protect Cingular's network. That's a great thing that he's trying to do. Lord knows their network goes down all the time because of all the third party apps I run on my phone. Every time I fire up Bejeweled, 7000 people are left without service.

Re:

[macbigot]

All games will install through the iTunes Store. At first, they will all cost $$$; but eventually (version 2.x?), there will be a way to subscribe to game RSS feeds (as podcasts), so that consumers can subscribe to a feed which gains them a new game every week or even ever day (the free game every day thing has sold a lot of hardware into the kid market for years).

There will never be a need to install a program directly on the iPhone; because everything will always sync through iTunes (which someday may ha

Gosh!

[StarKruzr]

That sounds like a GREAT situation for someone who wants ssh, VNC, vlc, Colloquy, centericq and cron running on his iPhone that RUNS UNIX.

Re:

[marcogretzky]

well let's just hope that steve allows the REAL killer-app... http://i-squeegee.com/ [i-squeegee.com]

Developer Unfriendly?

[XxtraLarGe]

If it already uses widgets, couldn't you just write the games in Javascript? That doesn't sound that developer unfriendly to me. Also, what about web games that use Flash. You're going to be able to play those under Safari already, right? I'm sure many developers will design Flash games specifically tailored to the iPhone.

Re:

[Macthorpe]

Only plays games in Flash/JS. Only $100 dollars less than a PS3. Lame.

Re:

[Blankhorizons]

Can you make a phone call on your PS3?

Re:

[Macthorpe]

Probably. [skype.com]

Re:

[CronoCloud]

No, skype is x86 only. No plans for a PPC version.

Re:

[Macthorpe]

It honestly doesn't matter. The point of my original post was missed anyway.

Re:

[lidocaineus]

Actually no one missed the point. It was just awkward and lame.

No, skype is x86 only. No plans for a PPC version?

[Thalidomide Pickpock]

http://www.skype.com/download/skype/macosx/ [skype.com]

Re:No, skype is x86 only. No plans for a PPC versi

[CronoCloud]

Yes, yes, I should have said, no Linux PPC version.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[bheer]

> Also, what about web games that use Flash.

There'll be no Flash or Java [nytimes.com] on the first iteration of these phones, although that's probably because involving too many developers would kill the secrecy around this product. The next revs will probably support them.

Another kicker is: no video support in the current camera (although that'll probably change soon). Lots of people use their cameras to record video.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

There'll be no Flash or Java on the first iteration of these phones, although that's probably because involving too many developers would kill the secrecy around this product. The next revs will probably support them.

Well, that pretty much eliminates the whole fucking point of having a browser that doesn't display a subset of HTML. If you're giving me a full web browser, you NEED to give me flash and java. Otherwise large portions of the web that would otherwise be accessible because I can view webpages ar

Re:

[timster]

No, but honestly I'd like to know what's been going on with Slashdot over the last month. It's like everyone has just decided to throw poo everywere instead of having a discussion. Did people finally get tired of digg? Can we have another "slashdot is lame now" exodus, please?

Re:

[Threni]

Seriously, I don't understand why this phone is so lame. Other phones can play MP3s, and support Java and 3D, Flash games and manufacturers release/support free development tools which are pretty good (mostly Java and C++).

Except other phones are locked too

[tepples]

manufacturers release/support free development tools which are pretty good (mostly Java and C++)

And network operators lock you out of being able to test your app on your phone and/or the phones of your friends and family. Such is life under the FCC-sponsored mobile phone oligopoly.

Re:

[Threni]

I've never heard of that. Get it flashed with default software then. That's £10 or £20 in the UK.

Re:

[tepples]

Get it flashed with default software then. That's £10 or £20 in the UK.

And the shipping from the United States and back is how much?

Re:

[Threni]

> And the shipping from the United States and back is how much?

I don't know. Perhaps it's cheaper to get it done in the US though, right?

Subtlety

[tepples]

Perhaps it's cheaper to get it done in the US though, right?

Perhaps my subtlety isn't coming through. People don't know that their phones can be unlocked because no place that unlocks phones in the United States advertises so in the traditional media. Besides, IS-95 (commonly "CDMA") phones outnumber GSM phones in the United States, and the GSM carriers (Cingular and T-Mobile) are perceived as not having as much coverage as IS-95 carriers (Sprint and Verizon). This article [thetravelinsider.info] claims that IS-95 phones cannot be unlocked.

Re:

[Threni]

I'm not talking about phones being locked to a network. Getting your phone unlocked is pretty straightforward, even in the US. You can unlock a lot of phones yourself, using just a website or an exe - no cables or taking your phone to someone with a laptop/software is required.

What I was talking about was this apparent inability to run your choice of apps on your own phone. If this is down to the network you've got your phone from customising the firmware you've got on your phone then simply unlocking it

Yes

[StarKruzr]

Javascript. That sounds incredibly enticing.

Come on.

Re:

[kosmosik]

Yeah. Just because JS and Flash games are the top ones... Developers trully wish to utilize every aspect of the platform - OS, hardware etc. iPhone as it is for now does not offers that.

Re:

[tepples]

If it already uses widgets, couldn't you just write the games in Javascript?

Can it use unsigned widgets?

Also, what about web games that use Flash.

Developing SWF is cheap now that the Flex tools are out, but doesn't the software to make "resources" (graphics and sound) to add to your SWF still cost $700?

Re:

[Mike Buddha]

iPhone doesn't support Flash. Yes, this phone is developer unfriendly.

Not gonna happen, sorry

[QueePWNzor]

I'd like to see gaming on an iPhone. But, since Jobs's decree of no external software, I doubt it will ever happen. Nintendo has nothing to fear, because it has many game makers on its side, and likewise for the PSP. I know Mac users who complain about no Mac gaming on the computers - so why should the developers foucus on a phone. Besides, what type of game cartrige (or, in PSP's case, microDVD) could it use for software? I'd like it, but I doubt it.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

It has internal storage, you'd download them like any other phone game. And the best part is that you'll already know what to expect because you would have played all the games like five years ago on another phone.

Re:

[tepples]

It has internal storage, you'd download [third party apps] like any other phone game.

And they won't show up on the app menu due to the lack of a Cingular signature.

Wait for MacWorld 2008

[AsmCoder8088]

We all know the true reason for not supporting third party apps, the relatively small capacity (4 & 8 gigabytes), a locked-in provider, and no 3G support: Apple is leaving themselves some room for improvement so that next year's MacWorld, when they announce a hugely-refined version, they can market the device for those who aren't quite satisfied with the current version.

1. Sell limited product to eager customers, while making others upset
2. Wait a year for new rumors to spread about possible new upgrades
3. ???
4. Profit!

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I agree with everything except the lack of support for third party apps - that might very well be an ongoing issue. I don't know what it will take to get that turned around. Too little sales and Jobs scraps the whole thing, claiming there's no market (in spite of the fact that disallowing third party apps takes it directly OUT of the smartphone market.) Too many sales, and Jobs assumes it doesn't need third party app support.

My theory is that they will offer a limited selection of third party applicatio

Re:Wait for MacWorld 2008

[Total_Wimp]

It's too bad. "Some games on a cell phone" does not equal "a gaming phone."

It's really a bummer what happened with Nokia's N-Gage. It was a great idea with poor execution. The real difference with that product was the attempt to get top game companies to write/port for their platform. I remembers seeing Ghost Recon and thinking phone gaming had arrived. It was a noble attempt. It's too bad the games were the size of a postage stamp and the phone part made you look like you were talking into a taco.

By comparison, my Windows SmartPhone has a beautiful display and generally good phone functionality. But the games tend to suck because of the lack of support from the pros.

Getting a little bit of software from armatures on the iPhone will not get you exciting games. The only way the iPhone can compete with the DS or PSP is to do what Nintendo and Sony do, make gaming a priority and get high-quality game developers on board.

BTW, what's that thing sportin' under the hood? Can it fill that beautiful display with beautiful 3D graphics? Inquiring minds want to know.

TW

Re:

[toolie]

The only way the iPhone can compete with the DS or PSP is to do what Nintendo and Sony do, make gaming a priority and get high-quality game developers on board.

When did Sony make gaming a priority on the PSP?

Re:

[Total_Wimp]

Relevance. Think relevance. This post was about making the iPhone a gameing platform, with a comparison to another gaming phone thrown in. Though it mentioned the PSP in passing, it was not actually about the PSP.

I'm sure there will be other articles about the PSP very soon. Go ahead and trash PSP in those discusions if you feel you must.

TW

Re:

[toolie]

Far from trashing the PSP. The fact is Sony used it as part of their convergence strategy, and tried to make it do everything, from playing movies to music, etc. Claiming that gaming on the system was a priority is incorrect. The iPhone competes more directly with the PSP than the DS because of the lack of focus on gaming.

Re:

[Total_Wimp]

I probably shouldn't be doing this, but I'll bite.

I happen to own a PSP. I have launch games from several studios. Being launch titles, Sony had to court them quite a long time in advance of launch. Sony had to send them dev kits and pre-release hardware. They had to license the games. Despite talk to the contrary, at least two of my launch or near launch titles were not ports of other games. These had to be built from scratch which means Sony had to spend time and effort, maybe money, convincing them t

Re:

[aplusjimages]

I'm guessing the iPhone will continue with mobile gaming and not video game play that you see on a DS or PSP. From what I've seen this thing has no buttons. So adding a directional pad and 4 button set up on a touch screen won't catch on. I see Zuma, Tetris, and Bejeweled being played on it. I doubt we will see Castelvania or a FPS. Which is too bad because it would be nice to have one device that does all of this.

Re:

[LoudMusic]

Apple is leaving themselves some room for improvement so that next year's MacWorld, when they announce a hugely-refined version, they can market the device for those who aren't quite satisfied with the current version.

That's exactly what Apple does. Look at their product history. The first version announces some really radical concept, but it generally sucks. Some people must have said technology and essentially pay for Apple's development costs. Then the next year they have a version that doesn't suck.

Re:

[Lemental]

And yet when Microsoft announces a new version of the 360, there is an outcry.

Oh wait, I forgot where I am.

Carry on.

Re:

[ClamIAm]

We all know the true reason for not supporting third party apps, the relatively small capacity (4 & 8 gigabytes)

Yeah, because as we all know, no cell phones that allow third party apps have anything smaller than a 32 gig drive. Hell, even the Nintendo DS, with its tiny game cards, has never shipped a game smaller than 96 gigs.

Oh wait.

iPod Games

[Anonymous Coward]

I imagine that it is capable of playing the games available to the regular iPods from the iTunes Music Store.

Re:

[mgabrys_sf]

I thought that too - but they'd have to update the control scheme for the games. Wouldn't be hard though.

FOUR great devices in one package?

[Cordath]

While it looks like the iPhone has all the hardware required to make a pretty slick mobile gaming platform, one gets the distinct impression that this just isn't in the cards. If users can't install software then the only games for the iPhone will have to come pre-installed, which pretty much obliterates the possibility of there ever being more than a handful of iPhone games. No third-party software means that what few games there are will all be made by Apple itself, which isn't good news. Apple is many great things, but game developer isn't one of them.

If Jobs sticks to his guns then this really is a lost opportunity for Apple. The iPhone's multiple point touch-screen and accellerometer could have made for a highly innovative portable gaming device even if the iPhone doesn't have the graphics hardware to keep up with other portable gaming devices, similar to how the Wii is highly innovative despite it's lack of cutting edge graphics. Apple could have had *FOUR* great devices in one package instead of just three. I'm sure the iPhone will be hacked and some amateur games will be produced for it, but that's not nearly enough to bring out the fourth latent "killer app" the iPhone could have had.

Re:FOUR great devices in one package?

[philipgar]

When did jobs say users couldn't install software on the iPhone? If you people RTFA, jobs said that they will not allow users to install random software on the phone, however I see no reason they won't have it open to developers, and after extensive testing of the device, allow users to buy the software on iTunes or something. It would seem perfectly natural to me. Jobs point of not allowing all software to run on it is to avoid the issues that plague computers and such when users install a ton of crap on their machines and wonder why things aren't working right. Limiting what can run on a device that has real time constraints and primary functionality that MUST always work is a perfectly logical idea. Especially considering the thought of iPhone viruses that could spread through bluetooth or something if it was allowed.

Phil

Don't call us; we'll call you.

[tepples]

however I see no reason they won't have it open to developers

Because they would want to court only commercial developers, not developers who produce free software, freeware, or shareware as a hobby. You can't get a cut of the revenue if a game sells for $0.00. The game console makers have the same mentality.

Re:

[philipgar]

I guess the ipod will miss out on all those great free games out there. All those original new ideas that haven't been done... Oh wait, they don't exist. While their are a few fun open source games (not counting commercial games later open sourced), many of them are just clones of an original game. Think freeciv, pingus, etc.

Open source has its place, and it's yet to show its strength in the gaming world. I don't know if that is possible, as games are so expensive to think up design graphics for, etc

Does Apple WANT to lose business to Sony?

[tepples]

While their are a few fun open source games (not counting commercial games later open sourced), many of them are just clones of an original game. Think freeciv, pingus, etc.

Lemmings, the original game that inspired Pingus, is owned by Sony. This means it's a PS1/PS2/PSP/PS3 exclusive and thus won't show up on an iPhone, iPod, Windows Mobile PDA, or Nintendo DS system. It won't show up on Palm either because Sony no longer makes CLIE. By shutting the door to Free games such as Pingus, Apple and Cingular are driving mobile gamers to carry a cheaper Sony Ericsson phone plus a PSP instead of an iPhone.

Re:

[Breakfast Pants]

Why not a DS? March of the mini's *is* Lemmings. For all intents and purposes.

Re:

[tepples]

Breakfast Pants wrote:

tepples wrote:

philipgar wrote:

While their are a few fun open source games (not counting commercial games later open sourced), many of them are just clones of an original game. Think freeciv, pingus

Lemmings ... is owned by Sony. This means it's a PS1/PS2/PSP/PS3 exclusive

Why not a DS? March of the mini's *is* Lemmings.

In other words, it's a clone, just like all the Free games that philipgar complains about are clones. Besides, this still means mobile gamers will buy a cheap Sony Ericsson phone and a DS (possibly with a SuperCard) instead of Apple and Cingular's product.

Sure...just like the Lynx!

[GweeDo]

5 hour's when gaming if you are lucky will move it the way of the PSP. It also is priced out of the gaming market even beyond the PSP. Then there is also that pesky fact that Apple has said there won't be a way to install third party apps, so all developers would have to go through Apple for distribution even.

Nintendo is probably about as scared as they were of the N-Gage.

Device integration... blah.

[The-Bus]

All this device integration is useless. A decent phone (free w/contract), camera ($100) and DS ($130) will do each job better than the iPhone. That's not the point obviously. The iPhone has all of this integrated, but we're talking gaming here. No photographer would decide which cellphone to use as a replacement for their camera, and neither should a gamer. It is inevitable that 5-15 years in the future we will finally have a gaming platform that also happens to be a phone. And then there will be a game that will be great, and you will need that platform to play it. A portable singularity, if you will. But that time is not now, and this is like discussing the Outlook of iPhone Photography. (i.e. Silly).

Certainly from an enthusiast's point of view it would be great if the iPhone was an open platform so you could port Game XYZ to it, but even that isn't the case.

Re:

[thatguywhoiam]

But that time is not now, and this is like discussing the Outlook of iPhone Photography.

Ok tell you what, let's meet back here in a year and we'll see who's right, you or THE PLANET.

I mean, seriously.

DS off by $70

[tepples]

A decent phone (free w/contract), camera ($100) and DS ($130) will do each job better than the iPhone.

The $130 Nintendo DS will not run third-party apps or games, nor will it play movies or music. You need to add the $70 SuperCard/SuperKey kit for those features.

Re:

[itsdapead]

All this device integration is useless. A decent phone (free w/contract), camera ($100) and DS ($130) will do each job better than the iPhone.

...a good theory. Similar theories include "Wordpad or TextEdit is all the wordprocessor most people need, and if you need more you'd be better off with a dedicated DTP program than a bloated jack-of-all-trades like Word". Absolutely true, but reality hasn't caught up yet.

Apple could stick to the "dedicated is best" principle (its been their line in the past) but

Maybe they'll add games later.

[Zaurus]

Maybe they will add games to it later, like they did with the iPod. Now that they finally added games to the iPod, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw games added to the iPhone some time next year. Maybe with the first big revision.

Vote with $$$

[Zaurus]

I'll vote with my wallet. I pledge to buy at least 2 games on my iPhone.

Re:

[ClamIAm]

I think I'll vote with my wallet, too. You can buy:
- a $500 phone + 2 year service contract with ridiculous data charges.

I'll buy:
- the tiny phone I'm already using ($0)
- a $200 PSP or a $129 DS (Lite), and then spend ~$50-$100 for a 4 gig flash memory card to hold all my wifi-enabled 3rd party apps, homebrew games, and ROM dumps of games I own, dating back to the NES days.

To recap: I'll sit back and play with fun 3rd-party (and 1st-party) toys while you pray to your little statue of Steve Jobs to pleeeeas

mobile mmo

[Achoi77]

for now, mobile games are going to continue sticking with the 'little' apps - solitaire, poker, tetris, things like that. While there are some hack-n-slash games out there, I suspect that they don't do as well as the developers would like, especially compared to low commitment games like the above mentioned.

I'm pretty sure the industry is keenly aware and waiting for the day the market for online games to begin showing up on mobile devices. But the tech still isn't there yet. I can't imagine latency over the cellphone being considered a cheap commodity. So things that require twitch gaming (fighters, racers, rogues, co-op shooters) would be unplayable in a mobile online environment. Plus imagine the battery life? How long do you think you can play before your cell phone dies?

The first thing mentioned when my coworkers and I saw the iphone widescreen was, "dude, can you imagine games on that thing?" But what kind of games can you really play? I'm gonna need tactile feedback, flexible controls, and quick reaction time (framerate or latency) in addition to the nice graphics and sound. And considering the price of the device itself, mass market is not really an option, as nobody is going to buy this thing for their children. Remember rpgs for the palm? They did good enough for the 1-man developer, but it wasn't enough to begin to drive an industry to that direction.

iphone gaming isn't goign to make anybody rich - well, that's not true. It will make _somebody_ rich.

Untill something happens with phone companies where bandwidth and latency become dirt dirt cheap, I say the future is still in (currently) wifi gaming. The DS (and the PSP too!) still have a huge potential in that field. A pokemon MMO on the DS or Final Fantasy Online for the PSP == parents worst nightmare. I don't think we are still aware of what the DS/PSP can actaully do. Give it a little more time, and somebody will think of a killer app for those gaming devices. But in the mean time, gaming on the phone will stay small untill the market begins to take notice. And it hasn't noticed yet.

"Tetris" ... "low commitment" ... wha?

[tepples]

for now, mobile games are going to continue sticking with the 'little' apps - solitaire, poker, tetris, things like that. [...] low commitment games like the above mentioned.

If Tetris is so low commitment, then what's this [youtube.com] and this [youtube.com] and this [youtube.com] and this [youtube.com]?

Re:

[Achoi77]

you misinterpret what I mean by low commitment. What I mean by low commitment I mean games that don't require an extended learning curve or extended set of rules just to grok the gameplay the designers had in mind. You can pick up and learn the rules for tetris within 5 minutes of play. Same thing with pong. Along with various card games. Computer role playing games like final fantasy or Oblivion, not so much.

You can play a round of tetris, for example while waiting for the bus. Not with RPGs, or even rogu

Cowboy iPhone SDK

[troylanes]

Regardless of whether or not Apple releases an official SDK -- I feel that to most slashdot users the bundled apps will not exploit the iPhone's full potential. What good is a handheld computer with out an ssh client, or vnc client? I've registered iphonesdk.com in response and hopefully with enough intrest/talent/bricked iPhone's we can create a 3rd party SDK and app loader to make all our iWet dreams come true for this device.

just another ipod or a PDA?

[abes]

At first I was outraged by the the fact it was going to be a closed system. I'm still mad, and if there is a petition to sign, I'd sign it, but in the end it's not so surprising given how Apple has treated the IPod.

It's not clear how they'll close their platform. Some people have suggested Widgets might still be usuable, or the fact that you can still play flash games through web pages. For a couple of things, widgets might be good enough .. while I hate javascript, I hear they are fairly versitile. Some cu

Re:

[abes]

Thanks for the info .. I was looking for something like this before without finding any info.. there is also a third party developer who suggests filing a bug report [rentzsch.com] with Apple for there being no support under XCode .. I think it's at least worth a try if enough people file the bug -- at least they'll see it, and have to acknowledge it to some extent. Please mod parent up -- it would be great if more people knew about the petition. I don't actually have high hopes of it working, but at least it's nice to h

Re:

[Coward the Anonymous]

At first I was outraged by the the fact it was going to be a closed system. I'm still mad, and if there is a petition to sign, I'd sign it, but in the end it's not so surprising given how Apple has treated the IPod.

http://www.petitiononline.com/iphone/ [petitiononline.com]

That Gizmodo demo

[bar-agent]

Hey, that video of the Gizmodo thing, with the augmented reality game, looks pretty awesome! I hadn't realized the techniques involved had gotten that good yet. There is definitely potential there.

augmented reality gaming - problems

[S3D]

There are several augmented reality projects in development now (my own including). The biggest problem is the platform. For augmented reality you need camera with direct API and decent CPU. I'm using Nokia 6600 with 109 mhz CPU and getting around 8 frames per second overall for (multimarker) image recognition + OpenGL [cellagames.com]. It's ok for demo, but little too slow for actual gaming. Latest Nokia phones out of the question - "Symbian Signed" prevent direct access to camera, unless you have phone manufacturer approv

Umm.....

[crhylove]

Given that Jobs Vader already said there would be no 3rd party apps for the iPhone, you can take it as a given that some other company will make a clone that does support 3rd party apps (including games), and will dominate the iphone both on price and performance.

Jobs will never learn. You can't expect Apple to suddenly invent all the killer apps (including games!), just because for a brief second in time they have the best interface. The interface will get copied (maybe even improved upon!), and the copy will be cheaper and allow 3rd party apps. Besides which, the "killer app" for an iphone is going to be something that hasn't even been invented yet, and I seriously doubt Mac has a patent on any kind of innovation. Jobs is an arrogant fool. They've already lost this battle. History repeats itself AGAIN. End of Story.

rhY

Re:

[mgabrys_sf]

re:"History repeats itself AGAIN. End of Story."

I'm so glad your picture of reality is so firm. It'll come in handy when it comes crashing down around you. And I'm not talking about the iPhone either.

Oddly enough I would buy it if it ran windows

[Nightspirit]

..or at least emulated it. It can't be that expensive per device for a windows mobile or palm license. Run the main OS as OS X or whatever derivative they come up with, and have palm or windows mobile emulated/virtualized for "compatibility mode", and instantly have access to 1000s of apps. Yah, it's probably much harder than it sounds, but I run alot of medical apps on my pocket pc phone that I would not be willing to lose.

Re:

[catch23]

Oh, and it should run Linux too right? That way I can apt-get 1600 packages including transcode so that I can compress dvds with my spare cycles when i'm not chatting on the phone. I run many apps on my Linux phone that I would not be willing to lose.

Re:

[Nightspirit]

No, but the problem would be solved, at least for you, if they allowed 3rd party apps, because then you could just port them yourself or ask the linux community.

who said anything about games?

[maadlucas]

I don't really see what the problem is here.

One of the major criticisms i have of most phones is that they try to do too much and do it badly. I have a Motorola A1000 and it's a heap of shit. The only reason i keep it is because it does everything i want it to. However it does it so apallingly that as soon as a phone comes out with similar features that is better i'm going to get it. It looks like the iPhone is that phone.

I also can't understand people criticising His Steveness' decision to have tight cont

Gaming

[hsa]

I once had a great Korean device, called GP32. It was way ahead of it's time, and it had open source development enviroment and it was quite developer friendly with active community.

What happened? There was only 1 good commercial game, which I bought: Pinball dreams. There were talks about more, but some Korean company even failed to translate Ashtonia Story (or something like that) because they thought it would not sell. They did however translate it for PSP and it is getting top reviews everywhere and sel