iPhone As a PC Game Controller 54
TechCrunch has an article about a startup called iMo, which aims to enable control of any PC game using an iPhone or iPod Touch. The idea is to reduce the need for gaming peripherals while you're on the move, and make motion-control available to more players. Quoting:
"The system also features onscreen controls for the iPhone and iPod Touch, as not every PC game will benefit from using things like the accelerometer, obviously. This all works via both Bluetooth and WiFi connections between your device and your computer. The plan is to offer iMo in the App Store for $0.99; the first version should be available new in the App Store. And long-term, the company hopes to make it available on other mobile platforms as well, including Android. And ultimately, they'd love to include support for gaming consoles as well, like the aforementioned Wii, the PS3, and the Xbox 360."
Great... (Score:5, Funny)
Y'know, I was just thinking. I love PC games, but I wish the controls were worse.
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2) Get the even more awesome iPhone controller
3) ?!??
4) Lose!
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Y'know, I was just thinking. I love PC games, but I wish the controls were worse.
... and if only they could be made 10x more expensive and easier to break.
Tricky... (Score:1)
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360 Controller (Score:3, Interesting)
The off brand (wired - USB port included at no additional cost!) 360 controller at any big box store is only $15-20. A bluetooth!! rumble PS3 controller is $45. I'd rather (and do!) recycle my controllers from game consoles. Most everyone already has one (even if you don't already have a next-gen console), if only to take to a friend's house/dorm room so everyone can play. The chances you'll lose/break an iphone before you do the same to a real console controller is pretty high.
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meh, back when men were men, we used man sized xbox controllers and had to convert them manually! However i only really use it when running console emulators as i prefer kb+mouse for actual pc games, plugging in 4 xbox controllers for 4 way N64 fun is cool though.
ugh (Score:2)
what kind of crappy controller it would be without a joystick or tactile buttons
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Response Time (Score:5, Insightful)
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Im not sure your problem is RESPONSE TIME if you find yourself tapping more than once. I find that with my Touch, it responds fantastically to targetting taps using my index finger (which happens to be kind of pointy... I have a slender build and what some call "artist hands"). If I happen to use my thumb, taps are rarely detected. So something about the tap UI makes "fat thumbs" hard to detect.
Slashvertisement (Score:1)
Oh boy! (Score:4, Insightful)
Gee, I hope Apple's cool with us using their equipment like this.
Alread done on Android.. yaaawwwwwwnnnnn (Score:1, Interesting)
Don't want to spoil the party, but for those on a better and not hyped-up platform, looking for similar (but better) functionality (though I don't see any real purpose of this) can check this out - http://www.gmote.org/ [gmote.org]
Re:Alread done on Android.. yaaawwwwwwnnnnn (Score:4, Insightful)
I thought
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I had hoped the iPhone was old by now but no, the hype continues on. The Force is strong in this one.
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I find those adverts more amusing if you take them for what they really mean.
"Want to share a photo with a shake?"..."We'll charge you for that"
"Want to search for taxi companies?"..."We'll charge you for that too"
I thought they had reached a marketing high when they touted cut+paste, but now their advertising slogan is "want to do something on the phone you already paid for...We'll charge you for that!". I mean the same can be said for any platform but the specifics they use in are particularly trivial, an
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The iPhone has been adopted by the masses. You're going to hear a lot about it. Boo hoo.
Coming to Linux in 2048! (Score:1, Funny)
The Linux version is RightAroundTheCorner!(tm). You'll be able to play such amazing games as Tux Racer using your iPhone as a controller!
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Wow that didn't take long for the "LOLZ @ PC GAMEZ" comment to show up. Typical.
Back on topic: How can a device with no feedback whatsoever be useful on a PC? A keyboard would be superior then this in pretty much every single way except maybe motion. And even that I'm not sold on.
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Which is exactly my point. If they made Wii games for the PC - I'd be all for it. But they don't. So in every situation I can think of, a Keyboard and mouse combination trumps on top.
Except for perhaps Racing games, which have all but died off on PC's.
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Speaking from long experience, racing games aren't really worth playing without a force feedback wheel. I have driven at speed on and off pavement on occasion and the experience is night and day (especially for dirt simulation.) Nothing really comes close to getting out in the real world, but having a good force feedback wheel is about as close as it gets (Without motion simulation... $$$)
You know what would be a cool iPhone/iPod accessory? A car stereo with no other interface. It could have communications
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If they made Wii games for the PC - I'd be all for it.
The wiimote is a bluetooth remote too. I use mine just as a gimmick to show my friends but its pretty shitty for real use.
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A keyboard would be superior then this in pretty much every single way except maybe motion.
Players 2 through 4 can't use a keyboard. Well they can, but then you have to either 1. be really careful to assign non-overlapping layouts, or 2. buy a separate gaming PC for each house guest who doesn't own one that he can dismantle and carry in.
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Wow - modded to -1 trolling and +4 interesting for saying the same thing. Never had that happen before. Probably because I asked what PC games are selling.
I just don't see any good titles -JUST- for PC these days. I mean, all the titles that Steam advertises to me are A month or Two old games that have been ported from the 360, or they're MMO's. No MMO would work well with an IPhone Interface, least not the half dozen I've played.
So - to reiterate, what good would this IPhone app serve?
Are they creating the
Great... (Score:2)
The sheer brilliance (Score:1)
Brilliant! Because what I've always wanted in a video game controller is to take the elegant simplicity of the Wii Remote, lag it more, make all the buttons non-tactile, make it incredibly more fragile, have phone calls come in and screw up my game, and sell it for ten to twenty times the cost! Per controller!
Great Idea (Score:1)
I'm really missing the point of this idea/app.
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and you fail at intelligence. Apple has nothing to do with this.
Given all the Marble Madness clones on iPhone... (Score:2)
I've always wanted to know what it would be like to actually play Marble Madness with an iPhone. Even Jailbroken, there's no decent MAME port for the iPhone.
Yuck. (Score:1)
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Mouse (Score:2)
I actually have my computer hooked up to a TV and it'd be nice to not have to drag the actual mouse over. Oh it'd also have to be free because I don't care that much.
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been around for over 6 mos (Score:2)
Old news there are plenty of apps in the store that have been doing this for close to a year now.
And you thought that broken TV's were bad (Score:1)
WinMo had it first (Score:1)
GRemote [gbmsoftware.com] on Windows Mobile (*shocker*) did it first. Air mouse over bluetooth or wifi, anyone? Click and drag works, on screen scrollwheel works, everything is rebindable. Also works as touchpad, joystick, and game wheel for racing games.
It can be used exactly like the wiimote is used for menus except there is more than one interface you can use depending on what you're trying to control. For example, one that prominently displays media play/pause buttons.
On my HTC Fuze, it feels like a very solid, very capa
This may have potential, actually... (Score:2)
If there were many split-screen PC games.
Instead of being used for real time control (face it - the latency will suck), it can be used to offload some display and controls elsewhere.
Think of it as a per-person "screen". Each player would have a compatible device connected via WiFi. Stuff that the player should know, but remain hidden from everyone else can be displayed on these little screens, and input taken from them.
This might work very well for an RTS type game.
If we allow consoles to use it, which have
Nintendo already dunnit (Score:2)
Instead of being used for real time control (face it - the latency will suck), it can be used to offload some display and controls elsewhere.
Nintendo tried that with GameCube + Game Boy Advance, and then with Wii + DS. I don't seem to remember it going over very well.
BUt that's only for a small subset of multiplayer games that support split-screen
I've always wondered why there aren't more split-screen or Smash Bros. style shared-screen games for PC. USB hubs and gamepads have existed for a decade, and any new TV has VGA and HDMI inputs to display a PC picture. What's holding up HTPC gaming now?
who cares (Score:1)
this is significant news? sheesh!
Compatibility... (Score:2)
Doesn't the 360 use a modified-for-microsoft bluetooth stack that would make it a little difficult to make this work on an iPhone?