Sure, you have your flashy new iPhone 3G with its copy of Super Monkey Ball, but what about your other consoles? Don’t they deserve some love from Apple’s super, duper cell phone? Apparently someone else agrees.
Nintendo may catch lots of flack for bringing gaming to the casual market, but their methods have certainly not fallen on death ears. While the DS was far from the first touch-screen device, it was one of the first mass-market commercial ones. It has since been followed up by Apple’s iPhone and a slew of other touch phones. Now, Microsoft is getting in on the party.
Microsoft recently previewed some of the tech for their Windows 7 OS (one can hardly wait for Windows X OS) and the big hoopla seemed to be over the addition of multi-touch capability. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s essentially the same tech in the iPhone. Not only that, many of the demos shown (rotating and resizing photos, zooming in on maps) are ripped directly from the iPhone’s interface. So, great, Microsoft rips off Apple again, right? What does it have to do with gaming? Plenty.
You may not remember Dark Castle, but it already spawned one classic sequel. Think of it as a medieval Prince of Persia, but in black and white and for the Mac. The update is nothing graphically to crow about, but then again it isn’t trying to be. It’s classic 2D gaming celebrating its 2Dness. As this pseudo-retro-revival continues, it’s interesting to see just how much life is left in the classic gaming setup. Return to Dark Castle likely won’t win any awards or set sales records, just like those games of yore. And just like them, it remembers that isn’t always the reason for making a great game.
You just can’t keep a good rumor down. For years now people have speculated that Apple would at some point enter the gaming market. A recently revised trademark to include gaming devices would seem to add legitimacy to such rumors.
The trademark filing calls for “hand-held units for playing electronic games; hand-held units for playing video games; stand alone video game machines; electronic games other than those adapted for use with television receivers only; LCD game machines; electronic educational game machines; toys, namely battery-powered computer games.” That may be a mouthful, but what does it mean for you? (more…)
Ever since the death of the original Dreamcast, there have been rumblings of a Dreamcast 2. These would have seemed to been officially put to rest with Sega going exclusively third party as a developer, but gamers have kept the fire flamed. Why? Despite the implosion that was the Dreamcast, many still regard it fondly as one of the best systems made to date.
The Dreamcast 2 rumblings were started up again last August when Sega filed papers with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office to extend their trademark over the Dreamcast name. One argument is that Sega was simply doing this to extend their control over a brand name they had invested heavily in. Still, why should Sega care at all? It isn’t like they’re still marketing anything under the Dreamcast banner. Of course, there’s always a chance they might re-release some classic Dreamcast titles under some Dreamcast Greats Hits name, but why wait this long to do so?
This has sparked interest among fans who believe Sega could be readying a Dreamcast 2. Still, could a company abandon hardware for this long and make a return? Atari certainly tried. Their Lynx handheld and Jaguar home console were at best valiant attempts to recapture their lost glory, though neither ever rose above being a niche product. Pile on top of all this that Sega’s original partner for the Dreamcast, Microsoft, has now entered the market themselves with the Xbox. It doesn’t seem likely that the Dreamcast could resurface. (more…)
Google’s Android is their new mobile phone platform. While it isn’t the gPhone many had wished for, it is an interesting shift for the cell phone industry. With most major carriers signed up to produce Android handsets, it was already a potentially interesting avenue for game development. Dell just made it more interesting.
Rumors are circulating that Dell will announce a new mobile device running on the Android platform. While Palm and Microsoft have fought it out between one another for the past few years, the last year alone ahs brought two major new competitors to the handheld market in Apple and now Google. What does this mean to gamers? (more…)
There is no doubt that the first year of life for the PS3 has been a rocky one. Price cuts, new system bundles, and bailing third party exclusives have all served to help muddy the waters of what was supposed to be another easy win for Sony. However, recent events have started to shift things more and more in Sony’s favor.
At least some of the PS3’s problems can be blamed upon the inclusion of its now infamous Blu-Ray drive. While that certainly was a hindrance in the first year (leading to higher system costs and therefore fewer buyers), it has proven to be a worthwhile gamble for Sony. HD-DVD, Blu-Ray’s rival format, is dying a expedited death and Sony now has a corner on the high definition media market.
Recent rumors of yet another new PS3 bundle may have some worried about more confusion, but it offers keen insight into Sony’s long term strategy. With the optical disc format cornered, Sony now turns its attention digital downloads and to Apple’s iTunes and Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace. It’s already well known that Sony will take on Xbox Live this year when the finally introduce their Home online counterpart, and it’s been long rumored that around the same time they will move more into digital media distribution. The rumored new PS3 models seem to indicate this may be happening soon. (more…)
For several years now rumors have been flying about that Apple was going to enter the gaming market with their clever design in tow. Rumors have circulated from an easy development platform within OSX, to a portable iPod/Gameboy hybrid, to a full on home console you’d connect to your TV. So far, none of these systems have materialized, though Apple has seemed to at least invite game developers to the Mac party, and the iPod has seen its share of casual titles ported to it.
But what if? What if Apple entered the gaming market with the some ferocity that Microsoft did, and now one generation later is a serious contender? What if Apple decided Apple TV wasn’t enough of a force in the living room, and they threw their considerable weight into the gaming market? What if we could see that system today?
Of course, much of the appeal originally of an Apple designed console was to be the intuitive interface and the simple, elegant design of the console itself. Well, Nintendo did that with the Wii…sort of. While the Wii’s startup interface is quite the departure from the Xbox 360 and PS3, it’s also not quite as elegant as the best Apple designs. For instance, the Wii’s photo channel lacks the smoothness we could expect from an Apple developed project, which would also likely include integration with Flickr, Picasa, and iPhoto. While the Wii’s Opera based web browser is a nice touch, it certainly lacks what we’d expect from a full implementation of Safari, such as on the iPhone. Along with a more robust web browser one could expect better integration with YouTube and iTunes, a la Apple TV. (more…)
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