For the 5th+ iPod generation Apple has just introduced downloadable games and so far they offer 9 games for $4.99 each. Looking back in the classic era of computer gaming we remember some real gems that would fit right into the “keep it simple stupid” philosophy of the iPod. So, let’s have some fun and suggest 10 classic games that would specifically work well with the iPod scroll wheel interface.No1 Request: Lunar Lander
This great classic is actually a no-brainer in terms of scroll-wheel interface. Its unique control requirements almost feel like they were created for the iPod in particular! Another thing that it’s cool is that this game could also sell well among older people because it’s a “slower” game. Add some cool graphics and off you go!
No 2: Puzzle Bobble
Again, this game should work excellently with the scroll wheel. What a great classic. Nothing more to add.
No 3: Tempest
Another classic, and this time this game has a circular interface which fits right at home with the scholl wheel. In the screenshot below is a Tempest-like game called “Torus”.
No 4: Marble Madness & Neverball
These are two different games, one classic (for arcades), and one much newer (for Linux), both with an interesting physics engine. Controlling a ball with the scroll wheel should be so much easier and intuitive than a joystick or arrow keys…
No 5: Asteroids
The scroll wheel will move the spaceship around its axis while pressing the actual buttons will move the ship around. Not sure how you will make the game exit though, as all buttons would be needed inside the game…
No 6: Gyruss and Tube Panic
There was a Galaga-like shoot’em up game in a circular axis, called Gyruss. Tube Panic also had a similar idea in terms of a circular shoot’em up.
No 7: Chess
It shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to move around your pieces.
No 8: Video Poker
Too bad that Apple went with Texas Hold’em instead of Video Poker (Jacks or Better). It should be easy to “hold” the cards.
No 9: Bomberman
I don’t believe that this would be too difficult to make it work with the scroll wheel. If Pacman currently sells for the iPod why not Bomberman?
No 10: A driving game
It has a WHEEL for God’s sake!
Extra Request: JawBreaker
Great puzzle game, easily usable with the wheel and very addictive. If you are a PocketPC owner you know what I am talking about. Its gameplay has nothing to do with Bejeweled btw.
Leave a comment with your recommendations. But make sure that whatever you recommend actually plays well with iPod’s scroll wheel.
I do not own an ipod so am not aware if these games are already included in it. But here goes…
Snake – love playing it. And it can be played with the scroll wheel
tetris – Involves rotating the blocks that fall down and then a left or right movement.
rallyx – a game where you try and retrieve all the flags before fuel of your car runs out or your car gets caught by those chasing you.
ChromiumBSU – a game in linux which is remarkable in its graphical effects as much as its simplicity. It is built using opengl.
MsPac – the sister/girlfriend of PacMan much tougher to win but more enjoyable than pacman.
dig dug – Another great classic game
Pengo – a game where you control a penguin to slide the blocks to trap and kill all the ghosts.
I know a lot more … but these are those that come to my mind as of now.
I am afraid all the ones you mentioned either exist (pacman, tetris), or they are completely unusable with the scroll wheel. Snake and DigDug are impossible to move correctly for example. Only for Pengo might be possible.
As someone who played bomberman a lot, I really don’t see how it could be made to work properly with the wheel.
You need to be able to change direction very quickly and sharply, and the wheel doesn’t seem conductive to that.
Having played it both on various concoles and on PC (Atomic bomberman), I think that without any doubt the best input device for that game is the keyboard. Atomic bomberman is much, much faster than most versions of bomberman, yet it is very playable thanks to the keyboard.
Yup, which is why I noted in the article that if Pacman is actually among the games currently I don’t see why a slower version of Bomberman couldn’t.
Snake and DigDug are impossible to move correctly for example. Only for Pengo might be possible.
I have snake game on my mobile phone. So I do not think it is a problem to play using scroll wheel. Since there is only the X and Y movement, scroll wheel can be no problem to use.
Well, problem is that the clicking buttons of the scroll wheel are used mostly for menus instead of movement. If you use the four buttons as movement how are you going to exit the game? The scroll wheel must be the movement, and that’s why Snake wouldn’t work well.
By the way, rockbox includes several games (including doom). It’s a good way to see what works and what doesn’t.
I tried it on my ipod nano. Exiting games is often a problem as they don’t seem to have figured a standard way to do it (in doom for instance you need to flip the button locking switch twice to get to the ingame menu)
Using the wheel buttons as directions didn’t seem very practical either.
Well, problem is that the clicking buttons of the scroll wheel are used mostly for menus instead of movement. If you use the four buttons as movement how are you going to exit the game? The scroll wheel must be the movement, and that’s why Snake wouldn’t work well.
So how would bomberman work well? I really can’t see the difference between digdug, pacman, snake and bomberman in this respect. I can’t imagine an easy wheel interface for chess either.
Your other 8 though would be pretty neat on an iPod.
Snake could work with a wheel. I remember using a snake clone that I controlled with the mouse (right/left). Instead of making 90 degree turns, you had a more “fluid” motion.
As someone who has actually played these games, I think you don’t understand how versatile the controls can be.
For pac man, you do not “scroll” the wheel. The wheel is divided into four sections (up, right, down, left) and you tap in the appropriate direction to move pac man. It’s very natural and similar to a gamepad (though admittedly larger).
Any game that can use a game pad and a single button could use this interface effectively.
Disclosure: I am currently finishing an internship at Apple, though not in the iPod group.
What about DOOM 3?
Won’t work, too much poligons for the actual iPod hardware.
Haha. I am sure a music player can handle real-time lighting, shadows, high polygon count, high resolution bitmap textures, etc.
However I think there is classic Doom for iPod?
Frogger
Master Mind
Donkey Kong
Sokoban
I wonder if Apple will release a iPod game development environment – integrated in Xcode
That would be cool!
SquereEnix made Final Fantasy for every platform they canned.
The I&II version il simple enough to use with iPod.
It’s not a real gaming platform unless it’s had James Pond 2 ported to it :3
AcidSolitaire for the Palm has the most brilliant control scheme ever. All you need is “down” to highlight playable cards, “select” to select cards, and “up” for undo. That’s it!
Pong.
Pong.
Hehe. Well gen5 iPods already come with a “Breakout” clone, that’s like son-of-Pong :-). Pong’s only fun against other humans anyway.
Well, if Apple provides an SDK in the near future there are many developers that would jump right in at the opportunity (including me)
In the mean time, this is what is currently known:
http://www.bensinclair.com/article/whats-inside-an-ipod-game
http://ipodlinux.org/IPodGames
Having some little experience in the amateur games programming field, I was wondering where and how can one write a game for the iPod?
Thanks for the links. It looks like it can’t be done “so far”. I was thinking about “Galaga”
The must port one/two button game of all time: “Bouncing Babies”.
I’d like to see a multiple player setup, using the included USB cable and plugging into a central hub. This would work especially well for the Hold ‘Em game.
I used to have something similar (albeit, more primitive) on my old TI-85 calculator; I was able to play a 2-player Tetris game, “sending” cleared lines to the other player.
I’d like to see a multiple player setup, using the included USB cable and plugging into a central hub. This would work especially well for the Hold ‘Em game.
Why not buy a deck of cards ? Seriously though, the other day I saw a woman on the train with a 17″ wide screen laptop. She was using it to play Solitaire !
The “Galaga-like shoot’em up game in a circular axis” that you mentioned was called Gyruss.
Thanks, I updated the story with the information and added a screenshot.
it’d be neat if they’d come out with a small gamepad/joystick that would connect to the dock connector to facilitate more games. I’d buy it.
I am surprised no one has said it yet….
Scorched Earth
It would be perfect with the interface and its got to be one of the best games of all time.
Seriously.
Interact, pickup, throw etc with the middle button and walk in different directions klicking N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W and NW on the scroll wheel.
“You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully.”
A lot of old games have been very well rewritten for the Sony PSP and it is not impossible to do the same for the iPod.
I own a 4Gb iPod nano. Apple says that the games are only for the 5th Gen. iPods, not iPod nanos. Yet someone said there were 3rd party games for the iPod nano?
Back to Graphic/Text adventures. I’d love it. Especially, if they did an updated version of Penguin Software’s (now called Magic Tree) “The Quest” and “RingQuest” by Dallas Snell.
You upload a high contrast image of yourself to the iPod. It uses crops out everything from the image except your body. A black outline is defined and you add joint points on the image. Now the iPod draws a version of you dancing around like one of those fruit pies in the Apple commercials as a visualization.
Not really a game, but it would be pretty hilarious.
At the arcade it used a joystick with a rotating handle to rotate your character so he could shoot and shoot in another direction. Maybe it could be like rotate with the scrollwheel click on the directions on it to move around and press the middle button to shoot.
ZX Spectrum has many classics
Trans Am, a drive around the States game; catching flags.
http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/01/trans.html
The pics tell what it’s all about!
Another vote for this game!!!! It would be perfect on the iPod! This and bejeweled ….
And, cut the crap about slower games for older people… we invented this world.
GAMES?!? FROM APPLE?!? Mein gott, that’s like the Vanilla Ice, Snow, Eminem and Kid Rock getting together to tour – an impending sign of the apocalypse…
Oh wait, what’s that? Half games that were old a decade and a half ago and limited if no REAL gameplay because you’re stuck using that crappy little wheel which sucks for controlling audio playback, much less something more complex? Gameplay that’s outdone by most cell phones introduced five years past?
Ok, sounds like Apple again.
Several of these or clones of these games such as chess & Puzzle Bobble are already availlable for the iPod. Atleast I have them on my iPod mini. I’m using Rockbox instead of the original software.
Some of them look like interesting additions though. It would never be something I would pay for though. (But I also wouldn’t pay for music, so it’s quite possible others will.)
I like some of the suggestions but my #1 is Lemmings! The control can be done by using an outer button to toggle between tool mode or lemming assign mode and then using the wheel to scroll through tools or through remaining lemmings. Select chooses tool or lemming to operate tool depending on current mode. Another outer button can be pause/continue.
I hope they also make a sudoku game (that is my #2). I play that all the time on planes while listening to my iPod right now – it will be nice to ditch the paper and pencil.