Topic: iPhone/iPod Touch game thread?

[vudu]

Thanks for the info!

I just tried playing Duke Nukem 3D (it was free).  Wow-those controls were horrible.  I don't think I'll be trying that again anytime soon. 

Angry Birds is just as addictive as everyone says it is.

I'd also advise you to jailbreak it, especially since it can only run the gimped version of iOS 4.

What are the benefits of jailbreaking it?  What are the drawbacks (if any)?

[NWR_insanolord]

Jailbreaking can get you a lot of features you wouldn't have otherwise. It would allow you to multitask, which isn't supported on your model in iOS 4, along with a lot of other cool little tweaks. There aren't many drawbacks; some have reported decreased battery life because of it, but I haven't had that problem, and these tweaks don't always have the level of polish you'll see in something made by Apple, so you'll see the occasional glitch, but nothing too major.

[gbuell]

Some game types work great on iOS, and some work poorly. I mostly stick to traditional puzzle games, 2D physics-based stuff like Angry Birds, point-and-click adventures, word games (crosswords, Scrabble), some tower defense and other strategy type games. And I try to stay away from stuff that seems shoehorned into the device from another system.

[vudu]

Jailbreaking can get you a lot of features you wouldn't have otherwise.

Thanks--I'll look into it. 

I try to stay away from stuff that seems shoehorned into the device from another system.

I wasn't expecting it to be any good--I just wanted to give it a shot.

[vudu]

How do I delete apps from appearing in the Sync Apps list in iTunes?  There are a couples demos and free games that I downloaded that I know I'm never going to want to touch again.

The Touch has pretty much become my Pop Cap Games machine.  I haven't played Bejeweled in years but it's still addictive as ever.  (And only 99 cents!)

[greybrick]

How do I delete apps from appearing in the Sync Apps list in iTunes?  There are a couples demos and free games that I downloaded that I know I'm never going to want to touch again.

The Touch has pretty much become my Pop Cap Games machine.  I haven't played Bejeweled in years but it's still addictive as ever.  (And only 99 cents!)

Well, you can just plain delete them from the menu by right-clicking them again. You can't plain take them off the list outside of doing that since it is calling from the same folder. If you mean that you want to keep the files but don't want them to sync, you can just uncheck them.

[gbuell]

Yeah, delete them from the "Apps" section of your iTunes library by right-clicking and selecting Delete.

vudu, get Peggle if you haven't, it's only $0.99 right now and it has the full sequel, Peggle Nights, available as DLC for $0.99 as well.

[KDR_11k]

My favourite game ATM is Solomon's Boneyard, which is a sequel/spinoff of Solomon's Keep. Both games are a dollar and both are awesome.

[vudu]

Yeah, delete them from the "Apps" section of your iTunes library by right-clicking and selecting Delete.

vudu, get Peggle if you haven't, it's only $0.99 right now and it has the full sequel, Peggle Nights, available as DLC for $0.99 as well.

I just want to get them off my list.  Stuff like the previously mentioned Duke Nuke'm and Angry Birds Lite.  I already deleted them from my iPod but they still appear on the Sync list of iTunes.  I'm never going to want to play these games again so I just want them to go away.  I thought I already tried right-clicking and nothing happened but I'll give it another shot tonight.

And I already downloaded Peggle.  It's pretty addictive, but not as much as Bejeweled and Angry Birds. 

[gbuell]

Make sure you're right-click/deleting in the Apps section of your library, NOT the Apps section of your iPod Touch syncing interface! There's a big difference. Here are some screenshots to illustrate what I mean:

Delete your apps from here: http://bit.ly/9Wo12B

NOT from here: http://bit.ly/9XQ3qn


And yes, I agree that Apple could/should streamline this process. I can't tell you how many times my girlfriend has gotten confused about the difference between the Music section of her iTunes library and the Music section of her plugged-in iPod, and why she could delete playlists from one but not the other.

[vudu]

Make sure you're right-click/deleting in the Apps section of your library, NOT the Apps section of your iPod Touch syncing interface! There's a big difference.

Ah-ha!  That was my problem.  Many thanks!

[gbuell]

No problem. I had a feeling that was it.

[vudu]

Why does Genius suck so badly on my iPod but it's go great on my dad's?

Even though I have over 2,500 songs on my iPod it seems like only a handful of songs/bands/albums come up.  It's not uncommon for me to create two Genius playlists and have them share 2 or 3 of the exact same songs.

My currently randomly generated playlist consists of:

• The song I picked
• Two songs on the same album
• One song by the same band but on a different album
• 3 songs by a different band (all from the same album, despite there being at least 7 albums from said band on my iPod)
• 3 songs from another band from 2 different albums (there are 4 albums in total from this band)
• And so on ... you get the point

(Not in this order--I'm just summarizing.)

When I create a Genius playlist on my dad's iPod there's usually a second song by the same band as the originating song and that's it.  No repeats.  A really great mix.

Is it because I didn't rip my albums using iTunes?  When I originally enabled Genius it took iTunes over 2 hours to do whatever it is it needs to do.  I assumed it was doing something worthwhile but now it seems like it was just sitting around with its thumb up its ass.

[gbuell]

Genius is hit and miss. Depends on the genre generally. The more popular, the better. It usually does okay for me.

[gbuell]

I assume your music is all tagged correctly. Shouldn't matter how you rip it.

[KDR_11k]

Genius ends up adding the same song twice in a row at times. Winamp never did that.

[NWR_insanolord]

Cut The Rope deserves the hype and sales it's getting.

[KnowsNothing]

Except as far as I can tell there is no way to listen to your own audio and play the game at the same time.  Every time I load the app my music is paused.

[NWR_insanolord]

Except as far as I can tell there is no way to listen to your own audio and play the game at the same time.  Every time I load the app my music is paused.

I hadn't tried that, but yeah, that always sucks. I'm not sure why Apple lets developers do that without giving an option not to.

EDIT: I just tried it myself and had no problem listening to music while playing. I turned off music in the options menu, but it was working fine even before that. I'm on an iPhone 4 running 4.0.1 (jailbroken, but I don't think I have anything installed in Cydia that would affect this).

[KnowsNothing]

Even with all the sound turned off in the app it still pauses my music every time.  I'm only on a first gen iPod Touch running 3.1.3 so I'm probably just being punished for not updating my hardware...

[KDR_11k]

Game Dev story is nice, even if it wasn't about a topic we care about it's still one of the rare few actual economy simulations.

[greybrick]

Even with all the sound turned off in the app it still pauses my music every time.  I'm only on a first gen iPod Touch running 3.1.3 so I'm probably just being punished for not updating my hardware...

Even the second gen iPod Touch has troubles running most games, I wouldn't doubt that your hardware is the problem. Of course, if a developer claims that their game supports your system it should run well, but unfortunately that isn't the case.

[kraken613]

Game Dev Story sucked 3 hours from me while listening to RFN last night...

BUY THIS GAME! It's great!

[KDR_11k]

It's good but I feel like I've run out of things to do, got more money than I know what to do with, made my own console that's currently the market leader (even the Intendro Whoops cannot beat it), got a perfect score on a game and generally ran out of things to do.

[gbuell]

So basically, you've beaten the game? Move on.