iGame Radio

Now I can reveal an awesome piece of news, and on my birthday, too! I am one of the judges for the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge! Woot. Gendai Games CEO Michael Agustin asked me to judge a couple of weeks ago, but now that it’s confirmed, I can make an official announcement.

This means I’ll be participating in the judging of who knows how many cool games from all across the world, because the Challenge has also been opened up to international participants. I’ll be judging alongside Jason Citron of Aurora Feint and Zachary Waibel of Tricky Software. Jason is creator of a great social gaming system for the iPhone, and Zachary develops iPhone and Mac games, working on, among other things, Spore Origins for the iPhone.

I’m going to have a lot of fun with this. I’ll keep you updated as the Challenge progresses.

I’m skipping podcasting this week because tomorrow is my birthday and I’m giving myself a birthday gift of taking a little time off (like, half a day) and just playing video games. Which really isn’t a half day off, if you think about it, since I’m playing games I’m reviewing, but I’m still having fun and not doing any *other* work stuff.

And because I’m hoping to have my review of Bioshock ready to go next week. We’ll see how that turns out. I might do a Game Review ‘cast on Monday, so watch out for that.

Tomorrow, the cake won’t be a lie. Or I’ll throw it at someone.

Ph03nix New Media has launched a new site, iPhoneGameRebate.com, in which you can receive rebates for iPhone games you’ve purchased. Surfing to the site reveals a simple sign-up page with little information. There is a revolving notice that tells you that purchasing any iPhone/iPod Touch games by January 15th will get you entered into a drawing for a $500 iTunes gift card.

Signing up (after the mandatory confirmation) results in a short description of how you can obtain rebates once they start actually running them. Basically, once you buy a game that is featured on the site, you need to email them a copy of the receipt that received for the purchase. You can specify whether you want the rebate in the form of a PayPal dump or snail mail check, and you’re done.

According to this article, publishers or developers interested in participating in the rebate program can inquire via support@iphonegamerebate.com.

ETA 2: Oops, forgot all about this interview here. Dan Conners, CEO of Telltale Games, says:

I think we’ve basically got it confirmed, folks!

ETA: Got a response from the folks at Telltale Games. They claim that at this time all they can say is that it is a rumor, not confirming or denying it. That, in itself, is very, very interesting.

Via InsideMacGames, I found this tidbit: Gamertell is reporting a rumor that Telltale Games may be bringing their entire collection of games over to the Mac within the next month…just in time for Macworld 2010. Telltales Games is the studio that publishes Sam & Max, Tales of Monkey Island, and Wallace and Grommit’s Grand Adventure, among others.

Gamertell cites a “trusted source” but also mentions an “Emily, Formerly of the Telltale Team” in the forums as saying “Telltale has *a lot* of Mac users in the company, and we are very interested in porting Sam & Max to the Mac.” Whether this Emily is their trusted source or not they do not confirm. However, Telltale games brought Out from Boneville to the Mac in 2006. They haven’t released anything else for the Mac since then.

I currently have a query into Telltale Games asking confirmation of the rumor. I’ll update you as I get any feedback.

Stuart Dredge of the iPhone Games Bulletin has started up an iSlate blog to keep track of all things about the tablet. This post about iPhone games he thinks might show up on the tablet is intriguing. Included are:

3. Star Defense. Like Flight Control and line-drawing games, the tower defence genre would upscale to a tablet just fine, and may well suit collaborative play too. I’ve picked Star Defense over Fieldrunners based more on its visuals – scrolling around 3D planets on a big screen would be fun. But either would suit, really.

4. Chuzzle. Because you’ve got to have a match-three puzzler in here, and Chuzzle is one of the most addictive AND most visually appealing examples on iPhone. Dragging Chuzzles round a 10-inch (or 7-inch – delete according to rumour) screen would be dangerously addictive.

5. Tap Tap Revenge. iPhone’s premier music game now has more than 20 million players, so porting it to the tablet would make sense. However, on the basis that the tablet may also interface with your home music collection, it’s not hard to imagine the ability to play along with your favourite songs too.

6. Civilization Revolution. Armchair generals out there need a big screen to play Civ on – the iPhone version received warm-but-not-overwhelming praise on its release, but upscaling it for the tablet with a decent draggy interface would make it the ultimate sofa wargame.

What do you think? What other iPhone games do you think would work better on a tablet than the iPhone? What games that are currently on desktop would do well if altered a bit for the tablet? Any new concepts?

At least, that’s what I’m threatening to do. Or mob Apple. Not sure which yet.

Via VentureBeat, Verizon CTO Dick Lynch goes all threateny on the smartphone world, warning that bandwidth hogs are causing Verizon to rethink their unlimited bandwidth plans and consider caps. Considering that it’s been rumored for a while now that come June, when the monopolistic contract with AT&T expires, Apple may be hugging up with Verizon, this is really bad news for iPhone users across America.

Lynch’s argument doesn’t make any sense. He is trying to use an age-old claim to get an emotional fairness from the consumer world. Meanwhile, I have DSL with an unlimited data plan and a speed cap (that’s what 3G is, Verizon) and my ISP hasn’t gone out of business. Nor have any of the others who don’t have caps on their bandwidths. He simply wants more money out of us.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• An interview with Brian Greenstone of Pangea Software. The history of Pangea’s Mac games, their current iPhone games, and what their plans are for the future.
  
• Also, a review of Avernum VI, Spiderweb Software’s final episode in the popular retro-RPG series. Get lost in an underground world, kick Slith butt, and get high on Skribbane. What could be better?
  
• Plus, a review of Gourmania, the Alawar frantic restaurant cooking game for the iPhone. Move quickly to find all of those ingredients in time and hit the big leagues. Just don’t expect to finish the game.
  
• Finally, a review of WordSpin by Geospace. This iPhone game puts a new spin on word games like Boggle or Scrabble, but you’ll miss the social interaction.
  

Show Notes:

• Ooh, James Cameron, you naughty double-dealer, you! How you hate us gamers. Oh, you have an Avatar game out…
• Yes, I’ll be at Macworld 2010. Will you?

Rumors continue to swirl around the iSlate tablet that Apple may be revealing come Wednesday, January 27th. For example, Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar believes that the tablet’s chip will not be an Intel based chip, but one created by P A Semi, a chip shop that, oh by the way, Apple picked up about two years ago. Go figure.

Big blow for Intel, who’s the industry queen in chip manufacture for tablets, and can’t be happy that it’s not going to town with Apple and the new iSlate.

Another rumor has it that the iSlate may have a steep learning curve to it. This one I don’t put much faith in, frankly. First off, Apple has a history and reputation for creating electronic products with easy to use interfaces. In fact, that is one of the big aspects of OSX…jumping in and picking it up quickly. For the company to turn around and create something that takes time to figure out would be a back-step. Secondly, the rumor isn’t from first hand experience. Basically, it’s some dude who was told something by someone else who supposedly works at Apple.

My co-worker’s sister’s fiance’s former roommate told me. Uh, yeah.

Lastly, there may be 3D on the iSlate after all. A patent application found reveals how it might work.

 

ETA: Heard back from the developer regarding Gravity Sling, and I wanted to share some of his comments with you. My issues with lack of navigational information is not just mine alone, and he’s looking at tweaking the game to include something like that in an upcoming release. Also, no promises, but there might be a fast-forward feature so we don’t have to wait around to see if our astronaut crashes or not. Finally, the discrepancy regarding the OS requirements for Gravity Sling Lite and Gravity Sling Deluxe are because the Lite version has the In-app purchase feature, which requires OS 3.0 or later. That makes a lot of sense.

What’s inside this episode:

• An interview with Michael Agustin of Gendai Games about the Macworld 2010 GameSalad Challenge. Make a game, win an iPod Touch.
• Also, a review of Magician’s Handbook II: Blacklore by Red Marble Games. Not just another hidden object game, this is a title to play with your kids. Even lack of replayability doesn’t get in the way.
  
• Plus, a review of Hanged by Freeverse. What happened to those lovers? What was in that letter? Did she really hang him? And, boy, do those water droplets look awesome!
  
• Finally, a review of Gravity Sling by RipTide Games. Send your astronaut round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and…well, you get the idea. But, hey, the orbits look amazing!
  

Show Notes:

• Top ten lists of the year: why they suck.
• Modern Warfare 2 gets two awards: Most sales during launch and most pirated game of 2009. Wait, you can have both?

And that ball is still hanging in the air, cause we don’t know if they scored or not. But you can find out by picking up the game. NBA Hotshot, their casual arcade game, officially licensed from the NBA, is now available in the App Store. The game incorporates the same flick-based controls as in many of Freeverse’s other games.

NBA Hotshot lets the player shoot hoops with time limits or a high scoring mode. A three-strikes feature adds to the fun with precision basketball shooting. Up to five players can shoot against each other in multiplayer battles via bluetooth. Leader boards and achievements are included through Plus+ integration. Best of all (well, if you are into basketball) you can win official NBA team prizes, such as team balls and other basketball souvenirs, to use in-game.

The game’s price is $1.99, but will intro for a low price of $0.99.