Macgasm

When I was in college, I played Worms when I should have been writing term papers or studying for exams. The sound effects (super cute little Worm voices) and game play was fantastic. The idea behind the Worms strategy game is that there are two teams of worms, and one (yours) is supposed to defeat the computer’s worms by killing them with a variety of weapon packs before time runs out. With the various types of weapons and the numerous worms onscreen, it is a game where you have to choose the right weapons to kill the other worms with minimal damage to your team.

The Worms game for the iPod Touch/iPhone is fun, but the thing that makes it best on the PC is the large screen and ability to really pinpoint your desired targets with the click of a mouse. It’s rather difficult to do this on the iPod or iPhone, unfortunately, and the controls are also a tad confusing to use at first. Once you are somewhat familiar with the controls, it’s a bit easier to actually win the game, but it’s definitely an acquired skill. I found that I had wanted to zoom into the actual worm position more often than not, so if there’s anything I’d recommend that the Team17 do for a version revision is to give more visibility and close-ups of the worm in action. After all, they are super cute little critters.

All in all, though, the game stays true to its roots — kill the enemy worms — but I’d say that until Team17 ramps up its efforts to really give you more control of an individual worm, which I think can be accomplished with greater zoom, the iPhone is not the best platform for it. We can only hope that we’ll see bigger and better in the future. But if you still love the game and don’t mind the little handicap, go for it — it’s just like good old days.

Update: Team 17 informs me that these points are being discussed and addressed on their Facebook page.

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In this episode, Josh discusses the possibility of a camera in the iPod Touch.

[03.4 MB] [0:07:10] [Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner]

When I was a kid, I played Boulder Dash enough times to get addicted. I never had a video game console and don’t even remember where I played it, but I remember being hooked regardless.

And then I forgot about it.

And then the iPhone came out.

Thanks to the success of the App Store, I am able to relive my childhood again with the famous Boulder Dash ($4.99) that is now 25 years old. And I can tell you — I’m having a great time. Boulder Dash brings the same old game into the palm of your hand. The object of the game is to collect as many gems in the cave as possible and avoid being smashed by boulders as you dig your way through to get the gems. After you’ve accumulated the desired number of boulders, you are featured with an exit to get out of the cave before time runs out.

You’re able to play the game in two modes: retro (just like the 8-bit days of yore) and with modern graphics. After living in a 3D world, it’s REALLY hard to find myself playing the retro version, and the modern graphics, seen below, are just so amazing. I’m totally finding myself immersed in the gameplay.

The default controls (one of three options) correspond to the four circles seen in the screenshot. On the left side, you see the up and down “buttons,” and on the right, the left and right “buttons.” For serious gamers, it’s an acquired taste and skill since you might be used to a physical device, especially as you’re likely looking at the little man rather than your fingers on the touchscreen. After you acquaint yourself with the buttons, though, you’re on your way to dash through the caves! (The alternate controls are a centered button option similar to a joystick and a “swipe” option where you can swipe your finger to the left to move left or down to move down.)

The game sound is pretty fun, but as someone who wants to feel empowered to hear her own music at times, it’d be great if Boulder Dash would accommodate custom music (that is, the ability to choose your own music from the player that is external to the program) without muting it.

Overall, though, it’s a great game and would especially suit the 80s video game lover!

I tend to do some programming both in my job and on the side. So naturally I would probably like to tackle the idea of creating a native iPhone OS Application. With the desire of programming a native iPhone OS application I got to thinking of what type of applications actually warrant the creation of an native iPhone OS application, versus just creating a web-based application. I thought I would explore each option.

Things to consider with any application:

• Is the application going to need network connectivity?
• Is this going to be an application that’s free or is it going to be paid. If it’s paid, how much do I charge?
• Is this application a game?
• Is this an application just a front-end to an already existing web-based application?
• Must the user be connected to the network all the time in order to access this application?
• Is there an API already present or am I going to have to build one?
• Is this going to be an internal application only or is this going to be available to anyone?

Native Application
Pros:

• Programming is closer to the hardware.
• Access to over 30 million iPhone OS based devices.
• With Over 1.5 Billion applications sold, there is definitely a potential revenue stream available.
• iPhone OS devices allow for external hardware options.
• All applications are in a sandbox and can affect the other installed applications.

Cons:

• If you come from a web-based programming background, learning a new programming language can be daunting.
• Currently, no flash support. So any applications that are flash are out.
• Limitations of the iPhone OS SDK.
• Possibility that your application may be rejected by Apple.
• There are now different speeds of iPhone OS devices, therefore application performance may be different based up on the device.

Web-Based:

Pros:

• Data, structure and function of application already exists.
• Modifying CSS to fit the format of an iPhone OS based devices is easier than building from scratch.
• If the application needs to be connected in order to function, a web-app may be the answer.
• All web-based applications will run on the same mobile safari on iPhone OS devices.
• A web-based application can potentially be the only view into an application, thereby reducing resources needed for development.

Cons:

• If the user has to be connected to the web all the time, an iPod touch without Wi-Fi may not be able to use the application.
• Potentially less exposure due to not being in the iTunes App store.
• With a web-based application there is more maintenance. You have both the standard web-browser CSS files, along with the iPhone OS optimized css files. to maintain.

Both Native applications and web-based applications have their pros and cons. Determining which application is best for your situation will take some time. There are definitely some projects that make more sense as a Native application. For instance, let’s say a game like Aurora Feint. Yes, it could definitely be a web-based application easily. But it does not make sense to do so. The game can be played while off-line and not connected to a network.

Conversely, let’s say you have a manufacturing inventory application that’s changing constantly. It doesn’t necessarily make sense to that the entire application as a native application. It makes more sense as a web-based application, with a potential for an iPhone OS native application front-end.

It all comes down to your resources and how much time you have to put towards creating an application. If you can dedicate the resources for both an iPhone OS Native application and a web-based application, then why not do both.

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In this episode, Grant and Josh discuss the usefulness of push notifications with Twitter.

[02.4 MB] [0:05:00] [Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner]

Apple has released iTunes 8.2.1 to the masses. The biggest ‘fix’ in this update is the breaking of the Palm Pre syncing. In case you did not hear, when the Palm Pre Launched on June 6th, it could sync natively with your iTunes Music collection.

Along with the Palm Pre’s no longer syncing, there are some bug fixes that were included with the Update.

The download is a whopping 79.3 Megabytes (WTF is up with this? I mean seriously, why should I download an 80 megabyte ‘patch’. That’s just absolutely ridiculous, but that is a whole other rant that I have yet to explore). You can download the massive update from apple.com.

As to what the bug fixes are, I’m not sure. They are not listed on any of the standard Apple pages. If it does magically appear I will update this post, however I think this update is strictly for, as Apple states “iTunes 8.2.1 provides a number of important bug fixes and addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices.’

This means that those who might have been using another device, other than the Palm Pre, may not be able to natively sync their devices with iTunes. So, for you Zune owners there goes your chance of syncing your device with iTunes. Oh wait… nevermind… Zune doesn’t work with Macs…

We don’t condone ripping stuff off. People work hard to bring you excellent software. Apple’s been pretty great about leaving behind serial codes and drm on their install discs. I love them for it! But, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t aware of the issue. They just go about it in subtle ways. Chris Messina tweeted uploaded a screenshot to flickr of this coy little message.  Fun Stuff!

[screenshot by: Chris Messina and Header by: GreggFuller
]

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In this episode, Josh talks about his experience on CBC radio.

[02.4 MB] [0:05:10] [Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner]