Richard Leggett on New Media

When the iPhone came out, I thought it was a brave move, but I couldn’t see myself getting one, even though I’m a bit of an Apple fan (my MBP and Nano/Nike+ are irreplaceable). But since then I’ve been using a friend’s Jailbreaked iPhone I’m utterly sold on it (and the Touch), but for a different reason….

The combination of large touch screen, fast processor and accelerometers makes this device a sleeping giant in the handheld games market. The Nintendo DS and PSP have widened the audience considerably, with games like “Brain Training” on the DS, and World Series of Poker et al on the PSP squarely aimed at adults, and many games specifically targeted at girls. They are making gamers of people who would probably not consider themselves gamers at all… even after spending 3 hours straight playing 42-in-1

Apple are soon to release an SDK to game developers, I imagine these will be sold on iTunes. Like Nintendo, Apple prefer to keep a firm handle on anything that can alter the overall experience of using one of their products. Having said that if you haven’t seen some of the stuff coming out of the iPhone/Touch homebrew community take a look at some of the videos below.

Table-top Labyrinthe/Maze

I was amazed at the sensitivity of this one, no lagging at all, highly intuitive and tactile. Tilt the device to roll the ball.

Trism

A classic puzzler that uses the touch screen to slide “prisms” to form combinations… also uses the accelerometers to let the rows slide in the direction you are tilting the device.

iPhysics

You may have seen similar for desktop and DS, this delivers the same sort of experience as line-rider but involving many more objects.

It’s my birthday later this week, and I was lucky enough to have been bought an iPod Touch by my girlfriend so I’ll be Jailbreaking it later today and getting some of this on there. All in all, I expect the iPhone/iPod Touch to prove to be a significant contender in the ever expanding games market. One to watch.