TCub
I'm metal.
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join:2008-09-03
Olmsted Falls, OH
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 ·Cox HSI
| Is the iPhone the newest handheld?
Since the original iPhone came out in June of 2007 its always been a powerful piece of hardware. Though all the power and creative ability were locked away under the powerful grip of Apple. That is...until the iPhone 3G came out, along with the Apps Store.
Since the 3G's release just a few months ago on July 11th, a very hectic morning for me, the Apps Store has seen quite a few pretty decent games. Even some games from big console publishers like Sega with its release of Super Monkey Ball. Also keeping in mind EA is currently developing and will release (hopefully sometime this month) Spore for iPhone, its hard to ignore it as a proper gaming device.
What I find most intriguing is John Carmack, iD Software guru, has stated the iPhone is as powerful as a Nintendo DS and Sony PSP combined!
With power, an accelerometer, and the Apps store is the iPhone potential competition for Nintendo and Sony in the handheld market? |
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justin
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| is there any game evidencevthat it is more powerful than the psp?
I doubt that.. Psp runs a pretty decent render of god of war
In my opinion games chew the battery much faster than psp let alone ds
Other issue is memory. Non trivial games run out of memory..
I am emjoying vay though but it's a sega cd port |
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TCub
I'm metal.
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join:2008-09-03
Olmsted Falls, OH
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·Cox HSI
| I havent seen anything concrete but Carmack makes some of the best game engines, though I suppose hes known for saying some pretty fanboyish comments.
As for the battery, yea that could be an issue on the iPhone as well, once you factor in its a Phone and GPS and iPod and all that stuff.
Still alot of people might like the idea of having one device that does all that. Maybe better for "light" gaming. |
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justin
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| it isn't just "possibly" an issue, it is an issue. If I play any iphone game that involves continual screen update/cpu involvement the center back of the iphone gets hot, and the power runs down very quickly. I doubt you can get even an hour of play. Given the temps my guess is that each cycle like that reduces the useful life of the (fixed) battery. If the lifetime of the phone is 2 years at one full charge a day on average, using it as a gaming handheld with frequent recharges might require the expensive battery replacement surgery after six months. (just a guess).
the more complex games often crash out or don't start due to memory limits: instructions are to kill any open safari pages or reboot the phone. I am not sure this can be addressed. I think the phone needs more than 128mb of core memory. Apple probably didn't originally imagine an appstore for it.
the speaker on the phone is mono (psp is stereo) and weak, directional, and very easily blocked by a stray finger etc.
the auto-rotation of the screen is annoying for gamers. I don't like the phone assuming i am always standing and sitting vertically and changing the screen orientation to suit. I'm all too frequently horizontal or at 45 degrees 
the games run as blocking apps that must save state if you want to quit them to (for example) answer a phone call. Most I have seen have a 'save' function, so if you press the home key, all state other than the last save is lost.
Don't get me wrong, there are some great diversions in the appstore particularly ones that work well with touch interfaces.. but if you have a DS or a PSP you will not be impressed. The accelerometer is cute but as a gimick only. |
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TCub
I'm metal.
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join:2008-09-03
Olmsted Falls, OH
clubs:
·Cox HSI
| hmm interesting points. I hadnt thought of it like that. Also an issue is the lack of any controller, aside from the accelerometer and touch, thats about it. I just used the GPS last weekend and it totally drained my battery. so I couldn't see playing a few small games, doing some web surfing, a few calls, txts, and GPS use lasting the whole day.
Like I said though, it could be more for while your standing in line type of thing. I just found it interesting how carmack was raving about its power. And yes, the speakers are to good and Im finding that Im always accidentally covering them up with a finger. |
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justin
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| yeah it is a good diversion, standing in line, when the newspaper gets boring.
It is also a magical toddler distraction tool at restaurants and other places where misbehavior spoils everyones day. There are a bunch of cute things for kids as young as 2 to amuse themselves with. |
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TCub
I'm metal.
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join:2008-09-03
Olmsted Falls, OH
clubs: | True,sometimes I like play with the Koi Pond app. Very simple but still very relaxing! |
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Silvanos
It's a new Silvanos experience
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join:2002-10-07
Buffalo, NY
| reply to justin
said by justin  :It is also a magical toddler distraction tool at restaurants and other places where misbehavior spoils everyones day. There are a bunch of cute things for kids as young as 2 to amuse themselves with. Hell yeah it is.
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Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground? |
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bignate
join:2005-12-05
Austin, TX
| reply to TCub
ya, i keep hearing all this hype about it being a gaming machine but really i dont see it. people are talking like it is amazing that it can play games but you know other phones can play games too. i have a SNES emulator on my tilt.
and even that has nothing on my DS. |
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Fountainhead
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join:2003-10-25
New York, NY
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| The limitations of not having control buttons and analog sticks or d-pad will be more limiting than any battery or memory situation which can be resolved.
Its not a handheld for full scale gaming, but there's no question that it can be great for mini-games and distraction apps
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It's all part of my rock and roll fantasy |
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JSY
join:2000-04-05
Elmhurst, NY
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| reply to TCub
And the battery issue is not just limited to the iPhone. I can't surf the web, watch a video, or do anything with the screen continually lit on my iPod Touch for any substantial length of time without the battery meter going down at least 1/4 within 10-15 minutes. Granted I would be using the Wifi which uses power, but I don't have GPS or a speaker to drain power either. Like someone said - I think it's fine for the typical time waster apps but I cannot see it replacing something like the PSP or the DS. At the very least, you just can't replace the lack of physical controls with the touch screen and accelerometer. Not in it's present form, anyway.
My iPod touch is now relegated to read eBooks. |
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TCub
I'm metal.
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join:2008-09-03
Olmsted Falls, OH
clubs:
·Cox HSI
| "I know that it's an attractive product, but when I look carefully at the iPhone's users vs. the users of our Nintendo DS, I understand there are some overlaps. And if you ask 'Is the overlap too big?,' my answer is no, not so much."
-Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata
Makes sense. Just about every single person in Japan probably has a DS. So IMO it wont over throw the DS or even cause any competition but as better games come out it should make the device look more like a gaming machine. |
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C0deZer0
Oc'D To Rhythm And Police
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join:2001-10-03
Davenport, FL
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to bignate
said by bignate :ya, i keep hearing all this hype about it being a gaming machine but really i dont see it. people are talking like it is amazing that it can play games but you know other phones can play games too. i have a SNES emulator on my tilt. and even that has nothing on my DS. There's also the problem that up until maybe the iPhone, no phone company allowed you to transfer these gameas from one to another easily, if at all. I'm willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of users basically will have on their phone whatever games it may have packed in with the firmware from the factory. and part of that is because it's not exactly convenient at best (impossible at worst) to then move the games you did buy over to a new phone when you're ready to trade up. god help you if you decided to move to another provider. |
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Snakeoil
Prehende uxorem meam, sis
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join:2000-08-05
Mentor, OH
| I tend to agree. I purchased a few games for my last phone, and when I switched, I lot the games. A shame the more expensive phones didn't have a way of porting them over to a computer, then porting them back to the new phone.
But then again, its one way to keep making money..
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bignate
join:2005-12-05
Austin, TX
| reply to C0deZer0
said by C0deZer0 :said by bignate :ya, i keep hearing all this hype about it being a gaming machine but really i dont see it. people are talking like it is amazing that it can play games but you know other phones can play games too. i have a SNES emulator on my tilt. and even that has nothing on my DS. There's also the problem that up until maybe the iPhone, no phone company allowed you to transfer these gameas from one to another easily, if at all. I'm willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of users basically will have on their phone whatever games it may have packed in with the firmware from the factory. and part of that is because it's not exactly convenient at best (impossible at worst) to then move the games you did buy over to a new phone when you're ready to trade up. god help you if you decided to move to another provider. i agree, it seems to me that if you wanted to play games on your phone you would get one that runs windows mobile or something similar. that way they are just programs, i save them on my laptop, make copies for my friends and when i get a new phone i put it on there.
almost every phone is good at distraction type games. the iphone will just be a little better at them. |
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Brazbit
Randomness Personified
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join:2003-10-22
Port Orchard, WA
·wavebroadband
| reply to C0deZer0
said by C0deZer0 :There's also the problem that up until maybe the iPhone, no phone company allowed you to transfer these gameas from one to another easily, if at all. Unless of course you had a Windows Mobile device in which case you had hundreds of games, emulators, etc to choose from and could beam, email, or transfer across the web. Also the old Palm OS phones had a nice selection of games and emulators that could easily be passed around as well. I never checked out the N-gage close enough to know how easily that one allowed you to share but it was built specifically to fill this niche, it failed miserably but it was designed to do it. Yup other than those and a few others "No One" was doing this until Apple came along and introduced their revolutionary logo to the mix.
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TCub
I'm metal.
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join:2008-09-03
Olmsted Falls, OH
clubs:
·Cox HSI
| this is very true. I used to play really crappy cell phone games on my old samsung and my terrible Razr. I lost all my games with each phone upgrade. Then when I had my Moto Q, which ran Windows Mobile, for some reason I didnt even think of playing any games.
The nice thing about the iphone and playing games is that the games you purchase are specific to your iTunes account and not the device itself. If I were to replace my iPhone,if say it broke, I wouldn't lose everything. Or if Apple creates a new version of the iPhone in a year and it looks like a worthy upgrade, again everything I purchased whether it be apps or games would be in my itunes account.
What I also like is that you pay for something once and you can re-download it an unlimited number of times. I've always liked the idea of Digital Downloads and was a pretty big fan of Valve's Steam software when I was a PC gamer but there were plenty of other times I got screwed out of a game because the license only let me download it 3 times. |
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bignate
join:2005-12-05
Austin, TX | reply to TCub
the wii is the same way with downloaded software. i have aproblem with mine and they sent me back a refurbished one at factory settings. but when i went to the shop channel i could re-download everything i had already downloaded for free. |
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Gomez
The Pool's In But The Patio Ain't Dry
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join:2001-02-21
Atlanta, GA
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| reply to justin
said by justin :yeah it is a good diversion, standing in line, when the newspaper gets boring. It is also a magical toddler distraction tool at restaurants and other places where misbehavior spoils everyones day. There are a bunch of cute things for kids as young as 2 to amuse themselves with. Iphone has no GPU. So anything like a DCT which a GPU will yawn at, will be on the main CPU, and eat power...
It's not even remotely engineered to compete with a PSP.
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It's a fact : Chicks dig Mafia players.
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BonezX
Basement Dweller
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join:2004-04-13
Canada
| reply to justin
said by justin :is there any game evidence that it is more powerful than the psp? PSP is more of a portible media device then a portible game system.
god, you hear more about browser MP3 wireless ect, then you do games. |
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