IPod games

An iPod click wheel game or iPod game is a video game playable on Apple Inc. portable music player, the iPod. The original iPod had the game "Brick" (originally invented by Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak) included as an easter egg hidden feature; later firmware versions added it as a menu option. Later revisions of the iPod added three more games in addition to "Brick": "Parachute", "Solitaire", and "Music Quiz". The games for the iPod touch are available through the Apple's App Store.

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History

In September 2006 the iTunes Store began to offer nine additional games for purchase with the launch of iTunes 7, compatible with the fifth generation iPod with iPod software 1.2 or later. Those games were: "Bejeweled", "Cubis 2", "Mahjong", "Mini Golf", "Pac-Man", "Tetris", "Texas Hold 'Em", "Vortex", and "Zuma". These games were made available for purchase from the iTunes Store for US$4.99 each. In December 2006 two more games were released by EA Mobile at the same price: "Royal Solitaire" and "Sudoku". In February 2007 "Ms. Pac-Man" was released followed in April 2007 by "iQuiz". Up until this point, all the available games could be purchased in a package, with no discount.

In May 2007 Apple released "" based on the television show, which is made by Gameloft Gamestudios. In June 2007 "SAT Prep 2008" by Kaplan. This was introduced as 3 separate educational games based on the subjects writing, reading, and mathematics. In December 2007, Apple released Sega's classic game; Sonic the Hedgehog, which was originally packaged with the Sega Genesis system in the early 1990s.

With third parties like Namco, Square Enix, EA, Sega, and Hudson Soft all making games for the iPod, Apple's MP3 player has taken great steps towards entering the video game handheld console market. Even video game magazines like GamePro & EGM have reviewed and rated most of their games as of late.

The games are in the form of .ipg files (iPod game), which are actually .zip archives in disguise. When unzipped, they reveal executable files along with common audio and image files, leading to the possibility of third party games. Currently Apple has no publicly available SDK for iPod development. [ [http://www.bensinclair.com/article/whats-inside-an-ipod-game "What's Inside an iPod Game?"] bensinclair.com, 2006-09-14.]

Games for Purchase

These are the games that you may buy for $4.99 per game for the newest iPods, excluding the iPod touch.

Default Games

These are the games that originally came with each of the iPods

[ [http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/games/ "Fun for your iPod"] , 2007-11-26.]

Criticism

iTunes has come under much criticism due to the UK price of iPod games, GB£3.99 (about US$7.40). Many people from the UK have given the games [http://ax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/browserRedirect?url=itms%253A%252F%252Fax.phobos.apple.com.edgesuite.net%252FWebObjects%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252FviewContentsUserReviews%253FpageNumber%253D0%2526sortOrdering%253D1%2526id%253D188710913%2526type%253DSoftwarePackage 1* ratings] , stating that Apple is "ripping off" Britain.

A similar thing has occurred in Australia. Australians pay $7.49 AUD, while the regular exchange rate hovers at between $5.00 and $6.00 AUD.

Developers have criticized Apple for not creating a software development kit (SDK) for software developers to create new iPod games. This is likely to keep the DRM scheme of iPod games closed.

When the iPod classic and iPod nano third generation were released, games which had been previously purchased could not be synced to the new iPods. This made many consumers angry due to their lost investment.

Unofficial Games

Some older iPod units are capable of using replacement firmware such as iPod Linux and Rockbox.These firmware projects can play many other games including a native port of "Doom", and via a native port of the Game Boy emulator Gnuboy many other games including Super Mario, Tomb Raider, MegaMan, Kirby, Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and hundreds more.

Some free iPod games which use iPod's Notes feature are available for the iPod firmware at iPod Arcade. [http://www.ipodarcade.com/]

References