For the 5th+ iPod generation Apple has just introduced downloadable games and so far they offer 9 games for $4.99 each. Looking back in the classic era of computer gaming we remember some real gems that would fit right into the "keep it simple stupid" philosophy of the iPod. So, let's have some fun and suggest 10 classic games that would specifically work well with the iPod scroll wheel interface.
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I do not own an ipod so am not aware if these games are already included in it. But here goes...
Snake - love playing it. And it can be played with the scroll wheel
tetris - Involves rotating the blocks that fall down and then a left or right movement.
rallyx - a game where you try and retrieve all the flags before fuel of your car runs out or your car gets caught by those chasing you.
ChromiumBSU - a game in linux which is remarkable in its graphical effects as much as its simplicity. It is built using opengl.
MsPac - the sister/girlfriend of PacMan ;-) much tougher to win but more enjoyable than pacman.
dig dug - Another great classic game
Pengo - a game where you control a penguin to slide the blocks to trap and kill all the ghosts.
I know a lot more ... but these are those that come to my mind as of now.
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As someone who played bomberman a lot, I really don't see how it could be made to work properly with the wheel.
You need to be able to change direction very quickly and sharply, and the wheel doesn't seem conductive to that.
Having played it both on various concoles and on PC (Atomic bomberman), I think that without any doubt the best input device for that game is the keyboard. Atomic bomberman is much, much faster than most versions of bomberman, yet it is very playable thanks to the keyboard.
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Snake and DigDug are impossible to move correctly for example. Only for Pengo might be possible.
I have snake game on my mobile phone. So I do not think it is a problem to play using scroll wheel. Since there is only the X and Y movement, scroll wheel can be no problem to use.
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By the way, rockbox includes several games (including doom). It's a good way to see what works and what doesn't.
I tried it on my ipod nano. Exiting games is often a problem as they don't seem to have figured a standard way to do it (in doom for instance you need to flip the button locking switch twice to get to the ingame menu)
Using the wheel buttons as directions didn't seem very practical either.
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Well, problem is that the clicking buttons of the scroll wheel are used mostly for menus instead of movement. If you use the four buttons as movement how are you going to exit the game? The scroll wheel must be the movement, and that's why Snake wouldn't work well.
So how would bomberman work well? I really can't see the difference between digdug, pacman, snake and bomberman in this respect. I can't imagine an easy wheel interface for chess either.
Your other 8 though would be pretty neat on an iPod.
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As someone who has actually played these games, I think you don't understand how versatile the controls can be.
For pac man, you do not "scroll" the wheel. The wheel is divided into four sections (up, right, down, left) and you tap in the appropriate direction to move pac man. It's very natural and similar to a gamepad (though admittedly larger).
Any game that can use a game pad and a single button could use this interface effectively.
Disclosure: I am currently finishing an internship at Apple, though not in the iPod group.
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Well, if Apple provides an SDK in the near future there are many developers that would jump right in at the opportunity (including me)
In the mean time, this is what is currently known:
http://www.bensinclair.com/article/whats-inside-an-ipod-game
http://ipodlinux.org/IPodGames
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I'd like to see a multiple player setup, using the included USB cable and plugging into a central hub. This would work especially well for the Hold 'Em game.
I used to have something similar (albeit, more primitive) on my old TI-85 calculator; I was able to play a 2-player Tetris game, "sending" cleared lines to the other player.
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I'd like to see a multiple player setup, using the included USB cable and plugging into a central hub. This would work especially well for the Hold 'Em game.
Why not buy a deck of cards ;-) ? Seriously though, the other day I saw a woman on the train with a 17" wide screen laptop. She was using it to play Solitaire !
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It would be perfect with the interface and its got to be one of the best games of all time.Member since:
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Seriously.
Interact, pickup, throw etc with the middle button and walk in different directions klicking N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W and NW on the scroll wheel.
"You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully."
A lot of old games have been very well rewritten for the Sony PSP and it is not impossible to do the same for the iPod.
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I own a 4Gb iPod nano. Apple says that the games are only for the 5th Gen. iPods, not iPod nanos. Yet someone said there were 3rd party games for the iPod nano?
Back to Graphic/Text adventures. I'd love it. Especially, if they did an updated version of Penguin Software's (now called Magic Tree) "The Quest" and "RingQuest" by Dallas Snell.
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You upload a high contrast image of yourself to the iPod. It uses crops out everything from the image except your body. A black outline is defined and you add joint points on the image. Now the iPod draws a version of you dancing around like one of those fruit pies in the Apple commercials as a visualization.
Not really a game, but it would be pretty hilarious.
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ZX Spectrum has many classics 
Trans Am, a drive around the States game; catching flags.
http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/01/trans.html
The pics tell what it's all about!
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GAMES?!? FROM APPLE?!? Mein gott, that's like the Vanilla Ice, Snow, Eminem and Kid Rock getting together to tour - an impending sign of the apocalypse...
Oh wait, what's that? Half games that were old a decade and a half ago and limited if no REAL gameplay because you're stuck using that crappy little wheel which sucks for controlling audio playback, much less something more complex? Gameplay that's outdone by most cell phones introduced five years past?
Ok, sounds like Apple again.
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Several of these or clones of these games such as chess & Puzzle Bobble are already availlable for the iPod. Atleast I have them on my iPod mini. I'm using Rockbox instead of the original software.
Some of them look like interesting additions though. It would never be something I would pay for though. (But I also wouldn't pay for music, so it's quite possible others will.)
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I like some of the suggestions but my #1 is Lemmings! The control can be done by using an outer button to toggle between tool mode or lemming assign mode and then using the wheel to scroll through tools or through remaining lemmings. Select chooses tool or lemming to operate tool depending on current mode. Another outer button can be pause/continue.
I hope they also make a sudoku game (that is my #2). I play that all the time on planes while listening to my iPod right now - it will be nice to ditch the paper and pencil.
