Pipe Mania

iTunes Link

Pipe Mania is a strategy game by Virtual Programming. $4.99

[A modified post from TheAppEra]

Pipe Mania (previously Pipe Dreams) became a smash hit on platforms like the PC, PSP, DS and Wii. With the help of developer Robosoft this classic game has ventured onto the iPhone.

I have never heard of this title, but it has been out for over 20 yeasr, originally being introduced all the way back in 1987, the year before I was born! What has kept this title a favorite for all generations of gamers is how its evolved with the platforms, providing more gameplay and better graphics.

The great puzzle process used way back in the very early days is still present and dragging in new comers to the series as well as the old timers.

This is a great strategy game that reminded me of the Alchemistry puzzle in the online game Puzzle Pirates, but alot more engaging and challenging.

After my initial impressions of just one level I gave this the thumbs up. Right from the get go this game promised to challenge me ,and I found it difficult to even pass a level successfully, let alone get a gold star for it. The amount of content in the game is amazing and has justified the price for me, as it was looking like a simple $1.99 game before I actually started playing it. The game easily has quite a few hours of content just to complete all the levels, let alone all the challenges and gold rankings on top of that.

As you can see in the above screenshot, this game has come an incredibly long from its 1980's version. This is a game that looks and feels like it was handmade to be played on the iPhone. With groovy graphics that could challenge most puzzle games on the App Store, this game really has it all packed. From the many obstacles you face on the various levels, to the spillage when the flooze reaches the end of the pipe it is all created perfectly and with an amazing amount of detail.

A nice edition to the game is that for each level pack, there is a totally different game theme. Whether they're actually sewer pipes or train tracks it is a small but welcome addition to this game. Just from the screenshots on the App Store you can tell that this is a wonderful game to look at. It can even be tested out for yourself with a lite version of the game.

RoboSoft and Virtual Programming has done well to keep the controls of this game as simple as possible to make this game enjoyable. I was expecting to have to drag each piece from the side of the screen onto the wanted square, but instead all that is required is a simple tap to place the next piece in line.

This makes it alot easier and also less time consuming, which is a crucial part of the game, especially in later levels. Some special pieces such as the '?' piece requires you to tap where you want the piece to go and then another tap to choose what kind of piece it will be. Don't worry as you will figure out what this means when you buy the game. All in all it works very well and seems like it was a game designed perfectly for the iPhone.

Pipe Mania follows a very simple concept, but initializing it is the hard part. The basic way to complete each level is to get the flooze from a starting tap to an end drain somewhere else on the map. How do you do that exactly? Well you must direct the flooze around the city by placing pipe pieces on the map to successfully take the flooze from the start position to the ending position. This is not as easy as it sounds as the pieces do not fall out nicely, letting you create an easy route. You must plan ahead, placing pieces before they even join together, with at least two separate pipe lines running around the screen before you can manage to link them up and complete the level.

There are four game modes to compete in. The first is world mode, which gives you over 38 challenging levels with various themes to complete. These are set levels with obstacles and items set in a way to make them challenging. This is the main game mode and needs to be played quite a bit to unlock other modes. The next mode is arcade mode, which basically gives lets you try and complete as many levels as possible without losing. Bonus mode is different to the rest of the game by having a mostly pre-completed puzzle yet you have to place the correct pieces in their positions quickly to get a high score. Finally classic game lets you play the game, as it was originally designed to be. This involves trying to get the flooze to the end while earning as many

Pipe Mania brings in aspects of strategy, skill and speed to deliver a game that will be enjoyable for almost anyone. The quick paced game will have you screaming for the correct piece as the flooze reaches the end of your pipeline and starts to ooze out. This game hasn't made me think so hard compared to any other game on the App Store, focusing on you having a plan in your head before you even reach that spot on the map.

As you progress through the game and unlock more levels and game modes, it gradually becomes harder with more obstacles and new pieces to always test your skills. While this game isn't for those who enjoy an easy straightforward game, prepared to be taken to your limit with Pipe Mania. One of the best games on the App Store and the hours of fun is an absolute bargain at the weekend sale price of $0.99. Seriously guys, get it before it goes up. You won't regret it.

Gameplay- 9/10

Graphics- 7/10

Sound- 7.5/10

Overall- 7.5/10

I would recommend this game if you enjoyed- Zentomino

Tell me what you think about this review at Twitter- http://www.twitter.com/iPhone_Reviews next up is X2 Soccer 2009

Thanks- iPhone_Reviews

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Interesting Contrast

Definitely a sign of the times: Two days ago, Apple announced another best non-holiday quarter ever, handily beating analysts' predictions. Today, the once-unstoppable Microsoft reported a 17% drop in revenue, marking the first full-year decline in revenue in Microsoft's history and missing analysts predictions by a wide margin.

It's obviously a good time to be a Mac user. It's been a long time since I've heard anyone predict the death of Apple (a favorite pasttime of analysts and pundits for years) and ignorant comments about Macs being "toys" or "not for serious work" are almost non-existent except for a few bitter and lonely commenters on Reddit and Digg.

The problems Microsoft is having, no they are not Microsoft's fault. It's the global slowdown and other things that they have no control over and couldn't have possibly predicted.

Let's face it, Microsoft has "Victim Syndrome". They're not fixing their problems because they haven't truly accepted that they're doing anything wrong. They go so far as to pat themselves on the back for cutting costs and laying people off, saying

In light of that environment, it was an excellent achievement to deliver over $750 million of operational savings compared to the prior year quarter.

Seriously? Operational savings? That's a pussy way of putting it, but I guess "layoffs" sounds too negative. And how does the word "excellent" even get worked into reporting a substantial decline in revenue? And how do they title their release?

The company delivered operational efficiency and innovation in a difficult environment

Now, compare that with Apple's post-Jobs earnings statement from December 2000 where they had some similar problems. Right in the title, they called their results "disappointing". Although Apple pointed out the global PC slump as a contributing factor, the reasons they gave for the loss were that they didn't plan well enough. Apple's approach was, when you cut through the anaylst-speak, to say "we fucked up, we know it, and we're going to fix it". They acknowledged the problem.

Microsoft, on the other hand, is trying to convince everyone (themselves included, perhaps) that they are still headed in the right direction and are doing just great, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. What they should be telling us is that they've got problems and they know it, and they've got a plan for fixing those problems.

Microsoft needs an intervention, badly. They need somebody to be a real friend and tell them the harsh truth: that they've got a problem and they need help.

I've said it before, but I think Microsoft is desperately overdue for a change of leadership. It takes a long time to turn a big ship around, so the sooner Microsoft can get someone with vision at the helm, the better it will be for Microsoft.

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Waving the Red Flag

Craig Hockenberry has just posted a very important piece of information for anyone with applications on the App Store.. Go read it.

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Microsoft's Ads Redux

A while back, I took Microsoft's new Laptop Hunter series of television advertisements to task for being ill-advised. This line pretty much summed up my point:

Price is the competitive advantage of generic brands and sweatshop-backed superstores.

and this was the crux of my argument:

Now, this [approach] will resonate with some people. There are always people who take a certain pride in buying things cheaply under the assumption that anytime you pay less you get a better value and it's a waste of time comparing the actual products. I doubt that people who think like that are a particularly large percentage of the population. Maybe they are, and maybe this is a brilliant ad, and I'm simply overestimating people. Only time will tell, but I suspect that these ads will help Apple as much as they help Microsoft and, if they have any effect at all, it will simply be to polarize the consumer market even further, giving Apple more of the higher-end, higher-profit sales, and cementing Windows as the operating system of the "cheap" computer. Most people will interpret "just as good" as meaning "not as good".

To the extent that I predicted that Microsoft's ads would not have an impact, I was completely 100% wrong. These ads have almost definitely impacted computer purchasing decisions over the last several months. However, unfortunately for Microsoft, the effect the ads seem to have had is exactly what I predicted. The PC market is getting polarized, with Apple becoming the OS of choice for high-end, high-margin computers.

Microsoft still has overall market share probably in the 80-90% range, which is more than substantial. In fact, it can't be described in any other way than "dominant". There are very few industries where any player has that kind of market share.

But, the bulk of the new computers being sold with Windows on them are sub-$1,000 systems. If you look at the systems being sold in that price range, they are mostly computers with outdated components like slower (and less) RAM and older integrated graphics chips. Now, there are plenty of consumers in this price range, and Microsoft is still making a lot of money from their OEM sales.

But, Apple is now dominating the more lucrative, higher-margin computers, and that dominance has been trending up fairly rapidly.

This is bad for Microsoft in a number of ways. First, the higher the percentage of low-end, basically obsolete computers that there are running Windows, the smaller the potential market for cool new OS-level features in future versions of Windows is. That means that the opportunities for selling higher-margin retail copies of Windows 7 to existing customers (as opposed to those being sold with a new computer) will be considerably less than the installed base. It's also bad for Microsoft's dominance in the PC game industry. One of the most commonly leveled (and perfectly true) accusations against the Mac is that there aren't many games for it. Cutting edge games, however, usually want to leverage the power of the latest and greatest hardware. If 91% of the systems costing $1,000 or more being sold are Macs, don't think game companies aren't going to take notice.

But, the biggest and worst problem for Microsoft is just what I stated above. They're setting themselves up as a generic brand. By competing only on price, and touting only price in their advertisements, rather than the actual technological advantages they do have (and they definitely do have some), their current marketing campaigns are instilling and reinforcing the idea that Microsoft creates bland, mediocre, but affordable and serviceable products. They are basically saying the same thing in their ads as Apple is.

You can argue all day long that your product is better, but if that runs contrary to what you're telling consumers with your marketing, then you're just pissing in the wind. In terms of future sales, it doesn't matter whether Windows is better, it matters whether consumers believe it is better, and Microsoft has stopped telling consumers that.

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August 14 Workshop Update

The August 14 workshop, for which I am one of the two instructors is filling up fast. I'll be teaching the second part of the workshop on iPhone development; Steve Kochan, author of Programming in Objective-C 2.0, will be teaching the first part on Objective-C. You can sign up for either the 3-day iPhone session, the 3-day Objective-C session, or do the combined 6-day workshop.

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DJ Mix Tour

iTunes Link

DJ Mix Tour is a music game by Gameloft. $1.99

[A Modified Post from TheAppEra]

DJ Mix Tour is basically Gameloft’s version of Tap Tap Dance. In a way it is the same genre as this game but sadly, like Tap Tap Dance, it is also the worst in the series. I don’t know what it is about dance tracks and these games, but they generally don’t gel well together for me. There are a few big tracks like Poker Face and Just Dance by Lady Gaga which are good if you want to play these, but you might be better off with BeatRider Touch or Lady Gaga Revenge.

Like I said there are a few big songs. On Guitar Rock Tour I could name and sing along to 85% of the time With DJ Mix Tour I know the names of 5. The game is a much slower pace to other games in the genre which is better for those beginners. For those of you who are used to rocking out perfect scores on the extreme levels will find this quite boring. From what I hear all the time at parties, DJ’s don’t just mix music tracks and I would like to see more Hip-Hop and other types of tracks. On a plus side Gameloft has gone a step further with great graphics and a variation of the game style.

Tapulous provides amazingly smooth graphics, but are somewhat simple. While the ‘Tour’ series as such isn’t as smooth, it kicks the living notes out of TTR with the great graphics. Guitar Rock Tour focused on some groovy animations when tapping the buttons and a rocking performance by your band up the top of the screen. Just like Dance Dance Revolution S, DJ Mix Tour focuses on dancing. The buttons below are discs and give out a heap of electricity when touched. The dancing above is basically one big party with many people dancing and having a great time in all different locations all around the world. The environment for the game is just like one in a nightclub, and can get you really pumped up when playing some of the tracks.

As I said before there aren’t anywhere near enough big tracks for this game to really take off. Especially when it doesn’t focus on boss levels like Tap Tap Dance. I believe it should have more songs that alot of people from all generations can relate to. It may just be my taste in music, but what let this game down is the lack of big name tracks to sink your DJing teeth into.

DJ Mix Tour revolutionizes the way we play music games with you being forced to scream your lungs into the microphone everytime a disc comes along.

Just kidding, DJ Mix Tour has stuck with the process that actually works, and works well. There are three rows as such that the discs come down and you have to tap on them as they pass over the targets on the screen. DJ Mix Tour also has times where you are required to hold down taps for more points and tap more than one disc at a time. There are a couple of special options that appear after you get so many ‘DJ points’ as such and just require a tap to be activated.

The aim of DJ Mix Tour is to mix your way through 16 dance like tracks by hitting as many notes as possible and just genuinely having a fun time doing it. Obviously there is a little more to the game than that, and this is the one big area that Gameloft have hit on the head before Tapulous. As well as the quick play mode that lets you play any unlocked song, the ‘Tour Series’ have a career mode called The Tour. This mode jets you all around the globe playing songs for people in all different countries. There is a slight storyline to this mode but is just text at the beginning and end of each pitstop. DJ Mix Tour’s storyline is that you are basically going around competing against other DJ’s.

Now what is exactly the point of playing the tour when you can just play your favourite songs repeatedly in the Quick Play mode? Well when you start out only about three songs are unlocked and playing them on The Tour will unlock them for quick play mode. The Tour travels to various destinations and you may be playing some tracks more than once.

Each track has three difficulty levels, easy, medium and hard. The Tour can be played through with each difficulty level but once you play the song once in any difficulty it unlocks the song with all difficulties for Quick Play. There are two special buttons in DJ Mix Tour that has expanded on the double scoring method in Guitar Rock Tour. Every note you hit fills up your kind of Dance Meter and glowing discs give you bonus points towards this. Once it reaches halfway you have the option to either press a button to double your score for a certain period of time or to boost your confidence levels if you are really struggling. If you leave it until the meter is full you get some added bonus time as well as an incentive.

DJ Mix Tour is a great game for its current price of $1.99 and will provide hours of entertainment. Whether you want to complete the tour on all difficulty levels or Just Dance till your battery runs out, there is something for everyone. This is more of a game like the Special Edition Tap Tap Revenge games with a song genre instead of Guitar Rock Tour’s more open range. This game is great for those who love the dance/techno genre or would like a slower gameplay to other music games. For us who don’t fit into that catergory there is still a heap of fun to be had in this quality game.

While there is a bit of a letdown with a heap of big name tracks, which will hopefully be rectified in the upcoming Guitar Rock Tour 2, but apart from that this is a quality game. The graphics of this game are top notch and just what we come to expect from Gameloft. While this isn’t my preferred music genre it is still a top game that I would recommend you buying!

Gameplay- 8.5/10

Graphics- 10/10

Sound- 9.5/10

Overall- 9/10

I would recommend this game if you enjoyed- Guitar Rock Tour

Tell me what you think about this review at Twitter- http://www.twitter.com/iPhone_Reviews next up is Pipe Mania

Thanks- iPhone_Reviews

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To VBO or Not to VBO...

Daniel Pasco of Black Pixel Luminance has an interesting blog post today on the comparative performance between using VBOs and not using VBOs.

Surprising results, to say the least, and it really makes you wonder why Apple is recommending VBOs for the iPhone.

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Improved Blender Export

Thanks to some help from some readers, I've got a new and improved version of the Blender Export Script for Objective-C. This new version works correctly regardless of whether there's a texture. If you've used vertex paint, it will export the vertex colors. If you have neither vertex colors or a mapped texture, then it will just export the vertices and normals. It will also update the drawing code as appropriate to the data that's been exported.

Also, new with this version, you don't need to triangulate the faces, nor do you need to apply modifiers. Those will happen automatically in the export without affecting your original model. That should make it easier to update and maintain the models you use in your iPhone apps.

You can download the new script from the link above. I'm including the script here for the curious:

Note of warning: I have not tested this script very thoroughly, so caveat emptor! Fixes and improvement suggestions welcome, as always.

#!BPY

"""
Name: 'Objective-C Header (.h)'
Blender: 244
Group: 'Export'
Tooltip: 'Exports header file for use with the OpenGL ES template for iPhone available from http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/'
"""
import Blender
from Blender import *
import bpy
import bpy
import os

        
def write_obj(filepath):    
    out = file(filepath, 'w')
    sce = bpy.data.scenes.active
    ob = sce.objects.active
    mesh = Mesh.New()        
    mesh.getFromObject(ob.name)

    editmode = Window.EditMode()
    if editmode: Window.EditMode(0)
    has_quads = False
    for f in mesh.faces:
        if len(f) == 4:
            has_quads = True
            break
    
    if has_quads:
        oldmode = Mesh.Mode()
        Mesh.Mode(Mesh.SelectModes['FACE'])
        
        mesh.sel = True
        tempob = sce.objects.new(mesh)
        mesh.quadToTriangle(0) # more=0 shortest length
        oldmode = Mesh.Mode(oldmode)
        sce.objects.unlink(tempob)
        
        Mesh.Mode(oldmode)
    
    objectname = ob.getData(True)
    basename = objectname.capitalize()

    out.write('#import "OpenGLCommon.h"\n\n\n')
        
    if (mesh.faceUV):
        out.write('static const TexturedVertexData3D %sVertexData[] = {\n' % basename)
        for face in mesh.faces:
            for (vert, uvert) in zip(face.verts, face.uv):
                out.write('\t{/*v:*/{%f, %f, %f}, ' % (vert.co.x, vert.co.y, vert.co.z) )
                out.write('/*n:*/{%f, %f, %f}, ' % (vert.no.x, vert.no.y, vert.no.z))
                out.write('/*t:*/{%f, %f}' % ( uvert.x, uvert.y ) )
                out.write('},\n')
        out.write('};\n\n')
    elif (mesh.vertexColors):
        out.write('static const ColoredVertexData3D %sVertexData[] = {\n' % basename)
        for face in mesh.faces:
            for (vert, color) in zip(face.verts, face.col):
                out.write('\t{/*v:*/{%f, %f, %f}, ' % (vert.co.x, vert.co.y, vert.co.z) )
                out.write('/*n:*/{%f, %f, %f}, ' % (vert.no.x, vert.no.y, vert.no.z))
                out.write('/*c:*/{%f, %f, %f, %f}' % ( color.r / 255.0, color.g / 255.0, color.b / 255.0, color.a / 255.0) )
                out.write('},\n')
        out.write('};\n\n')
    else:
        out.write
        out.write('static const VertexData3D %sVertexData[] = {\n' % basename)
        for face in mesh.faces:
            for vert in face.verts:
                out.write('\t{/*v:*/{%f, %f, %f}, ' % (vert.co.x, vert.co.y, vert.co.z) )
                out.write('/*n:*/{%f, %f, %f} ' % (vert.no.x, vert.no.y, vert.no.z))
                out.write('},\n')
        out.write('};\n\n')
    
    if editmode: Window.EditMode(1)
    out.write('#define k%sNumberOfVertices\t%i\n' % (basename, len(mesh.faces) * 3) )

    out.write('// Drawing Code:\n')
    out.write('// glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);\n')
    if (mesh.faceUV):
        out.write('// glEnableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY);\n')
    elif (mesh.vertexColors):
        out.write('// glEnableClientState(GL_COLOR_ARRAY);\n')
        out.write('// glEnable(GL_COLOR_MATERIAL)\n')
    out.write('// glEnableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);\n')
    out.write('// glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(TexturedVertexData3D), &%sVertexData[0].vertex);\n' % basename)
    out.write('// glNormalPointer(GL_FLOAT, sizeof(TexturedVertexData3D), &%sVertexData[0].normal);\n' % basename)
    if (mesh.faceUV):
        out.write('// glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(TexturedVertexData3D), &%sVertexData[0].texCoord);\n' % basename)
    elif (mesh.vertexColors):
        out.write('// glColorPointer(4, GL_FLOAT, sizeof(ColoredVertexData3D), &%sVertexData[0].color);\n' % basename)
    out.write('// glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, k%sNumberOfVertices);\n' % basename)
    out.write('// glDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY);\n')
    if (mesh.faceUV):
        out.write('// glDisableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY);\n')
    elif (mesh.vertexColors):
        out.write('// glDisableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);\n')
        out.write('// glDisable(GL_COLOR_MATERIAL);\n')
    out.write('// glDisableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY);\n\n\n')
    
    out.close()


filename = os.path.splitext(Blender.Get('filename'))[0]
Blender.Window.FileSelector(write_obj, "Export", '%s.h' % filename)

Thanks to Scott Lyons and Dennis Ippel for their Python and Blender API smarts. I couldn't have gotten this far without their help.

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International Athletics

iTunes Link

International Athletics is a sport game by Ghostlight. $5.99

I am sure many of you have bought Playman's Track & Field for $0.99. The game featured an Athletics theme with simple controls of tapping on buttons as they appear. The game worked extremely well and left me feeling like that earned by $0.99 and probably deserved an extra dollar or two.

When International Athletics was released I was very interested in how this game would work. For a higher price (Originally $9.99 before dropping down to $5.99) this game is a port of a top selling PSP game. International Athletics has alot more events to compete in with many game modes to play such as single event, decathlon or to try and get a gold medal. The game also features 3D graphics which originally made me think of Athens 2004 on the PS2. This is the first time Ghostlight has come to the iPhone, after spending many years publishing great games on larger platforms. Is this a successful port however? While the sales don't say so I think it is a top notch game.

This game has top notch graphics, even if the still shots of the game suggest quite dodgy ones. While at times the characters look like they were carved out of a piece wood by an amateur, they are generally looking as good or even better than the characters in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2009. Ghostlight haven't taken the easy way out with the graphics, with full detailed stadiums perfect for competing in. The animation for all the events are really smooth and surprised me, especially since its a port from the PSP. Also unlike Playman's Track & Field you get the real experience with 3D graphics instead of the 2D ones. All around the graphics are a great selling point of this game.

There is a fair amount of sound effects used while the game is going, but as Tiger Woods showed if commentary is used right its a great feature. Being another sporting game that we watch on the TV all the time, this could easily engage you so much more if there was a bit of commentary between races/throws. Apart from this improvements its pretty good.

Generally Athletics games give you one heck of a workout, with even the fittest people cramping up after button mashing a 1500m race. Luckily for us we don't have to resort to this button mashing, instead Ghostlight has given us a slide method like the one in Guinness World Records. Running is done by sliding your finger constantly across the screen horizontally. This is needed for all all events basically but the field events require some more controls. This usually involves a tap and hold on the screen that you must get right to do the perfect throw or jump. These are generally easy to learn but take some time to master.

International Athletics has alot more events than Playman's Track & Field with ten to compete in. These range from the running races like the 100m, 110m hurdles, 400m and 1500m to throwing events like the discus, hammer throw and shotput to jumping events like the long jump, high jump and pole vault. There are multiple game modes to compete it ranging from Quick Play, Tournament Mode and the Decathlon.

Quick Play mode lets you play any event you want in one of the three difficulty levels to try and win the gold medal. Winning each event will give you a gold medal and you can pick up a medal for each of the three difficulty levels. Tournament mode is also over the three difficulty levels. Your aim in tournament mode is to rack up as many points as possible of a various number of events to try and win the gold trophy for that level. For those who think they can go the full distance I recommend you competing in the decathlon. The aim of the decathlon, for those who know their mathematics, is to compete in all ten events, trying to get as many points as possible to come away with the trophy. This is alot harder and requires you to be good at all the events. Once again you can play this in all three difficulty levels.

International Athletics is a big title that due to having trouble adapting to the different App Store process had trouble cracking the top 100. It is deserving of its reduced price of $5.99, especially since it sells on the PSP for alot more. The graphics and controls are excellent and both work very well on the iPhone. A 3D athletics game is also a welcome addition to the App Store. With the higher price however I would recommend trying out Playman's Track & Field for $1.99 and buy this if you were, like I was, quenching for more content. This is certainly to take a look at, an excellent all round game.

Gameplay- 9/10

Graphics- 9.5/10

Sound- 7/10

Overall- 8.5/10

I would recommend this game if you enjoyed- Playman's Track & Field

Tell me what you think about this review at Twitter- http://www.twitter.com/iPhone_Reviews next up is DJ Mix Tour

Thanks- iPhone_Reviews

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