iPhone/iPod Touch port?

[CrArC]

Might be posted in the wrong place, in which case apologies, but...

Just wondered if this has occured to anyone before, or at least been discussed. I was inspired after getting an iPhone and noticing someone ported Cube to the platform. Obviously it might have been a bit laughable to begin with, but now with the app store swelling significantly it would be awesome to try cramming a decent game like Warzone into there also. Seriously, the games available for the iPhone generally suck, although there are always the occasional gems.

I think the game mechanics would work quite well using the iPhone as a gaming platform. The command buttons could be listed on the left-hand side of the screen, and of course the touchscreen makes for incredibly easy unit selection and commands, etc. You could pan the camera with the accelerometers or by flicking the touchscreen, and zoom in and out and rotate, using multi-touch gestures.

And as far as graphical capability is concerned, I would have thought the iPhone would be able to run Warzone very smoothly. I'm pretty confident everything is catered for. Even multiplayer skirmishes would be an easy possiblity using wifi, and the resolution of the iPhone's screen isn't far off from the original you'd use anyway, cracking open a PC copy several years ago

I would have a crack at it myself if I ever knew where to start! :rolleyes:

[whippersnapper]

............

a few years back Spiffcode created a premier and true RTS for Mobile devices called Warfare Incorporated... IMO, the game is on a par with "Star Craft"..

IMHO, WZ 2100 would not translate well as is to the platform..... that is without some simplification. Though I do think WZ 2100 is a perfect
fit for porting to the "Pandora" platform...

an other thing.... i have heard horrid, draconian stories, about how Apple and Apple Store treat their developers.... it's so bad that many
predict a substantive exodus of I-Phone developers to the next generation Google Smart Phone.

.............

[Chojun]

That's interesting about the alleged abuse at Apple. Hmm..

Also, I think a WZ port to one of those devices might sound like a good idea, but the problem is that Warzone is too immersive and it would be very frustrating playing the game on one of those.

[CrArC]

Cheers for the link to WI, that seems worth investigation!! And Chojun, I see your point, especially about the scope of the game. Some modification would be required, although I'm not quire sure about simplification. Surely as long as the controls were intuitive it wouldn't be a frustrating experience at all, since it would be quick and easy to use. You wouldn't just be able to port it as it was; the GUI would need rearranging and a bit of a cut-down, perhaps I could fire up photoshop and mock something up to give an idea of what it could look like

[whippersnapper]

CrArC the points you specifically raised were what I was thinking of when I said "simplification"...

The WRP developers are in the midst of work called "betawidget-Lua" which will replace the horrid
way WZ's UI functions, making changes to the original a ridiculous Everest of work...
if you pursue this goal you would likely want to make use of this new schema over the original. I would surely be
interested to see what you do with a UI Mock-up scaled to the I-phone.

BTW - EvilGuru and Elio, WRP developers, gave a recent interview on the new widget system, betawidget:

http://blog.warzone2100.de/2008/12/06/s ... etawidget/

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[Chojun]

I think an arena-battle type mode where you design and pilot a tank in a sort of deathmatch mode would be fun, but the general game itself is far too complex to even be feasable on small, handheld devices like that. I played Warfare Incorporated on my palm. It was actually pretty fun, but it was C&C-esque -- much simpler than WZ.

[whippersnapper]

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I tend to agree with that, Chojun.

it's also why I believe the perfect fit for a port would be the "Pandora" platform. If I recall correctly the "Pandora" will also be telephony
enabled in '09.

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[elio]

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I tend to agree with that, Chojun.

it's also why I believe the perfect fit for a port would be the "Pandora" platform. If I recall correctly the "Pandora" will also be telephony
enabled in '09.

....

whats about the gfx hardware in the iphone? i don't think that it's ready for 3d-games..?

first time i hear this.. afaik you can connect it to your handy via bluetooth

regards elio

[whippersnapper]

whats about the gfx hardware in the iphone? i don't think that it's ready for 3d-games..?

first time i hear this.. afaik you can connect it to your handy via bluetooth

regards elio

yea.... VoiP... via a Skype port (or something like it)....

presently you can also: browse the internet, run chat / IM clients via tethering over USB (or BT) or
WiFi Net Connects (i believe they are laready porting FireFox) and connect a POLARES GPS
RECEIVER (USB) which gives you a SAT Uplink.

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[CrArC]

Well, I'll admit I'm not a pro at the 'shopping, but as a first draft, I was thinking something like this:



I've tried to keep it as close res-wise to what it might actually be on the iPhone, so no unrealistic ultra-detailed images.

As for the iPhone hardware, I'm pretty sure it must be able to handle this. I've never once thought of Warzone 2100 as graphically demanding, running it happily on a 200MHz pentium II back in the day.

[CrArC]

I think an arena-battle type mode where you design and pilot a tank in a sort of deathmatch mode would be fun, but the general game itself is far too complex to even be feasable on small, handheld devices like that.

That sounds like a neat idea, though whether it would be any easier to implement than the whole game anyway isn't as clear.

[whippersnapper]

.

well CrArC, that looks pretty darn good. I'm amazed.

however, that is the original Pumpkin renderer... a few weeks back Gerard, one of the WRP devs, made some changes
which have vastly improved the GFX but also upped the specs ante considerably from the original renderers paltry HW
demands (at least by todays standards..)

you can see the differences with the new renderer here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2379&start=0



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[CrArC]

That might put a spanner in the works hmm... well as I said, I don't even know where we'd start with getting this running. I have yet to even get hold of the iPhone dev tools since it seems to cost money and i'm poor as hell.

But I really do think it's plausible with intuitive use of the iPhone's human interface capabilities, it would feel quite natural to use, with a bit of careful thought.

[whippersnapper]

...

well, you don't have to use the new renderer - you could revert to the old.

WZ is FOSS under the GPL (with an exception) License and so you would not fit under Apple's commercial development licence for the IPhone dev
tools.... which means you could get them at a greatly reduced cost or entirely for free. I haven't dealt with Apple since the late '90's so I don't
know what their current policies are but it probably wouldn't take more than a quick call or email to their 3rd party sw dev dept. to find out.

heck .. if you are still in University you could possible work out some way to use it to your formal educational advantage. UC Berkley has givne out degrees in Magick, so what the hay.



...

[CrArC]

I think we're only entitled to deals with Microsoft over here I'll look into it though, Apple might make the offer themselves.