Slashdot Mirror

First time accepted submitter danhuby writes "Apple have removed sweatshop-themed game Sweatshop HD by UK developers LittleLoud from their app store citing clause 16.1 — 'Apps that present excessively objectionable or crude content will be rejected.' According to the PocketGamer article, Littleloud's head of games, Simon Parkin, told Pocket Gamer that 'Apple removed Sweatshop from the App Store last month stating that it was uncomfortable selling a game based around the theme of running a sweatshop.'"

brumgrunt writes "A British paper is claiming that the Nintendo 3DS poses some kind of health risk. The claim sounds interesting, until you see how that conclusion was reached. 'On the 6th of April, the paper conducted a scientific experiment in which a 22-year-old member of the staff had his blood pressure and pulse taken after playing the 3DS in different situations – at rest, while walking, or while taking a ride in a car. The Sun came to the startling conclusion that the man’s pulse and blood pressure were higher while walking than while sitting down, yet concluded, apropos of nothing, “Children should not be left to play on it for hours.” The article neglects to point out that a raised blood pressure and pulse is perfectly normal, and you’re as likely to experience such a physical response while walking and reading a book as you are when playing the 3DS.'" Pocket Gamer posted a humorous follow-up, using the Sun's own methods against it.

tlhIngan writes "Google has apparently pulled an Apple and pulled PSX4Droid (a PlayStation emulator) from the Marketplace, citing 'policy violations' for it reason. It's believed that Sony's Xperia Play (aka Playstation Phone) release was behind the move. Strangely, FPSE is still on the Marketplace."

Rob Hearn sends in a piece up at PocketGamer.co.uk on why Apple suddenly pulled Manomio's C64 emulator soon after finally approving it. (El Reg has coverage too.) "It was a glorious few moments for retro gamers when Manomio's C64 emulator was finally approved by Apple and released to the eager, nostalgic iPhone public. Then, calamity! It was gone again. Apparently some wily users figured out how to access the Commodore 64 BASIC system that was originally packaged with the emulator — something that Apple wasn't too happy with, given the nature of the interpreter's code. By setting the keyboard to 'always on,' launching a game and restarting BASIC, players got into the 'empty shell' of their C64 emulator."

Rob Hearn sends in a piece up at PocketGamer.co.uk on why Apple suddenly pulled Manomio's C64 emulator soon after finally approving it. (El Reg has coverage too.) "It was a glorious few moments for retro gamers when Manomio's C64 emulator was finally approved by Apple and released to the eager, nostalgic iPhone public. Then, calamity! It was gone again. Apparently some wily users figured out how to access the Commodore 64 BASIC system that was originally packaged with the emulator — something that Apple wasn't too happy with, given the nature of the interpreter's code. By setting the keyboard to 'always on,' launching a game and restarting BASIC, players got into the 'empty shell' of their C64 emulator."

Spanner Spencer writes "Talk to iPhone games developers, and the feature they're most excited about in the new iPhone 3.0 software is the ability to do in-game micro-transactions. And while you might wonder if this is just an excuse to get iPhone gamers to dip into their wallets even more often, it's actually a hugely positive thing for several reasons. Downloadable content, virtual items, subscription billing and fast-track social advancement are some of them, so Pocket Gamer looks into a bit more depth about what you can expect on the micro-payments side once iPhone 3.0 debuts."

Jon Jordan writes "Pocket Gamer has been getting its fingers inside the unique new Zeebo console — a sub $200 system designed for emerging markets — to discover it's based on a hacked version of the T-Mobile G1 Google phone. It effectively consists of the chipset from the HTC Dream/G1 Android phone, plus some extra I/O to deal with TV screens, controllers and the like. If this gaming, entertainment and educational console for the billion-strong middle classes in emerging economies such as Brazil and India catches on, HTC could become a serious global gaming force. Qualcomm's Mike Yuen said in an interview, 'We have this mass market chipset, and our next-generation chipset is getting faster. What we announced, [Qualcomm's] Snapdragon [chipset], is going to netbooks; it bumps it a few notches above that. The cell phone business, including us, is never going to build a processor that's going to match or surpass what the video game guys do. So, why chase that?'"

Jon Jordan writes "Pocket Gamer has been getting its fingers inside the unique new Zeebo console — a sub $200 system designed for emerging markets — to discover it's based on a hacked version of the T-Mobile G1 Google phone. It effectively consists of the chipset from the HTC Dream/G1 Android phone, plus some extra I/O to deal with TV screens, controllers and the like. If this gaming, entertainment and educational console for the billion-strong middle classes in emerging economies such as Brazil and India catches on, HTC could become a serious global gaming force. Qualcomm's Mike Yuen said in an interview, 'We have this mass market chipset, and our next-generation chipset is getting faster. What we announced, [Qualcomm's] Snapdragon [chipset], is going to netbooks; it bumps it a few notches above that. The cell phone business, including us, is never going to build a processor that's going to match or surpass what the video game guys do. So, why chase that?'"

Dave Allen writes "Despite Nintendo publicly claiming no direct competition with the iPhone or iPod Touch with its new DSi console, reports have been leaked about the Big N actively encouraging developers to begin work on small form gaming and non-gaming applications for the DSi's download service. This is the first step toward Nintendo putting together a direct App Store rival, and could be the marketing hook it's been desperately searching for to convince gamers to upgrade their DS." It seems only fair that since the iPhone is now a gaming platform, the DS is becoming a PDA. And, if the only difference between them is a 3G wireless connection, the rivalry can only get more fierce.

Pocket Gamer reports that a development studio called Indiagames is working on two separate licensed versions of BioShock for mobile devices. A video was shown for the familiar-looking 3D version, and they're doing a 2D adaptation as well. Indiagames' Sean Malatesta said it was in the final approval stages, and that "our guys and 2K have really captured the essence of the game in a 2D format. It's really unbelievable. It obviously doesn't look like BioShock as you know it, but it gives you the same essence. The guys are pretty proud of it."

Pocket Gamer writes "Of course, Apple wouldn't allow such a salacious games as Dope Wars on the hallowed corridors of the App Store. What Catamount's done is sugarcoat its game (quite literally) and turned it into Prohibition 3: Candy Wars — a reskinned version of the exact same game."

Pocket Gamer writes "Of course, Apple wouldn't allow such a salacious games as Dope Wars on the hallowed corridors of the App Store. What Catamount's done is sugarcoat its game (quite literally) and turned it into Prohibition 3: Candy Wars — a reskinned version of the exact same game."

Graffitiwriter writes "With the average DS game weighing in at about 30-60MB (well within the reach of anyone with a half-decent broadband connection) gamers now have an alarmingly easy route to free games — a fact that Nintendo is all too aware of. Pocket Gamer takes a look at how piracy affects the Nintendo DS console, along with the reasons so many gamers turn to piracy to play their games — including the slew of inferior games, availability of flash carts and industry greed."

Graffitiwriter writes "With the average DS game weighing in at about 30-60MB (well within the reach of anyone with a half-decent broadband connection) gamers now have an alarmingly easy route to free games — a fact that Nintendo is all too aware of. Pocket Gamer takes a look at how piracy affects the Nintendo DS console, along with the reasons so many gamers turn to piracy to play their games — including the slew of inferior games, availability of flash carts and industry greed."

PlayStation Portable senior marketing manager John Koller spoke with the Pocket Gamer site about the much-maligned UMD format. The disc used in the PSP for both games and movies, few stores carry UMD movies any more. Just the same, says Koller, Sony supports it 100%. From the interview: "'UMD possesses many strengths, from size to form factor to portability,' he says. The same can easily be said of the UMD's cartridge counterpart on Nintendo DS. However, ease of UMD manufacturing is seen as a winning benefit. 'Duplication of UMDs is much easier, cheaper than cartridges,' Koller adds. 'We've really optimized time and cost by going with a disc-based format.' On the topic of UMD weaknesses, Koller is candid: 'There's no question the biggest weakness is related to porting games from other platforms. Publishers are concerned about the size of UMD because they can't cram a DVD game on to it.'"

An anonymous reader writes "In an interview with Pocket Gamer, Zeno Colaço, vice president of publisher and developer relations at SCEE made some revealing comments about his thoughts on the DS and the future of the PSP. 'Some of the DS games have been fantastic. Where in hindsight we've been short is one or two killer apps that would have been able to drive PSP forward'. Despite being so frank on the merits of the competition, Colaço was still tight lipped on the subject of a PSP redesign, stating: 'The technology behind PSP is still top-end and so that doesn't need to be addressed'."

marcellizot writes "For a hobby that's supposedly childish, real child gamers have quite a hard time of it. When they're not having every avenue of fun scrutinized for nasties and bad influences, they're often being sold game ideas that are boring and old even when the adults of today were young. Pocket Gamer asks, what do kids really make of today's kids games? 'Both Polly and Andrew both agreed that there were more good games for kids than bad overall, but most of the games they showed weren't just for kids at all. This betrays the difference in perception between parents and their children. Most of them aren't looking for the same old killing - instead, they want something that genuinely entertains them.'"

marcellizot writes "For a hobby that's supposedly childish, real child gamers have quite a hard time of it. When they're not having every avenue of fun scrutinized for nasties and bad influences, they're often being sold game ideas that are boring and old even when the adults of today were young. Pocket Gamer asks, what do kids really make of today's kids games? 'Both Polly and Andrew both agreed that there were more good games for kids than bad overall, but most of the games they showed weren't just for kids at all. This betrays the difference in perception between parents and their children. Most of them aren't looking for the same old killing - instead, they want something that genuinely entertains them.'"

marcellizot writes "PSP owners might want to sit down for this one: Sony has just signed a four-year deal with BT to turn the PSP into a phone. The partnership will add wireless broadband communication functions, including high quality video calls, voice calls and messaging. The partnership will initially integrate the PSP with BT Broadband's video and voice softphone VoIP software, meaning that calls will be free, with the customer only having to pay for the BT broadband subscription. This means that initially the service will only enable the PSP to communicate with products that run the softphone software. BT has already confirmed however that in the months following the service's debut, additional features will be launched to enable calls and messages to PCs, fixed lines and mobiles."

marcellizot writes "PSP owners might want to sit down for this one: Sony has just signed a four-year deal with BT to turn the PSP into a phone. The partnership will add wireless broadband communication functions, including high quality video calls, voice calls and messaging. The partnership will initially integrate the PSP with BT Broadband's video and voice softphone VoIP software, meaning that calls will be free, with the customer only having to pay for the BT broadband subscription. This means that initially the service will only enable the PSP to communicate with products that run the softphone software. BT has already confirmed however that in the months following the service's debut, additional features will be launched to enable calls and messages to PCs, fixed lines and mobiles."

marcellizot writes "It has taken a while for handheld consoles to crawl from the primordial 8-bit slime to today's apex predator polygon juggling brutes. To illustrate just how much things have advanced over the last 20 years, Pocket Gamer has pulled together a few facts and figures in pretty chart form. Pitting the vital statistics of the critical handhelds of today and yesteryear against one another, there are some interesting facts to be gleaned from this infotainment extravaganza."

marcellizot writes "It has taken a while for handheld consoles to crawl from the primordial 8-bit slime to today's apex predator polygon juggling brutes. To illustrate just how much things have advanced over the last 20 years, Pocket Gamer has pulled together a few facts and figures in pretty chart form. Pitting the vital statistics of the critical handhelds of today and yesteryear against one another, there are some interesting facts to be gleaned from this infotainment extravaganza."

marcellizot writes "Even though the DS is already blessed with a large and varied library of great titles, its hard not to wish for the games that should be, and the games that probably will never be. Nintendo's little white pandora's box of quirky interfaces seems destined to forever remain pregnant with possibility, no matter how creative the developers get. To vent their desires, Pocket Gamer has assembled a canon of forgotten gaming heroes and oddball fancies that would make a good fit for Nintendo's dual-screened play thing."

marcellizot writes "Even though the DS is already blessed with a large and varied library of great titles, its hard not to wish for the games that should be, and the games that probably will never be. Nintendo's little white pandora's box of quirky interfaces seems destined to forever remain pregnant with possibility, no matter how creative the developers get. To vent their desires, Pocket Gamer has assembled a canon of forgotten gaming heroes and oddball fancies that would make a good fit for Nintendo's dual-screened play thing."

We've previously discussed the lackluster performance of Nokia's N-Gage handheld system. Just the same, despite a market seemingly sewn up by the DS and PSP the company is getting ready for another go. Pocketgamer reports that Nokia had a group of game development houses down to Santa Monica, to check things out and decide for themselves whether they wanted to make a game for the new platform. Another two-day event is slated for Madrid next week, and you'd expect there to be some discussion of the platform during GDC in March as well. No word on a release date from the article, but these certainly point to signs of Nokia's product having at least some chance coming out of the gate.

marcellizot writes "Handheld site Pocket Gamer has a new monthly DS homebrew review roundup, which kicks off today with an update on slot-1 hardware methods, plus a look at DS Motion, Lemmings on DS, Flashback DS, Tetris Attack DS and more. From the article: 'The latest hardware is the slot-1 type, which is a DS-sized card and requires no additional hardware or modifications to the DS. These are much simpler to use than slot-2 devices, but as the majority of homebrew was designed for the slot-2 hardware and it's ability to boot GBA software, there are some compatibility issues. They are thankfully being ironed out, and as slot-1 devices become the standard we fully expect that all new homebrew will be designed with them in mind.'"

marcellizot writes "Handheld site Pocket Gamer has a new monthly DS homebrew review roundup, which kicks off today with an update on slot-1 hardware methods, plus a look at DS Motion, Lemmings on DS, Flashback DS, Tetris Attack DS and more. From the article: 'The latest hardware is the slot-1 type, which is a DS-sized card and requires no additional hardware or modifications to the DS. These are much simpler to use than slot-2 devices, but as the majority of homebrew was designed for the slot-2 hardware and it's ability to boot GBA software, there are some compatibility issues. They are thankfully being ironed out, and as slot-1 devices become the standard we fully expect that all new homebrew will be designed with them in mind.'"

VonSnouty writes "With the DS and PSP now out of their 'early years', handheld specialist Pocket Gamer has taken the innovative approach of warning readers off of the 10 worst games for the PSP released so far, as well as the and 10 worst games for the DS. The latter piece notes that: 'The DS has suffered from as many bad games as its Sony rival. Indeed, according to this unbiased evaluation of the PSP and DS game reviews on MetaCritic, DS has played host to even more dreadful, money-sucking stinkers. The reason? Probably the same things we love the DS for — its unique features, such as the dual-screens and the stylus. A lazy PlayStation 2 port might at least result in a mediocre game on PSP, but DS games done on the cheap are likely to be pure evil.'"

VonSnouty writes "With the DS and PSP now out of their 'early years', handheld specialist Pocket Gamer has taken the innovative approach of warning readers off of the 10 worst games for the PSP released so far, as well as the and 10 worst games for the DS. The latter piece notes that: 'The DS has suffered from as many bad games as its Sony rival. Indeed, according to this unbiased evaluation of the PSP and DS game reviews on MetaCritic, DS has played host to even more dreadful, money-sucking stinkers. The reason? Probably the same things we love the DS for — its unique features, such as the dual-screens and the stylus. A lazy PlayStation 2 port might at least result in a mediocre game on PSP, but DS games done on the cheap are likely to be pure evil.'"

VonSnouty writes "With the DS and PSP now out of their 'early years', handheld specialist Pocket Gamer has taken the innovative approach of warning readers off of the 10 worst games for the PSP released so far, as well as the and 10 worst games for the DS. The latter piece notes that: 'The DS has suffered from as many bad games as its Sony rival. Indeed, according to this unbiased evaluation of the PSP and DS game reviews on MetaCritic, DS has played host to even more dreadful, money-sucking stinkers. The reason? Probably the same things we love the DS for — its unique features, such as the dual-screens and the stylus. A lazy PlayStation 2 port might at least result in a mediocre game on PSP, but DS games done on the cheap are likely to be pure evil.'"

ElFozzie writes "From a handheld perspective, Pocket Gamer has posted a couple of features offering a positive viewpoint on the reasons why both PSP and DS might have a very happy new year. Tellingly, whilst the PSP piece focuses on a range of new potential developments from new peripherals and downloadable video content to price drops and even a new version of the handheld system, the DS article simply highlights 10 top games titles due to hit the streets in the next 12 months. On one level this could be argued as a reflection of the divergent strategies of the two devices and companies, with Sony trying to establish all-singing, all-dancing, all movie-music-and-gaming 'entertainment platforms', whereas Nintendo have focused solidly upon one core area. However a simpler argument would suggest it's merely underlining why Nintendo has raced ahead this year and the lesson Sony are going to have to learn if they are to have any chance of a truly prosperous 2007 — "It's about the games stupid!""

ElFozzie writes "From a handheld perspective, Pocket Gamer has posted a couple of features offering a positive viewpoint on the reasons why both PSP and DS might have a very happy new year. Tellingly, whilst the PSP piece focuses on a range of new potential developments from new peripherals and downloadable video content to price drops and even a new version of the handheld system, the DS article simply highlights 10 top games titles due to hit the streets in the next 12 months. On one level this could be argued as a reflection of the divergent strategies of the two devices and companies, with Sony trying to establish all-singing, all-dancing, all movie-music-and-gaming 'entertainment platforms', whereas Nintendo have focused solidly upon one core area. However a simpler argument would suggest it's merely underlining why Nintendo has raced ahead this year and the lesson Sony are going to have to learn if they are to have any chance of a truly prosperous 2007 — "It's about the games stupid!""

VonSnouty writes "After watching Sony and to a lesser extent Microsoft stealing market share over the past few years, the DS is seeing Nintendo producing its most bullish numbers for years. Indeed, it's just used the latest NPD figures to claim that the Nintendo DS is largely responsible for US games industry growth in 2006 so far. From the article: 'Up until the end of September, the U.S. industry overall shows revenue growth of 11 per cent when compared with the same period in 2005. Nearly all of the growth comes from the portable DS — without it, the industry would report a mere 1.6 per cent growth over the past nine months.'"

VonSnouty writes "The revered RPG specialist Bioware is setting up a special handheld division in Edmonton, and it's revealed their first creation will be for the Nintendo DS. Neverwinter Nights? Mass Effect? Erm, Jade Empire? Place yer bets!" It's also possible this could tie in to their as-yet-untitled MMOG. From the article: "The new handheld group will be led by project director, Dan Tudge, former president and founder of indie studio Exile Interactive, who has previously worked for major publishers such as Nintendo, Microsoft, THQ, and Sega." Hey, I liked Jade Empire.

VonSnouty writes "We've heard a lot about how Valve's Portal was originally a Digipen student project, and Microsoft is also looking to tap the amateur scene by opening up its dev environment, XNA. But creating a prototype for a DS game? That's ambitious. A team of students in Scotland has just won a prestigious competition doing exactly that though, albeit using a Wacom tablet and a PC. The gameplay is an innovative mix of Pikmin, Pic Pax and Mario, and sounds pretty cool."

ElFozzie writes "Browsing the web on a handheld console or mobile phone has never been the most pleasant experience. The new Opera browser for the DS looks like it might change all that. On the eve of the Japanese launch, a story at Pocketgamer outlines the features and links to a video of the new browser in action." From the article: "The video illustrates the browsing technique, which sees the lower touch screen used for scanning zoomed-out pages and interaction via the stylus, whilst the top screen displays the zoomed-in detail. It also shows both text entry and handwriting recognition systems for rapid entry of URLs, as well as a host of standard browser features including bookmarks."

ElFozzie writes "In a huge piece on mobile gaming, Pocket Gamer reports on the latest battles in the handheld console market and reveals why Nintendo might just have the right strategy to win this war. From the article: 'Let's go back the beginning, the games. It's all about the games, Nintendo's faithful fans will argue, and the DS has great, mad and unique games where the PSP so far has, at best, competent-to-very-good PS2-lite fare. Yes, but it's not that simple. See, I was there in the mid '90s playing the genre-defining Mario 64 and the breathtaking Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, perhaps the two greatest games of their generation, on the Nintendo 64. And I remember Sony going on to win that war, and PlayStation becoming the de facto shorthand for 'video games'."