Road Blaster drives recklessly to iOS, available now for a buck

Revolutionary Concepts' cleaned-up iPhone/iPad port of the FMV car game Road Blaster may not have hit its original September 2010 release date, but that hardly matters now, because it's available now. Similar to Cobra Command, this is an updated version of a Data East arcade game, featuring vehicular mayhem rendered in traditional 2D animation.

If you'd like to take this insane, animated destructive driving adventure with you anywhere, you can do so right now for just 99 cents. After the "launch period," it's going back up to $2.99, so you should road blast over to the App Store if you're interested. Or drift past the break for some footage.

Source: Road Blaster (iTunes)
Via:Joystiq

iPhone headset socket hijacked to power DIY peripherals (video)

Hijacking Power and Bandwidth from the Mobile Phone's Audio Interface - Integrated Prototype from Thomas Schmid on Vimeo.

Apple's proprietary dock connector may keep would-be peripheral manufacturers at bay, but if you want to build your own iOS companion devices, there's another way. You might have noticed that the Square credit card reader uses Apple's 3.5mm headset jack to transmit power and data at once, and gadgeteers at the University of Michigan are busy open-sourcing the same technique for all the DIY contraptions you can dream of. Project HiJack has already figured out how to pull 7.4 milliwatts out of a 22kHz audio tone, and built a series of prototype boards (including working EKG, temperature, humidity and motion sensors) that transmit data to and from an iOS app at up to 8.82 kbaud -- using just $2.34 worth of electronic components. See the basic principles at work in the video above, and -- as soon as the team updates Google Code -- find out how to build your own at the links below.

Ars Technica

Project HiJack

iOS art game iCarus out now, free for one week

Hey, do you feel like getting super bummed out? Don't feel weird about it -- we all get in those moods, sometimes. Usually we just curl up on the couch with our coffee-flavored ice cream and pop in A Walk to Remember, but if you're looking for something a little more non-dairy, you may want to check out indie developer Sir Realism's new iOS title, iCarus. (Not to be confused with iCarly, though we doubt anyone reading this particular blog would make that mistake.)

The game could safely be labeled as "artsy," featuring absolutely zero text and a highly interpretable storyline about a father grieving the death of his son. If that sounds up your alley, you can download iCarus from the App Store for free -- but only until January 19. Check out a trailer after the jump if you need more convincing!

• Via: GameSetWatch
• Source: iTunes

HTC HD7 vs Apple iPhone 4

Twisted Pixel CEO: We won't pursue legal action over Capcom's MaXplosion

Twisted Pixel CEO Michael Wilford says his comparatively tiny team won't be suing mega-publisher Capcom for its blatant attempt to rip off the studio's Splosion Man with iOS clone MaXplosion (pictured). "We're definitely not going to pursue legal action," Wilford told Joystiq. "While I think the similarities are pretty nauseating, we're too small to take on a company like Capcom. That, and we owe them one for inventing Mega Man, so we'll let them slide."

"We just need to keep our heads down making the next thing so that Capcom has something to steal next year," he chided, while adding that he hopes Capcom is "not counting on the fact that indies can't fight back." "We'll just have to make our own mobile game," he challenged. "We'll let you know when we have something on the mobile front to talk about, but now we have added incentive!"

Wilford also tweeted that the "best part" is that Twisted Pixel had originally pitched Splosion Man to Capcom, but the publisher passed on it. Speaking of Twitter, he said "the amount of support we've seen in the last 12 hours on Twitter and over email has been awesome, and I think that's better than [winning] a stupid lawsuit or anything like that."

A Capcom Mobile representative told us that a statement from the company on the matter would hopefully be released later today. Wildford's full response is posted after the break.

Twisted Pixel CEO Michael Wilford:

"We're definitely not going to pursue legal action. While I think the similarities are pretty nauseating, we're too small to take on a company like Capcom. That, and we owe them one for inventing Mega Man, so we'll let them slide. I just hope they're not counting on the fact that indies can't fight back.

"In general, anything that would take our focus off of making games would be a bad decision, I think. We just need to keep our heads down making the next thing so that Capcom has something to steal next year. But I have to say, the amount of support we've seen in the last 12 hours on Twitter and over email has been awesome, and I think that's better than wining [sic] a stupid lawsuit or anything like that.

"We'll just have to make our own mobile game and I'm hopeful that Capcom will see that robbing our shit wasn't worth it in the long run. We'll let you know when we have something on the mobile front to talk about, but now we have added incentive!"

iPhone Personal Hotspot feature headed to all iPhones in iOS 4.3?

So, by now you've had a chance to digest the fact that Verizon's getting the iPhone, right? A standout from yesterday's news is of course the iPhone Personal Hotspot feature that those lucky red devils are being treated to. Hopefully the rest of us won't have to remain envious for to long, though -- BGR says its sources have confirmed that that feature is headed to all iPhones once iOS 4.3 lands. The word is the OS version with this shiny treat will be 8F5148B with a baseband version of 04.08.00. Of course, your carrier is likely going to have to be on board, a-la tethering support, but once that dust settles not only will you be able to tether your device, but your friends will be able to join in -- and rack up your data usage, too. So sit back, relax, and all will be revealed if and when this bridges the gap between rumor and reality.

Verizon iPhone has devs, analysts excited by increased audience

As expected, Verizon announced today that it would become the second US company to carry Apple's iPhone on its service, finally offering an alternative to AT&T, which up until now has had an iron grip on the popular device. Game developers are thrilled at the prospect of a whole new audience for a platform so friendly to mobile games, with some analysts and devs predicting mobile gaming revenue could double as soon as the end of this year.

Of course, devs are aware that there could be some issues, both with bringing scads of new customers onto the platform as well as transferring some customers from AT&T over to Verizon. But on the whole, they're giddy with optimism -- analysts are saying that as many as 13 million new iPhones could be sold on the Verizon service, and each one of those is a potential new customer for iOS developers.

Resident Evil Mercenaries Vs. gets competitive on iPhone

The 3DS isn't the only handheld on which you'll be able to play a game based on Resident Evil's Mercenaries mode. During a Capcom Mobile event, Touch Arcade got a look at Resident Evil Mercenaries Vs., a multiplayer-focused game for iOS.

Up to four players, alone or in teams, compete to earn points by shooting one another, while also dealing with roaming zombies. Players in trouble can summon AI helpers "like the creepy chainsaw guy with the burlap sack on his head from Resident Evil 4." Players can choose to play online or locally via Bluetooth.

TouchArcade noted some issues in the early version, including a "horribly laggy experience" in local multiplayer, and a disappointingly small character selection. You can see the current pre-release version in action after the break.
<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EJy_9ItPcOY?fs=1" width="480" frameborder="0" height="295"></iframe>

Wesley Snipes bringing 'Julius Styles' to iOS this June

Let's role play for a second. You're Wesley Snipes, renowned action star, currently serving a sentence for tax evasion. You decide to create a new video game based on your action hero creation, Julius Styles (no relation), an amalgam of your lead characters in Murder at 1600, Passenger 57 and Art of War. This game will be accompanied by a movie following your release in 2013.

The game, entitled Julius Styles: The International, will feature a blend of action and puzzles and will debut on iOS this June, with XBLA, PSN and Android versions to follow. But who will develop this game? Who will tame this wild meerkat of an idea? And then it hits you. Lapland Studio, creators of WiiWare sensation Lead the Meerkats. Yes. It's all falling into place.

Modder changes iPhone tilt controls to joystick controls

We've seen modders and peripheral manufacturers alike try to make gaming on the iPhone's glossy, contextless touch screen a bit more tangible, but we've never seen anything quite like this. Shane Wighton of Mechanically Inclined has managed to turn an ordinary Arduino, a webcam, some motors and a metal frame into a ... well, we're not sure if there's a name for it yet, because "Remote Gyroscopic Movement Controller Suspension System" seems just a tad wordy.

The device allows you to tilt your iPhone with precision using a remote controller, which would hypothetically not only change your strategy when you're desperately grasping for that high score in Tilt to Live, but also change the title of the game entirely. Again, we'd need to workshop a new title, as Remote Gyroscopic Movement etc. to Live doesn't exactly drip right off the tongue. Wighton hopes to program the machine to play the game by itself, which we think we can all agree is terrifying. Until then, check out a video of this clever, verbose mod after the jump.