I’ve been a pretty big fan of the Joypad Game Controller [Free] ever since we reviewed it back in February. In a nutshell, Joypad allows you to display a selection of different virtual controller types on your iPhone or iPod touch. You then pair the Joypad app with a desktop client via Bluetooth or WiFi which remaps keys on your computer's keyboard to the virtual buttons of the Joypad, and remaps mouse movement to the accelerometer. This allows the Joypad to control games on your Mac or PC, and makes for a very capable substitute controller when you don’t happen to have a real physical controller handy.

While that’s pretty cool in and of itself, the team behind Joypad have taken things a step further and released an SDK which allows any developer to implement Joypad support into their games natively, bypassing the need to pair with the desktop software. This also means that Joypad support can be baked right into iPad games, a feature we saw demonstrated at WWDC a few weeks ago.

And now we have the first actual implementation of Joypad support in an iOS game with Lars [$1.99], a retro-style platformer from Icarus Interactive. The short video below shows just how quick and easy it is to get Joypad working with Lars:

I’ve been playing around with Lars using the Joypad for a couple of days now, and it works just as flawlessly as it does in the video. The connection between the two devices happens automatically and near-instantly, and there’s literally zero lag when playing. One thing I do wish however is that developers putting Joypad support in their games would offer the ability to remove the onscreen virtual controls when the Joypad is in use for a more seamless experience.

Also, Lars isn’t exactly the greatest platformer in the world, although it’s certainly not the worst. In fact, it’s pretty fun, but it does feel a bit bland and repetitious. If you’re curious about trying the Joypad support though, then it might be worth the two bucks to pick up Lars and check it out.

The developers of Joypad hint that there are more games with Joypad support coming out soon, and I'm really curious to find out which games will utilize the functionality. It’s such a great experience playing an iPad game with the Joypad that I hope a lot of developers give the Joypad SDK a look for their own games. For now, at least Lars is a start.

Early yesterday I made a post sharing Manomio CEO Stuart Carnie's intent to bring iCade support to his Commodore emulation systems. Early this morning, he posted a video of the Amiga game International Karate + running under his iAmiga emulation system with full iCade support. I've not had a chance to test out his latest development build personally, but I wanted to share the video for to pique retro gamers' appetites.

And, speaking of Manomio's Amiga and C64 emulators, Craig Rothwell behind the iControlPad (and Wizzley Presto) reached out and is sending over an eval device for us to check out. Manomio is currently in the process of building iControlPad support into their emulators, as promised. We'll report on that shortly.

Back in February, my jet-setting TouchArcade cohort Eli Hodapp found himself wanting to play some video games on his laptop while on the road. Not one to carry around a bulky Bluetooth controller just for that specific purpose, he came across a novel little app called Joypad [Free] which was a suitable alternative. Basically, the Joypad app runs on your iPhone or iPod touch and turns the device into a wireless controller for your computer with a highly configurable set of virtual buttons.

The Joypad app syncs up with a desktop client which allows it to be used to play any game by remapping the keyboard controls to the virtual buttons on the device. It works really well, is fairly easy to setup and get running, and is a great companion for the traveling gamer, as we noted in our review of the Joypad.

So since that time, the two man operation Zell Interactive who are responsible for the Joypad have been quite busy. First of all, the formerly limited free version of the Joypad has been updated to include all the same functionality of the paid version. Basically, this means you can download the Joypad and the desktop client and have your very own virtual controller on your iOS device at no cost at all. As the developers do enjoy putting food on their tables, the way they will monetize the Joypad from here on out is by offering additional skins as in-app purchases.

The first set of skins will be a retro pack that will offer skins from the NES, Game Boy, Genesis, and many other classic consoles. The skins are purely visual and don’t alter the functionality of the app, but if you use the Joypad for playing classic console emulators then the appropriate skin can add a bit of fun to the experience. The skins will be available individually for 99¢ each or together as a complete pack at a discounted price. The original paid version of Joypad has been renamed Joypad Elite [$11.99], and will always receive all the new content as free updates rather than IAP. If you don’t already have Joypad then the free version is the way to go, but this way they can still say thank you to their previous customers who supported them by buying the app initially.

While the skins are a neat feature, the really big news about the Joypad is that the developers have recently released a free SDK that will allow other developers to easily integrate native Joypad support into their desktop or iOS games. On your computer, this means that if a developer integrates the SDK into their game you’ll be able to play that game using the Joypad without the need of syncing with the Joypad Connect desktop client.

It all works incredibly simply. Just fire up a game with Joypad support on your computer or iOS device and then fire up Joypad on an iPhone or iPod touch. The game will automatically detect the Joypad running and send the appropriate controller configuration to the device. There can be a mixture of various types of buttons, d-pads, or analog sticks on the Joypad that suit each individual game. Shortly down the road, the ability to add custom controller skins for a particular game will be added into the SDK for an even more cohesive experience.

The Joypad developers have added in Joypad support to an open source version of Wolfenstein 3D [$1.99/Lite] just to demonstrate how easily it works:

Another recent addition to the Joypad app is mouse movement and clicking support when playing games on a computer. This means you can control the cursor in a game that normally needs a mouse just using the accelerometer of your iOS device. They demonstrated this feature to me by playing Minecraft using just an iPhone and the Joypad app, and I was pretty blown away with how well it works:

The Joypad app comes with pre-configured settings for both Minecraft and Portal 2, but the controls can be configured pretty much however you want to make them work with a ton of desktop games. They’ve also added support for connecting via Bluetooth in addition to a local WiFi connection, which takes care of some of the connection issues that were present when trying to use the Joypad on a crowded WiFi network.

There have been a few games that utilize playing on the iPad using an iPhone or iPod touch, and EA Mobile is dabbling in this area as well, but the release of the Joypad SDK means that there is the potential for any game to use this functionality, and it can be an attractive extra feature to add to any iOS or desktop game. Couple Joypad support with the display mirroring capabilities of the iPad 2, and suddenly your mobile devices have taken on the traits of a home console. While the Joypad isn’t a total substitute for a physical controller, it still works really well and is a lot of fun to use. Hopefully developers will check out the free Joypad SDK and we will see support for it in many more games in the future.

Believe it or not, E3 wasn't all big name developers and publishers, even though the insane show floor would make most believe otherwise. No, actually, it turns out that there were quite a few indie developers around enjoying the sights and sounds that I was able to catch up with. The first of which was the guys from Muteki Corporation, who had a few really rad things to show off.

Dragon Fantasy - There's already a thread in our upcoming games forum, but here's the gist- Muteki, like most of us old school gamers grew up with all kinds of fantastic old school RPG's. The battle system is basic, the graphics are pixelated, and the story is gloriously cliche... And that's just the way we like it. Dragon Fantasy is an homage to these games of yore.

Give it a look:

Next up was Game Studio, a neat little utility that we got a semi-secret look at during GDC earlier this year. It's in the same vein as Game Salad and other similar easy game creation suites, except this one exists entirely on the iPad. My favorite feature of it is the drag and drop game logic portion.

Check out this extensive walkthrough:

Last, but certainly not least, was a look at an impending update for Super Jetpack Dragon IV [Free / HD]. It shifts the gameplay style from an endless running kind of thing to a level-based platformer. It's pretty neat, and more features and functionality in existing games is always welcome around here.

Take a look:

Hudson is doing a fantastic job of keeping a fresh batch of new games pouring into their excellent TurboGrafx-16 emulator app called the TurboGrafx-16 Gamebox [Free]. The app launched last December with a decent selection of titles, all of which could be purchased from within the app for $2.99 apiece with one rotating title per day available for a free timed trial. We really enjoyed the TurboGrafx-16 Gamebox in our original review, and within a couple of months a new selection of titles was added improving the game further.

Earlier this month, yet another update hit adding another 5 brand new games to the package, including the classic pinball game Devil’s Crush and the third entry in the Bonk’s Adventure series. Now, just a few weeks later we already have another new update to the Gamebox adding 5 more new games.

Likely the most recognizable of the titles is the vertically scrolling top-down shooter Raiden. Raiden was an absolute classic in the arcades a couple of decades ago, and remains one of my very favorite shmups of all time. The TurboGrafx-16 version is obviously highly scaled down from the arcade original, but while it lacks the graphical oomph it still contains excellent gameplay. Performance-wise, Raiden can slow down a bit when action gets intense on screen, but overall it’s pretty solid.

A far more exciting addition to the Gamebox, at least for me personally, is Dragon’s Curse. You may know it by its former name, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, as it was called on the Sega Master System back in 1989. This was one of my all-time favorite action/puzzle/platforming games back then, and it still holds up extremely well today.

It has a Metroidvania vibe where you must take on the roles of different animals that each have unique abilities that allow you to access new areas of a huge non-linear world. There's a number of different weapons, armors, and items to buy which adds a nice RPG element to the gameplay. Dragon’s Curse is colorful, clever, and just plain fun, and I’m really excited to have the game in my pocket to play through for the umpteenth time.

The three other titles in this latest update to TurboGrafx-16 Gamebox aren’t as familiar to me, but they may hold a special place in your own heart. These titles are: Shockman, Moto Roader, and Out Live. There’s plenty of other classic TurboGrafx-16 games I’m still waiting on too, like Keith Courage, Super Star Soldier, and Legendary Axe, so hopefully Hudson continues to crank out the updates. Currently, I think they’re doing a pretty darn good job, and the TurboGrafx-16 Gamebox continues to be a shining example of how to do emulators right on iOS.

If you are amongst the millions of iPhone owners who also happen to have PS3's, I've got the perfect app for you. Behold, PSN Status [Free]. This free app will tell you both quickly and easily whether or not PSN is up. Sure, it would have been much more useful last month, but it will be handy to keep around if/when PSN goes down again.

Oh also, on the subject of PSN being down, if you're like me and really only use your PS3 for watching BluRays, don't forget to claim your free games. Even if you weren't really affected by the downtime in any real way, you're still eligible for two free PS3 games and two free PSP games. The selection is surprisingly decent, too.

On a somewhat related note- If you're a proud PS3 console warrior and your pride has taken a substantial hit over the last month as you were the brunt of countless "PSN is down" jokes from your Xbox 360-loving friends, don't forget to also download i360Emu [Free]. It's a shockingly accurate emulator of early Xbox 360's, or, it was, before they changed the power-on animation.

Recently I embarked on a quest to see if there was a way I could stream my PC games to my iPad using the various remote desktop apps available on the App Store. Initially, this resulted in countless hours (and dollars) wasted, only to be disappointed time and time again. Some apps had no audio, others were nowhere near responsive enough, and some of them just flat out didn't work-- Then came Splashtop Remote Desktop [99¢ / Lite / HD].

Splashtop is a remote desktop client that streams your PC or Mac screen directly to your iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone with amazingly fast response times, and full streaming audio. Installation and setup couldn't be easier. All you do is install the desktop software and download the app and you're up and running. Keep in mind, using Splashtop outside of your local network will require fiddling with port forwarding, and unless you've got an insane internet connection, will bring the response time down to be almost unplayable. However, on the same network, Splashtop is basically a 1:1 representation of what is happening on your PC, and is totally enjoyable to game on.

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Late last year when TurboGrafx-16 GameBox [Free] first hit the App Store, I was beyond excited our review. I'd still list the TurboGrafx-16 as one of my favorite game systems of all time, and the potential that an officially sanctioned emulator has is still something I'm still glad to have, I just wish it had more games. Hudson has slowly been leaking out updates to the emulator with new packs of games included, but like most other official emulators, it's sorely lacking in the classics department. Not to say that Bonk isn't a classic, but come on, where is Blazing Lazers, Keith Courage, and other phenomenal TG16 games?!

Anyway, the newly included games are Bonk's Big Adventure, Image Fight, Break In, Devil's Crush and Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball-bu PC Bangaihen (say that one three times fast). Payment still works the same way in that there's a daily rotating free game, or individual titles can be permanently unlocked for $2.99 a piece. Devil's Crush is worth checking out, I'm not so sure about the other four.

We've been tracking Elite's retro game releases through its ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection [App Store] and associated apps for some time now. This weekend, Elite released another emulated classic that many gamers on both sides of the pond will recall fondly: Barbarian from Palace Software.

Barbarian (distributed in the U.S. by Epyx as Death Sword), originally released for the Commodore 64 in 1987, is a hack and slash fighter that places you, the barbarian, in a series of fighting pits on a mission to slash your way through warrior after warrior and ultimately defeat the evil wizard Drax and rescue the ample Princess Mariana. It's all in the spirit of Conan. The game was noted for its realistic character animation (despite its simplistic graphics), considerable gore, and pleasant dose of wit. More than all of these, perhaps, it was noted for its racy box cover art featuring a bikini-clad Maria Whittaker, who had recently made an appearance as a topless Page Three girl in The Sun, and some dude. The outcry was dramatic.

Being a title running in Elite's ZX Spectrum emulator, Barbarian: ZX Spectrum is, of course, the ZX Spectrum version of the game. Unfortunately, this was not one of the strongest ports. Due to limitations of the Speccy's hardware, the actual play area and the characters within are rendered in monochrome. The detail is there, but the presentation feels pretty sparse. Another negative in this emulated iOS release is the control scheme. Despite Elite's "iDaptive" control system, where button (or key) layout can be custom arranged, the types of wildly varying moves that you need to pull off in rapid succession to excel in this game are not particularly conducive to touchscreen-style D-pad play. Happily, the customizable controls let you move the D-pad out of the way of your character in landscape mode, but that doesn't help with the feel of the controls.

Barbarian for the C64 and other platforms of old featured both a single player campaign mode (the quest to rescue Mariana) and a two-player challenge mode. It's worth noting that the version presented here offers only a single player mode.

See a video of the game as played on the ZX Spectrum.

Barbarian: ZX Spectrum is a stand-alone title with versions for both the iPhone [link] and iPad [link], and will be appearing as part of a new download pack for Elite's ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection [link] on Friday, when the number of available games in the collection will reach 108.

As a fan of what I knew as Death Sword on the Apple II back in the day, I was happy to see Barbarian arrive on iOS, even if it's come in a non-native fashion. I'd wager that the happy customers here are going to be other oldschool gamers who have fond memories of gut kicks and decapitation as Palace delivered them. Those unacquainted will probably find this one wanting.

Even though an iOS version of the fantastic Portal series of games are nowhere to be found, this isn't stopping the release of official spin-off apps of sort on to the App Store. This one in particular is home to several interesting nuggets of information that any Portal fan will enjoy. For instance, Valve Software didn’t always have a clear vision for Portal 2, which hit earlier this week on the PC, Mac, and HD consoles. At one point early in its creation, Portal 2 was a prequel set in the 1950s. Also, it didn’t have portals.

This is according to game journalist Geoff Keighley in his brand new magazine-style app called “The Final Hours Of Portal 2.” [$1.99] It’s essentially an interactive article -- with loads of text, some videos, and even pictures -- that tells the story of the creation of Portal 2 and brings to light a lot of cool, previously unknown information.

I should note that Valve doesn’t open up a lot to the media, so this is both a pretty rare and privileged kind of story and definitely a cool way to throw your support behind a gifted writer. Beware, the app is home to some minor spoilers. Really though, if you're the kind of person who is contemplating purchasing a supplemental app to read about Portal 2, you've likely already beaten it, so this shouldn't be much of an issue.

...And if you haven't played both Portal and Portal 2 and you own a capable PC, Mac, Xbox 360, or PS3, you really need to fix that.

[via Kotaku]

Early this morning Atari released perhaps the most significant single retro gaming application yet to appear in the App Store. Atari's Greatest Hits [link] is a free Universal application for the iPhone and iPad that comes bundled with their first game ever, the 1972 classic Pong. And, while the games-for-free situation ends there, the fun certainly doesn't -- not by a long shot.

By way of in-app purchases, Atari's Greatest Hits can deliver to your iOS device up to 99 more games from the historical studio's back catalog, a mix of both arcade and (then) cartridge-based VCS / 2600 releases that you just might've grown up with. These games can be had in four-title game packs available at $0.99 each, as well as in a 68MB lump download of the entire library for $14.99. (The path you take here will reveal to you just how much of a bull geek retro gamer you are, so choose wisely.)

One hundred vintage Atari games for fifteen bucks. It's quite a proposition. But, what are we talking about here?

The almost awkwardly long list of game packs and the titles within them can be seen in our earlier post about this release.

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Remember the Gameboy Camera? There are many reasons not to be aware of it ranging from "I wasn't alive at the time" to "I try not to buy every silly accessory Nintendo releases," so I'll lay down what this wonderful little gadget was all about: It was the late 90's, everyone and their little sister had their own Game Boy to play either Pokemon Red or Pokemon Blue, the mass proliferation of camera phones was still a decade away, and digital cameras were both clunky and expensive. Enter Nintendo, with a portable four-shade barely-greyscale digital camera with the hilariously low resolution of 128x112. It even had a thermal printer (which no one I know owned) that hooked up via the link cable port to print your photos to tiny stickers.

Check out this horribly 90's TV commercial detailing the features of the device:

While apps like Camera+ [99¢] and Hipstamatic [$1.99] boast features that actively try to make your photos look better, Dezro's 8-Bit Pocket Camera [99¢] sends your photos back in time to the aforementioned glory days of the Gameboy Camera... with shockingly accurate results.

Using a few different on-screen controls you can tweak out your 8-bit photos, then save them as virtual stickers with a number of different boarders. There's even Twitter and Facebook support for posting your stickers online. If you even have the vaguest of fond memories of the Gameboy Camera, 8-Bit Pocket Camera is an app you need on your iPhone.

Surely at some point in your life you've (either purposefully or accidentally) let a helium filled balloon loose into the air which then potentially went on to travel hundreds of miles before finally deflating enough to come back to Earth. There's no shortage of sites detailing the dangers to wildlife of actually doing this, but what if you still want to release some balloons but without littering or causing other potential problems? Well, that's where Floonr [Free] comes in.

Using this app (Calling it a "game" is likely a bit of a stretch.) you're able to scroll around Google Maps to see other balloons that have been launched, as well as launch your own. These balloons float about as they would in the real world, until they eventually crash land in 150 miles or so. You can attach messages to your balloons and other people can comment on your balloons. Also, unlike a lot of real-world GPS-based games, there seems to be a surprising amount of activity in the app.

There's a hefty amount of completely optional IAP such as stickers to add to your balloons as well as "power-ups" of sorts that do things like let your balloons float either longer or faster. I'm not entirely sure what the point of buying these is, but at least the option is there I suppose. Floonr isn't a killer must-have app by any means, but it's really cool how they've applied the activity of releasing balloons to a smartphone app and I've had a lot of fun reading what (often silly) messages there are attached to balloons virtually soaring overhead.

Regular readers who also happen to be oldschool gamers from the UK have likely been enjoying legendary studio Elite System's forays into retro gaming on iOS. ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection [App Store], and the standalone Jet Set Willy [App Store], make for some quality virtual Z80-based nostalgic gaming.

Word on the street is that in 2012, Elite will be re-releasing the ZX Spectrum, in a manner of speaking. It seems that the studio will be bringing out a a bluetooth keyboard in the form of a ZX Spectrum that will connect to the studio's iOS apps and deliver a rather close to authentic, emulated ZX Spectrum gaming experience to iOS gamers. And, while it's not confirmed, we're expecting rubber keys.

That's about all we've got on this right now, but we'll keep you posted as news breaks.

Here's one that will make a select few of our readers stand up and shout, while merely drawing a faint "hmm" from the rest. But, as Arnold and myself are among the standers and the shouters... Last night, in honor of the 20th anniversary of their founding, the Free Tools Association (or FTA) released a free bundle of their classic demoscene productions and games wrapped in their ActiveGS Apple IIgs emulator as the Universal application ActiveGS - Best of FTA [App Store].

FTA and the associated groups Apple Chemical Software (ACS) and Second Sight Software were well known in the pre-web online Apple II communities for their to-the-metal, assembly-coded demos, games, and utilities that pushed the Apple II to its limits. Among the included productions are Nucleus and Modulae, probably the most well loved and beautifully executed demos to be found on the IIgs, as well as the playable demo of the group's take on the pseudo-3D shooter Space Harrier. Those checking out this collection who have no Apple II in their past should note that the Apple IIgs, which was released in 1986, is an 8/16-bit computer that runs at 2.8MHz -- and that's in "fast" mode.

The Modulae demo, running under emulation on a Windows machine:

The group's ActiveGS emulator used in this application is a front-end for the multiplatform KEGS, which emulates the Apple IIgs and, by extension, the Apple IIe. It's available in both stand-alone applications and as a browser plug-in and is the primary emulation system behind the Virtual Apple ][ website where hundreds of Apple II programs can be run online.

In this iOS version, the emulator simply provides hard coded execution of FTA's demos, so it won't work as a general emulator.

UPDATE: Developer Olivier Goguel has chimed in on the comments thread and provided a link to a video of a version of ActiveGS running on the iPad, loaded with many more Apple II demos and games than are featured in the App Store release. But don't get too excited...

For approval reason, this version contains only FTA product! For a sneak preview of the full version, have a look at this video, but don't expect it to be live soon...