donniebaseball23 writes “Amazon’s entry into the tablets market has gone probably even better than they expected. And now the Kindle Fire is quickly becoming a viable games platform. Developers have come out in force to lavish praise on the Fire for its price and ease of use. ‘People are fired up about Fire because they know it’s part of a service they already use and trust,’ said Josh Tsui, president of Robomodo. ‘It becomes effortless to buy and use because it does not make them break their usual buying patterns. It enhances it.’ Added Igor Pusenjak, president of Lima Sky: ‘In many ways, the best thing about Fire is that you barely feel it’s an Android device. Amazon built its own closed-system OS on top of Android.’”
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An anonymous reader writes “GameStop has confirmed rumors that it is planning to jump into the tablet market with a device dedicated to gaming. ‘[GameStop President Tony Bartel said] this week that Android was capable of running what he called a “GameStop-certified gaming platform” and that GameStop would be self-branding existing tablet hardware built by an unspecified third-party manufacturer. … GameStop will sell its gaming tablet alongside consoles and handheld gaming devices from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and others, he said.’ There’s no release date yet, but the device is currently being tested by consumers. It will apparently ship with its own wireless controller.”
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dartttt writes “Robert Pelloni and his team are working to develop an indie handheld gaming console, the ‘nD,’ which will run a number of indie games. The device will support 2D games only, and will run a custom-developed, embedded Linux firmware. It will have its own Game Store, which will allow users to download games. The SDK will be released soon, and is based on open source gaming standard SDL. Developers are being told that they can actually start making and compiling games on Windows, Mac and Linux using a 320×240 resolution.”
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Published by
timothy on
May 20, 2011
An anonymous reader writes “Texas Instruments has struck back against Nspire gamers and hackers with even stronger anti-downgrade protection in OS 3.0.2, after the TI calculator hacking community broke the anti-downgrade protection found in OS 2.1 last summer and the new one in OS 3.0.1 a month ago. In addition to that, in OS 3.0.1 the hacker community found Lua programming support and created games and software using it. Immediately, TI retaliated by adding an encryption check to make sure those third-party generated programs won’t run on OS 3.0.2.” But if you want it, you can get OS 3.0.2 here.
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The Digital Foundry blog took a detailed look at gaming on Apple’s recently released iPad 2. While most reviews of the device focus on the tablet’s size, accessories and software features, this one puts the new A5 processor through its paces, finding “anything from a 4x to 7x leap over what was seen in the original version of the tablet.” The authors suggest that it has boosted mobile gaming to a point where Apple could be preparing for a much bigger entrance into the gaming market.
“Either we are looking at a company looking to consolidate its iron grip on the mobile games market by combining its existing unparalleled developer support with state-of-the-art technology, or else iPad 2 represents the first stages of a plan to expand iOS’ reach from mobile phones and MP3 players through to tablets and perhaps in the near future, home games consoles. … Technical and hardware challenges aside, there’s no doubt whatsoever that Apple is extremely well-placed to expand its reach in the games market and launch a new, disruptive assault on the status quo every bit as effective as its mobile offerings have been. There have been plenty of creditable attempts at claiming the multi-purpose set-top box market, but there has been no outright winner. Arguably, Apple has the brand presence, the games, and the music/video services to actually make it happen.”
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The Guardian’s Games blog reports on a survey from Google’s Admob, which found that more people use tablets for gaming than for any other purpose, even viewing news or email. Quoting:
“According to the survey (PDF), 84% of tablet owners play games, ahead of even searching for information (78%), emailing (74%) and reading the news (61%). 56% of tablet owners use social networking services on their device, while 51% consume music and/or videos, and 46% read ebooks. … The survey found that 38% of respondents spend more than two hours a day using their tablets, while another 30% spend 1-2 hours. It appears that tablets are predominantly domestic devices, with 82% of people primarily using their tablets at home, versus 11% who say they are used primarily on the go, and 7% who said at work. 28% of respondents say their tablet is now their primary computer, while 43% say they spend more time using their tablet than they do their desktop or laptop computer.”
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Eurogamer has done an extensive evaluation of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play device, a smartphone that’s also a dedicated gaming platform complete with controller-style buttons. Here’s some of what they had to say:
“On the subject of internal parts, gadget fiends are certain to feel aggrieved by the lack of a dual-core processor. Although the Xperia Play’s 1GHz CPU performs admirably in general tasks, it lacks the future-proofing of a more advanced chip. … The negativity quickly dissipates once you slide open those glorious PlayStation-style controls, however. Although we’ve seen gaming interfaces on mobiles before (on the N-Gage and the under-appreciated Sagem MyG-5), they pale into insignificance next to what’s presented here. … One aspect of the Xperia Play’s gaming portfolio that so far hasn’t been bellowed from the rooftops by Sony Ericsson’s PR is emulation. Such reluctance is perfectly understandable, given the shady nature of ROM-sharing and the like. … However, the fact remains that retro gaming emulators are freely available on the Android Market, and they open up an entire world of gaming brilliance.”
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itwbennett writes “GameStop has been on a roll lately, purchasing both Impulse and Spawn Labs in the past week. Now it’s ready to go after those casual gaming dollars, but first it needs to put a gaming tablet in your hands. GameStop President Tony Bartel told CNBC that his chain is going to start selling tablets later this year: ‘If we can work with our partners and the OEMs and they come up with a great tablet that is enabled with a great gaming experience and coupled with a bluetooth controller, then there’s no need to go out and develop our own. But if we can’t find one that’s great for gaming, then we will create our own.’”
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Published by
timothy on
Jun 10, 2010
Incarnate-VO writes “Guild Software, makers of the multi-platform space MMO Vendetta Online are apparently rolling a native Android port, intended for use on upcoming smartbooks and tablets powered by Nvidia’s second-generation Tegra. More information on the port at the Android FAQ page on the Vendetta Online website.”
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Published by
timothy on
Jun 10, 2010
Incarnate-VO writes “Guild Software, makers of the multi-platform space MMO Vendetta Online, is apparently rolling a native Android port, intended for use on upcoming smartbooks and tablets powered by Nvidia’s second-generation Tegra. More information on the port at the Android FAQ page on the Vendetta Online website.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
