We’re pleased to report that Jamie recently got in touch with Touch Arcade to give us an exclusive look at the iPhone version of Qwak he has just completed and will be shortly launching through the App Store.

In Qwak, you control a duck (get it?). Your objective is to guide this green duck through level after level of platforms, fruits and gems (worth points), bouncing enemies, power-ups to help demolish said enemies, and keys to unlock goodies as well as the level’s exit gate. Your duck can run, jump, and fire volleys of egg projectiles to knock out the baddies. Grab a bonus item and watch a hail of colorful fruit rain down upon you. Take too long on a level and meet a hail of spikeballs. In a nutshell, I call it frenetic, fun, and rather fruity (to be alliteratively wanton).

I’ve spent some time with the prerelease build of the game Jamie provided us and it’s been lovely to play. It’s a touch-controlled affair with a left / right control in one corner and jump and egg-fire controls in the other. The vibrant visuals move about the screen as smooth as glass on the iPhone 3GS test device and a very Amiga-sounding score accompanies the action. It feels both retro and highly polished. It’s a game platformer fans won’t want to miss.

Additional details, I’ll leave to the developer to provide (after the jump), as he was kind enough to grant us an interview along with the exclusive ad hoc build.

What were your inspirations for writing the original?  Are there any particular games you had in mind?

Well, there was a bunch of platform games on the Beeb I used to play; Blagger, Monters, Space Panic, Frak etc. I also went in the arcades a lot back then (so much so that I got kicked out of college), and I undoubtedly played Bubble Bobble, which Qwak gets compared to a lot.

What language did you use to write the BBC Micro version?

100% 6502 Assembler. You could quite easily mix BBC basic and assembler, or have 100% assembler; which a lot of game developers did back then, and you needed to, to get the best performance out of the very limited and slow hardware. Fun times!

Is the BBC Micro version, in fact, the original?

Yep, it’s the original. It was released in 1989 by Superior on a 4 game compilation. I still have a review of the game from a 1989 A&B Computing magazine; “The best game of the bunch has to be Qwak! Designed and coded by Jamie Woodhouse it is very addictive and great fun..”.

I think that was the first time I’d ever seen one of my games reviewed and in print; felt pretty good as I stood there reading the mag in the newsagents!

The ’93 Amiga rework is a bit more fast paced / arcadey than the original. GBA and PC / Mac versions followed. It seems the iPhone ver is really an adaptation of the later versions, is that true?

Yeah, I guess it’s confusing with all the different versions all sharing the same name; but with different graphics and various gameplay mechanics…

The Beeb version came first, and the Amiga version was a good deal different to the Beeb version.

The GBA version came next, which was a port of the Amiga version, I used all the same graphics and levels etc; and just added in some scrolling to accommodate the GBA’s smaller screen resolution.

Actually, I couldn’t find a publisher for the GBA version so I had a load of carts shipped over from China and self-published a small limited run of carts. All sold out now!

Next came the PC version, which had completely new levels, more tricks and traps, different power-ups and secret bonuses; and a lot more going on visually to! The Mac version was a port of the PC version.

For the iPhone version of Qwak, I’ve managed to retain pretty much everything that’s going on with the PC version. It’s based on the PC version; but there’s a little scrolling, to squeeze the levels in to the smaller iPhone screen resolution. I don’t think it hurts the game-play too much.

How are you liking iPhone game development as opposed to what you’ve done on the Amiga, GBA and other platforms?

I’m absolutely loving it so far!

There’s a bit of a learning curve, with this being my first iPhone game; but I feel as if I’m making good progress and getting a good technical understanding of the platform.

The Amiga and GBA were also fun platforms to make games for; and as with the iPhone, you have a pretty solid idea of the minimum spec machine people will be playing your game on (which doesn’t happen with desktop game dev). Plus, it’s relatively a low powered device (compared to desktop PC’s), which is awesome! … because there’s more scope for programmer creativity in squeezing more performance from the device (game developers secretly love that kind of thing!).

The music track sounds very Amiga. Is the audio straight from that version?

Yep, it’s got the same 10 tracks of music from the Amiga version (which used to be in .MOD format, was a little tricky converting them to .MP3s).

Can you comment at all on the controls of the iPhone ver, thoughts that went into them, etc?

Well, Qwak is quite a fast paced game, so I felt some kind of on-screen D-pad control mechanic would work a lot better than using the accelerometer.

There’s also an issue that your thumbs and fingers may obscure the in-game action; so what I’ve done is when the player is at the bottom of the screen; the screen kinda shifts up a little bit, so you can still see yourself.

I also have the fire (throw egg) button on the right hand side, so it’s easy to waddle your wrist and throw eggs really quickly, one after the other (which is handy as the bigger baddies need multiple hits to ‘dispatch’ them).

The controls work for me; but it’ll be interesting to see how people respond when they’ve tried the game for themselves. I’m wondering too, how left-handed players with cope with the controls. I just hope I get feedback and people let me know, it’s always great to hear what’s working and what needs changing or improvement (and it’s always possible to do an update).

Is there anything down the road you can speak of?

There’s quite a few ideas I have; and it’s funny you should say ‘road’ … as I’m half tempted to do a re-envisioned version of Nitro or ATR. There doesn’t seem to be many top-down perspective racers on the App Store.

I’m also thinking ‘Qwak spin-off’ … I often worry that Qwak may be TOO frantic and fast-paced for a lot of people (although I personally love that kind of thing), so the spin-off game would be slightly slower paced, with more exploration and puzzle solving (and tricks and traps, hehe).

What are your thoughts on the iPhone as a game platform, and the overall situation that is the App Store?

I really like it, it’s a lot of fun to make games for, and I feel genuinely excited at the prospect of making more games for it.

I’m still pretty new to the App Store; but my first impressions, I guess there seems to be a lot of variation in the quality of games on there; from really poor, to really awesome.

I really like the fact that it’s possible for small indie game developers, to make the kind of games they want to make, and share them with other people through the App Store. There’s not so much need for any middle-man or publisher or anything like that. So it’s a lot more accessible to developers that a lot of platforms.

Qwak should be landing in the App Store shortly. We’ll give folks a heads-up when it arrives. Those impatient for a taste of the action can download the Mac or PC demo version for free. This is a good one, folks.

The post Preview: Qwak appeared first on AppTrawler.

In an App Store first, the iPhone is about to receive a port of a highly praised Amiga game…that never was.

In 1993, Iraqi developer Rabah Shihab, part of the Mesopotamia Team, began work on the Amiga title Babylonian Twins (with basically no budget), inspired by what he saw of other games’ depiction of Iraq. As he explained in an interview with Amiga Games That Weren’t,

…My real dedication for this theme came during the early nineties after I saw a computer game in which you control a warplane with the goal of bombing Iraq. Putting the bombing aside (I was in Baghdad during the first gulf war and I saw the human suffering that resulted from the real bombing ), I didn’t like the way they depicted Iraq in the game, as a primitive and uncivilized place. I wanted to build a game that counter that image, a game that shows the vibrant history of Mesopotamia. In Babylonian Twins, the game takes you to different historical places, from Babylon to Assyria. We relied on authentic history books to design many of the graphics in the game.

Shihab was impressed by the smooth scrolling of Team 17’s Amiga title Superfrog and set out to deliver similar visual finesse in his title. Another inspiration was Konami’s MSX release Maze of Galious. The team released a very well-liked demo version of the game, but no full Amiga release ever came. And although he, later, targeted the Xbox Live Arcade, it’s the iPhone that will at long last receive the final release. And, befitting the game’s history, the full Amiga release is also imminent.

The forthcoming game is a puzzle platformer with an authentic historic feel and unique two-character gameplay. It features the puzzle elements of Maze of Galious with the multi-character control of Lost Vikings, along with the glass-smooth animation of Superfrog. The author indicates that the iPhone version features an original soundtrack, excellent graphics, and over a dozen large levels.

See the developer’s trailer video for a look at the updated version.

[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]

Videos of the original Amiga demo version can be seen here, here, and here. Amiga screenshots are also available.

UPDATE: In putting together this post, we sought further information from the developer, but he got back to us a bit after the post went live. Shihab wants to make sure readers are aware that the iPhone version of Babylonian Twins is an entirely new game that borrows no graphics or audio from the Amiga version. He assures us that all aspects of the game have been enhanced specifically for the iPhone by a dedicated team (and this time around on a healthy budget) over the course of the game’s six-month development cycle.

We’re quite anxious to get our hands on the final product and will bring further news of the iPhone release of Babylonian Twins as we get it. Stay tuned.

The post Preview: Babylonian Twins appeared first on AppTrawler.

Originally released for the Amiga and DOS in 1994, Beneath a Steel Sky is a sprawling graphical adventure set in Australia in a dystopian future. The story goes like this: the protagonist, Robert, crashed in the Outback as a child and was raised by a group of natives. After growing into an adult, storm-troopers sent from Union City by its all-powerful computer, LINC, kidnap Robert and kill his tribe. After entering the city dome, the helicopter transporting him crashes and he escapes into the city with his robot companion, Joey. Robert’s mission is to find out why he was wanted and what to do next.

The game, which is notable for its excellent illustrations, drawn by famed comic artist Dave Gibbons, received very high praise at the time of its release and is widely considered to be one of the best adventure games ever created.  PC Gamer gave it 91% and called it “a must-buy for all serious adventure fans.”  CU Amiga gave it 95%, calling it “one of the greatest adventures ever,” while Simon Byron of The One gave it a 93%, saying, “I could sum this game in one word: Superb.”

The iPhone adaptation, which has been ported to the ScummVM engine, uses touchscreen controls and dispenses with the on-screen pointer typical of Scumm games and, instead, uses blue dots to highlight points of interest.  The game’s artwork has been enhanced with the iPhone release, which also features a high quality soundtrack and a new, integrated hint system.

See a video of the original version to get a feel for the game.

See the original game’s five-minute intro video here.  Those wanting to try before they buy can have a look at the 2003 shareware release, playable on most major platforms.

App Store Link: Beneath a Steel Sky, $4.99

from: touch arcade

The post Beneath a Steel Sky – Remastered Review appeared first on AppTrawler.