There's an exciting announcement at All Tech Related this week that has us saying, "We can't wait!"

ZodTDD, the developer behind GpSPhone (a Nintendo Gameboy Advance emulator for the iPhone and iPod Touch), announced the development of an N64 emulator for the iPhone and iPod touch. Zodttd believes that the current generation iPhone and iPod touch have the graphic CPU horsepower necessary to run those games. "...I can't promise it will run games top notch just yet, as things are too early to say. There's hope though, with a 3D accelerated graphics plugin, as well as an ARM dynarec."

As iPhone Savior points out, the toughest challenge could be fitting the controls onto the screen in an unobtrusive yet usable way. That was my main complaint about Resident Evil for iPhone [iTunes link] -- my hand is often in the way of what I'm trying to see.

Note that this will require an jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.

[Via iPhone Savior]

Here's a few interesting stats from a survey recently conducted in Europe. These aren't specifically about the iPhone, but given that smartphones relied on buttons almost exclusively before Apple's handheld came along (and nowadays, everyone's bragging about their touchscreen technology), a temperature-taking on what people think of touchscreen controls is more or less a referendum on what people think of Apple's influence.

At least in France, Germany and the UK, reactions are mixed. While 38% of those surveyed say they were planning to get a touchscreen on their next mobile phone, only 47% of people who already owned a touchscreen said they would get another one. In other words, less than half of touchscreen owners thought they'd stick with the technology on their next purchase. Apple remains an anomaly -- both HTC and Apple have a higher amount of current customers planning to stick with their touchscreen interface (with the full numbers being released at a conference later this month), but the fact remains: current touchscreen users aren't anywhere near 100% on living button-free forever.

Especially as a gamer, that makes a lot of sense. Touchscreens are great for a lot of things -- they allow for limitless flexibility in the kinds of interfaces on offer, and especially with multi-touch, a lot of the controls on the iPhone are extremely intuitive (you automatically know now that pinching equals zooming, and so on). But as nice as touchscreen is, there are a lot of functions on mobile phones, from adjusting volume or changing music tracks on a phone out of sight in your pocket, to hitting exact button controls while twitch gaming, that work much better with tactile feedback. Steve, as he always does, made a big deal about the iPhone being a one-button interface, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see future iterations of the iPhone include either a few more buttons, or, even better, a few more haptic interface technologies.

Ngmoco's Eliminate has been building up buzz ever since it was announced, and now the first-person shooter is out on the App Store to try for yourself. As you can see above, it offers some relatively basic FPS gameplay when compared to shooters on other platforms (I've been having a lot of fun with Borderlands lately), but given that this is the iPhone we're talking about, this kind of twitch 3D gameplay is actually pretty impressive. You can play online over 3G or Wi-Fi, and as you play, you can earn credits and level up, which gives you access to more weapons and better gear. The game itself is free, but it's all based around a microtransaction system where you buy "energy" which allows you to earn those aforementioned resources. You get a certain amount of energy per day on your own, and if you use it up, you can't progress any further unless you get out the wallet or wait another day. And the game uses ngmoco's own Plus+ social interface to track leaderboards and accounts. Interesting plan, and we'll have to see if players vibe with it or not. Some have already voiced strong concerns about the in-game pay-to-play microtransaction system.

If that doesn't vibe with you, and you'd rather play some old-school (and old business model) FPS gameplay instead, id's Doom Classic also got released on the App Store last weekend. That game comes at a cost of $6.99, but then again, with old-school Doom, you know exactly what you're getting into. And you won't have to buy any extra energy to charge your BFG and slay any demons you happen to come across.

We mentioned Gamesalad's plans to bring their publishing system to the iPhone earlier this year, and now they've done it: for $99 a year, they say that you'll be able to design games on their game creator development tool, and then publish them straight out to the iPhone's App Store. If you don't want to bother publishing the games yourself, you can create them and have them "viewed" through the Gamesalad Viewer (which we couldn't find on the App Store quite yet), or you can export them out as full applications and publish them as your own iPhone apps (Flutterby is in the store right now as an example of a Gamesalad Creator game).

There's also a $1999 membership service that lets you customize every aspect of your games, and provides you with direct customer support, which is supposed to be for "elite users" (like, we guess, actual game companies). And truthfully, I've developed a few apps using just Xcode, and it's not too big a deal (though I've never had to go through an actual release or worked with end users, which I'm sure is most of the battle anyway). But if the thought of using professional coding tools to develop your little game idea sends you into panic attacks, and the Gamesalad creator seems more your speed, this might be a nice viable way for you to turn your gaming idea into App Store gold.

It costs nothing to download and try out the creator, so if the idea interests you, you can work on putting a game together, and then pay later when you decide you've got something you want published on the iPhone. And hey, if you do put a game up, be sure to send a tip and let us know -- we'd love to see the end products of this process.

Just in case you missed it, I got my wish from a while back: there is an official version of the classic board game Settlers of Catan, called just Catan, on the App Store right now. I'm still playing Kolonists, the unofficial knockoff that got kicked off of the store for infringement, but if you've got wood for sheep, this official version should get you your portable fix. If you're unfamiliar with the Catan juggernaut, check out this thorough piece from Wired.com.

There's hot seat multiplayer gameplay (I assume you just can't cheat by looking at what resources other people have), or a few AIs to tangle with if you don't have friends at hand, and the game includes a scrollable board to play on, game stats to track, and a tutorial for those of you who haven't rolled the dice and tried to build the Longest Road yet.

The game is created by United Soft Media, a German company that's also ported the game to the DS, and while it's not quite as shiny as the Xbox Live port (my personal favorite version of the game, outside of the real thing, of course), the reviews on iTunes say it gets the job done, at least while you're waiting for the next board game night (and while we're talking about board games, can I recommend Dominion? Best table game I've played in years). The game is $4.99 and available right now. Anyone have any ore?

I won't make any excuses, and I won't beat around the bush: I'm addicted to Skee-Ball [iTunes link], at least to the very-entertaining iPhone version from Freeverse. In fact, the reason I haven't written about it until now is that every time I get ready, I decide a little more "research" is in order, and I find myself on another Skee-bender. It's getting ridiculous, annoying my friends and upsetting my home life. I'd like to say, "I can stop whenever I want to," but I keep coming back to the warm glow of the LED scoreboard and the comforting sounds of wooden balls racking up just for me.

What makes Skee-Ball so entertaining for me is the realism of the gameplay. It sends me right back to my childhood; carnivals, arcades and Chuck E. Cheese's. The physics of the game are bafflingly realistic, with each roll responding to every nuance of the stroke or swing that launches it. Velocity, top and side-spin, friction... even the effects of bouncing off of the sides of the ramp or the edges of the cups feels natural. The prizes you can purchase with the tickets are reminiscent of the "big scores" of my youth: vampire fangs, bubble gum, fake moustaches, and glitter pencils. There's the occasional oddball prize, too (a banana, a robotic dog, a duck), presumably to remind you that it is, after all, just a game.

With all of the success stories coming out of the App Store, it's been pretty easy to forget the problem of piracy for most developers. Not so for Fishlabs, who've posted over on the Touch Arcade forums that their latest game, Rally Master Pro 3D, is experiencing a 95% piracy rate. You read that right: supposedly 95% of the people playing the game on the iPhone haven't paid for it.

There's probably a multitude of reasons why that is -- the app is $7 with no trial version, it's not a super-popular app quite yet (so one pirated copy on a popular message board is probably traveling farther than the copies coming off of the official App Store), and there are probably at least a few other factors in the mix that we don't know yet. Still, 95% is obviously pretty darn high for a platform that's supposed to only deliver software through Apple's official store.

Now, fortunately Fishlabs doesn't sound litigious -- they're not pulling the old "piracy = lost sales" fallacy that many companies in this situation would do. They are lowering the price on the app -- they expected it to be worth more, but apparently their consumer base seems to disagree. They tell Mobile Entertainment that they'd entertain the idea of providing content only through Apple's in-app purchasing service (presumably, that would prevent piracy by locking down the extra content), but they also say that's a gamble they've tried and missed on other platforms before.

Of course, it'll take more than one post on one message board to make hay out of the problem of app piracy -- it definitely happens, but on the other hand, there certainly are apps selling well, and there are also apps not selling well that don't have this level of piracy going on. Apple already has lots of authentication and validation processes in place, but if app piracy is this big a problem for everyone, they may need to look at more.

The French developers at Visuamobile make exceptionally well-designed apps. They sent me a promo code for GeoMaster [iTunes Link], and I wondered aloud how they would make geography attractive, both visually and as a game. Guess what? GeoMaster is pretty fun. If you know absolutely nothing about geography, then OK, this is like playing a strange guessing game. But I have to say it starts easily enough, so much so that you may be surprised what you DO know.

The game play is simple: countries, states or capitals appear on the screen, and you must point as close to them as possible on a map within a time limit. You can choose from US cities or states, countries by continent, world capitals or French departments. In the case of cities, accuracy earns extra points.

That's really about it, other than some high scores and an excellent amount of finish. This would make a good learning tool, I think, but it's also a fun casual game. Currently going for US$1.99 on the App Store, this is a good buy for parents and geography nerds, or anyone tired of the traditional puzzle games littering the space. Check out the gallery for shots of the game in action.

We've mentioned Digital Chocolate and their App Store releases before, of course, and we've even mentioned just how prevalent they are -- they've been extremely prolific in releasing new titles, and as a result, they've posted on their website that they are more or less ubiquitous in search results. They say on their official blog that any search of a "single digit" on the App Store search window has about a 20% chance of pulling up a Digital Chocolate release. If you search for "D," "H" or "3," they're the number one hit. I don't actually know anyone that searches "D" anywhere ("You know what I really want to play tonight? A 'D' related game!"), but it just shows how many releases they've got out there.

That does get them plenty of downloads -- they also say that they're number one in downloads on the platform as a whole, with 40 million downloads already of their software, with 1.5 million reviews (!) total -- but I think it says more about the App Store in general, and that we're not quite as far along as it might seem. If one company could so easily own, say, Amazon's search, you'd just say that Amazon needed a bigger catalog, no? 85,000 is certainly a lot of apps (especially in the realm of mobile software), but in terms of the platform's progress as a whole, it's still in its infancy.

So we're definitely in for more growth. Even Digital Chocolate sounds a little surprised that they're so prevalent, and I think as the App Store ecosystem grows and we get more and more companies with popular titles in different areas, we'll see the search results become more diverse.

StoneLoops! of Jurassica is one of those iPhone gems that everyone needed to try. It was a beautiful port of an existing desktop game and one of the cases where the iPhone version blew its desktop sibling out of the water regarding graphics and playability.

That's why, with a genuine cry of dismay, I read the very sad news from Maciej Biedrzycki, co-founder of Codeminion Development Studios, that StoneLoops! was pulled from the App Store today thanks to complaints from MumboJumbo, creators of rival game Luxor. Charges levied against Codeminion include copyright infringement, "confusing customers," stealing the look and feel of Luxor and their source code.

One of the most ironic facts? Codeminion offered StoneLoops! to MumboJumbo initially. The company declined to pick up the game and did not cite any sort of copyright infringement then.

In addition, the original StoneLoops! desktop game was released three years after the first Luxor game to little fanfare. However, when it came to the iPhone port, StoneLoops! was several months ahead of Luxor. It was enjoying immense popularity when Luxor finally debuted in the App Store in late August. It was only then that MumboJumbo launched its complaint against Codeminion.

Yes, both StoneLoops! and Luxor have similar formats, bonuses and goals, but so does Zuma from PopCap Games. One imagines what would happen to time-management games if PlayFirst decided to go after every Diner Dash clone, for example. There is room for both games on the App Store, and I hope Apple reconsiders its decision. If not, PopCap better gear up for a battle against MumboJumbo should it decide to port Zuma to the iPhone.

Thanks for the tip, dubbs!

[Via AppAdvice]

In a bold report released this week, DFC Intelligence states that if current sales and development trends continue, the iPhone and iPod could surpass both Sony and Nintendo in the fast-growing handheld gaming market in as little as five years.

Now, DFC isn't describing the number of units sold. They expect the Japanese companies to retain that lead. Instead, they expect the iPhone/iPod's growth rate to expand while PSP and DSi sales have plateaued. In other words, DFC predicts that the iPhone and iPod touch will be the only portable gaming devices still seeing significant growth by 2014.

It's interesting because Apple has never paid much attention to gaming... until the most recent press event where they went overboard to promote the iPod touch as a gaming platform. I play games on my iPhone and my original PSP and while it's a different experience, they're both enjoyable.

Of the apps you own, how many are games? If you own either a PSP or a DS plus an iPhone/iPod touch, how would you compare the three platforms?

[Via Electronista]

Tap Tap Revenge 3 is apparently going gangbusters over on the App Store -- Tapulous has gotten in touch with us to let us know about two different free promotions they're doing lately, as well as give you readers a chance to win their entire catalog for free.

First up, the free stuff for everybody. Today, October 22, they're giving away the great song "Fireflies" by one of my favorite new music acts, Owl City. It just happens to also be the number one song in iTunes today as well, which is a pretty big deal for Tapulous -- it's the first time they've been able to pair up a TTR track release with a #1 on the download charts.

To get that free song, just sign in to the application and pick it up. Additionally, if you don't have the app yet, buying the app before this Friday can get you a free premium two-pack -- all you have to do for that is email your iTunes reciept (or a screenshot of it) to "freemusic AT tapulous DOT com" and put your TTR3 username (and only your username) in the email subject line.

And hey, if that's not enough free stuff, keep reading -- here at TUAW, we're giving away licenses to TTR3's entire premium catalog (the whole thing, from A Perfect Circle to Robbie Williams) to three lucky commenters.

Disgruntled TUAW commenters, I'll save you some time: "OMG Mike of course a game powered by EA and one of the most popular franchises of all time is a hit. Try reporting some real news!" But not so fast -- Rock Band, which hit the App Store top 10 and conquered the Top Grossing list just days after its release this week, is actually a more unlikely hit than you think. For one thing, it sold at a price of $9.99 only -- no free versions, no trials, no pricing sales or schemes that have become the rule rather than the exception on the App Store lately. And for another thing, it had a comparable competitor in Tap Tap Revenge 3, selling for just 99 cents. TTR3 is a hit as well -- it's topping the list of paid apps that Rock Band is on -- but many people figured consumers would pass on the $10 app for the 99 cent one, and many people were wrong.

In short, even though, yes, Rock Band has EA's power behind it and it's based on an already popular game, it actually has bucked what we've seen so far: prices racing to the bottom, and tough chances of making a hit game, much less a profitable one, at the $9.99 price point. We don't yet know whether the game is profitable (or how either Rock Band's or TTR3's microtransaction models will do in the future), as it's just too soon.

But Rock Band is already seen as a game that stands as a shining example of what many were thinking wasn't true: big publishers with big name titles can put out big games at (relatively -- $10 is still cheap when you're talking about Rock Band at large) high price points and see them sell.