Hidden feature transforms Apple iPhone, iPod touch into TV gaming devices (with video)
Saturday, December 06, 2008 - 10:38 AM EDT "What do you do after uncovering undocumented SDK features? I got in touch with Freeverse, makers of Moto Chaser, one of the top iPhone games in App Store. After a few back and forth e-mails, they agreed to try applying the MPTVOutWindow class to Moto Chaser to create a TV version of their game. A few hours later, they debuted their demo [see video below]," Erica Sadun reports for Ars Technica.Sadun reports, "This version of Moto Chaser is a tech demo. It uses the iPhone's accelerometer for input and routes the game video out through a connected video cable to TV. Freeverse quickly found that the program played best on the second-generation iPod touch. The newer touch is built on a 532MHz CPU versus the original iPhone's 412MHz. This extra speed helps up the frame rate produced by the device, the key component for any first person interactive video game."
Moto Chaser on TV Demo:
"For my testing, I hooked the first generation iPhone up to a 42-inch television. The widescreen video-out matched the television aspects, using 853-by-480-pixel output dimensions. (On the iPod touch, the same code produces 640-by-480-pixel output instead.) The game was easy to maneuver even with the tethered phone and while it was noticeably choppy at points, the actual game play remained fun and accessible. Although this is a highly subjective response, I much preferred the Wii-like approach of holding the remote in my hands and looking straight at the landscape to play rather than maneuvering the entire system on the iPhone itself," Sadun reports. "The sound quality was noticeably improved. Instead of being piped through my phone's tinny built-in speakers, it arrived through my sound system. I could actually appreciate the sound design that went into the WAV and MP3 files for the game."
More in the full article here.
[Attribution: AppleInsider. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "James W." for the heads up.]


@ realitycheck
Think Wii. Think fun, not graphics.
Now do you see. Not everyone has to be cutting edge with graphics to have fun.
Shaun White snowboarding for the Wii with the Balance Board? I rest my case.