iPhone Game Lets You Blast TIE Fighters Over New York

[John Funk]

iPhone Game Lets You Blast TIE Fighters Over New York

​

It's like being in the gunner's seat on the Millennium Falcon, without being in the Millennium Falcon.

The concept of augmented reality games - games like incredibly fascinating to me [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104619-Ghostwire-Needs-Help-to-Freak-Out-Your-Kids] for a while now. The biggest barrier, of course, is having the technology to make this sort of thing feasible, which isn't so much of a barrier anymore.

The game you see here is Star Wars Arcade: Falcon Gunner by Vertigore Games, a shooter for the iPhone. The game asks you to shoot down Imperial TIE Fighters a la the famous scene from Star Wars [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38V4YPbF-Dk] - only instead of blasting them from the turret in the Falcon, you're doing it in a parking lot or wherever you are.

"This is a deep shooter," Vertigore CEO Josh Shabtai explained to Wired [http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/11/star-wars-arcade-falcon-gunner/]. "You progress through a handful of episodes that are broken down into sublevels, shooting enemies and collecting upgrades," like improved heat shielding on your cannon that means you can maintain continuous fire for longer periods of time.

Honestly, I'm not sure that really matters, because the idea of shooting down TIE Fighters in the skies above your hometown of choice is a really cool one. I imagine the illusion doesn't hold up nearly as well if you're playing it on your couch, though - unless you imagine that they're miniature TIE Fighters piloted by cockroaches or something. Falcon Gunner will also include non-Star Wars settings, but why would you ever want to do that?

If this is where augmented reality titles are heading, then I'd say we're moving down a pretty cool path. A pretty cool path where you get to shoot down TIE Fighters with your iPhone.

(Wired [http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/11/star-wars-arcade-falcon-gunner/])

Permalink

 

[joshthor]

i. so. want. this. game. im so glad im getting the new ipod touch 4g tomorrow.

 

[Colonel Alzheimer's]

Well that's totally awesome.
It must be hard to play in certain places, like on a train, or a car, or a plane, or really anywhere when you can't rotate your body all the way around. In fact, how will this work if you're not standing?

 

[AnAngryMoose]

I want an iPhone just for this. My fanboyism is kicking in.

 

[Eri]

I'd never buy an iPhone with their ridiculously overpriced wireless service costs, but I'm guessing this can be bought for the new iPod touch as well? I might be in the market for a new MP3 player soon, and this type of thing makes it awfully appealing.

Overpriced? Hardly. You'd be hard pressed to find cheaper service. If it is cheaper it generally means they don't offer top of the line phones like iPhone or android.

 

[TimeLord]

I'd never buy an iPhone with their ridiculously overpriced wireless service costs

How do you figure that? The wireless costs are dependant of the service provider. In the UK at least.

I personally get free wireless and internet with my service provider.

OT: So getting this game!

 

[Zer_]

I'd never buy an iPhone with their ridiculously overpriced wireless service costs, but I'm guessing this can be bought for the new iPod touch as well? I might be in the market for a new MP3 player soon, and this type of thing makes it awfully appealing.

Overpriced? Hardly. You'd be hard pressed to find cheaper service. If it is cheaper it generally means they don't offer top of the line phones like iPhone or android.

Yeah, the iPhone isn't all that poorly priced. The iPad's price is horrendous, though.

The iPad's price point puts it in competition with full blown tablet PCs and mid-low end laptops. Yet the iPad lacks all the important features of a tablet. It's like a half-assed tablet at the same price.

The iPhone's price point puts it in line with its competition. It's a high end smartphone. Of course, the iPhones biggest flaw is its closed architecture. You need to jump through so many hoops just to transfer a file onto the iPhone, whereas on my Blackberry, I just use the USB cable... As a portable fun device, the iPhone is definitely pretty good.

 

[WolfEdge]

God it'd really suck if he dropped it...

 

[Cryo84R]

I'd never buy an iPhone with their ridiculously overpriced wireless service costs, but I'm guessing this can be bought for the new iPod touch as well? I might be in the market for a new MP3 player soon, and this type of thing makes it awfully appealing.

Overpriced? Hardly. You'd be hard pressed to find cheaper service. If it is cheaper it generally means they don't offer top of the line phones like iPhone or android.

Yeah, the iPhone isn't all that poorly priced. The iPad's price is horrendous, though.

The iPad's price point puts it in competition with full blown tablet PCs and mid-low end laptops. Yet the iPad lacks all the important features of a tablet. It's like a half-assed tablet at the same price.

The iPhone's price point puts it in line with its competition. It's a high end smartphone. Of course, the iPhones biggest flaw is its closed architecture. You need to jump through so many hoops just to transfer a file onto the iPhone, whereas on my Blackberry, I just use the USB cable... As a portable fun device, the iPhone is definitely pretty good.

Or you can just use the free USB app and transfer files that way.

But last years talking points are still fun.

 

[Zer_]

I'd never buy an iPhone with their ridiculously overpriced wireless service costs, but I'm guessing this can be bought for the new iPod touch as well? I might be in the market for a new MP3 player soon, and this type of thing makes it awfully appealing.

Overpriced? Hardly. You'd be hard pressed to find cheaper service. If it is cheaper it generally means they don't offer top of the line phones like iPhone or android.

Yeah, the iPhone isn't all that poorly priced. The iPad's price is horrendous, though.

The iPad's price point puts it in competition with full blown tablet PCs and mid-low end laptops. Yet the iPad lacks all the important features of a tablet. It's like a half-assed tablet at the same price.

The iPhone's price point puts it in line with its competition. It's a high end smartphone. Of course, the iPhones biggest flaw is its closed architecture. You need to jump through so many hoops just to transfer a file onto the iPhone, whereas on my Blackberry, I just use the USB cable... As a portable fun device, the iPhone is definitely pretty good.

Or you can just use the free USB app and transfer files that way.

But last years talking points are still fun.

No, you can't. There was an app that used to allow you to transfer files through USB linkup, but they were told to remove that functionality by Apple, and now you're just paying for file transfer through Wifi... uuugh.

Note: You will not be able to load these files and use them on your iPhone. In other words, you won't be able to listen to the song file or watch the video file, you'll simply be able to store it, and transfer to another computer. Just like a flash drive.

DiskAid is severely limited in its functionality. Like I said, jumping through a load of hoops just to get a gimped flash drive out of my $400 dollar device... No thanks.

I can't drag and drop videos onto the iPhone and play them.

 

[Cousin_IT]

when do I get a game that lets me blast New York from a tie fighter?

 

[Unhappy Crow]

So that means I could be playing this at church...that is awesome! Hope it's also available for the iPod Touch as well since I'm getting one for Xmas this year.

 

[The Austin]

Technology is amazing.

This is as close as the IPhone is going to get to virtual reality, isn't it?

 

[emeraldrafael]

I cant wait till somoene does that and drops their phone.

 

[Eri]

I'd never buy an iPhone with their ridiculously overpriced wireless service costs, but I'm guessing this can be bought for the new iPod touch as well? I might be in the market for a new MP3 player soon, and this type of thing makes it awfully appealing.

Overpriced? Hardly. You'd be hard pressed to find cheaper service. If it is cheaper it generally means they don't offer top of the line phones like iPhone or android.

Yea well I don't use the internet on my phone constantly. $55 per month for my current service. Last I heard, iPhone requires the $100 per month unlimited plan from AT&T. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I pay 90$ a month for my iphone. 450 rollover minutes (unlimited if calling other AT&T customers), unlimited texts and 2GB of Internet. They also offer no texts and 200MB of Internet if you want to go that low. You could get your bill down to 50-60 if you took all lowest options.

 

[Terminate421]

Thank god for the music, it makes it 1000 times more cooler

 

[Ldude893]

You want the best experience? Play it while facing at a window in an airplane.

 

[Cryo84R]

No, you can't. There was an app that used to allow you to transfer files through USB linkup, but they were told to remove that functionality by Apple, and now you're just paying for file transfer through Wifi... uuugh.

Dude, type in USB into the app store and you get the free USB disk app by Imesart. I use it, It's there right now. It's 5.5MB and was last updated on October 28th, 2010.

I can post each rating review from the app store if you want, but I think I made my point.

I can't drag and drop videos onto the iPhone and play them.

I'm playing a video I made on my computer on my iPhone RIGHT NOW through Dropbox, also free.

Looking through iTunes, there is also an app called iPen Drive, also free.

iTunes is a free download, nothing is stopping you from figuring this all out on your own.