I’ll be travelling today, so you all get a big list of links and the opportunity to talk about pretty much anything. Because that, Dragons and Dragonettes, is how we roll on this site.

I am here. Except on a Horizon flight.

Raph Koster’s Theory of Fun website is back online!

Raph Koster should need no introduction to anyone who is familiar with the development of Ultima Online. He is also an author, and his most well-known book — A Theory of Fun — was for some time accompanied be a website devoted to the same topic (that is: game design).

Well, I noticed on Twitter that Mr. Koster had announced the rebirth of the site, and he was inviting people to check it out and offer comments on its design and any errors encountered in its content. Please give it a look, Ultima fans!

Mobile games earned more than portable games in 2011.

Now, a distinction needs to be drawn here. The term “mobile gaming” as used here and in the linked article refers to games for smartphones, built to run on the iOS, Android, and/or Windows Phone 7 mobile operating systems. The term “portable gaming”, in contrast, refers to handheld console games, Sony and Nintendo titles.

Which makes this big news:

Using data from NPD as well as Flurry’s own usage analysis on 125,000 mobile apps, the company reports that iOS and Android will make up 58 percent of all U.S. portable game revenue in 2011, compared to just 34 percent in 2010 and 19 percent in 2009.

Nintendo’s DS line makes up an estimated 36 percent of all U.S. portable software revenues in 2011, down from 70 percent in 2009, while the Sony’s PSP accounts for 6 percent of revenues, down from 11 percent two years ago.

The total size of the portable and mobile game software market has also increased in that time, from $2.7 billion in 2009 to an estimated $3.3 billion this year, Flurry says.

As you can imagine, freemium games (free games offering in-app purchases) have proven surprisingly lucrative and have contributed significantly to these figures. But even leaving that aside, the appeal of mobile games as opposed to traditional portable games is easy enough to see. Portable gaming systems, like consoles, don’t see generational iterations all that often (how long ago did the PSP come out?). Mobile phones, on the other hand…my iPhone 3GS was top-of-the-line when I got it less than two years ago; two new iPhone models have been released since then, each substantially more powerful than the model prior.

The current iPhone is about half as powerful as the PS Vita (the next-generation PSP) will be at its launch. It is also almost as powerful as the iPad 2. No less a gaming technology expert than John Carmack has argued that the iPad 2 is about “half as powerful” as the Playstation 3, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that the iPhone 4S is in about the same general category. The next iPhone, whatever it winds up being called, will probably match (or almost match) the Playstation 3 for power and performance, which will mean it will basically match the PS Vita for power and performance. But whereas top-end titles with high production values will cost $25 or more on the PS Vita, titles with the same production values and quality will cost between $2 and $7 on e.g. the Apple App Store.

The math almost does itself.

I should really focus more attention on Risen 2, as well.

I mean, Reckoning is worthy of attention (I think) solely on the basis that it’s a massive RPG being worked on by Ian “Tiberius” Frazier from the Ultima V: Lazarus project team. That said, it also seems to include many gameplay features that should appeal to Ultima fans.

Risen 2 isn’t being worked on (that I know) by anyone from the Ultima fan project community…but it is well-enough known that Piranha Bytes (the German developers who created the Gothic and Risen series) were inspired in part by Ultima (especially Ultima 9), and their games reflect this. If you want comprehensive NPC schedules in a 3D, open-world RPG, you’d be well-advised to look up a Piranha Bytes game!

Anyhow, here’s a piece of Risen 2-related content for you all:

I’m actually modestly fascinated at Risen 2′s attempt to blend pirate fantasy (which is still kind of a big thing, since Johnny Depp keeps finding gainful employment in related roles) and classic “swords & sorcery”-type fantasy. I rather hope it works out!

Ten workplace myths…busted.

I was pretty much aware of the HR-related ones, courtesy of my own cynicism regarding HR departments and years of reading Dilbert. And I was aware of the first one. Here’s one, though, that some of you Americans might take into consideration:

2. Myth: The First Amendment protects your ability to say what you want at work.

Fact: The First Amendment prevents the government from restricting your speech, but not a private employer. In most states, an employer can fire you for what you say at work, or even outside of work. (An exception to this is if you’re organizing coworkers about wages or working conditions.)

So, you know…be careful who you let read your blog and/or your Facebook profile. But I trust you all already knew that!

I am struck, suddenly, by the suspicion that Ken Rolston might actually understand the (low) value of fan statements and input.

Ken Rolston worked for Bethesda Softworks for a number of years; he retired from game development with the release of Oblivion, but got sucked back into game-making to work on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. And on the subject of fan input, he has this to say:

“Ninety percent has to be familiar and 10 percent has to be new,” he said of evolving game design. “Fans say, ‘I want something new,’ but clearly they want the same thing with less suck.”

This would seem to be a lesson that Origin Systems didn’t ever fully grasp, at least with the last couple of entries in the Ultima series.

Anyhow, Reckoning’s lead designer, Ian Frazier (who is, as mentioned above, well-known to all of us) had this to add via Twitter:

Yes, it’s true, “eliminating the suck” is core to our design philosophy at Big Huge Games.

So…how excited about Reckoning would all of you be if it was described to you as Oblivion without everything that both Oblivion’s lead designer and a hardcore Ultima fan felt sucked about the game?

Get all the books from Skyrim on your Kindle!

Or your smartphone’s Kindle app. Or your Nook. Or your Nook app. You get the idea.

Tonight’s post brought to you by how to make extra-fluffy mashed potatoes!

Which, it must be said, works! I have tried it, and it works!

Are you a “game photographer”?

That is: do you screenshot the living heck out of every game you play? Rock, Paper, Shotgun would like to know.

The current state of smartphone and tablet gaming.

Basically: Apple’s iOS continues to dominate as the preferred platform for developers. Android continues to show lots of promise that is far slower to be realized than its proponents say will be the case. And at least one big-name mobile gaming developer has set its sights on Windows Phone 7, especially in the wake of the Mango update thereto.

Speaking of mobile gaming…let’s look at the state of iPhone games.

Just ten (10) publishers account for over half of the top 300 paid iPhone games. Naturally, Gameloft and their prodigious output probably account for quite a lot of these.

Deus Ex 3 (also called Human Revolution) is evidently finished, and has gone gold.

The release date is August 23rd.

Another awesome Skyrim trailer!

This time featuring a frak-off big spider, more dragons, and dual-wielding.

How to survive in the games industry for 35 years.

The Guardian interviews Atari, Activision, and Accolade veteran Alan Miller. It’s an insightful, enlightening interview that anyone contemplating a career in game development should read.

Has anyone checked out Dwarf Fortress yet?

It’s a cross-platform, roguelike and city-building game with ASCII graphics that the New York Times hails as brilliant in a massive six-page article.

What’s more, it’s been around for a while:

Dwarf Fortress is too willfully noncommercial to have any discernible influence on gaming at large, but it is widely admired by game designers. Programmers behind The Sims 3 reportedly played Dwarf Fortress when they were making their game, and several homages to Dwarf Fortress appear in the blockbuster fantasy game World of Warcraft. Richard Garfield, who created the hit card game Magic: The Gathering, once attended a Dwarf Fortress fan meet in Seattle to introduce himself to Tarn. “I told him there’s nothing out there quite like it,” Garfield recalled. He suggested ways of broadening the game’s appeal, but “that stuff didn’t matter to Tarn. The charm of it is that he’s making exactly the game he wants to make.”

Seriously…why have I not heard of this game before?

And speaking of roguelikes…

…Dungeons of Dredmor sounds pretty neat, as well. And unforgivingly difficult and brutal, as well.

Someone made a basically to-scale copy of Middle Earth in (of course) Minecraft.

It’s about as epic as it sounds.

Meet Prague’s new RPG studio: Warhorse!

I’m going to call this an “ensemble studio”, because it is staffed by a pretty powerful cast of well-known European game-makers:

Four eminent 2K Czech and Bohemia Interactive employees have split to form Warhorse, a new development studio in Prague, and are now working on a previously unannounced RPG. Mafia and Mafia II creator Dan Vávra is heading the team at Warhorse, co-founded with Martin Klíma, author of Dragon’s Lair. Viktor Bocan, designer of Operation Flashpoint, and Mafia animator Zbynek Trávnivký complete the fearsome foursome.

Their jobs page contains what I submit is the best opening sentence ever written on a job postings website.

Remember that California violent games law that the Supreme Court struck down?

The legal battles related to it aren’t over just yet. Now the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has filed a motion to be reimbursed — by the state of California — for the $1.1 million in legal fees it spent fighting the silly Californian law.

California hardly has the money to pay such fees, of course…but sooner or later, one shot in the wallet or another will hopefully convince them that passing borderline-unconstitutional laws is just not kosher.

Most of you probably don’t care about Gears of War 3…

…but the latest video (a “behind the scenes” feature) promoting Epic’s next release is still rather entertaining.

Can you believe it? Some people still associate the term “gamer” with being a social outcast.

Yeah, I know, I was shocked too.

Exit question: what does “social outcast” even mean, in the age of Twitter and other social networks?

EA expects to break its $1 billion target for digital revenues.

That includes revenues from both mobile gaming sales and digital retail of mainline console and PC games. Naturally, the acquisution of PopCap earlier this month is going to bring in a bunch of those dollars, as will the rumoured October launch of The Old Republic.

Ultima Online is old, but worth it.

That, as UO Journal explains, is the conclusion of the first article in a new series at MMORPG.com.

Tonight’s post brought to you by Chemistry Cat:

This will be even funnier to fans of The Big Bang Theory.

Bonus:

The longest video on YouTube!

It was achieved by stringing together many countless thousands of photos, horribly and excessively compressed so as to squeeze the entire 23-day length of it into about half of a gigabyte. And yes, it looks as awful as you are probably thinking it should, given that information.

Fenyx4, whom most of you should know as the guy who handles the technical aspects of the Codex of Ultima Wisdom, also works for Groundling Games when he isn’t messing around with Ultima-related things. I actually had a chance to play their game Oh! Gnomes! on his Android smartphone…but I see from his post on Google Buzz that the game is now also available for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch via the Apple App Store.

Obligatory screenshot:

Splodey!

So, some of you may be wondering just what Fenyx4 (“Seth” in real life) did on this game? One of his fellow developers will tell you:

I must say, Seth has been a life saver for this game. He has done all sorts of crazy things. Most importantly, he interfaced Unity (iOS and Android) with Facebook so that players will be able to post their scores to their walls. When he and I were developing it and we kept IMing scores back and forth to each other, it quickly became apparent that having such a feature would be absolutely necessary. He also made Gnome work via Augmented Reality. It is so much fun to play. Absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, we (meaning he) could never get the FPS to an appropriate level. The best I heard was anywhere between 20-25 FPS, which just isn’t good enough. And to top it all off, he performed several user tests. We could figure out what worked and what didn’t. In fact, we removed 2 gnomes from the list because of it. They just weren’t fun.

The game itself is pretty fun. Your character, technically, is a wizard who has appointed a turtle-like creature called a groundling to guard his coins, which have been placed in a decorative (and enchanted circle) in your garden. Unfortunately, gnomes have come with the intent of stealing your coins, and the whole point of the game is to squash, toss, explode, or otherwise prevent the gnomes from stealing too many coins.

As I said, Fenyx4 let me play it a bit; it was pretty darn fun, and looked really good. The ARG mode was also amusing; it’s worth the $0.99 just for the opportunity to have the groundling dance on your computer keyboard rather than his garden circle.

I’ll be picking it up; thou shouldst do the same on thy Android or iOS device. Support a fellow Ultima fan and community contributor!

Has the Higgs boson been discovered?

An internally leaked memo briefly teased the possibility that the elusive “God particle” had been observed in the Large Hadron Collider. Sadly, this is probably not actually the case.

On an unrelated note, my home city amuses me greatly sometimes.

Earth Day was a major flop in Edmonton this year, and not just because the major event to “celebrate” it fell through for a lack of volunteers. No, Edmontonians went one up on that and actually increased their power consumption during the day. (We did the same during Earth Hour earlier this year.)

What kind of gun are you?

I’m apparently an Uzi. I was hoping for a Glock.

Iran has evidently become the target of a second cyber attack.

This time, it’s the “Stars” virus, or some such. One wonders if this, too, was an engineered virus targeting industrial control systems?

Canada does not even rank in the top ten as regards internet freedom enjoyed by its citizens.

This saddens me.

Estonia comes out on top, with the US in the #2 slot.

Neat little app: Barcodas.

It turns superstore bar codes into music, apparently. Check out the video at the link for details.

End of an era: the typewriter is officially no more.

The last typewriter factory in the world just closed down.

Tonight’s post brought to you by accountants:

They ruin everything.

Just how lucrative is the mobile app market? This lucrative:

Electronic Arts is boasting of amazing third quarter sales of its own iOS apps. Joystiq reports that COO John Schappert recently discussed just how well EA apps did during the holiday season. Schappert said, “The day after Christmas, the millions who were activating their new devices, EA held 14 of the top 25 paid apps for the iPhone and 15 of the top 25 paid apps for the iPad.”

Part of the reason EA did so well, other than offering titles iOS users were obviously willing to pay for, was that it dropped prices on most of its iOS apps in December, setting off a price war amongst developers on the App Store. EA’s timing was impeccable, however, because Apple froze the App Store charts on December 23, leaving many EA titles right near or at the top of the charts for the remainder of the holidays. Very smart indeed.

The net result? EA’s revenue from digital distribution (which includes App Store sales) was up $62 million last year. Now, a good chunk of that obviously came from the various mainline games that EA sells through various digital distribution services…but another good chunk of it also came from top-quality apps that go for $6.99 or less.

And there is an EA studio willing to work with Ultima fans who are able to port Ultima titles to iOS, remember…to the point of getting those products sold. Something to consider.

Once again, the issue is that the program can run custom executables within itself. As the developer points out in this post, to comply with Apple’s App Store policy, he would effectively have to hobble iDOS (and thus DOSBox) to only be able to run those apps that the program ships with; he would have to both completely remove the ability to load — even by backdoor means — custom executables into the app and prevent them from being run anyhow (in case someone clever figured out another workaround).

To which, he says:

Nothing can compensate for that loss, no matter how much better it will look. We all hope that apple finally realize that emulator doesn’t place any threat to their customers and their business. Before that happens, this should be the last release of iDOS. If there will ever be any further development on iDOS, it will be under a different app name.

So that’s that; iDOS is effectively toast, Dragons and Dragonettes. Hopefully, you were able to snag a copy this new version; if not, your only hope for running old DOS games on your iPhone is to either hope that they get ported to iOS some day, or else jailbreak the device and run DOSPad on it.

Those of you who did grab the app can still make use of this tutorial, which I will be expanding in the coming days to include the excellent work of Todd “jz1″ Banister. Be mindful, however, that there may be an issue with the number of games you load into the app.

Some of you may recall the brief, shining moment of glory that the original iDOS iPhone app had: it appeared on the iTunes App Store one morning back in October, and was quickly yanked by Apple within a matter of hours.

Well, now it’s January, and iDOS is back, this time updated to version 2.0.1. That’s right…a DOSBox app is once again available on the iTunes App Store.

However, there is now a catch:

The biggest change from iDOS 1.0: iTunes file sharing is now turned off.

That means you will not be able to install windows nor games from your old disc collection.

The original iDOS added an interface to the iPhone app management window in iTunes, which could be used to move files between your hard drive and the app. That feature — and the fact that the app apparently allowed you to access the iOS filesystem (if you were clever) — is ultimately what got it yanked from the App Store initially; Apple’s licensing apparently disallows programs that make the transfer of executable files possible.

Oh, and…be sure to turn down the volume when you first fire up this new iDOS…the opening screen’s sound is rather jarring.

Anyhow, a few improvements have been made to the app that make it worthwhile:

- Virtual gamepad/joystick. With iDOS 1.0, you may not be able to get to floor 3 in wolf3d, but now you can!

- Better landscape mode. And now iPhone has portrait mode interface.

- Bluetooth keyboard support. It is for text based games only.

It is actually a fairly significant update to the app, and it adds some functionality that the first version was sorely lacking. That didn’t stop me from moving a copy of the original iDOS app into my Dropbox before I upgraded, of course…but I don’t think I’ll be downgrading. Because even though there’s not an official means of transferring files into the app, there is still a way to do it.

Allow me to introduce iPhone Explorer.

Hi, guys.

Using iPhone Explorer, we are going to install Ultima 6 on an iPhone 3GS (but this should work for any iPhone version capable of running iDOS well). To do this, however, we need to make sure a particular setting is turned off inside the program.

Note: If, like me, you were lucky enough to snag a copy of the original version of iDOS, and if you installed any Ultima games therein, you probably won’t need to perform these steps; I noticed on my iPhone 3GS that the Documents folder (discussed below) for the app was preserved during the upgrade, meaning that everything I installed in the original iDOS was available to me in the upgraded version.

From the Edit menu, select Preferences, and make sure the Allow access to “real-root” if iPhone is jailbroken. box is unchecked.

Uncheck! Unczech!

Once that’s done, click on the + sign to expand the Apps listing in the program’s left-hand sidebar:

The Apps list.

Scroll down the list (it shouldn’t be that long if you’re an average app user; if you’re like me, it will be pretty crazy-long indeed) until you find an entry with the following name: [random-hash].net.litchie.idos.

This is the iDOS app.

The guts of an app.

In the right-hand pane of iPhone Explorer, double-click the Documents folder; this folder serves as the C: drive for iDOS.

What ho? There it be!

Now, as you can see, I already have Ultima 6 installed, and a custom batch file readied for it as well. iPhone Explorer supports drag-and-drop, so here’s what you need to do to get Ultima 6 installed from this point:

1. Install Ultima 6 to your computer’s hard drive. Anywhere will do.
2. Open up a window and navigate through your hard drive until you are looking at the Ultima 6 folder.
3. Drag the Ultima 6 folder into the right-hand pane of iPhone Explorer (which should still be displaying the Documents folder of the iDOS app)
4. Be patient; iPhone Explorer’s copying isn’t particularly quick, and the progress window sometimes stays hidden. Don’t attempt to re-copy the app; find the progress window and bring it to the foreground. It’ll go away shortly.

At this point, you should be able to fire up the iDOS app on your iPhone, select the C: icon at the bottom of its “game shelf” interface, bring up the keyboard, navigate to Ultima 6′s directory, and launch the game:

The portrait mode is actually perfect for Ultima 6.

And yes, this method should work for any of the other DOS-based Ultima titles…although I wouldn’t expect Ultima 7 (either part) or Ultima 8 to perform all that well.

Oh, yeah: If you want to set up a batch file but don’t remember how, go here.

iDOS running Solitaire

Somehow, someone got a version of DOSpad approved by Apple and released for $0.99 on the iOS App Store. That, in and of itself, is already beyond insane, especially considering that:

…it…does everything that DOS does, including, as you can see in the picture, running Windows 3.0 complete with the Solitaire game.

The app is a 99 cent universal app for iPhone and iPad, and unfortunately, it’s not user friendly at all — if you don’t remember your old DOS commands, the app’s not set up to make things easy for you. The app also includes what the description calls “freeware/abandonware” like Ms. Pac Man PC, and DigDug, but you can upload other games and files through iTunes.

But there’s a catch (besides the price):

Honestly, this is awesome, but it seems a little too open for Apple’s tastes. I can’t see how it would ever hurt the iOS device (you’re running everything from within the app, and Apple could simply assume that you own any copies of software that you install on there), but this is one app that may have snuck through the gates.

I’m honestly surprised this app got approved; don’t be surprised, Dragons and Dragonettes, if it goes the way of the Grooveshark app in short order. But until it does…

Update: Yup, saw that coming. It looks like the app has been pulled. If you managed to grab it, enjoy it…and check the Aiera Twitter timeline for some links to folks who got various Ultima games running using it.

Granted, I didn’t need to make and adjustments to the project entry, since the download link there is just a link to the relevant entry at the Apple App Store.

Still, for what it’s worth, I noticed the other day that Akalabeth for iPhone had been updated to version 1.1, and then quite recently…just last month, in fact. So if you picked it up and haven’t checked in with the App Store in a while, you might want to grab the update. It seems to have added Open Feint support, among other things.

From Joystiq:

Speaking at the Deutsche Bank 2010 Technology Conference, as reported by Gamasutra, EA CFO Eric Brown discussed the company’s plans to ramp up support for Android in the near future. Brown noted that “there’s a lot to happen in the future in Android” and EA is set to “position [its] mobile business to take advantage of that trend.” Brown cited the increasing adoption rate of Android devices, and noted that he believes the market is shifting toward smartphones, what he described as “a PS2 to PS3 transition.”

It’s not surprising to see EA so eager to support the Android OS. Last year, the company made a killing on the iTunes App Store, publishing four of the top ten best-selling games on the platform, including the overall best-selling game, The Sims 3.

Obviously, I can’t speak for EA or Mythic Entertainment…but I wonder if — given Mythic’s stated interest in getting Ultima 4 onto the iPhone/iPad — the enthusiastic support that has thus far been shown for mobile ports of Ultima titles will extend to Android-based ports as well.

I can only imagine it will, though of course it would be best to hear it from someone at EA and/or Mythic proper.

This is just a Photoshop job, not a real screenshot. Sadly.

I was told the most interesting thing today.

As the good reader is probably aware, a port of Akalabeth was recently released on the iPhone (or, more correctly, iOS) platform, Apple‘s mobile device operating system. The good reader is also probably aware that I’ve had some contact with Mythic Entertainment. Mythic, as most hopefully know, basically holds the rights to the Ultima name at present, and produced the most recent expansion to Ultima Online.

Well, it turns out that Mythic would be very interested in any effort made to port Ultima 4 to the iOS platform, so much so that they would work to get any functional, well-implemented port published on the Apple App Store under the EA Mobile label.

So…if anyone out there has some experience with development on the iPhone platform, and if such a person would be interested in creating a port of the original game, which offered context-dependent controls not unlike how the Akalabeth port does: here’s your big chance. Not only to remake an Ultima title (and a darn fine one, at that), but to get it officially approved and published.

As Aragorn, son of Arathorn, asked: What say you?

I was just tipped off to the existence of this remake thanks to an email from Zen. It’s a complete port of Akalabeth to the iPhone.

This is evidently a licensed effort, as the app retails for $1.99 USD. As such, I won’t be hosting the download directly; you will find a link to the Apple App Store in the project entry instead.

Mobile World of Doom

Produced by: Quantum Toast
Website: Mobile World of Doom!
Releases:

This is an “exact” re-creation of Akalabeth for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, which even goes so far (as can be seen in the screenshot) as to re-create the Apple II interface (or, at least, the parts of it necessary to play the game). Graphics and sound are the same as were in the original game.

This port boasts a few “helper” features, however, some of which were apparently designed with input from Richard Garriott himself. These include an autosave option (which also continues the game from where you left it, if you have to quit the app for any reason), an option to start near castle, an in-game minimap, and the ability to carry way more food.

It’s available for $1.99 USD on the Apple App Store.