Like all great trends, retro-style PC games have circled back into popularity. They invoke a feeling of nostalgia for a gaming era long gone, but not forgotten.
Many of today's game developers grew up in the 8-bit era and are now using their talents to breathe new life into this classic style. They're introducing fun mechanics and innovative play styles that rival the graphically elite, big-budget games.
We kick off our homage to the pixelated past with one of the best, most violent games of the past year.
Both games and business loom large in Stewart Butterfield's creative cycle. His first project was an innovative MMO called Game Neverending, which never made it past the prototype stage, but nonetheless birthed the photo-sharing site Flickr in 2004. That humble little property blew up, of course, and Butterfield suddenly became a man to watch.
Flash forward to 2009. Butterfield launched a new MMO game called Glitch. It was a hit among fanatics, but there weren't enough of them, and Glitch shut down for good last December. But just like before, Butterfield is raising a potentially powerful phoenix from the ashes of an MMO. This time, he's focusing on collaboration and communication software for business environments. It's called Slack, and it's the very software Butterfield and his team developed to help them create and run Glitch.
Butterfield's company, Tiny Speck, is developing Slack to meet the needs of its own multiple-location business. Tiny Speck's principals work in three different cities, two different time zones, and two different countries. Off-the-shelf collaboration platforms just couldn't fulfill Tiny Speck's requirements for keeping everyone in touch.
Just a few days ago, Tiny Speck added the word "working" to its public mission statement, signaling the intent behind its next project.
A Tiny Speck employee who spoke with PCWorld says that group colloboration platforms already on the market can be frustrating. "They try to enforce a worldview as to how things should be done," said the source, who requested anonymity. So rather than than use software that might not fit their needs, the Tiny Speck crew built their own.
Several external companies are already alpha-testing the tool. But in a way, the current alpha testers more like beta testers, as Tiny Speck used Slack for months before letting other companies try it out.
When Flickr launched in 2004, other photo-sharing sites like Shutterfly and now-defunct Kodak Gallery were focused on selling customers paper prints of digital images. But Flickr's freemium model and easy-to-use interface quickly won the favor of photo enthusiasts.
"There was a burgeoning prosumer photo community that wanted to share imagery in a way that wasn't cluttered by cat photos and general consumer content," says Chris Chute, IDC's Research Director for Worldwide Digital Imaging and SMB Transformative Technology Research Practices. "They weren't interested in printing," Chute says. "Smugmug and Flickr hit at the right time to focus on Web sharing, not print."
As founders of Flickr, Stewart Butterfield (pictured) and Eric Costello (who took the photo in this screenshot) have enviably short Flickr handles. Stewart's work on Glitch earned him this doll of his game avatar, made by Amber of SouthernGothica.
Of course, Flickr wasn't really Butterfield's first effort. His first company, the Vancouver, British Columbia-based Ludicorp, was primarily focused on Game Neverending. But when Ludicorp shuttered GNE while it was still in prototype stage, the company used some of GNE's features to build Flickr.
In 2005, Ludicorp was acquired by Yahoo—ironic considering Slack's tools for remote collaboration and Yahoo's new telecommuting policy. Butterfield left Yahoo in 2008, and in 2009 he founded Tiny Speck, along with Flickr's Principal Software Engineer Serguei Morouchov and former Ludicorp colleagues Eric Costello and Cal Henderson.
In the latest episode SpoonFed Mobile, LAPTOP Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer took 5 of the best games on the new iPad for a spin. These games, which range from the super-cheap, kid-friendly Flight Control Rocket to the more expensive, not-so-kid-friendly Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation, have all been designed to take advantage of the new iPad’s groundbreaking Retina display and its 2048 x 1536 resolution. Read on (or watch the video above) to find out which games we thought were the best and what we loved about them.
As you’ll see in the video, there are a number of things that make a great iPad game, from casual fare like Angry Birds Space that offers addictive gameplay to games like Infinity Blade II that boast console-quality eye-candy. All of these games have been optimized for the new Retina display, and it shows. These titles, whether they feature cartoon-like characters or the most photo-realistic graphics we’ve seen yet on a tablet, feature ultra-sharp visuals and sumptuous colors. Without further ado, here are our top 5 games for the new iPad:
Real Racing 2 HD:
Real Racing 2 HD, a $6.99 racing game from developer Firemint, boasts some of the best graphics you’ll find in a racing game on any platform. Besides the gorgeous visuals and lovingly rendered cars, we loved the game’s tight controls and shallow learning curve. The game certainly packs a lot into just 444 MB — players can choose from as many as 30 vehicles and can race against up to 16 players online. Check out Real Racing 2 HD on the iTunes store.
Flight Control Rocket:
Flight Control Rocket, the sequel to last year’s Flight Control from Electronic Arts, is a great puzzle game for a low price. The 99-cent game is perfect for all ages, featuring easy-to-use controls and cute graphics. The game also takes up very little space on your iPad, with a file size of only 31 MB. Flight Control Rocket is available on the iTunes store.
Angry Birds Space:
The sequel to one of the most-downloaded mobile games of all time, Angry Birds Space isn’t free like its predecessor, but its $2.99 price point is well worth the fun, addictive gameplay it delivers. Developer Rovio knocked it out of the part with the latest iteration of the Angry Birds franchise, as the new game mechanics, including birds that can freeze objects and gravity-based physics that can be used to set up trick shots, keep the game feeling fresh. Pick up Angry Birds Space on the iTunes store.
Infinity Blade II:
When Infinity Blade first came out for the iPad, people marveled that a game on a tablet could boast console-quality graphics. Amazingly, developer Chair Entertainment has turned out a sequel that looks even better, using the new iPad’s Retina display to make the fantasy world of Infinity Blade II look sharper than ever before. We love that the game provides instructions for beginners, and that players have a huge variety of weapons to choose from. You can grab Infinity Blade II for $6.99 through iTunes.
Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation
We were most blown away by the first-person shooter Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation. Like Infinity Blade II, the game features console quality graphics. We appreciated that the controls were easy to pick up, and loved the huge arsenal of weapons that the player can choose from. Combat was surprisingly intense for a tablet game, and the voice acting wasn’t bad either. Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation is available on the iTunes store for $6.99.
We’ve covered the productivity apps you can use to slam work tasks on your iPad or Android tablet. Now it’s time to kick back, relax…and slam some opponents. These 9 apps may cost between $0.99 and $6.99 but they’re still less than the $9.99 price of downloaded PlayStation Vita games. And while you’re losing physical buttons, these titles — think: Infinity Blade and Dead Space – move gameplay along just as snappily with their innovative touch interfaces. Get playing.
Careen through the city streets of the Bahamas, L.A. and Tokyo with the best car-racing app available on any tablet. You can choose from more than 40 true-to-life car makers, including Ducati, Ferrari or Lamborghini. Don’t forget to pick up those nitro boosters. “Asphalt 6” is as slick, intuitive and addicting as any virtual racing game. After you’ve mastered the controls, you can invite up to five other players to join in. Platform: Android, iPad, Kindle Fire
Aside from Apple, Samsung seems to be the only company with the entertainment and design chops to keep the devoted media player alive. Exhibit A at Mobile Congress is the Galaxy S WiFi 4.2, an Ice Cream Sandwich-based device with–you’ve guessed it–Wi-Fi access rather than the full phone and data experience.
This device is all about a quality multimedia experience, from playing EA Games titles on the 4.2-inch WVGA (800 x 400) display to listening to music through the Galaxy S WiFi 4.2's front-mounted speaker and enjoying other apps via the Android Market. Memory-wise, you get either 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage.
We can already hear the Peter Gunn theme music: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that classic Midway arcade games such as “Spy Hunter,” “Joust,” “Rampage” and “Root Beer Tapper” are now available for iOS devices.
The 10-game pack, which costs 99 cents, includes the aforementioned titles, as well as “Defender,” “Arch Rivals” and four skill-based games: Pool, Air Hockey, Roll Ball, and Basketball.
Two additional game packs, which cost 99 cents each, are also available via an in-app purchase. The Fantasy Game Pack includes “Gauntlet I,” “Gauntlet II” and “Wizard of Wor.” The Action Game Pack includes “APB,” “NARC,” and “Total Carnage.”
If you don’t know what any of these games are, ask anyone over 30, and see if you can spot that wistful look in their eye.
Augmented-reality app-cessories were the name of the game at this year’s Toy Fair–from AppGear’s iPad-based games to Hasbro’s Lazer Tag gun. Here are the top AR products we saw on the showroom floor,
WowWee's AppGear showed off several games that combine the iPad with physical toys. Some of the line's six titles even use the world around you to construct the environment you see on your tablet. For example, in the game Alien Jailbreak, the game will create the aliens' jail on a surface within the iPad camera's field of vision, and if you move the tablet, it will alter the game-scape.
The latest app-cessory we scoped out at Toy Fair is Discovery Bay’s Duo Pop, a set of “pop buttons” and a sensor for playing six different interactive games on the iPad.
Once you have the required Duo Pop hardware, you simply need to download the free app. Players use the pop buttons to buzz in for the trivia games or select letters in the word game Swoop. The included Duo sensor is what makes all this magic possible, and a quick demo at the Discovery Bay booth made it clear that this gameplay is addictive–and pretty dang competitive. Take a look at a quick round of Swoop in the video below.
The Duo Pop is already available at Apple.com, Barnes & Noble, Target and Toys R Us, and it retails for $39.99. Discovery Bay says five more games are on the way.
A lot of mobile gamers tend to flock to the iPhone and iPad, but Android has been building an impressive arsenal of titles that deliver console-quality 3D graphics and high replay value. Whether you own a phone or a tablet running Google’s OS, here are the 12 best Android games to get.
Fans of “Gladiator” and “Spartacus: Vengeance” can finally live out their warrior fantasies. “Blood and Glory” pits players against a variety of grizzled gladiators in a bloody fight to the finish. Using a variety of swipe-based parries, dodges, and attacks, players must battle their way to the top. In addition to a tight control scheme, “Blood and Glory” lets you purchase new tools of destruction, including swords, maces, shields, and armor. Some of the best moments in the game are dual-wielding blades and unleashing devastating special attacks.
Just a few days ago, Tiny Speck added the word "working" to its public mission statement, signaling the intent behind its next project. 
As founders of Flickr, Stewart Butterfield (pictured) and Eric Costello (who took the photo in this screenshot) have enviably short Flickr handles. Stewart's work on Glitch earned him this doll of his game avatar, made by Amber of SouthernGothica. 
Real Racing 2 HD:
Flight Control Rocket:
The sequel to one of the most-downloaded mobile games of all time, Angry Birds Space isn’t free like its predecessor, but its $2.99 price point is well worth the fun, addictive gameplay it delivers. Developer Rovio knocked it out of the part with the latest iteration of the Angry Birds franchise, as the new game mechanics, including birds that can freeze objects and gravity-based physics that can be used to set up trick shots, keep the game feeling fresh. Pick up Angry Birds Space on the iTunes store.
When Infinity Blade first came out for the iPad, people marveled that a game on a tablet could boast console-quality graphics. Amazingly, developer Chair Entertainment has turned out a sequel that looks even better, using the new iPad’s Retina display to make the fantasy world of Infinity Blade II look sharper than ever before. We love that the game provides instructions for beginners, and that players have a huge variety of weapons to choose from. You can grab Infinity Blade II for $6.99 through iTunes.
We were most blown away by the first-person shooter Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation. Like Infinity Blade II, the game features console quality graphics. We appreciated that the controls were easy to pick up, and loved the huge arsenal of weapons that the player can choose from. Combat was surprisingly intense for a tablet game, and the voice acting wasn’t bad either. Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation is available on the iTunes store for $6.99.
