History
In September 2006, the iTunes Store began to offer nine additional games for purchase with the launch of iTunes 7, compatible with the fifth generation iPod with iPod software 1.2 or later. Those games were: Bejeweled, Cubis 2, Mahjong, Mini Golf, Pac-Man, Tetris, Texas Hold 'Em, Vortex, and Zuma. These games were made available for purchase from the iTunes Store for US$4.99 each. In December 2006 two more games were released by EA Mobile at the same price: Royal Solitaire and Sudoku. In February 2007, Ms. Pac-Man was released followed in April 2007 by iQuiz. Until this time, all the available games could be purchased in a package, with no discount.
In May 2007 Apple released Lost: The Video Game based on the television show, which is made by Gameloft. In June 2007 "SAT Prep 2008" by Kaplan. This was introduced as 3 separate educational games based on the subjects writing, reading, and mathematics. In December 2007, Apple released Sega's classic game; Sonic the Hedgehog, which was originally packaged with the Sega Genesis system in the early 1990s.
With third parties like Namco, Square Enix, EA, Sega, and Hudson Soft all making games for the iPod, Apple's MP3 player has taken great steps towards entering the video game handheld console market. Even video game magazines like GamePro & EGM have reviewed and rated most of their games as of late.
The games are in the form of .ipg files (iPod game), which are actually .zip archives in disguise. When unzipped, they reveal executable files along with common audio and image files, leading to the possibility of third party games. Currently, Apple has no publicly available software development kit (SDK) for iPod-specific development. The iOS SDK covers only iOS on the iPhone and iPod Touch, not traditional iPods.
As of October 2011, Apple has removed all the click-wheel operated games from its store.
Read more about this topic: IPod Games
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It is my conviction that women are the natural orators of the race.”
—Eliza Archard Connor, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 9, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)