iPhone Atlas

Doom Classic brings the ancient, pixelated first-person shooter to the iPhone.

Welcome to today's episode of Recycling Old PC Games for Fun and Profit. Our first contestant: Doom Classic, the first-person shooter that spawned a thousand imitators, several hundred ports, and one horrendous movie.

Next up: Command & Conquer Red Alert, the real-time strategy classic responsible for a massive drop in global productivity.

In my youth I was a tremendous fan of both games, so it stands to reason that I'd welcome them to my iPhone. However, neither is getting a permanent home.

Let's start with Doom. While id Software's official port offers a pixel-perfect recreation, the game is 16 years old--and it shows.

Indeed, juxtaposed with Doom Resurrection, a made-for-iPhone game with 21st century graphics, Doom Classic looks positively ancient. It plays that way, too: You can't even jump.

Part of this is personal bias: I don't think FPS games work well on small screens, especially when touch controls are involved. For me, Doom Classic feels cramped, confined, and seriously out of date.

(Credit: CNET)

Popular iPhone gaming developer Ngmoco released Eliminate Pro yesterday, its much-anticipated, online, first-person shooter. This well-polished "free" game features smooth looking graphics, onscreen controls that are fairly effective (no match for a controller or keyboard/mouse setup, but that's to be expected), a number of power ups to improve your weapons and armor, and five playable maps. In-game kills and winning matches earn you credits you can use to buy new weapons and armor. There are eight armor types, five weapon types, and items to buy like armor designs (skins) to give you a new look. The best part is that you get to play an online FPS from wherever you are on 3G or Wi-Fi against your friends or against players from around the world. The game uses the Plus+ network, so you'll need to register your character before you start playing online. Sounds pretty great, right? Not so fast.

The graphics are smooth--even more so on the iPhone 3GS or the newer iPod Touch.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Once you've played a few online games you will quickly see how the revenue model for Eliminate Pro is somewhat less than ideal. Here's the rub: in order to earn credits (for all the great purchases) in online matches, your 12-node energy bar must be charged. Each online game uses up four nodes, so you get three games before you run out of energy (about 15 minutes). So if you want to use the game for free, once you're out of energy, Eliminate Pro displays the time remaining until the next recharge in minutes, which comes out to about four hours. At the end of four hours, it only gives you four nodes of energy back, so you'll only be able to play one credit-accruing game every four hours. This is where the in-app purchase model comes in.

There's plenty of cool stuff to buy once you earn credits in the game.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

While you can play the Eliminate Pro online and against bots with an empty energy bar, you will not accrue credits. To recharge your energy bar, you'll need to buy one of four packages of power cells via an in-app purchase. The price scheme goes like this: 99 cents for 20 power cells, $1.99 for 45, $9.99 for 280, and $29.99 for 975 power cells. But the real kicker is that each power cell only fills up one node, meaning you will use 12 power cells to fill up your energy bar (notice how a 99 cent pack of 20 lets you fill up one 12-node bar, but not enough to fill another). In other words, if you want to keep earning credits and buying fancy items, you'll be paying roughly 60 cents per 15-minute game session.

Though this game is highly polished, with just about everything a gamer could want in an iPhone online FPS, the in-app purchase system seems too steep to me. Those who are excited about the game and want to continue to play for free will be playing a highly crippled game needing to wait 4 hours before they can earn a few more credits. Those willing to spend the money will quickly realize the game is eating up their cash quickly.

When you run out of energy, you'll either need to wait or buy more from iTunes.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

I'm very interested in what people think about this particular pricing model. I think the game itself is pretty great--not as good as Modern: Combat Sandstorm for gameplay, but the best for online first-person shooters. I suppose the casual gamer will have no trouble playing for 15 minutes a day on this game and slowly earning credits over time to buy items. But the people who want to spend time playing the "complete" game will need to pay--and quite a lot if they really like the game and want to get powerful quickly. Finally, I wonder what this means for other iPhone apps in the future and whether we're going to see more pricing models like this one. Will everything become pay-to-play?

What do you think? Is the free version good enough for the amount you would actually play? How much are you willing to spend to continue playing the complete game of Eliminate Pro? Is this pricing model fair? Is this a preview of pricing models of other future apps? Let me know in the comments!

Let's just come right out and say it: Gameloft is rapidly becoming synonymous with "kick-ass iPhone games."

That's a personal opinion, but the developer's credits include some of my all-time favorites: Console smash Assassin's Creed, GTA clone Gangstar: West Coast Hustle, Guitar Hero clone Guitar Rock Tour 2, Madden clone NFL 2010, and even the lovingly remade PC classic, The Oregon Trail.

Now comes Blades of Fury, an arcade-style fighting game that, in true Gameloft cloning style, could best be described as Mortal Kombat (or perhaps more accurately, Soul Caliber) for iPhone.

Blades serves up 10 warriors, each with their own moves, attacks, and even background stories. Choose a character, then square off against one foe after another, with 10 different arenas as your backdrops.

Good news on the multiplayer front: You can challenge nearby competitors via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The bad news: No Internet play, which would have been totally (pardon the pun) killer.

Speaking of killing, if you've ever played Mortal Kombat, Soul Caliber, Tekken, or the like, you know that the fun lies in mastering various attack combos so you can dish out maximum damage.

Same goes for Blades of Fury, but the onscreen controls just can't match the button-mashing fun you get from a coin-op or console fighter.

To its credit, the game does give you a choice of a joystick or d-pad for character movement and swipe or button controls for attacks and defenses. I can't say I like one combo better than another; both take practice, and both may leave you a little frustrated.

Indeed, while Blades of Fury delivers the sights and sounds of a Mortal Kombat-style game (minus the gratuitous blood and ripping out of skeletons), it can't quite deliver the gameplay.

Indeed, the game is proof positive that Crave blogger Jeff Bakalar was right when he said the iPhone needs buttons.

On the other hand, control issues aside, Blades of Fury offers a ton of skull-bashing fantasy fun, and I find myself going back to it more than a lot of other action games.

If you'd rather not spend $6.99 to see if you feel the same way, stay tuned for the inevitable Lite version.

(Credit: CNET)

I recently heard about a trick for iPhone 3GS owners who have the latest version of the Yelp app. Yelp, as you probably know, lets you search for restaurants or other services and read user-written ratings and reviews. I've noticed that the Yelp app particularly comes in handy when I'm on vacation: it lets me find out right away what the locals think about a particular restaurant without having to find out for myself. But a hidden feature in Yelp for iPhone 3GS owners has been revealed recently that adds a whole new dimension to Yelp ratings.

Make sure you download the latest version of Yelp (free) to try it out. Start up Yelp, then shake your iPhone a few times until a blue dialog box appears. This will unlock a button in the top right of the Yelp interface called The Monocle. Touch the button and you should be looking through your iPhone camera lens, but now you will be able to see restaurants, theaters, stores, and more with their ratings displayed on the actual location. This means that if you were in a busy area with restaurants and shops, you could look through The Monocle to get ratings for each place you're looking at in what they call augmented reality.

I had seen a demonstration of augmented reality on a jailbroken iPhone some time ago, but this is the first iPhone app in the iTunes Store to use augmented reality. Like I mentioned before, this will only work for those with the iPhone 3GS because The Monocle is using the compass (not available for iPhone 3G) along with GPS data to figure out which direction your pointing so it can display the correct reviews. If you get a chance, check it out and let me know what you think in the comments.

This week's apps include a useful tool to browse Craigslist and a fun new first-person shooter game.

Brief summaries and photos make searches more efficient.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

CraigsPro (99 cents) lets you browse Craigslist with numerous features for searching and viewing listings and even posting your own listings. If you need to do a quick search, use the search bar at the top of the interface to search all listings. But for more-refined searches, you can adjust several post-type specific attributes by going into the Options screen. CraigsPro has buttons across the bottom to store favorites, sort listings by category, and search listings by city (you can add or remove cities to widen or narrow your searches). There also is a post tab where you can choose the category, write your post, and immediately attach pictures from your iPhone camera or select images from your iPhone photo library.

In some ways, CraigsPro is better than browsing listings on the actual Web site. Search result lists show up with photos and the first few lines of each posting so it makes finding what you want much easier without having to open up each listing. The Favorites tab is especially useful when you're apartment hunting, for example, because you have all of your chosen locations handy on one page when you're out visiting apartments--no need to write anything down. Overall, if you want a better way to search or post to Craigslist on your iPhone, CraigsPro has plenty to offer, with several added features to make finding what you want easier.

The more you get hit, the more the screen turns red. Get to cover or take them out fast.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Though the iPhone touch screen will never be as easy to use as a keyboard or console controller, Modern Combat: Sandstorm manages to make the controls fairly easy to use. Autoaim (found in the options) helped a lot to offset the less-than-optimal controls in the beginning, but after spending some time with the game I was able to turn it off for a more realistic experience. Along with the great gameplay, Modern Combat: Sandstorm has great audio, with explosive-sounding guns, and good voice acting in-game and during cut scenes. Overall, if you've been waiting for a good first-person shooter to come to the iPhone, Modern Combat: Sandstorm is an excellent choice with exciting gameplay, challenging missions, and a control scheme that's fairly easy to get used to.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Have you tried the augmented reality Easter egg in Yelp for iPhone 3GS? Have you used a better Craigslist app? Are you excited to see more complicated games like Modern Combat: Sandstorm on the iPhone? Let me know in the comments!

Like Wolfenstein before it, Id Software's Doom has been ported to just about every platform known to man. But Doom Resurrection is more than a port: it's an all-new Doom game written expressly for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Indeed, whereas Id's Wolfenstein 3D Classic merely shrunk the original down to iPhone size, Doom Resurrection offers eight new Doom 3-inspired levels (six set on Mars, the others in Hell).

Screenshots don't do it justice; Doom Resurrection looks tremendous.

However, don't expect a traditional first-person shooter experience; Doom Resurrection runs on rails, meaning you don't get to roam free throughout each level.

Instead, the game moves you from one encounter to the next; the challenge lies in aiming your target reticule (which is controlled by the accelerometer), blasting a familiar assortment of hellspawn, and ducking incoming fire via well-timed taps of the Dodge button. If a zombie manages to grab you, you have to shake your iPhone to get loose before he eats your brains.

In other words, Resurrection may look like Doom and sound like Doom, but it doesn't play like Doom.

As it turns out, that's a good thing. Touch screens and tilt sensors work well for certain types of games, but they're no substitute for a mouse and keyboard or your garden-variety gamepad.

Consequently, in most iPhone-size FPS games, you're battling the controls at the same time you're battling demons. That's a war I don't care to wage.

In Doom Resurrection, however, you get to focus on aiming, reloading, and killing--all with a familiar arsenal of weapons (including the beloved BFG). While longtime Doom fans may feel a bit cheated by the rail system, the gameplay ultimately benefits from it.

In fact, Resurrection accomplishes its goal of feeling like a game that was built for the iPhone, not shoehorned into it. Whether or not that justifies the $9.99 price tag is up to you, but I think fans of either the genre or the seminal series will be pleased.