More info on Quake 3 for the iPod touch

That video we saw the other day of two iPod touches running a networked Quake 3 deathmatch sent ripples through the iPod / iPhone community. Those of you doubting the authenticity of the clip can probably put some fears to bed, as GameCyte has gotten a hold of the programmers, and they make it fairly clear it wasn't some elaborate hoax. According to developers Cameron and Marcia Tofer of Hermitworks, they managed to get the game up and running on the touches in, "Between eight and twelve hours," using jail-broken units, no official SDK, and modified code that added basic accelerometer support. The game in the video is being hosted on one of the devices and played over a local network -- and the Tofers claim that running a full 64-player match wouldn't be out of the question. Unfortunately, there aren't any plans to make this demo public, as the team is working on original content for the platform. So... email petition anyone?

[sayid @ Apr 9th 2008 9:57AM]

holy crap!

[SubGenius @ Apr 9th 2008 9:59AM]

If the devs bring the games, Apple could have an insanely great gaming platform on it's hands.
This kind of network gaming will be awesome and convenient with bonjour.

[Myntee @ Apr 9th 2008 10:19AM]

@ Engadget

I took the liberty of helping you out for your next sidebar heading. I may just be on to something haha.

http://picasaweb.google.com/myntee/Engadget/photo#5187248279620732434

Check link.

[riggs @ Apr 9th 2008 10:43AM]

MS paint has failed you.

[Myntee @ Apr 9th 2008 10:46AM]

Hahah. MS Paint is the image editing program of the Gods.

Plus it adds to my retro coolness factor. I am a hipster.

[Kurian @ Apr 9th 2008 11:44AM]

Paint >> Photoshop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFV9-RuVYRU

[Hax Or @ Apr 9th 2008 2:23PM]

Apple makes gadgets too. Engadget covers all gadgets. Your bias against one particular company is kinda annoying.

Fan boys are fine, because "Evangelists" are positive, not negative.

Negativity for no reason = Static

My 2 cents anyway

[Flashpoint @ Apr 9th 2008 9:59AM]

If they make FPS games playable over the internet - with leaderboards - I am so dropping my Blackberry for the iPhone.

[SubGenius @ Apr 9th 2008 10:00AM]

If the devs bring the games, Apple could have an insanely great gaming platform on it's hands.
This kind of network gaming will be awesome and convenient with bonjour.

[Bruno @ Apr 9th 2008 10:10AM]

Though, honestly, I LOVE my iPhone, but I think it would be awesome to have these games placed on both the iPhone, Blackberry, and the Treos. See which platform (OSX Mobile, Windows Mobile, and Palm (7?) would be the best gaming platform)

[OneLove @ Apr 9th 2008 11:18AM]

but can it play call of duty 4?

[Nick M. @ Apr 9th 2008 2:47PM]

ATT might start to re-think their choice of unlimited data in all of the iPhone plans.

[Lein @ Apr 9th 2008 10:01AM]

Come on, two articles for this yawn-fest?

A quick search (unsurprisingly) reveals none for the Dell Axim X50v being able to run this.

I guess I should remember who pays the bills here.

[clak @ Apr 9th 2008 10:16AM]

What the hell is a Dell Axim X50v?

[Flashpoint @ Apr 9th 2008 10:19AM]

In all honesty, I'm simply amazed the iPhone can run anything that remotely looks like QUAKE 3 - which was able to bring my Pentium 2 450 mhz to its knees - but I already recognize that playing games on iphone of this type would be NOTHING like playing on the PC.

Furthermore, games like DOOM and QUAKE are pick up and play diversions. Nothing that can truly hold your attention for hours upon hours - in this form, that problem would only be compunded.

I just think IT LOOKS COOL !

[KarlW @ Apr 9th 2008 10:56AM]

"I guess I should remember who pays the bills here."

What's AOL Time Warner got to do with this?

[Kiwi616 @ Apr 9th 2008 11:06AM]

@ KarlW

It's TimeWarner now....welcome to 2002/3

And I think they mean Apple gives them all the hits and therefore pays the bills by bringing all the visitors to Engadget

[Jordan @ Apr 9th 2008 2:44PM]

Nobody has the Dell Axim X50v, a lot of people have the iphone, itouch. This isn't just about gaming on mobile platforms it's also about hacking the iphone/itouch. This will be a much better platform than the Dell Axim X50v because people actually own them and know what they are.

[Scott @ Apr 9th 2008 3:06PM]

And yet I can't find a single video on the web showing a Dell Axim playing Quake 3.

Why is that?

[SubGenius @ Apr 9th 2008 10:01AM]

If the devs bring the games, Apple could have an insanely great gaming platform on it's hands.
This kind of network gaming will be awesome and convenient with bonjour.

[SubGenius @ Apr 9th 2008 10:02AM]

Stupid auto-complete password thing! Grrrr!

[roc @ Apr 9th 2008 3:03PM]

you couldn't imagine playing a racing game on a device that can behave exactly like a steering wheel? /boggle
tilt forward back for gas/brake reverse, tilt left right to steer. throw in a button for handbrake, maybe a couple more for shifting. done.

Sports is a little more challenging - but not insurmountable if you drop your preconceived notions of how they look and behave. You probably won't get NBA Live right away, but there's no reason you couldn't reasonably recreate old-school Bird vs Dr J, mature the controls and grow from that.

[Shyam D @ Apr 9th 2008 10:05AM]

SPAMMER! Jk...

The only problem with the gaming platform would be the limited set of genres. Think of playing Sports games or racing games on the iPhone....nah rather not. I think for the most part FPS and puzzle games are the only genres that could really take hold with the iPhone's accelerometer. Puzzle games play well with the touch screen too.

[Kamokazi @ Apr 9th 2008 10:03AM]

I never doubted it...if my old Axim x50v could run it 4 years ago, I kinda would expect the iPhone to be able to. Accelerometer support I would imagine is rather trivial since the code exists already to use it as an input device, and multiplayer even moreso.

[Chebwa @ Apr 9th 2008 10:04AM]

A PETITION? To do what? You want to petition these guys because they won't release all of their hard work to the public for free? Give me a break.

[allforfun @ Apr 9th 2008 10:09AM]

I think they want a petition so that the developers work a little more on that to make it available to the general public....nobody said it has to be free....dont jump to conclusions

[Chebwa @ Apr 9th 2008 10:11AM]

Yeah, I should have assumed that his suggested e-mail petition was a "let us give you money for your hack of someone else's game" petition.

[AV @ Apr 9th 2008 10:16AM]

You mean u dont want him to release his hard work for free and you wanna complain if he asks to be paid?
How about "I wanna play Q3A on my iPod Touch" petition??

[Chebwa @ Apr 9th 2008 10:20AM]

Complain about them asking to be paid...? I never said that...

I just don't think they should be PETITIONED at all, since it is made very clear in the article that the team plans to use this work as a launch pad for original content. There is a reason behind their unwillingness to release, and getting a bunch of iPhone users to annoy them doesn't seem like a legitimate course of action. Get it now?

[AV @ Apr 9th 2008 10:28AM]

But..but...WE WANNA PLAY Q3A on the Touch!!!! :)

[Velik @ Apr 9th 2008 11:05AM]

so what, they spent a little time hacking to get it to work? I wouldnt pay them crap for that. they didnt write the game. Im thinkin the actual game took a crapload more work than the what... 8 hours it took to hack the iphone. Dont worry public... if they got it to run, its only a short matter of time before someone else does. BAM! Put that in your pipe and smoke it >:O

[Decoy @ Apr 9th 2008 4:27PM]

Does Engadget endorse software piracy?

[DiGiC @ Apr 9th 2008 10:07AM]

If apple takes note of this in the next iteration of the iPhone then could it could kill the PSP & DS while making gaming to mobile devices popular

[Rich @ Apr 9th 2008 10:19AM]

I doubt a £269 + £630 subscription device will be killing the £99 DS any time soon. Especially without any tactical, physical buttons to control the games.

Have you noticed how the latest Wii games (Mario Kart, Smash Bros.) are best played with a Gamecube controller?

[Sam @ Apr 9th 2008 11:34AM]

my buttons are strategical

[MW @ Apr 9th 2008 2:35PM]

There's no way the iPhone will replace the PSP or DS, namely because of the cost difference

[Tom @ Apr 10th 2008 3:17PM]

You can get the iPod Touch for £199 without contract then, and there will probably be a successor selling for £99 in 2 or 3 years. In my view the big issue are the controls. You can't tilt everything.

[ElfHerder @ Apr 9th 2008 10:13AM]

Wait - a petition for the developers to release a pirated work that's still very much under copyright by id software?

I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to release it!

[AV @ Apr 9th 2008 10:24AM]

If you own a Q3A cd, the hack to play it on the iPod Touch would not qualify as piracy.....remember the thousands of NES simulators out there? :)

[StreetStealth @ Apr 9th 2008 12:22PM]

Mind you the source code to the Q3A engine was released under the GPL by Id back in 2005. And if this iPhone implementation were made public, it would be a bring-your-own-game-data affair, just like all Doom implementations.

This is all 100% legit.

[tiuk @ Apr 9th 2008 2:44PM]

Not to mention you could just use the OpenArena content instead.

[clak @ Apr 9th 2008 10:14AM]

The iPhone and Quake III
Vaseline is Handy
Jerks are Forever

[Anonymoose @ Apr 9th 2008 10:16AM]

what is with you iPhone fanboys? every chance you get, you turn a perfectly non iphone related topic into a forum for iphone chatter. this is about the TOUCH. yeah, go ahead and say they're just trying to clone the iphone, but how many things do you know that have a full touchscreen that aren't going to look similar to the iphone, huh? not many.

[Anonymoose @ Apr 9th 2008 10:17AM]

i spent around 1 minute too many on that last post that took me 30 seconds to write.

[Jasonbot @ Apr 9th 2008 10:32AM]

What are you trying to say here? The iPhone an iPod Touch run pretty much the same OS. It's just that the iPhone can call people (and some other small differences). They can both run the same software. No one really cares about clones since they're both Apple products.

[Neobond @ Apr 9th 2008 10:36AM]

If this is about the just the touch, then why are there two iPhones pictured in the story?

[Anonymoose @ Apr 9th 2008 10:51AM]

it was a dark day, cold as a dead man's touch. a frozen dead man to be exact. like totally immersed in liquid nitrogen. so what i'm saying was, it was cold.

anonymoose stepped to the door as a stoic father and tearful mother looked on.

"son...i...well...take care," father said, trying to conceal the emotions that threatened his composure.

"i will dad," young, brave and handsome anonymoose responded. "you too."

unable to hold back the tears, mother wailed, "oh son! the best son in the world!" *anonymoose's siblings all cry* "i already miss you! it's dangerous out there!"

"i'll be ok, mom," anonymoose said courageously.

"well," she sniffed, "at least take these." she grabbed a well worn [\sarcasm] out from the cupboard and pressed it into anonymoose's strong hands.

anonymoose gazed at the sarcasm tags she looked to pass on to him. he looked long and hard and pushed them back into her loving hands. "no, mom. i have to do this without them. i'll be ok. you take these sarcasm tags and you guard them with all your might. i'll be fine."

how wrong he was. he shoud have taken them. that handsome genius awesome fool should have taken them. he'd need it in the cold world that is the internet.

[7on @ Apr 9th 2008 10:56AM]

Too much Max Payne?

[imacmatt09 @ Apr 9th 2008 11:00AM]

I think he thinks this is about the HTC touch. Haha!!

[Anonymoose @ Apr 9th 2008 11:04AM]

mother of pearl, when will iphones and touches come equppied with sarcasm detectors?