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Black Powder Media's Impulse Controller hands-on (video)
Black Powder Media showed up at our double-wide HQ with a couple Bluetooth Impulse Controllers on hand for us to play with. This tiny Bluetooth 2.1 controller is actually a jack of all trades device as it will control your phone, tablet or PC for gaming, multimedia control, remote camera trigger and even help find your keys -- via a free app -- if you lose them. We had a chance to play a bit of Pac Man and Temple Run on an iPad and the control was really quite good, though, the device's housing isn't complete as you can plainly see in the pic above. Tactile feel was great with the right rubbery clickiness to the various buttons on the face and shoulder keys on the rear. The D-Pad can be flipped to the opposite side of the controller using the small mode key so that lefties can join in the fun, too. To protect your Impulse Controller while it is tethered to your keychain it comes wrapped in a very clever plastic housing that doubles as a stand for your phone while playing a game in either portrait or landscape mode. We definitely are looking forward to seeing the final polished product, but until then have a peek at our quick video tour and photo gallery.
Indie: Atari claiming copyright infringement on 'hundreds' of iOS games, Atari responds
Vector Tanks and Vector Tanks Extreme, two iOS games from Black Powder Media, have been pulled from the App Store after receiving a copyright-infringement claim from Atari. "Atari appears to be paving the way for a reissuing of their classics by putting the squeeze on hundreds of apps!" Black Powder Media's Kickstarter page reads. "Anything that has even a passing resemblance to an Atari classic has been issued a copyright infringement claim." Atari recently released updated versions of Breakout and Asteroids, and has had an Atari arcade app for some time. And a new Battlezone isn't a ludicrous thought, which is one reason Vector Tanks programmer Peter Hirschberg previously tried to secure Atari's permission to make a game inspired by Battlezone. Atari never responded, Hirschberg told Edge. "Now this," he said. "It's very depressing." When asked for comment, Atari released the following statement to Joystiq: "For companies like Atari, our intellectual property portfolio is our most valued asset. While we have great respect for the indie developer community and greatly appreciate the enthusiasm that they have for our renowned properties, we need to vigorously protect our intellectual property and ensure that it is represented in highly innovative games. We have been actively engaging with numerous established and up and coming developers to help us re-imagine our iconic franchises, and outside app developers have already helped us produce two top 10 mobile game successes in Asteroids: Gunner and Breakout: Boost. We look forward to further developing strong relationships with the indie app development community through additional games that we will be releasing in the future." Black Powder Media is now working on The Visceral Adventures of Vic Vector, a game that it believes "cannot fall under the Atari claw."
