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Take your foosball skills global with Foosball Cup World
Battle numerous other countries in none other than Foosball Cup World, a game that puts your virtual foosball skills to the test. Play quick matches or choose challenges and put in some more effort to achieve special goals within the game. The game by default pairs you up with a computer, but soon after improving your skill Foosball Cup World unlocks additional modes for two players, tournaments and the world league. The game is free with in-app purchases for iPhone and iPad. Initially, two modes are unlocked: Quick Match and Challenges. In Quick Match, the first team to score six goals wins. That's the default, but the game is filled with customization options. Choose everything from the table design, size, foosmen type, ball type and goal limit. The latter can be as little as two goals for a win. Much of these options are locked initially and require "glory points" to unlock. In Challenges, the game presents you with a scrollable list of goals to accomplish. For instance, the first one is "Meet the Goalie" which requires you to save five shots toward the goal in a row. The award is one glory point and 100 energy points if you succeed. Tapping start begins the game. The challenges get more difficult as you go down the list but I found them easier than the Quick Match games. I've only played real-world foosball a few times in my life and I was never particularly good at it. In fact, I'm terrible. I was hoping those pathetic skills wouldn't carry over into the virtual realm. They did. At the standard configuration, there are three rows of foosmen to control. Drag your finger left or right to spin the players in the direction necessary for getting the ball headed in the right direction. Despite my inability to be even slightly decent at foosball, there's room for improvement in the responsiveness department. I'm not taking full responsibility for that. The tap targets for each row are a bit too small for my thumbs (and others who I had test out the game) on the iPhone 6 and as a result it's more difficult than it should be to control the motion of the foosmen. It's a bit easier on the iPad's larger display. To move forward in the game, eventually you should start unlocking some of the aforementioned new features. This requires having a decent amount of glory points which you earn after completing various challenges or going straight for the available in-app purchases. What's nice about Foosball Cup World though is that if you don't desire to unlock extras, you don't have to. Just play the game with standard settings until you don't feel like playing anymore. The in-app purchases aren't crucial to the game, most of them are just for revealing bonus content. If you're a foosball fan, give Foosball Cup World a whirl. The controls do need some tweaking and right now require plenty of hand-eye coordination, but other than that the game is solid. Plus, I'm fairly certain just about anyone can play better than I can so you don't have much to lose.
This iPad foosball table almost nails it
I really wanted this foosball table to be awesome. It's not bad, but you'll soon discover there's a bit of a flaw, especially if you play foosball regularly. The table itself is basically an accessory for the app Classic Match Foosball (the app is free, of course). From New Potato Tech, the table itself is slightly longer than a full size iPad, with fast-moving rods and a nice heft to it that belies the plastic exterior. There's a 30-pin dock in the model I tried, and the interface with the app worked as advertised. You can also use it as a dock, and there's a USB port on the bottom of the table to allow you to plug in the iPad whilst you play. The rods for the Classic Match Foosball table have cross-hatching on them, which appears to enable optical sensors in the table to track movement and rotation -- exactly what you'd need to follow a foosball table's rods during a game. The app itself is very responsive, and I had no complaints with that. Whether I was meticulously lining up a shot on a slow-moving ball or just spinning the rod like a madman, the table kept pace. The "action" on the rods was impeccable, as it felt fluid and pretty much like a brand-new foosball table. Even with some rough play the table did fine (and there are pads you can add to get the iPad more secure in the table). Unfortunately, a direct simulation of a foosball table in such a small space, as any lifelong Spencer's customer will tell you, isn't necessarily that much fun. Foosball, like air hockey and pool, doesn't always translate well to a smaller table because the speed at which it is commonly played becomes too much for the brain to handle when shrunk down. I remember watching the evolution of numerous air hockey iOS games, so maybe the foosball app will tune itself over time, should the developers continue to playtest it and focus on the fun, not the simulation. The simulation is also somewhat flawed due to the hardware, however. In typical foosball, the rods on either side are offset, and line up with the rods you see on the table -- the ones which correspond to your "team" are easily, visibly connected to the handles which control them. The Classic Match table, however, chose to align those rods. So what happens is the rod doesn't line up with what you see on the screen. In videos I watched where seasoned foosball players were using the table, the cognitive disconnect was never overcome. Repeatedly they went for the wrong handle because the handle which looked like it would control one of your guys actually extends onto the screen for an opposing team. Your handle does control one of your team's rods, but those rods are offset. The few seconds of delay it takes for the brain to compensate for this disconnect, over time, made the foosball table less fun. It became obvious in short order that the frustration factor of having to compensate for the design choice was a non-starter. It's possible that over time this problem would lessen as the brain adjusts, but I don't think so. Worse, this can't be easily solved in software. The rods should have been offset from each other. Instead, they are directly across from each other on the table, so it will never really function like a real foosball table. At least, the rods won't ever line up correctly. The shame of it all is New Potato has created a table that, aside from that one flaw, feels and plays fantastically. If you can get your hands on one and try it, maybe the fact that the rods don't line up with what you see on the screen won't matter. But before you spend US$99 on this, I recommend you try it for yourself and see if you can wrap your brain around that flaw, especially while the foosball ball flies around the screen at near-light speeds.
Daily Update for November 21, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
iPad as foosball table
Foosball, that favorite game of beer-guzzling college students around the world, can now be played in the privacy of your own dorm room complete with those wonderful 2-axis control bars and scoring markers. The table in this case? Your iPad. New Potato Technologies has bet the farm on a US$99.99 accessory called Classic Match Foosball for iPad that transforms your iPad into an amazingly realistic -- but tiny -- foosball table. The table and upcoming free companion app give you the ability to play various forms of foosball, both classic and with alternative foosmen and field layouts. Anywhere from one to four people can play the game, and there's even a capability in the app to give you instant replays. The legs of the Classic Match Foosball table fold for transport and storage, and you can even charge and sync your iPad while you play. There's no word on when the app will be available, but the accessory is already listed for ordering.
11 The Beautiful Game is to foosball tables as Vertu is to basic Nokias (video)
Foosball, it's the game of champions too afraid to step outside and get their boots muddy. If that's a sentiment you can relate to, you'll have no trouble understanding why a team of Dutch designers has put together this here foosball table deluxe, which they've called 11 The Beautiful Game. In development since way back in 2008, the 11 has just made its way into limited production with a pre-order available via GRO Design's website. We had a little looksie inside the company's portfolio of past works and, as it turns out, it's already responsible for designing the Nokia 6500 and 6500 Slide, meaning it should be well versed in the art of massaging metal into beauty. Each unit ordered takes 12 weeks of meticulous handcrafting to build, but if you haven't got that long to wait, the video's just after the break right now. [Thanks, Martin]
DIY Lego foosball table advances to Nerd Cup semi-finals (video)
Expert Lego builder Sariel managed to impress us a few months ago with his fully-articulated robotic arm, and he's now back with a particularly well-timed project: a foosball table built entirely out of Lego. While it's not fully automated (and therefore ineligible for the Robo Cup), it does use some WeDo motion sensors to automatically keep track of the score and announce goals on a laptop connected to the table (not to mention on some sliding Lego bricks above each goal), and it even packs a built-in ball return mechanism to help speed up play. Head on past the break to check it out in action.
WWDC 2010: Illusion Labs' Foosball HD
I finally got to meet up with the guys from Illusion Labs at WWDC last week. I've been writing about their apps for a little while (their most popular title is Touchgrind, but I really enjoyed Sway as well), so it was great to meet them in person and talk about what they've been up to on the App Store. Their latest app is Foosball HD, a very well-polished and intuitive foosball table for the iPad. It's their first original iPad venture (they brought Labyrinth and Touchgrind over right at launch), and they said that foosball was an idea that vibed well with their theme of making metaphorical games -- "we make more simulators than games," they told me. The app is clean and easy to play, and there are even little touches like projected shadows below the figures and some physics on the ball that Illusion was very proud to implement. The app's available now for US$2.99 as an introductory price. We also talked about social gaming networks, both third-party networks and Apple's Game Center. The developers said that they'd never been interested in adding third-party code to their apps, just because it usually required that they split branding, and that they couldn't integrate the UI in a way that appealed to them. They did admit that they were "more likely to use Apple's Game Center," but even so, their ideal solution is probably just to build something in-house rather than rely on anyone else. Finally, we chatted about handset compatibility, and how they'll react to yesterday's iOS 4.0 release. At the time we talked, they hadn't determined what to do yet, but they said that yes, they would probably end up dropping support for the first generation iPhone and iPod touch, just because it wasn't worth the trouble. Especially with the free updates, Illusion says it's a reasonable expectation for users to be upgraded from the original version. Again, very good to speak with them -- we'll look for more from this standout iOS developer in the future.
Audi's foosball table still costs less than its cars, but not by much
Look, if we were in the market for a foosball table, we came across this lovely unit, and it ran $50 or $100 more than your standard-issue wooden model, we'll be honest: we'd seriously consider it. Heck, we might even be willing to plunk down an extra $200 if we were in a good mood. But Audi -- a company traditionally known for designing cars, not work break entertainment devices -- is looking to command far more for this work of art. Having debuted two years ago at Audi's Concept Design studio in Munich, the company and production partner Leonhart are now hawking a limited run of 20 of the tables for a whopping €12,900 ($15,800) each -- a price that far outstrips any semblance of reason or justification unless you're the kind of person that owns ten Audis, not merely one. For what it's worth, the company says "a year's painstaking craftsmanship" was necessary before the prototypes tables were even ready, so we suppose you get what you pay for; just don't set your beer on the edge, alright?
Early Nokia N8 leak attempts to go viral (video)
Remember that viral video being made for the then secret Nokia N8 codenamed Vasco? The one leaked in a tweet. Well, here it is, a mixture of impressive foosball skill and even more impressive CGI animation. Was it worth the wait?
2eleven introduces souped-up foosball table
It's not quite as elaborate as some foosball tables we've seen, but this new rig from 2eleven will no doubt attract its fair share of attention nonetheless and, unlike some of those other units, it's actually pre-built. While there doesn't seem to be a complete breakdown of all its intricacies, the table does come equipped with some LED score displays, a pair of LCD displays apparently intended to display advertisements, an automatic ball lift mechanism and, yes, cup holders. Of course, those accommodations for ads would seem to suggest that this one isn't exactly intended for home use, but we're guessing at least a few folks out there will find a way around that.[Via Be Sportier]
Chelpa Ferro's foosball table is seriously wired for sound
Highly modified foosball tables are a dime a dozen, but this contraption could easily be mistook for some sort of Martian gaming machine at first glance. Dreamed up and crafted by designer Chelpa Ferro, this Tota Treme Terra looks to be a vanilla foosball table with an artsy overhead light and a hodgepodge of speakers wrapped all around. Word on the street has it that the machine belts out sound effects based on the action up above, but sadly, the actual details about this potential ninth wonder of the world are being left to our imaginations.
DIY robotic foosball table is ready to throw down
Finally, your dreams of a constant foosball opponent have become a startling reality. Some clever DIY-types have come up with a solution for how to fill all those long, lonely nights -- a computer-controlled foosball table. The premise is simple: servos coupled with a micro-controller operate the arms of the table, while a camera above the action monitors the game, including the location of the ball and the opponents moves, then processes that information using a custom AI. Sure, your game won't include players like Hitler or Ghandi, but at least you won't have to go hunting for competition on those late nights. Check the video after the break, and hit the read link for all the how-to info.
Apocalyptic foosball: Eleven Forty's The Opus, good vs. evil
God vs. Lucifer. Mother Teresa vs. Jack the Ripper. Mary Poppins vs., um, Vlad the Impaler. And Christopher Robin vs. Pol Pot? Finally, we can act out our favorite epic battles of good vs. evil in what's surely the most legendary arena of them all: foosball. This is Eleven Forty's The Opus, a precision-crafted hand-made table dramatic enough to settle the score once and for all. Fun in theory, but how many people do you know would want to take the reins of Hitler, Idi Amin, and Caligula against you? You know what? Don't answer that, we don't even want to know.[Via Brandish]
IR Robot offers up next generation of foosball: Robot Sports Game
Sure, capping off a hard-fought round of Airhockey over a distance with a shifty hat trick elicits a great deal of satisfaction (or disdain), but sometimes we prefer to one on one, up close and personal. Coming from nowhere other than South Korea, IR Robot has unveiled a clever hybrid of foosball and rollerball that pits two to four combatants against one another in a slightly violent game of robotic soccer - one that puts Mr. Soccer Robot Football to shame . The remote-controlled carts are electrified from the table's surface, and can move in any direction while busting 360s on command in an attempt to land the ball in the opponent's goal. While we don't have any details concerning price or availability, we've definitely found the next addition to Engadget HQ's arcade room right here.
