PongWorld
Latest
Daily iPhone App: Pong World is Atari's first indie Pong winner
Way back in February, Atari announced a contest (which, full disclosure, I served as a volunteer judge for) to find some indie developers' takes on its classic Pong game to release on iOS. All summer long, a few different indie devs worked on pitches for their games, which were then voted on by the public, us judges, and then Atari for the final decision, and the winners were announced back in August. And now, today, the first winner has arrived on the App Store: Pong World, by zGames, won the grand prize in Atari's contest. As you can see in the video below, it's a fun and colorful take on Pong -- maybe a little too colorful for fans of the retro title, but especially as a free download, it's worth a try. The idea is that each paddle you use is actually a little (somewhat creepy) creature, and you can earn coins to power them up for better upgrades and more different powers. There are a few different ways to play each stage, and the game is a fun take on the simple and enduring idea of Pong. The app's freemium elements are worth a mention, in that they are pretty terrible. Ads pop up in between almost every game, and the coins themselves aren't worth very much -- if you want to unlock everything without spending any money, you'll need to play a whole lot. These elements weren't in the original game I judged, and I expect we'll see some tweaks to them in the future. Of course Atari wants to make some money on this freemium title, but what's in there now is a bit too annoying. At any rate, Pong World is the first fruits of this long contest, so it's your first chance to see what came out of all that work these indie devs put in. It's available for free on the App Store right now.
Atari celebrates 40 years of Pong with new, free iOS Pong game, custom portable Xbox 360
Atari's celebrating 40 years of arcade classic Pong today by releasing ... another version of Pong. Pong World is being dubbed "the first-ever official new Pong game on iOS" (despite our search of the App Store dictating the contrary), but more importantly, it's totally free and it's already available on the iOS App Store (see gameplay below the break). The iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch game started life as one of many entries in Atari's "Pong Indie Developer Challenge," which pitted devs against each other for $50K and lead representation on the big four-zero celebration. Should the free game not be enough for you, you could always vie for one of the crazy sweet portable Xbox 360s (seen above) on Atari's Facebook page. Why yes, that is a custom LCD screen attached to a modded Xbox 360, which also happens to resemble a classic Atari console. And yes, we agree, it is totally sweet.
Atari's Centipede Origins available for free, Pong World due this month
Atari is revving up iOS releases for the holidays by kicking out a few long-awaited titles. First up is Centipede: Origins, which hit the App Store this week. It's a modern take on the old shooter classic. The app is free and universal, though (surprise!) it's also freemium, which means you must earn coins to upgrade weapons and other implements. Centipede purists may be a little weirded out, but it's a solid arcade game with a good progression system. Atari has also announced that Pong World will finally making its way to the App Store later on this month. This is the new take on Pong from the big developer contest that Atari ran (and that I served in as a volunteer judge), featuring some crazy creatures serving as paddles, powerups that tweak the game in various ways, and a few new modes and ways to play against your friends. Pong World should be an interesting release -- it's due out on November 15 (next week) later this month (Atari's just gotten in touch to say it's actually been pushed back a bit), also for free.
Winners revealed for Atari's Pong Dev challenge, Pong World earns first place
The winners have finally been announced in the long-running Atari/Pong Indie Dev Challenge, and the three winning entries have been revealed prior to their eventual release on the App Store. Atari's contest sought out modern versions of Pong for the App Store, and offered cash prizes and revenue sharing for the top contestants. Before we go through the winners, please note that I served as a volunteer, unpaid judge on this contest, along with Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, developer David Whatley, and Pocket God's Dave Castelnuovo. That means I got to play through all of the finalists and deliver scores based on my impressions of the games. According to those scores (as well as Atari's input and a popular vote), zGames' Pong World came out in first place -- it's a very colorful take on the old school game, with furry creatures as paddles and lots of ball tweaks and fun twists. Mad Ruse's Pong Tournament picked up second place, featuring a very wild 3D version of Pong, with high level tournament play and quite a few powerups and extra items to try and protect your wall while a ball is passed back and forth between two players. And Eppy Games' Fong variant got third place -- it's a really crazy circular version of Pong, with some strange rotational controls and some really frantic action elements. Each of those winners will get a cash prize for winning and a three-year revenue share agreement, enabling them to use the Pong name for their titles as well as earn money alongside the commercial releases. There's more information on those coming soon, so hopefully you'll be able to play some of these titles when they arrive.
