Ever since Apple released the $99 Apple TV 2 with AirPlay compatibility last year, fans have been holding vigilant for an App Store on the set-top box. Applications would mean games on a larger screen, and AirPlay would mean iDevices could join in on the fun.
But after nearly 12 months of waiting, Cupertino has yet to make an announcement regarding 3rd-party application support. Just as jailbreaking paved the way for the iPhone, it’s also slowly unlocking the Apple TV’s potential…
There’s been 3rd-party apps available for the Apple TV for quite some time now, but so far no games have surfaced, that is, until now. The folks over at appletvblack have posted a link to an HTML5-based Blackjack game that you can play on the Apple TV 2.
Of course, your Apple TV must be jailbroken. (If you don’t know how to do that, find out how here) And to access the game, you’ll need to have Couch Surfer Pro installed (web browser). But other than those 2 prerequisites, all you need to do is direct the browser to http://html5blackjack.net/ and start playing.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8ob0yFxOL0[/tube]
The game is playable with your Apple TV remote. However, the author notes that using Rowmote Pro was more convenient for him to control the on-screen action.
I’m sure this isn’t the first time someone’s stumbled onto an HTML5 game on their Apple TV, but this is the first time we’re hearing about it. Sure, it’s not much to look at, but neither was the first iPhone game. If I recall, it had terrible graphics and consisted of shooting Microsoft Zune players. Here’s hoping that Steve Jobs and company follow suit again.
What do you think?