Classic Amiga games officially headed to iOS 7 with full controller support

Amiga logo 001

This is the announcement I’ve been waiting for like forever, or at least ever since the original iPhone came out more than six years ago. See, Commodore’s Amiga with its then amazing graphics has brought home computing to the masses.

The golden age of video games predates digital interactive entertainment we take for granted nowadays and goes way back thirty years to the mid-1980s. Me and my friends, just a bunch of kids back then, had the privilege to witness the revolution unfolding itself before our very eyes. You could easily imagine us spending countless hours playing “console-grade” Amiga games distributed on 3.5-inch floppy disks.

The App Store has certainly seen a few re-releases of classic Amiga games such as Another World, Transport Tycoon and Worms. Today, Writers’ Group Film Corp. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Amiga Games announced that classic Amiga titles will be hitting the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices soon, with full iOS 7 physical controller support…

Patrick Roberts, President of Amiga Games, notes the time is right to bring those retro games to iOS devices:

Apple app sales are on target to hit 18 billion dollars this year. With support coming in iOS 7 for game controllers, Apple devices are perfect for our company’s classic gaming titles.

Unfortunately, he did not reveal the launch lineup and only hinted that the App Store Amiga games will be released “in time for the 2013 holiday season”.

Interestingly enough, the press release mentions that Apple controls three-quarters of the app revenue pie despite holding around 40 percent of the smartphone market.

They are also banking on the fact that smartphone and tablet users spend on average $43 per person per year on paid apps, roughly four times the sum spent on any other mobile platform.

Here’s Shadow of the Beast, a 1989 Amiga hit by Psygnosis, now  a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qipWqOwkceg

Incredibly, the catchy tune is played back using only Amiga’s four digital audio channels (two for left and two for right). You should also check out the game’s awesome parallax scrolling running in 25 frames per second – full 25 years before iOS 7 popularized the effect on mobile devices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHU2guYH7Og

While there’s certainly sound business reasoning behind reviving old classics, Amiga Games should be aware that retro titles may not resonate at all with today’s generation, the youngsters who’ve been raised on super flashy whizz-bang games like the Infinity Blade series.

On the other hand, folks over 30 should jump with joy. As a bonus, the decision to implement the new native iOS 7 controller support should be a win.

Logitech gamepad ios 7

For those uninitiated, iOS 7 for the first time brings official, native support for physical gaming controllers (a prelude to Apple TV game, much?). The software supports three basic types of controllers: standard, extended form-fitting and extended wireless.

The latter connects via Bluetooth to your iOS 7 device while the extended form-fitting design allows the controller to also house your device, turning your iPhone or iPod touch into a portable gaming console akin to Logitech’s upcoming controller pictured above.