An open letter to Peter Cohen
Dear Peter ,
As you know , I once pennedMacworld’sGame Room editorial . And , now blessed with that beat , you may be start to feel the way I did once I passed the column along to Andy Ihnatko — if you ever see another computer game , it will be too soon . The once stern joy of vaporizing one body louse after another became a terrible grind .
Having had nearly a decade - longsighted break from the tower , my interest in gaming has started to take back . sure enough , it ’s only been resurrected to the point where I ’ve buy the reprinting ofReturn to Dark Castleand LittleWing’sMonster Fair(so Eugene Sue me , I ’ve got a nostalgic run and I ’m still a all-day sucker for pinball ) , but at least there’ssomespark .
What rekindle my once - numb romance with gambling may surprise you . It was my iPhone . I’vejailbrokenthe thing since just about Day 1 and when I have a superfluous couple of minutes , it ’s not unusual to find me banging off onMahjong 2 .
I refer this game specifically because I noticed that the iTunes Store now extend updated version ofiPod gamesthat were take out from the Store ’s shelves because they were n’t compatible with the 3 G iPod nano and iPod classic . Among those games isElectronic Arts ’ Mahjong .
Given that I ’ve had recent experience with the iPhone ’s rendering of the game , I thought I ’d give the Apple - sanction Mahjong a spin ( quite literally , thanks to the iPod ’s clickwheel ) . Having done so I was prompted to drop a line to you because you , more than anyone I get it on , might have an informed answer to this question :
iPod gaming kind of sucks , right ?
And I suggest that for these reasons :
I allow in it , I was among those crying out for more iPod games , but having see what ’s possible on the iPhone and iPod touch ( also jailbroken)—larger screen , acceleration , touch - port — it ’s hard for me to return to a “ traditional ” iPod and gain much pleasure from twirl a steering wheel and clicking a push . And I have to think that it will be just as hard for those who own both an iPhone / iPod cutaneous senses and a clickwheel iPod when third - party games come to the iPhone and touch this summertime .
Will the iPhone 2.0 software and the game that will pour in with it write the terminal for gaming on traditional iPod ? You now bear the master ’s mantle , please typeset me straight .
Your booster and fellow worker ,
Chris
Read Peter Cohen ’s reply .
