angband on iphone?

[chem]

Has anyone looked at porting vanilla to the iphone? I would be able to distribute it via the app store, but don't have time to do the coding.

iphone apps are based on Objective-C, which is a superset of C/C++. As long as there was no scripting code needed, it may be doable. I know the gameplay quality may not be as high as desktop keyboard + numpad, but... angband on iphone!

[Lebannen]

There were a couple of posts about it in this thread. A good place to start might be the Ridiculous Fish cocoa port of 3.0.6 for anyone who wants to tackle this - V has seen some re-architecture since then but nothing insurmountable...

[chem]

If someone can get a functional cocoa port going in the latest vanilla CVS, I will help maintain it...

[pegli]

As long as there was no scripting code needed, it may be doable.

The Angband-3 directory in the ridiculousfish sources clearly uses Lua, a scripting language, so it would not be permissible to distribute an iPhone app based on them. The 2.x sources don't use a scripting language, so they would be a better starting point.

p.

[takkaria]

The Angband-3 directory in the ridiculousfish sources clearly uses Lua, a scripting language, so it would not be permissible to distribute an iPhone app based on them. The 2.x sources don't use a scripting language, so they would be a better starting point.

p.

I imagine you'd be better off using Angband 3.0.9b as a basis for a port, if not 3.1 when it comes out, just because then you have a version that is still in active development. (post-3.0.6 versions don't use Lua)

[Jabba]

I think an angband variant on the iphone is a great idea.
I don't have any technical advice, but from a marketing perspective, PLEASE name the game something other than angband or a variation thereof. Unless you are already an RPG'er or serious JRRT fan, the name doesn't sell.

[Atarlost]

Changing the name would be a terrible move. Having two different names would create confusion.

[Jabba]

Not at all! Firstly, there would only be one iphone version. Secondly , there are already many, many variants of angband, each with a different name. I don't think it causes too much confusion.

[Pete Mack]

BroadBand? NarrowBand? EdgeBand? 3GAIBand?

[rdermyer]

I think an angband variant on the iphone is a great idea.
I don't have any technical advice, but from a marketing perspective, PLEASE name the game something other than angband or a variation thereof. Unless you are already an RPG'er or serious JRRT fan, the name doesn't sell.

I don't think the name is what people would have problems with, it's that there aren't any graphics. In the mainstream video game environment, that's a serious problem.
And if ASCII graphics (I know there are tilesets, but I have a really hard time telling what's what) don't turn people away, then the extraordinarily steep learning curve hits them pretty fast. It kind of seems that people who play Angband are drawn into it by a recommendation instead of reading about it or seeing the name somewhere (I might be completely wrong here).

[Atarlost]

Yes, but each variant is referred to by only one name. You won't go search for information on "dungeonthingy" and not find that information because the versions for all other platforms aren't named "dungeonthingy", but "angband".

[Narvius]

I actually found Angband by reading an article that said NetHack was much more awesome.
I found it's the other way around.

[Jabba]

After thinking about it for a little while, I'm not sure a straight angband port would work so well. There's definitely the graphics issue, but one of the tilesets would be okay. More importantly, though, are the UI issues...for a keyboard driven game to be playable on the iphone, there are going to have to be major changes. Having the keyboard visible is going to take a huge amount of space...also, as those of you who have an iphone know, typing on one is not an exact science....

[Donald Jonker]

After thinking about it for a little while, I'm not sure a straight angband port would work so well. There's definitely the graphics issue, but one of the tilesets would be okay. More importantly, though, are the UI issues...for a keyboard driven game to be playable on the iphone, there are going to have to be major changes. Having the keyboard visible is going to take a huge amount of space...also, as those of you who have an iphone know, typing on one is not an exact science....

FAAngband has pretty elegant mouse-driven controls, which may be a good place to start. Also POWDER has the capacity for entirely touch-screen control and works wonderfully. It's more complicated than angband (command-wise) too.

[loafie]

I would *love* Angband on iphone, though I realize there would need to be some serious UI work done. I'm almost to the point I don't have to use a conventional computer at all right now -- add Angband and I'm on the way!