20 November 2007

Accelerometer Invaders
Gaming with Nokia N95 using accelerometer!?

As you may have already know Nokia N95 features Accelerometer (also known as Level or Tilt Sensor).

Mainly it is used by the camera in the phone to rotate pictures in the right position.

The good thing is that Nokia has released the necessary API and permission to use the accelerometer isn’t camera exclusive any more.

This Space Invaders game clone uses the N95 Accelerometer Plug-in package to hook into the accelerometer and to detect movement in the orientation of the phone and translates this input to controlling the moving space ship in the game.

The accelerometer allows you to tilt your phone to control a ship on the screen as if it were in the phone itself although movement is only linear which actually only game limit. Beside the tilt feature phone also provide the responsive feedback via the vibro.

Last but not the least I would like to give a credits for making the very first N95 game that use accelerometer functionality but unfortunately I can’t find anything and if you know something more PLEASE let me know.

Space Invaders was designed and programmed by Toshihiro Nishikado for Taito, Japan in 1978 and remains one of the most popular arcade games ever made.

Space Invaders was originally going to be called something completely different as the aliens were originally soldiers which you had to shoot down. They decided that it was politically unwise to encourage killing humans so changed the people into aliens. The game was licensed from Taito by Midway for production in the US. In 1980, the game was licensed by Atari for the 2600 game system and was the first arcade game ever adapted for Atari's home system. The Space Invaders franchise has flourished for more than 20 years and according to Taito, the game has generated more than $500 million in revenues over multiple platforms including coin-op, the Atari 2600 and the Nintendo. It was based on a 8080 CPU, had muffled analog audio, and simulated color by putting a transparent overlay on top of a monochrome display.

Space Invaders was the first arcade game to work it's way out of seedy arcades and into pizza parlors and ice cream shops. The Space Invaders phenomenon stuned conservative adults who were certain the games soured the minds of their youngsters. Residents of Mesquite, Texas pushed the issue all the way to the Supreme Court in their efforts to ban the illicit machines from their Bible-belt community. The game was so amazingly popular in Japan that it caused a coin shortage until the country's Yen supply was quadrupled. Entire arcades were opened in Japan specifically for this game. Space Inavders was released in Japan for the Super Famicom, to my knowledge its the same thing as Space Invaders for Super Gameboy. Many incidents of juvenile crime surrounded the release of this game. A girl was caught stealing $5000 from her parents and gangs of youths were reported to have robbed grocery stores just so they would have money to play the game.