My “Games Completed” list this year is quite good. Part of that is that my total number of games played is inversely proportional to the amount of time I play World of Warcraft. Meaning I didn’t play much Warcraft this year, so I played a lot of other things. The other reason is that I really tried to put an emphasis on completing games this year. I pick up a lot of games and tend to dabble a lot, but I’m easily distracted by the next thing and leave many games hanging. This year I dabbled less and finished more. So without further ado…
Archive for the ‘Apple’ Category

APPraisal: Guitar Hero
July 26, 2010
Appy Shreddin’ Monday! I’m not sure what it is that draws me to music genre games. I can’t tell you much about songs or artists for the last decade or two, and I have the manual dexterity of a rhino (animal and/or record exec). But I keep playing them anyway. Since APPraisal has already tackled Rock Band, it’s only fitting to give Guitar Hero a spin.

APPraisal: Pulse
July 12, 2010
Justin is back with another APPraisal guest review!
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I’m not a huge RSS junkie, nor do I visit a multitude of sites per day. I do, however, visit a small number of sites a LOT each day. I would say I’m visiting Gizmodo like 30 times between 8 am and 4:30 pm. So, if you’re like me and read a small number of sites with great frequency, Pulse is for you!
Read the rest of this entry at justinriggle.COM. Thanks Justin! »

Papercraft Friday #89: iDonkey Phone Kit
June 4, 2010
Wish the iCade Arcade Cabinet that ThinkGeek pranked was a little more substantial? Make a mini version of your own with this Donkey Kong iPhone / iPod Touch kit, featured this week at Papercraft Paradise. It may not play games like the fake one did, but you can make it a nice dock for your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Not keen on this one? Want more? Check out other Papercraft Friday posts.

APPraisal: Angry Birds
May 26, 2010
Things have been kinda quiet here on the APPraisal front, but not because there’s a lack of great iPhone / iPod Touch apps out there. Whether about apps or music or life, I generally only post when I have something to say. I don’t post just to post. For APPraisal, that means using an app enough to be able to talk about it meaningfully and give an honest opinion, and while I’ve downloaded and dabbled with several apps over the last few weeks, I haven’t used most of them enough to talk fairly about. However, if the lack of APPraisal posts just makes you want to fling a bird at a brick wall (or even if it doesn’t), you may want to know more about Angry Birds.

Bookmarked: MacUpdate.com
May 16, 2010
MacUpdate.com is a website that helps you keep all your Apple Macintosh computer software and Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad apps up-to-date. 5,000,000 unique visitors hit the site every month, and I’m one of them. While it’s certainly very easy to install and update software on a Mac, keeping up with all the updates to all the software is always difficult, regardless of platform. MacUpdate makes it easy, which is why they’re “the #2 Most Popular Mac-only software website on the Internet, second only to Apple.com.” If you own a Mac and don’t use their site… what the heck have you been doing?!?
The site is free to use, but they have several side features that are useful to members, such as a desktop client that will compare your software versions with the latest versions available, and update your software automatically. If you find that keeping your software up-to-date is always a bit of a hassle, try MacUpdate. Let me know what you think!
What else have I Bookmarked? Click and find out.

This was a triumph… Steam for Mac! Free Portal!
May 12, 2010
… I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction…
Valve’s digital game distribution platform Steam, first available to PC users in 2004, was finally released for Mac operating system today. I’m not a huge fan of digital distribution and despise digital rights management, preferring to actually own my content instead of lease it, but it’s great to see some gaming love go to Mac users. As a bonus, signing up for Steam is free AND right now you can download the awesome Portal for FREE! That’s right, my previous Game of the Year pick is FREE until May 24th. Have your cake and eat it too! No lie!

Bookmarked: TouchArcade
May 2, 2010
If AppShopper was my ultimate source for tracking Apple apps, then TouchArcade.com is my definitive source for game app news and information. TouchArcade posts several game app related articles a day on upcoming releases, news, reviews, previews for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. If you want to know about a game, they’ve probably talked about it on TouchArcade. Plus they have a very active community with some heavily trafficked forums. All of that combines to make it a must-view website for me almost daily. Let me know what you think!
What else have I Bookmarked? Click and find out.

Bookmarked: Boxer
April 25, 2010
I stumbled upon Boxer by sheer happenstance. I was looking for a picture of the box side (or a flattened box scan) of Worlds of Ultima: Savage Empire (or Ultima: Kyouryuu Teikoku) for the Super Famicom. I have the cart, and thought maybe I could make up a sleeve for a universal game case for it, but I only have pics of the front and back covers, not the side (if anyone has one, please let me know!!). While surfing around, I saw a mention in a forum somewhere of playing games in DOSBox, an open source DOS emulator that is quite often used to play DOS games on modern systems. The forum post mentioned that for Mac users, Boxer was the way to go.
Boxer is a DOS game emulator for Mac that takes all the hassle out of messing with DOSBox settings and drive mounting and so on. Just drag your DOS game folder or CD onto it. If the game needs to be installed, Boxer will install it, and leave you with a “gamebox” that you double-click to start the game. It’s pretty much as simple as that. As with any program, some old games come with complications, and Boxer lets you tweak as you like. But in many cases it’s not necessary. They even have some ready-to-play demos and games available to download in .dmg files, all ready to go. When I saw Ultima IV and Ultima Underworld in the ready-to-pay group, I knew I’d be hooked. Plus it works with many of the DOS-bases GOG.com games as well.
If you feel like rockin’ some old skool gaming on your Mac, try out Boxer. Let me know what you think.
What else have I Bookmarked? Click and find out.

Bookmarked: AppShopper.com
April 15, 2010
I’ve recommended AppShopper.com to several people over just the past week, which certainly qualifies it for a Bookmarked post. AppShopper is a great site for tracking Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch apps. They list all of the new releases, you can make a list of what you own, and best of all, you can make a wish list to track what you want to own. When the price drops on an app on your wish list, you can get notification by email or RSS. Needless to say, this site has cost me some money! A lot of my APPraisal posts started with something I found or was following on Appshopper. But it’s also saved me a lot, by allowing me to track apps and purchase them at the price I like when they go on sale or the price drops. It’s one of my few go-to app sites. If you’re an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch user, try out AppShopper.com. Let me know what you think.
What else have I Bookmarked? Click and find out.











































