Hints From iTunes 7.1 (International Movies and AppleTV Games )

[MacRumors]

Following an examination of iTunes 7.1, some have found hidden gems in the software that indicate or otherwise confirm earlier suspicions about where Apple is heading.

International Movies
iLounge took an in-depth look at the release, and found support for ratings tags for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom in addition to the United States for movies and TV shows (when applicable). This find could serve as additional fuel for previous rumors that cited Spring 2007 as the launch for the expansion of iTunes in Europe beyond music.

Apple TV Games
More than two dozen text strings hidden in iTunes 7.1 related to game management with the Apple TV have been found and reported by various sites. The strings, such as "Are you sure you want to sync games? All existing games on the Apple TV XXX will be replaced with games from this iTunes library." and "Some of the games in your iTunes library were not copied to the Apple TV XXX because they cannot be played on this Apple TV."are further confirmation of comments by PopCap VP Greg Canessa indicating that the Apple TV would indeed support games.

Rumors regarding Apple's interest in the gaming market received a kick-start in December when Prudential analyst Jesse Tortora released a research note stating that he believed Apple would have to offer some sort of console gaming device in order to compete against offerings from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

[RichCoder]

Will Apple TV have 3D hardware?

[gkarris]

What kind of gamepads (other than USB)?

Will it have Bluetooth like PS3?

This is sort of a given - same type of games as on Tivo...

[gkarris]

Originally Posted by RichCoder

Will Apple TV have 3D hardware?

Retro gaming is becoming popular - nothing really past DOOM...

Bring on the Atari and Williams Classics!!!

[koobcamuk]

Originally Posted by gkarris

Retro gaming is becoming popular - nothing really past DOOM...

Bring on the Atari and Williams Classics!!!

Sonic. Get sonic on there and I will buy it. In fact, don't bother I am getting my megadrive (genesis) out of the box again...

[RichCoder]

Originally Posted by gkarris

Retro gaming is becoming popular - nothing really past DOOM...

Bring on the Atari and Williams Classics!!!

I agree totally. They need a 2 joystick gamepad for Robotron!

But if they have 3D hardware(only to the level of gamecube) it would open up all sorts of fun games. Anyone play MonkeyBall?

-rich

[Much Ado]

Don't hold the patent that controls downloadable media from the internet now?

If they bother to ever enforce it, the TV could be massive in a few years, and these could be the first steps of its expansion.

Correct me on the patent thing if i'm wrong, but i remember being shocked at how a company could hold such a valuable patent at the time.

MA.

[natejohnstone@g]

I'm sure it wont' be the current AppleTV, but Apple does NEED a gaming console. It fits EXACTLY into thier marketshare demographic! Neilson just did a study showing that console-owning households is on the rise, Apple could capitalize on that.
Now, some will argue that Apple owners are not "hard core gamers," (which I find a bit offensive...), but the argued the same thing when the predicted the Nintendo Wii would fail--and that is a phenomenal success.
All they need is a proper platform by which the can play the Apple computer games on the TV through AppleTV and they'd have thier "console," if they wanted to add proprietary games later they could.

[Swarmlord]

Originally Posted by natejohnstone@g

I'm sure it wont' be the current AppleTV, but Apple does NEED a gaming console. It fits EXACTLY into thier marketshare demographic! <snip>.

It would be nice, but i doubt they want to compete in the sub $250 machine category. I'd be happy if they brought more games that would run on Powerbooks and minis.

[A is jump]

Originally Posted by gkarris

Retro gaming is becoming popular - nothing really past DOOM...

Bring on the Atari and Williams Classics!!!

OMG... The Graphics on Ataris were terrible! I would never have fun on an tv if the graphics were'nt top of the line

[KingofAwesome]

Originally Posted by A is jump

OMG... The Graphics on Ataris were terrible! I would never have fun on an tv if the graphics were'nt top of the line

Well, they weren't great graphics, but the games were still fun. At risk of sounding like an old man, I'd take a few rounds of low-rez Galaga over the shiniest, three-dimensioniest, 720p-iest mahjong any day.

[syklee26]

if Apple remote can be revamped to be like Wii remote, I will be sold.

[inkswamp]

Originally Posted by gkarris

Retro gaming is becoming popular - nothing really past DOOM...

Bring on the Atari and Williams Classics!!!

Everything prior to Doom is great for nostalgic reasons (especially if you're my age and grew up in the Goldmine Arcade) but beyond that, they're pretty much worthless. Even my friends and I got bored of those games pretty quickly back then. I think Apple should set the bar a little higher and aim for something a little more modern. If people can already play the classics in emulation on their own computers then I think it's probably okay to expect a little more from TV than that.

[kalisphoenix]

The big thing for me was always:
a) simple, mind-intensive games (Adventures of Lolo)
b) horribly drawn-out RPGs (SSI, Wizardry -- things taking months or years to beat)
c) text games (Zork)
d) surreal platform games (Mario, Goonies 2, etc)

For instance, I was never big into FPS or fighting games, although I was big into Street Fighter 2 until about the twelfth time they remade it.

The cool thing about this is, to make me happy, all Apple would need to do is make a computer capable of running a DOS emulator, an NES emulator, and perhaps a couple other emulators (Turbografix: SPLATTERHOUSE LIVES!)

And the really cool thing is that I'm sitting here using one of them right now And it's portable, it also runs Windows, and it hooks to my TV... etc etc.

[matticus008]

Originally Posted by RichCoder

Will Apple TV have 3D hardware?

It does, but not on the scale of a modern gaming console, unless they've seriously been holding back on the feature statements (and found a magical way to cool the thing). I wouldn't count on any shooters or lifelike flight simulators, though.

[roland.g]

Any gaming on the tv will be of the Tertris and Pac-Man varieties. Maybe some Missle Command and other Atari type games. An afterthought like the video iPod. It won't be Wii or PS or XBox level gaming. Sorry Hardcore Complaymers.

[pgwalsh]

Originally Posted by roland.g

Any gaming on the tv will be of the Tertris and Pac-Man varieties. Maybe some Missle Command and other Atari type games. An afterthought like the video iPod. It won't be Wii or PS or XBox level gaming. Sorry Hardcore Complaymers.

You wouldn't need a 1 Ghz Pentium M to play those games. I don't know the full specifications of the Apple TV, but I imagine you could play average games with the 1Ghz processor, like Age of Empires. However, this also depends on what OS capabilities this little unit has.

[maximile]

In this post on my blog (which I'm shamelessly spamming, because I'm proud that I predicted this in January), I have a go at answering some of these questions. Here's a summary if you don't want to visit:

• Graphics sufficient for all sorts of cool games. Even if the graphics card isn't the rumoured 64MB GeForce, the fact that it can display all those cool menus and decode HD video suggests that it'd be capable of doing impressive stuff.
• Controlled either by bluetooth dongle or 802.11 wireless controllers. There's no reason you can't use 802.11 as an input device protocol. They'd just have to write custom ethernet drivers to allow it.
• Market. I don't think they'll be aiming to compete with the Wii in any way. I think they're more likely to try and set up something like Xbox Live Arcade, but with the marketplace on the computer (iTunes) rather than on the console.

Plus remember the line says something like "are you sure you want to sync your games to the TV?" What it may mean is "are you sure you want to sync your games to the TV? 'cause it ain't gonna do you any good if you do".....

[Yvan256]

Originally Posted by RichCoder

Will Apple TV have 3D hardware?

Haven't you seen the TV in the keynotes? That thing can do 3D in 720p.

One rumor about specs also said the TV had a "nVidia G72M with 64MB DDR2 video memory (essentially the GeForce Go 7400)" GPU. More than enough for 3D games, possibly even games from about 3-4 years ago.

The limiting factor will be the controller, which will only allow up/down/left/right + 1 button (since "menu" is reserved to go back to the menu). Unless they plan on having USB gamepads compatibility? Apple-branded USB gamepad anyone?

[RichCoder]

Originally Posted by Yvan256

Haven't you seen the TV in the keynotes? That thing can do 3D in 720p.

One rumor about specs also said the TV had a "nVidia G72M with 64MB DDR2 video memory (essentially the GeForce Go 7400)" GPU. More than enough for 3D games, possibly even games from about 3-4 years ago.

No, I didn't see the keynote. Thanks for the info. the 7400 isn't bad. Somewhere in between last generation and next generation consoles.

-rich

EDIT: Just found this http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2395

[Yvan256]

Originally Posted by RichCoder

No, I didn't see the keynote. Thanks for the info. the 7400 isn't bad. Somewhere in between last generation and next generation consoles.

Keep in mind, I was only mentioning the fact that the TV interface is in 3D (similar to Front Row and CoverFlow in iTunes). Also, the GPU I mentionned is only a rumor, I don't know if it's true.

However, I'd guess that TV runs OS X and uses CoreImage, CoreVideo and CoreAnimation, so a good GPU is required.

[J Radical]

Anyone expecting TV games any more sophisticated than pac man is probably going to be disappointed.

The hardware just isn't there for 3D games and the development support for a newbie platform in a swamped market is non existant. The device is competing against the xbox 360 and PS3 for living room dominance, it could win the battle for content delivery but not for games.

Older classics that could work, such as mario platformers are all owned by nintendo and are available for download on the wii virtual console. Xbox Live has a similar service for 'simple' games. TV doesn't even have an official controller let alone developers.

Gaming is a highly competitive market with astronomical entry costs, apple can dabble but not much else.

[Mr Skills]

I bought a new copy of Sega Rally for PC from Woolworths (big UK chain of shops) the other day for £1. The entire game takes up 40MB and the only thing that dates it for me (a non-hardcore gamer) is the low resolution of 640x480.



There's no reason why they could not do something like that, but higher res, in an easily-downloadable size. And as long as they are careful about graphics design (e.g. avoiding things that are meant to look photo-realistic) they could do some great looking games.

Just because you can't get Ultra-Super-Halo-Quake 7 or whatever, doesn't mean that you are stuck with PacMan. Don't forget Apple's reputation for thinking different.

[macfaninpdx]

I saw this blog from Dan Moren at MacUser. It seems pretty clear to me that there won't be games on AppleTV. At least not at first.

[dazzer21]

I don't understand how ? could even hope to enter into the games market when it is so clearly dominated by established players. However, what of emulation and having already existing titles play on the ? hardware? I'm still using Connectix Virtual Game Station on my G4 Powerbook and that's more than a step up from Tetris or Patience - I'm currently playing Gran Turismo2! Would ? be able to produce hardware that can readily play XBox/PS2/PS3/Wii games directly off the discs?

And is ?TV going to make playing already existing titles easy, so you can for example wirelessly beam your XBox 360 from upstairs onto your living room TV?