Project Artemis is our first game developed for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. As a taster, here is the the abbreviated background story:
“In the year 2,140 the human race developed a fusion powered drive that enabled them to travel beyond the speed of light. In order to unravel the mysteries of how life was created on earth, a research project was commissioned by the name of Project Artemis to send scientists deep into the Andromeda galaxy to planets identified as containing an earth like atmosphere. The goal of the mission was to create small research stations on each planet and gather samples from the earth and surrounding atmosphere.
Twenty years into the mission a new alien race, named the Murati invaded one of the planets and killed all the scientists. The Murati were humanoid like creatures with pale yellow skin and huge green eyes. They were the first alien species ever encountered by the human race.
The Murati set about hunting down and destroying the bases established by Project Artemis and killing all the scientists. Because the mission was so far from home, the human race had no way of defending itself from the invaders and decided to end the mission early and return home.
You are the pilot of small rocket ship called the Squirrel capable of carrying a single passenger in addition to yourself. Your mission is to recover the surviving scientists from the research stations and return them to the orbiting carrier. Once you have recovered all the scientists from all the planets the mission will terminate and you and your colleagues can safely return to earth.”
As widely anticipated Apple launched a new faster version of the iPhone on Monday called the iPhone 3GS.
Specifications of the phone have now started to creep out via various forums and also the official iPhone documentation.
This is what we know so far:
- CPU: ARM Cortex-A8 running at 600Mhz
- The standard iPhone 3G is a 400Mhz ARM11 core
- The Cortex-A8 at 600Mhz is the equivalent of an ARM11 at 1200Mhz
- GPU
- PowerVR SGX Processor (as opposed to PowerVR MBX)
- Supports Hardware Open GL/ES 2.0 (as opposed to 1.1)
- The SGX is capable of around 100k visible polys at 30fps
- The MBX is capable of around 10k visible polys at 30fps
- Memory: 256MB as opposed to 128MB
All this adds up to a device that is significantly faster for game developers and will run existing games faster than the current iPhone 3G.
Now lets hope that Unity announce support for the new hardware.
A friend of mine threatened to leave Orange UK about 4 months ago because he wanted the iPhone (who wouldn’t). They tempted him to stay with a ridiculously cheap deal on his inclusive bundle.
He told me they phoned him on Friday to say that they will be able to offer him an iPhone from next month.
Looks like O2 may be losing their exclusive contract here in the UK.
The Apple Word Wide Developers Conference is almost upon us. Just another 2.5 hours to go before we learn what wonders Apple has in store for us.
I’m going with the following predictions for today’s event:
- New iPhone 3G launched with:
- 3.2 Megapixel camera with video record function
- Much faster processor and GPU for better 3d
- Digital Compass
- Dedicated games section of the App Store
- Macbook refresh with slightly faster processors
- iPhone OS 3.0 released today
- OSX Snow Leopard demonstration with a launch next month
- Steve will appear under ‘One More Thing’
I’m so excited 