I still waste more time than I’d like on the awful Space Invaders, pool, etc. reMovem is another time waster lately.(http://www.sparsham.com/technology/15-most-addictive-free-iphone-games/)

It wasn’t when this article was written last year.

Great site! I’ll be back to check it out again. Thanks!…

I think with Myst (and I’m talking about original Myst here, not Real Myst) you would use the Menu, Left, Right, and Play/Pause buttons to move around, and then use the clickwheel function to move through clickable objects in each frame of the game. That’s what I was thinking when I added it to the list.

Centipede would be easy as well, because the clickwheel does have and Up, Down, Left, Right built into it.

Sim City would be a little harder, I’ll grant you that, but (unless I’m mistaken) there is a cellphone version of Sim City, and that would be the version that was best used for the iPod.

Arkanoid is clearly the most obvious example of a game made to be played with a scroll wheel. Tempest, on the other hand, would NOT work because of the centralized, single fire button. One-button games would work nicely (like that one with the helicopter that keeps getting pulled down by gravity until you hit a button to get a boost or maybe even the Yeti series), or games that are slow paced enough to allow the user to click-click-click the wheel in a direction. I think Klax could work out nicely. Unless the speed of the car is constant, I don’t think driving games would work out. Chess, checkers, Go, Monopoly, Scrabble… lots of board games could translate easily because of the slower pace. Puzzle Bobble would be freakin’ great!

I mean, just think about the control scheme. The wheel moves AROUND the primary firing button, so any game that requires rapid fire shooting while simultaneously moving around the playfield is pretty much out. I mean, yes it could be done from a programming standpoint… that’s not the issue though. It has to be fun and intuitive to play, as well. Tempest and driving games seem at first like a good idea, but aren’t unless the game will auto-fire for you.

The iPod interface just wasn’t designed with games in mind. I think these kinds of lists exactly prove that gaming was an added-on idea for Apple on the iPod, not a motivating design need.

Michael writes: “The Video iPod could be a very fun gaming platform with the right titles on the device. Not every kind of game will work with the click wheel interface, so only certain existing titles will be able to……

Good link, but I have to disagree with you. I think the games on this list could easily be played on an iPod. I think the only one that would require signifigent modification would be Spy Hunter, and I still think that could work.