McCarron's Piece O' Mind

I think I found the first iBlackjack review, beyond some forum comments here and there.

I randomly came across this blog posting while searching to see how far iBlackjack has spread across the Internet landscape. In this "review" by Josh Jones the CEO of a web hosting provider, who is also my host, Dreamhost talks about my iPhone/iPod Touch game iBlackjack.

Here is what he first had to say:

After jailbreaking it, I tried out a bunch of the underground 3rd-party applications, and my absolute favorite was iBlackJack.

Favorite for it being the worst blackjack game I’d ever played!

This iBlackJack was so awful it would always be the first thing I’d show to people who wanted to checkout my iPhone, just so I could sit back and watch the transition from excitement to confusion to utter disgust as it swept across the face of my victim.

This game served as a textbook example for Steve Jobs’ argument about why he claimed they wanted to lock out third parties from developing iPhone apps: playing it made me really hate Steve Jobs, personally.

I've seen some early critical responses to the game before, but this one took the cake. It really made me think, as I love to read what people think about the game so I can work on improving it in areas I haven't considered. So, I was anxious to see what else he had to say, so I kept reading. It became quickly clear that he was talking about the old version of the game, when I came across this drastic turnaround:

Sadly, this could not last forever. Updates of iBlackJack kept coming out, and within just a few weeks, all the glaring usability and logic errors were squashed. Now it’s a decent little app, and serves as a strong counter-example against a locked iPhone.

Yes, the game was a boiling pot of dog turd at first, but now my iPhone (oh yes, it’s MINE now) has a full-featured blackjack game in it; one with such features as how many decks in the shoe, when to re-shuffle, when the dealer hits, and even if it should bother asking if you want insurance.

It ended up being the best review I've heard anyone give about iBlackjack. Josh Jones first had me go from partially upset to almost blushing as I continued to read the words on the page.

In the article, iBlackjack offering insurance was just a segway for him to talk about finance and the need for insurance in life. It's a really good read, and I suggest everyone to read it as well. I just wont cover it here, well because I'm no expert in the manner.

And for those looking to see where iBlackjack is heading next, I'll leave you with this image of the next build which is hopefully coming later this week.

Labels: development, iblackjack, iphone

Last night on G4's Attack of the Show showed my iPhone game iBlackjack was featured, along with other iPhone third party apps.

Here is a shot of iBlackjack's home screen on the TV along with my name
(click to enlarge)


Here is a clip of the segment from Attack of the Show!



A big thanks to Kevin Pereira of G4 and host of Attack of the Show for showing my game off. It was really cool to see it on TV.

Labels: development, iblackjack, iphone

Today I released iBlackjack for the iPhone. This time the version is Alpha Release 3. Why still alpha you ask? Well I have more features I want to add before I get to.

Tweaked User Interface and Animation Timing

Fixed dealer not hitting past third card.

Added Double Down functionality (swipe downwards across screen)

Added Insurance functionality

Added dealer shoe reshuffling. Currently shoe reshuffles at 50% point and contains 3 decks.

Tweaked shuffling routine

Changed dealer down card to first card

Bank can now go negative, but a loan system will be developed for next release.

Code Improvements

It is now available via Installer.app so go out there and find me some bugs! Report them on the Project Page.

Also some people have asked to donate to me for my work, which is very generous of them. You can do so via the link on the project page or this link here:




Enjoy!

Labels: iphone

Over the weekend I updated my first native iPhone game, iBlackjack to Alpha 2. I have added more features, but still have a lot of work ahead of me. But so far I've gotten a great response.

Here's a bit of what was added/updated:

• Slight improvements to the user interface


• Added preliminary betting & bank system


• Added showing of dealer card


• Code optimizations/improvements

Here are some screenshots:










I have many plans up my sleeves still. Lots of cool features to add, too bad I can't stop time to allow me to make great headway on a regular basis.

Labels: iphone

After much hard work, my first public release of iBlackjack for iPhone has been released.

Version: Alpha Release 1

http://www.iphonefanclub.com/iBlackjack/

Here's an image.

Labels: iphone

Ever since Apple unveiled the new iPhone, the number one question us fans who also are software developers have been asking is when are we getting a Software Development Kit (SDK)?

It was revealed that the only way to develop applications for the iPhone would be via "Web 2.0" applications using technologies such as AJAX. So I developed an application launcher/community forum called iPhone Fan Club. On this website I also hosted an old AJAX proof of concept game I ported to work better with the iPhone, we called it iPhone Blackjack.

But now in the past month some people, with more time than I, have backwards engineered a working toolchain/SDK for the iPhone. So excited by this news I started to look into developing for the platform myself. I decided to start by porting my PHP/AJAX powered Blackjack game to ObjectiveC/UIKit for the iPhone.

Here is a sneak peek of my progress, so far I'm implemented animation, touch/tap controls and the deck/shuffling system. My next step is to add the game logic into the game and to do some overall code cleanup.

Labels: iphone

Hello Friends,

As some of you may not know I've been working on an iPhone application
for the past few weeks. The idea of this website was to provide users
of the iPhone with a fairly user friendly web-based application to
launch other web-based applications from. So I burned a few midnight
oils and got the site up and running with the help from some friends.

This is a necessity because of the lack of an open application
development kit from Apple. I also wanted to create a place where
fans of the device could chat in an online web forum. So that's where
I got the name, the iPhone Fan Club.

The site is launching today, and I'm looking for feedback and ideas to
help improve it. Keep in mind, you'll need to be running Apple's
Safari (now available on Windows) to get the best result from the
site. Other web-browsers don't work so well right now.

http://www.iphonefanclub.com/

Upcoming features I'm planning on having soon:
- Add to home screen function for your favorite apps. This will make
them easier to get to.
- Custom Icons for Software Applications.
- Star Ranking (1-5) of Applications
- More on the fly sorting/filtering of content.
- Better theme for the forums just for the iPhone
- iPhone Accessory Reviews
- More custom games

Also included in this launch is an early version of a web-based
Blackjack game I made for the iPhone. It's got a few quirks, but once
I work them all out and add a few more features it'll be the first of
many web-based iPhone games that I hope to make.

You can play it today on most web browsers at:
http://www.iphonefanclub.com/games/blackjack/

Also if you are going to be one of the first to get an iPhone at
launch, let me know I may need testers for some more upcoming games!

Thanks in advance for taking a look and providing feedback. It's much
appreciated!

Now for some sleep for once!
Patrick McCarron

Labels: iphone