Why, yes, I do have too much free time

June 19, 2008 9:27 AM

I want to play games on my iPhone with these qualifications: I don't want to "jailbreak" it and I want to be able to play a game without having to connect to the apple web apps page every.frickin.time. I don't want another "concentration" game. So, ideally: iphone games that I can download. I especially like Tetris-type puzzle or word games. Thanks, hivemind!

Why not jailbreak it? I'm scared I will hurt my iPhone, mess up my warranty, what-have-you. I love my phone and don't want to hurt the precious.

Why downloadable? Because AT&T frequently sucks, and I can't always get a connection to the internet.

I don't care, btw, if they cost money, I just want something better than "touch the screen and match up the pictures" concentration-style crap, which is what the majority of the online games seem to be lately.

posted by misha to technology (7 comments total)

You really only have three choices:

1. Jailbreak.

2. Web games.

3. Wait a couple more weeks for iPhone OS X 2.0 and the App Store. When these two arrive, you will be able to download normal apps without jailbreaking, as developers begin releasing software through the official channels.
posted by Mikey-San at 9:37 AM on June 19, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Yup, what Mikey-san says. There is currently no way to install apps on the iphone other than jailbreaking it. The App store is targeted directly at you. Wait for it, it's almost here.
posted by ulotrichous at 9:43 AM on June 19, 2008

Yeah, you will have plenty of great options available directly through iTunes in a few weeks, but until then, you're out of luck.
posted by designbot at 10:07 AM on June 19, 2008

This isn't true. You can download apps to an unbroken iPhone by way of data: urls. The game runs in a browser, and is sent to you as a data url. You bookmark it, and then it will load without being connected to the net.

That said, I only know these games exist, I haven't played any of them -- I just use this technique for long threads or books I want to read.
posted by bonaldi at 11:21 AM on June 19, 2008

I play plenty of games on my iPhone without jailbreaking it or going to the Apple Web Apps page every time. This may not be quite what you mean, since you don't download the games, but...

Find a game you like through the Apple Web Apps page, or by googling. When you have the game open in Safari, click the plus sign at the bottom of the page and click "Add to Home Screen". Edit the title if desired, then press "Add".

This way, you get a little icon on your Home Screen that, when pressed, opens up the game in Safari. You can rearrange the icons and you can have up to about ten pages of the Home Screen, I believe.

(My apologies if you already know this, but I only realised fairly recently so I thought I'd check!)
posted by badmoonrising at 12:35 PM on June 19, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Ooops, should have read your question more carefully - missed the part about AT&T suckage.

This might come in handy. Haven't tried it myself, though.

Also, in relation to your complaint about the concentration-type games, there are plenty of good ones that aren't in this style. I find this Nanogram game horrible addictive. The same site also has Checkers, an Othello/Reversi game, a basic Minesweeper game, a Tetris game, and more. (Er. I have no connection with the site, I just like some of the games!) So, don't lose hope - there are some good games out there.
posted by badmoonrising at 12:46 PM on June 19, 2008

I'd say cool your heels and wait for the App store in a few weeks--the game demos I've seen are mindblowing and are gonna beat hands down what you can do in a browser or what's going to be available for jailbroken(?) phones.
posted by donovan at 1:07 PM on June 19, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]