And we’re off to the races. Despite Apple’s interest in restricting iPhone development to themselves and trusted third-parties like Google, clever programmers have delivered native software for the device — including an addictive-looking game called “Lights Off,” released today by Delicious Monster.
It’s a standard puzzle-game — tap the buttons to turn out all the lights in the 5×5 grid — but the presentation is very slick, and the iPhone interface alone makes it more compelling than it would be on OS X for Mac.
As with all unsupported iPhone software, it takes some warranty-voiding mojo to make “Lights Off” install, but the app’s creators, Lucas Newman and Adam Betts, helpfully include full instructions:
Installing third-party applications on your iPhone is not for the faint of heart. For more in depth instructions on iPhone modifications, look at the iPhone Dev Wiki.
1. Download iActivator and use it to “perform jailbreak” on your iPhone to allow access to the entire filesystem, which is necessary to upload applications.
2. Use iPHUC to upload Lights Off.app to the Applications folder on your iPhone.
3. Install SSH (or the alternate version) on your iPhone, and run the command: chmod +x “/Applications/Lights Off.app/LightsOff”
Not for the faint of heart, as you can see. But still: Blinking lights! Blinking lights and the satisfaction of walking on forbidden ground!
Via Daring Fireball.
4 responses to “First Native iPhone Game “Lights Off” Released”
It should be noted that everyone who has tried any iPhone modification has been able to reset it via iTunes.
Not only is it a standard puzzle game, it’s just “Lights Out” from Tiger Electronics. I think I got a Lights Out Cube for Christmas when I was a kid. I loved that thing.
And this is a great implementation of it. But not really original, FYI.