Bejeweled for iPhone (from author of Diamenty)

[cmaier]

Go to http://www.popcap.com from an iphone to play the REAL bejeweled.

I haven't done a detailed comparison with diamante, but this version sure looks pretty.

 

[33scottie33]

Pretty good for a web version. Kept me addicted for a little while.

 

[benspratling]

is it just me or does "play again" result in a mostly blank board?

sometimes it does, sometimes it does not

 

[Manatee]

Not bad. The action's a bit slow, but it's pretty good for a web-based version.

 

[blilly]

Looks good.

Have you seen this, too?

http://www.macmost.com/iphonegames/

A couple are pretty cool . . . (note Missle Command at the bottom . . )

 

[33scottie33]

I got five in a row but never got the special exploding gem. That ends it for me!

 

[JPyre]

Diamante seems a little snappier, might be just me. I don't like the close window "x", it got in my way.

 

[arn]

Update: Arkadiusz Młynarczyk, the author of Diamenty, an earlier Bejeweled clone, is responsible for the official version of Bejeweled and is working with PopCap.

I am happy to announce that I've been working with PopCap Games, the creators of Bejeweled and other great casual games, to develop an official, free version of Bejeweled for the iPhone. This version is now available.

 

[slidingjon]

I am finally coming around to thinking that web-based apps are the way to go. Don't get me wrong, native apps would be awesome, but I paid $5 for bejewelled on my iPod. I like this version better. It's not as snappy, but using the click wheel was a pain at times for games.

 

[fastbite]

I am finally coming around to thinking that web-based apps are the way to go. Don't get me wrong, native apps would be awesome, but I paid $5 for bejewelled on my iPod. I like this version better. It's not as snappy, but using the click wheel was a pain at times for games.

Totally agree, the ipod version was a pain!

 

[chr1s60]

I am finally coming around to thinking that web-based apps are the way to go. Don't get me wrong, native apps would be awesome, but I paid $5 for bejewelled on my iPod. I like this version better.

I am starting to think web-based apps are the best too. At first I was kind of mad about it, but now that the iPhone has been out a few weeks more and more games and apps keep popping up. With 3rd party apps i would constantly have to be buying things and taking up space on my phone. The web-based apps allow me to use as many different apps as I want for free and they don't take up room that I could be using for music or video. As time goes on I think these apps are going to get better and more creative. The only downside is that some apps out there are great on wifi, but not so great on EDGE. For anyone looking for a compilation of apps try going to http://www.appleopolis.com I use that site because they constantly find new apps to add and they store your favorites.

 

[hamis92]

I think Diamenty was more Apple style. But this one works very well. Haven't tried it on an iPhone because not available in Finland

 

[plumbingandtech]

Dang this us FUN!

Never played bejeweled until this.

just the thing when standing in line and wasting time.

I got 2820 points.

that's REALLY GOOD RIGHT?!

 

[Lixivial]

... but using the click wheel was a pain at times for games.

You do realize that it would make no difference if the game were on the web or locally on the phone, right? Why would putting the game on the web change the way the user interacts with the game? Your issue is an iPod vs iPhone interaction issue, and quite unrelated to web-based applications.

The problem with web-based apps is quite evident in this very example. Say, for whatever reason, I wanted to go to popcap's website. Uh, I'm automatically thrown into a game of Bejeweled with no choice whatsoever. It's unexpected, and it's not what I wanted. That's stupid. Web-based apps are encouraging websites to toss the iPhone into a specialty sandbox that may or may not be better than its original website.

Kinda like WAP, except that this loads slower.

 

[benspratling]

I am finally coming around to thinking that web-based apps are the way to go. Don't get me wrong, native apps would be awesome, but I paid $5 for bejewelled on my iPod. I like this version better. It's not as snappy, but using the click wheel was a pain at times for games.

Funny, I'm beginning to think precisely the opposite. After using Bejelewed, I've realized what I thought was a frozen screen was the process of creating the new board, it just took so dang long that I thought the game had stuck. But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the iPod version is not worse, I just wish we had a faster code set than javascript! I mean, come on, the iPhone can do Cover Flow, but it can't smoothly animate the falling of the jewels?

In fact a few of my friends and I have begun working on a ... well, we call it "SLW" and it will get rid of the headache of web programming... Ask me about it again in five years...

 

[benspratling]

You do realize that it would make no difference if the game were on the web or locally on the phone, right? Why would putting the game on the web change the way the user interacts with the game? Your issue is an iPod vs iPhone interaction issue, and quite unrelated to web-based applications.

The problem with web-based apps is quite evident in this very example. Say, for whatever reason, I wanted to go to popcap's website. Uh, I'm automatically thrown into a game of Bejeweled with no choice whatsoever. It's unexpected, and it's not what I wanted. That's stupid. Web-based apps are encouraging websites to toss the iPhone into a specialty sandbox that may or may not be better than its original website.

Kinda like WAP, except that this loads slower.

Yes, yes but this is all PopCap's fault for doing bad web design - they did not correctly handle the iPhone browser. And to answer your question, putting the game native on the phone means you don't have to wait for your program code to download and parse, compile, and link every single time you want to use the program! It means animations that are fast enough that they look like animations. It means a single tap from the homescreen instead of safari-bookmarks-back-category-item.

 

[Peel]

So it seems that now with the creating of Bejeweled, that Diamenty is no longer. That's too bad. There were some UI features of Diamenty that I liked better.

 

[slidingjon]

Of course native apps would run faster and more effectively, but the point was made by another individual that we can have virtually an unlimited amount of apps and they are not taking any space on the phone. And they are all free!

 

[myiphone]

So it seems that now with the creating of Bejeweled, that Diamenty is no longer. That's too bad. There were some UI features of Diamenty that I liked better.

Please write me which. I'm working on another apps and suggestions like that could be helpful.

 

[Lixivial]

It means a single tap from the homescreen instead of safari-bookmarks-back-category-item.

I'm aware of how the iPhone paradigm works. And the question you addressed was a rhetorical question relating to the physical interaction between user and game, which had nothing to do with performance issues. I am aware of the differences between compiled local applications and interpreted AJAX web apps.

For the record, Pop Cap made a conscious decision to do a redirect based on the user-agent string, which means they did handle the browser correctly. While a redirect is so far unprecedented, I fear that trends could be moving that way. There are places that use iPhone-optimized stylesheets without user consent; sometimes it's for the better, and other times it's not. It's my opinion that Apple's insistence on web-based apps is helping to fuel that trend -- that's all I was pointing out.

Anyroad, that's all unrelated to this very fun game. I hope they continue the process with other games, because something is usually better than nothing. So I'm not complaining.

And they are all free!

Thing is that many of these games already have free versions available online, but they utilise Flash. Converting them over to JavaScript may or may not be feasible, but it's hardly noteworthy that they're available for free online.

Point made on not taking up space, though. The iPod games I have range from 14 to ~55 megabytes, which would certainly add up in a hurry.

 

[ModestPenguin]

This makes me smile. I love bejewled. it looks awesome.

 

[specops]

Dang this us FUN!

Never played bejeweled until this.

just the thing when standing in line and wasting time.

I got 2820 points.

that's REALLY GOOD RIGHT?!

I got 76000 in 87 minutes and yes its 6:50am and I'm an insomniac...

 

[AJsAWiz]

Wow! My all time favorite game on the iPhone! Woo Hoo!