I love the 80s....

I mean, come on, who doesn't love the 80s?  The hair (long and terrible), the music (filled with synthesizers...and also terrible), the movies, the TV, it was just an awesome decade.  I was born in 1983, so I didn't really get a chance to fully appreciate the 80s, but it was my home decade and I have always had a fascination with it.  How strong of a fascination?  Let me put it this way: my wife and I danced to Hypnotize Me by Wang Chung.  I still have a stuffed Fraggle on my desk (Wembley).

Anyway, in keeping with that, Pocket Protector Games is going to shortly be launching an 80s Trivia Game.  There are a few on available now, and they are all selling really well.  The popular categories seem to be Music, TV and film, so that is what we are going to concentrate on...with a dash of news, politics (duh), pop culture, sports and video games.

Any suggestions are appreciated.  But that is what is next for Pocket Protector Games!!

Great U.S. History Trivia Sites

Being a self-admitted trivia nerd, I went digging for other U.S. History Trivia Sites.

1.  Fun Trivia:   Best thing about this site?  The many, many quizzes.  Even better?  They are in tons of different categories.  There are 253 on the Civil War alone.  Wowzers.

2.  History.Com:  It doesn't get much better than a trivia quiz from the History Channel.  The one is one of the most technically appealing of all the sites I visited.  Alas, it isn't exclusively U.S. History.  But the site is so awesome I had to include it.

3.  Trivia Champ:  I like this one for its simplicity.  You just hold your mouse over the question mark and the answer pops up.  It's stripped down, and frankly, that isn't a bad thing!

4.  Patriotic Trivia Quiz:  Also stripped down, but this one has 110 questions, and they are good ones.

Random difficulty, but one of the problems that I had when designing Pocket Protector's two games were that I noticed that a lot of trivia questions repeated themselves.  The trick was not only to research new facts, but to craft questions in unique ways.

Until next time!

Apple Game Center: Game changer?

Apple is all about letting (most) 3rd parties use its software for maximum benefit - after all, that's how so many iPhone developer companies have sprouted up and made tons of money for themselves (and billions for Apple).  This strategy has obviously proven to be wildly successful for Apple.  Like Twitter and Facebook, Apple has figured out how to maximize the input and expertise of others - the ultimate in crowd-sourcing, if you will.

However, Apple has decided to get into the act itself.  Seeking to reclaim its own device in at least one respect, Apple has launched its Game Center.  The Game Center (you need iOS 4.1 to have it) allows for developers to set up achievements, compete against your friends or others, download games directly from the center and play multi-player games.  The system is a similar, albiet more advanced version, of OpenFeint.

This is a big deal for game developers like myself.  But, in my mind, it also lays out a more interesting question - what else will Apple start branching into?  Is this there first foray into their own gaming development company?  There aren't too many "official" apps except the ones that your phone comes with, but I'm curious.  Will they go the route of Twitter and start developing more of the iPhone's added accessories on their own, or will they basically stick to the route of Facebook and let others stay with the third party stuff, content to provide a general framework in which others can operate?

What do you think?