List of games worth jailbreaking for

[Phi6]

Moving away from pirated apps (another reason for jailbreaking) and themeing, there are actually some games that are worth jailbreaking for, and these probably won't be released onto the AppStore for some time.

Quake 3
Cydia repo: http://xsellize.com/cydia/user-pass (need to sign up to the forums, then use the user-pass in the url)

Screenshot: http://quake3-iphone.googlecode.com/files/screenshot-visor.jpeg

No I'm not talking about Zodttd's quake4iphone (that is Quake 1) but Quake 3 Arena. Comes installed with the demo but I've managed to get the full game retail PAK file working with it. Note that this is NOT the one ported by HermitWorks (of Space Trader) but by these guys here:
http://code.google.com/p/quake3-iphone/

You also need to grab Scamble's autoexec.cfg from here
http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116753&page=12
It dramatically improves performance and controls. It is totally 100% playable, I've been consistently been able to perform kills against the computer. Better than any FPS on the AppStore at the moment (eg. Cube/AlienMangle etc..)

Touch Fighter 2
Cydia repo: http://www.iphone.org.hk/apt/

Screenshot: http://www.iphone.org.hk/attach/47369-touchfighter.png

The very same one that was demoed at the iPhone SDK keynote announcement. This one was apparently released as source code in one of the beta iPhone SDKs and then pulled after. It is now compiled and on cydia.
This is similar to StarSmasher but much more responsive and fun IMO!

ScummVM
Cydia repo: http://urbanfanatics.com/cydia/

Screenshot: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2362/2076995490_11385b1bd9.jpg

All the old LucasArts point-and-click adventures (and Goblins as well I think, and some others). You can run Monkey Island 1,2 and 3, Day of the Tentacle etc.. with full sound and speech support!



Please add to this list if you know of any more decent ones!
I'm going to skip mentioning Zodttd's emulators, because although they are a huge programming feat and credit to Zodttd, they are not really playable to any degree of satisfaction.

Also, anyone remember those old games from Installer way back on iPhone version 1.1.4?
Games such as Lazrhog's NeverBall and Noiz2sa
Agile Messenger's Agile Forces (GBA Advance Wars clone)
Where are they now, they never made it to the AppStore...

[BulletDev]

Nice post, but I don't think these are worth Jailbreaking for. It can be a huge hassle, and the App Store offers over 9000+ more and better options.

[alta219]

Apple gave out the source to TouchFighter in the iPhone Tech talks. I have the source and compiled it for my iPhone. It's good as a demo, and has fancy modifications to the standard accelerometer filtering which are worth a look for devs, but as a game I don't really find it all that compelling. In fact, it's a little primitive in some aspects, and definitely has a few bugs.

[Rocketman919]

Nice post, but I don't think these are worth Jailbreaking for. It can be a huge hassle, and the App Store offers over 9000+ more and better options.

better? I beg to differ. There are probably 200 or so games that are even worth the time downloading. With a jailbreak on the other hand, i can play every GBA, SNES, NES, Genesis, and MAME game EVER MADE!!! Way better than the appstore!

[Phi6]

Huh, better than quake 3? Not much hassle either, with quickpwn

[sjleworthy]

i can play every GBA, SNES, NES, Genesis, and MAME game EVER MADE!!! Way better than the appstore!

but unless you pay for them thats illegal is it not?

;)

[rootbeersoup]

but unless you pay for them thats illegal is it not?

;)

Who cares? All those games are old and out of production, so no one is losing any money

[sjleworthy]

does an out of production game automatically make it free to the public domain then?

[nickels]

does an out of production game automatically make it free to the public domain then?

Yes. Well, not legally but I don't think that bothers 99% of us.

As for the jailbreak issue, its the apps and added functions that make it worthwhile, not the games. TivoRemote is awesome, Winterboard adds a ton of new features to your phone, I have a ton of killer ringtones now, and I can add stuff like the ability to take videos.

Jailbroken iPhone >>>> regular iPhone

[max rimstain]

yeah but playing SNES, NES et-al.. games on the iPhone/iPod Touch sucks!!

and I mean actually playing them, not 'o look what my iphone can do' and then turn it off, playing the games with the virtual buttons overlaid on the screen is awful, much like some of the game in the app store that take this approach.

So my opinion is 'no, there are no games 'worth' jailbreaking for', in fact the only reason to jailbreak your device is to either use cracked games or apps that invalidate the terms and conditions within the iPhone contracts o2, AT&T i.e. netshare etc..

I loved my jailbroken iPhone, but now that the app store is here there is nothing that really stands out.... yet, keep an eye out at ispazio.com they keep reporting that hackers are very very close in bringing full bluetooth support to the iPhone i.e. sending/recieving pics/music etc..

Now that would be worth jailbreaking for....

[akuma7703]

Nice post, but I don't think these are worth Jailbreaking for. It can be a huge hassle, and the App Store offers over 9000+ more and better options.

I beg to differ: I'd jailbreak in a heartbeat for ScummVM and nothing (I repeat: N O T H I N G) on the app store even comes close to touching Quake 3. Not yet anyway. Once someone gets Duke Nukem 3D or Shadow Warrior up and running smoothly, it's a wrap. And I'm sorry, as a gaming enthusiast, being able to have SNES and MAME with me wherever I go definitely takes the cake. Think any app store RPG can compare with Chrono Trigger?

[rootbeersoup]

does an out of production game automatically make it free to the public domain then?

It's more of a moral dilemma IMO... I march to the beat of my own drum. Stealing a bunch of old NES games isn't hurting anyone except Nintendo trying to make money off their virtual console

yeah but playing SNES, NES et-al.. games on the iPhone/iPod Touch sucks!!

and I mean actually playing them, not 'o look what my iphone can do' and then turn it off, playing the games with the virtual buttons overlaid on the screen is awful, much like some of the game in the app store that take this approach.

So my opinion is 'no, there are no games 'worth' jailbreaking for', in fact the only reason to jailbreak your device is to either use cracked games or apps that invalidate the terms and conditions within the iPhone contracts o2, AT&T i.e. netshare etc..

I loved my jailbroken iPhone, but now that the app store is here there is nothing that really stands out.... yet, keep an eye out at ispazio.com they keep reporting that hackers are very very close in bringing full bluetooth support to the iPhone i.e. sending/recieving pics/music etc..

Now that would be worth jailbreaking for....

I agree, I would imagine playing with the touchscreen sucks in comparison to playing with a normal controller. Still pretty cool though

[highonlife]

Saying that jailbreaking is a hassle is somewhat ignorant, with quickpwn it's something anybody with a brain can accomplish.
Having applications like cycorder are worth it alone, I mean, who DOESN'T want to record video on their iphone. It's not even that bad of quality, it's good enough for me to get some hilarious footage from when we were drunk the other night or when my friend dropped his keys in the sewer and had to dig down and find them. It's priceless.
Emulation sounds bad on paper, but for RPGs, it's perfect. Nothing beats playing through a classic RPG from the snes era during a long train ride or break between classes.
SwirlyMMS? Surprised that hasn't been mentioned. I hated using viewmymessage or whatever bullshit that was, i can receive and reply to MMSs like it's part of the phone.
Then there's the super cool stuff like backgrounder or insomnia(keeps wifi active), you can't beat the ability to put an application in the background like beejiveIM.
I would jailbreak for netshare alone. The number of times it has come in handy has reached the fifties. Nothing was better than when I had my laptop streaming the eagles playoff game over orb.com while we were in a park playing an intense 7on7 football game.
Then there's categories, a beautiful and complete solution for organizing your applications into folders. It's almost a perfect implementation allowing me to have as much as I want on my phone, yet keeping it totally organized.
Can't count out winterboard. Contrary to common belief, there are some amazing themes, and some sweet hacks that can be implemented. Five Icon Dock? Damn straight!!! Ability to use a custom background and remove the annoying grey bar for the bottom dock? Check.
Then there's cydia. It makes everything imaginably easy to accomplish, it's almost faster than the appstore itself. You can get everything off of it, including thousands of ringtones, free.
Yellowsn0w? FULL SIM unlock? Yeah, try doing that without jailbreaking.

NEVER discount jailbreaking, it's foolish. You can't brick your phone with quickpwn, and it's the easiest and most worthwhile 15 minutes you'll ever spend. If you don't like it, just backup and restore.

My iPhone wouldn't be half as useful without the power of jailbreaking.

[brewstermax]

Hey, if you are immoral, and don't care to steal from devs, jailbreaking can give you every app. I don't as I have an iPod Touch 2G, but it does sound appealing, but I never will.

[sjleworthy]

dont worry guys, i personally got no trouble if you want to steal old apps, i'm just surprised at the forum for allowing the open talk and chat and promotion of stolen material thats all.

:)

[Kursndax]

i don't see how anyone can use the iphone and not jailbreak it, it must be so boring having your non jailbroken phone. its like your stuck and can't do nothing, you jailbreak it and its like you can breath better. I don't do anything but put apps on my phone that make it a regular phone. If people just looked in cydia for all what you can do, they would never go back to a non jailbroken phone again, Its way more than just playing games. I was just looking thru cydia and I am always seeing new stuff I never seen before.

stuff I found, just going thru different sources I have

HP Calculator ( includes HP11C,HP12C,HP15C,HP16C )
iRCm ( internet relay chat client )
Lockdown ( password proect any apps )
myFox ( replaces the safari browser )
MxTube ( youtube video downloader )
MyHtml ( HTML editor )
MySMS ( landscape SMS)
PhoneZap ( Create ringtones from the phone with other features )
RipTones ( ringtone creater )
SpringJumps ( quickly jump to any springboard page )
Lots of Vibration feedback apps
AppFlow ( coverflow for yor apps )
PdaNet ( makes your laptop or desktop be wireless thru the phone )
SwapCameraRoll ( Allows you to have two camera rolls )
vlc4iphone ( plays nearly all media formats including AVI )
AppBackup ( backup and restore saved data and settings from App Store apps)
Docs ( reads PDF,word,excel,powrpoint and more )
vWallpaper ( video ringtone and video wallpaper )

[sjleworthy]

i don't see how anyone can use the iphone and not jailbreak it, it must be so boring having your non jailbroken phone. its like your stuck and can't do nothing, you jailbreak it and its like you can breath better. I don't do anything but put apps on my phone that make it a regular phone. If people just looked in cydia for all what you can do, they would never go back to a non jailbroken phone again, Its way more than just playing games. I was just looking thru cydia and I am always seeing new stuff I never seen before.


it's down to the individual. the person's age, interests, usage, wants and needs etc etc etc, and most of all his geekiness.

i've had my Touch for a year or so, and in that time had it jb'd for 50% of the time. Now, and for the last couple of months, i'm non jailbroken and find it soooo much better.
Since the app store was released i've found my unbroken Touch so much fun and enjoyment. i use it on and off (usually for internet and appstore browsing) for hours every day.
i found the JB state too much hassle, too unstable and for the sake of just being able to download everything under the sun and customise my backgrounds it wasn't up my street.

I certainly dont find my Touch restrictive or not breathable. and as mentioned, i'm not that geeky. (perhaps age settles you down somewhat). i really couldn't be arsed with all the stuff you can do. (i dont even watch videos or listen to music on it much at all either) we all have different requirements from it :)

but as mentioned, non jb works better for me and is so much more enjoyable.

[nickels]

I wish jailbreaking only took me 15 minutes! After attempt #1 everything seemed to go fine then my iPhone restarted and hung up on the apple logo. I was unable to connect it back to itunes to restore because it would crash itunes. I eventually figured it out, restored it, and finally got the jailbreak to work. It took me over an hour, most of that time freaking out that I messed up my iPhone.

As for cracked apps, you need to jump through a few more hoops after you jailbreak to install a cracked app. It's not as simple as jailbreak and you're done, you have some more tricky steps after that...

[Vende]

I'll tell you, the only thing I really want is that folders program so I can have more than 148 applications on. Still, I'm paranoid about screwing stuff up with jailbreaking (which is NOT illegal or anything, you're just voiding the warranty).

Question to jailbreakers - is there a noticeable difference with jailbroken devices i.e. more crashes, slower game play, lost documents, etc?

[highonlife]

No, it is not any slower, or buggier. If you go crazy and install hundreds of random things, then yes, it might get buggy. However, for me and everyone else I know, it's as solid as the day we bought it.

Cracked apps are as easy adding a cydia source and installing some packages. Don't steal from devs.

[Kursndax]

I was on firmware 2.1 and after a while my iphone was buggy and restarted alot, so I decided to jump to firmware 2.2. all I did was download the quickpwn ran it and in 5 min at most 10 minutes waiting on the firmware to load in, my phone was up to 2.2 firmware, kept all my games and everything, only thing was everything in cydia was gone, so I reinstalled everything, also in cydia there is that file you need to make your jailbroken apps work, no need to SSH into the phone anymore.

the process was so easy and flawless I couldn't believe it was done and worked. and it doesn't void your warranty, all you do is restore your phone with itunes and its back to normal again like it was never jailbroken.

I remember you used to have to download the custom firmware and hold down shift in itunes and load in the firmware, now quickpwn does it all, don't even have to load itunes up.

[nickels]

I did the SSH route. It was just a lot of permission changes to some files and adding directories here and there. I wish I knew Cydia did all that, but at least I got to poke around and see the iPhone file structure.

My iPhone is as fast and stable as the day I got it. Its a 2g - the warranty has long since expired.

[Omnithrope]

"I mean, who DOESN'T want to record video on their iphone. "

I think you'd be be surprised how many of us DON'T care about recording video on our iPhones.

[rootbeersoup]

"I mean, who DOESN'T want to record video on their iphone. "

I think you'd be be surprised how many of us DON'T care about recording video on our iPhones.

Especially with a 2.0 MP camera

[sjleworthy]

ironically, i dont care much about listening to music either. i use mine for apps and internet.

[whateverg]

I think I will jailbreak

[whateverg]

Moving away from pirated apps (another reason for jailbreaking) and themeing, there are actually some games that are worth jailbreaking for, and these probably won't be released onto the AppStore for some time.

Quake 3
Cydia repo: http://xsellize.com/cydia/user-pass (need to sign up to the forums, then use the user-pass in the url)

Screenshot: http://quake3-iphone.googlecode.com/files/screenshot-visor.jpeg

No I'm not talking about Zodttd's quake4iphone (that is Quake 1) but Quake 3 Arena. Comes installed with the demo but I've managed to get the full game retail PAK file working with it. Note that this is NOT the one ported by HermitWorks (of Space Trader) but by these guys here:
http://code.google.com/p/quake3-iphone/

You also need to grab Scamble's autoexec.cfg from here
http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116753&page=12
It dramatically improves performance and controls. It is totally 100% playable, I've been consistently been able to perform kills against the computer. Better than any FPS on the AppStore at the moment (eg. Cube/AlienMangle etc..)

Touch Fighter 2
Cydia repo: http://www.iphone.org.hk/apt/

Screenshot: http://www.iphone.org.hk/attach/47369-touchfighter.png

The very same one that was demoed at the iPhone SDK keynote announcement. This one was apparently released as source code in one of the beta iPhone SDKs and then pulled after. It is now compiled and on cydia.
This is similar to StarSmasher but much more responsive and fun IMO!

ScummVM
Cydia repo: http://urbanfanatics.com/cydia/

Screenshot: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2362/2076995490_11385b1bd9.jpg

All the old LucasArts point-and-click adventures (and Goblins as well I think, and some others). You can run Monkey Island 1,2 and 3, Day of the Tentacle etc.. with full sound and speech support!



Please add to this list if you know of any more decent ones!
I'm going to skip mentioning Zodttd's emulators, because although they are a huge programming feat and credit to Zodttd, they are not really playable to any degree of satisfaction.

Also, anyone remember those old games from Installer way back on iPhone version 1.1.4?
Games such as Lazrhog's NeverBall and Noiz2sa
Agile Messenger's Agile Forces (GBA Advance Wars clone)
Where are they now, they never made it to the AppStore...

Macman and Buzzer, I found touch fighter to be fun but only after the 1st minute it got boring, I will be sure to try the multiplayer function

Noiza is on the appstore, neverput is in the appstore

[shubhangam]

Damn that Agile Wars looks sic.. too bad it wasnt ported to 2.0 :(

[brewstermax]

I'm excited. Chronicdev has made some real progress to getting a jailbreak on an iPod Touch 2G. I can't wait, as I've been waiting for this since Sept. 9th, when I got it. I hope that it is really soon. I want to have all of the beauties of jailbreaking.

[Phi6]

Macman and Buzzer, I found touch fighter to be fun but only after the 1st minute it got boring, I will be sure to try the multiplayer function

Noiza is on the appstore, neverput is in the appstore

seriously? I thought lazrhog just added rrootage, not noiz2sa! They are similar but very different games! Also neverball was a super monkey ball clone, neverputt is golf.

[rootbeersoup]

I'm excited. Chronicdev has made some real progress to getting a jailbreak on an iPod Touch 2G. I can't wait, as I've been waiting for this since Sept. 9th, when I got it. I hope that it is really soon. I want to have all of the beauties of jailbreaking.

Ah, that's really awesome :) I hope he gets it done before the dev team even picks up the device

[jawslover]

I think the overall freedom of customization is a good reason to jailbreak, like winterboard etc.

[nickels]

I just discovered "Five Icon Dock" on Cydia. That may be the greatest improvement to date!!!!

[brewstermax]

Ah, that's really awesome :) I hope he gets it done before the dev team even picks up the device

I've turned against the dev team. I hope that Will doesn't share any of his work with them. It's their own fault for not working on this.

[rootbeersoup]

I've turned against the dev team. I hope that Will doesn't share any of his work with them. It's their own fault for not working on this.

I don't think they ever really cared about the iPod touch in the first place... It's all about the iPhone. They made that clear in one of their blog posts.

My guess is that they looked at the device for a little bit, deemed it too hard, and moved on. They like to impress people with how quickly they can jailbreak a device or the OS version, so it was probably too long after it was released to impress anyone.

I am genuinely disappointed though since it was the main reason I bought the iPod touch. I would sell mine now if I hadn't spent almost $300 on apps, and it has my name engraved on it. If I could go back, I would not have bought mine and just gotten a nano instead.

[brewstermax]

I don't think they ever really cared about the iPod touch in the first place... It's all about the iPhone. They made that clear in one of their blog posts.

My guess is that they looked at the device for a little bit, deemed it too hard, and moved on. They like to impress people with how quickly they can jailbreak a device or the OS version, so it was probably too long after it was released to impress anyone.

I am genuinely disappointed though since it was the main reason I bought the iPod touch. I would sell mine now if I hadn't spent almost $300 on apps, and it has my name engraved on it. If I could go back, I would not have bought mine and just gotten a nano instead.

Well, everything that is in the 2G, will be reused in the next iPhone, so I don't see why they don't get a head start. Will is getting close, and I can't wait. I'll still be getting an iPod Touch 3G or whatever the next iPhone is, either way. Most likely the first day on which ever I decide.

[DanM]

Hmm, on my Psp I had a Psx and GBA emulator and I tried Spyro and Pokemon on it, But does the emulator for ipt2g use touchscreen?

[highonlife]

Hmm, on my Psp I had a Psx and GBA emulator and I tried Spyro and Pokemon on it, But does the emulator for ipt2g use touchscreen?

Yeah, that's really the only way of doing it... At least until that controller rolls out.

I'm excited to see how well the emulators work on the 2g touch. Currently on my iPhone 3G, SNES games are pretty much full speed, NES:full, Genesis: Good, GB/C:Good and GBA is playable but a little choppy.

I guess we'll know soon!

[GatorDeb]

Have a 2G Touch and got a 1G just to jailbreak it ($200 for 16gigs). Jailbroke it and found out there's nothing good gaming-wise :(

The emulators (NES, GBA, etc.) are unplayable because of the screen dimensions.

Back to Craigslist :p

[case]

tyvm to OP. did not have iphone.org.hk repo. very very nice stuff!

[The Game Reaper]

Someone said earlier in the thread that they found the source for touch fighter 2. Is this 'source' attainable without jbing?