In an interview with Shacknews conducted earlier today, legendary Doom developer and id Software co-founder John Carmack expressed regret that his company could not put together an iPhone game in time for today's launch of the iPhone application store.

"I'm really kind of sad about... how things played out outside of our real control on that," said Carmack when asked about id iPhone development. "I'm really bullish on the iPhone market. I think that what they're doing with iTunes, cutting the carriers out of there... it's a great hardware platform.

"It's a market I really want to be in, we just didn't have the resources to go do something for the initial launch."

Carmack then revealed that he and id programmer Robert Duffy have been quietly experimenting with the iPhone's 3D engine.

"Robert Duffy and I actually hacked together a kind of a port... Read more

Apple's new iPhone firmware arrived today, and alongside it, the iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch users has formally launched.

The store packs a number of games and other applications, which generally range in price from free to $9.99. A number of other titles are expected to arrive by tomorrow morning, when the new 3G iPhone hits North American retailers.

Games currently available, or expected to arrive by tomorrow morning, include:

• Tetris (EA Mobile) / Price Unknown
• Scrabble (EA Mobile) / Price Unknown
• Sudoku (EA Mobile) / Price Unknown
• Bejeweled 2 (PopCap Games) / $9.99
• Super Monkey Ball (Sega) / $9.99
• Bomberman Touch: The Legend of Mystic Bomb (Hudson) / $7.99
• Etch A Sketch (Freeze Tag) / $4.99
• MS. Pac-Man (Namco) / $9.99
• Cro-Mag Rally (Pangea Software) / $9.99

Meanwhile, upcoming games for the iPhone and iPod Touch include:

• Spore (EA Mobile) / September
• Krull (Digital Legends) / September
• Peggle (PopCap Games) / Unknown

Continuing the recent trend of motion-controlled cell phone games, mobile maker Sony Ericsson has unveiled the F305, a gaming-focused phone with a motion sensor.

Due out by September, the F305 is said to put "gaming at the heart" and take mobile gaming "to a whole new level," It comes pre-loaded with motion-controlled bowling, fishing, and jockey games.

The device also supports traditional game controls, with the two "dedicated gaming buttons," O and X, having a similar style and appearance to those of a regular Sony PlayStation controller. Up to 8 hours of gameplay are promised per battery charge.

"Encounter gaming in a completely new way," Sony Ericsson teased. "The phone can, for example, follow your actions to imitate bowling or casting a fishing line."

Though motion-controlled gaming recently reached broad public awareness thanks to Nintendo's Wii, lesser-known devices had been implementing motion sensors long before the system debuted. One such example is an LG Electronics phone, premiered in February 2005, that sported a motion-controlled skiing game.

Apple has released HD footage of yesterday's demonstration of Krull, the upcoming iPhone action-adventure game from Digital Legends Entertainment.

Roughly ported to the iPhone in around four days, the 3D mobile game uses a combination of touch-based controls and accelerometer mechanics. Dynamic shadows and other handheld-level effects are also on display.

Krull is expected to hit in September, following the July 11 launch of the new iPhone 2.0 software and 3G iPhones. Registered users can use the HD Stream

According to USA Today, old guard PC developer id Software will more fully embrace the mobile gaming market in which it already has seen some measure of success. Anna Kang, founder of Orcs & Elves series and Doom RPG developer Fountainhead Entertainment, will head up id Mobile, the new division devoted entirely to cell phone games. Classic id franchises Wolfenstein and Quake are expected to make the jump to mobile.

Doom RPG and the Orcs & Elves franchise were notoriously born out of a desire by id Software co-founder John Carmack to improve the state of mobile gaming as well as give him a chance to work on smaller, more personal projects that do not require large development teams. Fountainhead developed the games using initial technology developed by Carmack. Kang, previously an id employee, is Carmack's wife. She will apparently keep her Fountainhead post while serving as president of id Mobile.

Fountainhead and id's mobile games have seen both critical and commercial success. The first Orcs & Elves game has been ported by Fountainhead to Nintendo... Read more

World of Warcraft and StarCraft developer Blizzard Entertainment is branching out into mobile development, according to a series of new listings on its job site. Three listings for mobile-related positions popped up last week--a mobile producer to oversee "the process of bringing Blizzard-IP-related functions into the mobile space," a lead software engineer to "lead a mobile development programming team," and a lead mobile UI designer to "help lead our efforts in the mobile space."

Based off the phrasing and timing of the postings, Blizzard's plans for the mobile market appear in their infancy and are likely unrelated to the upcoming product announcement that has sent the internets into a furor of speculation. With the May 19th announcement less than two weeks away, rumors abound that said product may be anything from the long-awaited StarCraft sequel to a StarCraft-based MMO.

... Read more

GameCloud talked with Pulse Interactive CEO Paul Trowe and gleaned a few details regarding the cell phone adaptation of Quake. A few details include that Quake Mobile will be the first OpenGL cellular game, it will be compatible with every mod created for the PC version, and it'll arrive in Korea first on a "game-oriented phone design."

Kotaku has some of the first screenshots for the cell phone port of Quake. This was revealed just days ago, so read up on it here. Looking pretty good so far, but framerate is king!

Another valuable id software series is finding its way onto the cell phone gaming scene: Quake! id software and Pulse Interactive announced the deal yesterday that will bring Quake to next-gen cell phones that feature dedicated 3D graphics hardware. In development by Bare Naked Productions, the port will be a "faithful conversion" of the original PC game.

"Quake Mobile takes all of the action, game play, and atmosphere of the groundbreaking original and puts it right in the palm of your hands," says id CEO Todd Hollenshead. Pulse Interactive president Paul Trowe commented: "Forget miniature golf and puzzle games, Quake is going to take mobile gaming to a whole new level. [The game] will not only satisfy hardcore players, but also create a whole new generation of fans around the world." EuroGamer reports that this port will be an embedded program on a new handset launching in July.

It was always believed that if you wanted 3D gaming on the go, you were out of luck. However, the last few years have seen great strides in mobile graphics. These days you can buy a solution that will run DOOM3 better than your rig at home, as evidenced by this review of the Dell XPS Inspirion XPS Gen 2, which sports a GeForce Go 6800 Ultra.

Dell going with nVidia was a big blow to ATI, as they had been using their chips for the past few years. ATI now hopes to rectify this by soon announcing the M28PRO, their latest mobile processor. It one-ups the nVidia solution by offering sixteen pipelines as opposed to twelve on the Go 6800 and the ATI card will be "faster with FSAA and Anisotropic filtering on especially at 1280x1024 or 1600x1200 resolutions." The official announcement should be coming in less than two weeks with Alienware being the first vendor to have systems with the new card shortly thereafter.

CNN is reporting about a new deal for Sega in Japan where they are going to be working together with Japan's top cell phone operator, DoCoMo. The service they'll be providing allows cell phones and arcade machines to be linked to consoles and personal computers through the cell phone. This service will probably be provided for the Playstation 2, and in Japan at first of course.

The decision is aimed at enhancing the number of visitors at our game arcades and i-mode users through providing a new entertainment structure using the latest network technology," the Sega spokesman said.

Anyone have any idea what kind of games you could possible play on a cell phone, against someone with a real console. Or the amount of lag between an arcade center and a console user at home.

And as we've mentioned not to long ago, NVidia has its mobile chip ready. The product will be launching at the upcoming Comdex. ATI pretty much dominates the mobile market now.

SamSung just announced this cool looking cellphone / tv combo portable deal. It's cool ok damn it. Speaking of portable stuff, here's a ZDNet article talkoing about joining the forces of the mobile internet.