Sep
13
(2006)
I’m pretty hooked on the new games for the iPod. I’ve already bought 4 of them, and am trying to hold back from buying the rest. (I know - I should have bought the bundle, but I didn’t think I’d want them all…)
They’re really great implementations, most are likely better than their desktop counterparts due to being better suited to a circular controller. I’m addicted to Zuma. Like a junkie.
But… The games seem to suck the soul out of the battery even faster than playing a video does. I played a game on the bus ride home tonight (it was raining, and I wussed out and left the bike at home) and it killed about half of the battery. That makes about an hour of gameplay on a fully charged battery? That can’t be right.
I’m hoping it’s just a battery life calibration issue, rather than an actual drain. I can always pack an extra long extension cord so I can get my fix of Zuma…
Comments
10 Responses to “iPod games draining the battery too fast?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
well if you think about it it is using all the components of the ipod it once
click will
back light
hdd
sound
video
processor
ext.
they all use the battery LIKE HELL
… play and drain the batter or not play and dont drain the battery
(ok from what i know if you fragment the ipod HDD it doesnt look as hard for the info so it doesnt use as much of the battery…o and use the dimmer on the ipod so the back light is not as bright..that will help to
Chase - that’s what I figured, too. Just seems odd having a pretty cool wearable gaming system that either requires an extension cord, or a 1-hour max. playtime.
Another thing to note is that the iPod is notorious for reporting incorrect battery levels when the harddrive has just been in use. For some reason, it tends to report substantially lower levels for a while after the disk has spun up (mine sometimes goes red for a minute or two), presumably because they use some type of algorithm which heavily weights disk spin-up in the battery level.
You may have more battery left than you think, but it’s also probably not wise to push it: who knows what will happen if you loose battery while playing!
Yeah. I’m hoping it’s just a cosmetic thing. It seems a bit odd to say it has a 10-12 hour battery life, just as long as you don’t actually do anything with it…
Alas the system wasn’t built for gaming, however cool it is they’re making ues of it. You can see that in the massive size of the games files — on cellphones they’d be a fraction of the size — where they must be doing some kind of workaround.
Anyway, you might be interested to hear there’s a new iPod dedicated section up on Pocket Gamer, with reviews of Zuma, Texas Hold’em, Mini Golf and Pac Man. We’ll have more up over the week too.
It’s at:
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/latest.asp?sec=6
Hi guys…
Where can i download FREE iPod games? ja ja ja
Thanks
ok guys if u want i know how to make a thing you can plug into which will make ur ipod be able to last 13.8x as long so u can email me if u want one @ whydoialwaysgetspam@inbox.com
Hi. Someone asked about plugging your i-pod into the wall? You can purchase the adapter. I bought it simply because I didn’t bring my laptop on a trip. This allowed me to charge up my i-pod in the airport between connections and also in the hotel room once I got there. That may work for you as a power source. I don’t know. This contraption is put out by Apple.
My favourite game for the ipod has always been the quiz one (although when you listen to every song on your ipod like 5 times the game becomes a bit boring). Batteries are getting better and better so it will only be a matter of time before ipods will be able to last days not hours.
To Billy Szkoda, just so you know, if you don’t have any album covers for your songs, it could cause the music quiz game to repeat them, since half of the little things it does involves the album covers of the music. Also, you need dates, because those are used too. And now with the iTouch out, battery drains on that fast…