I’ve always loved sliding tile puzzles, from the simple number kind to distant relatives such as the Rush Hour Traffic Jam puzzles. There’s just something appealing about putting things back in order with only the one open square to work with. Cogs adds a new dimension to the idea.

Created by Lazy 8 Studios, Cogs was first available for the PC and has just been released for the iPhone and iPod touch. Both versions are fairly similar with some minor tweaks in the iPhone version. Instead of completing pictures or putting numbers in order, your challenge in Cogs is to build machines by sliding gears together or hooking up steam pipes. The steampunk theme is great and carries over to the timer, move counters, and menu screens. It’s an attractive game with all sorts of mechanical contraptions and wonderful animation, and the sound effects are pitch-perfect.

Some of the puzzles are three-dimensional cubes (such as the one pictured) which require you to spin the cube around to solve each face individually. There are also two-sided sliders (you have to solve both sides simultaneously) and cylinders, nontraditional shapes that will really get you thinking. Inventor Mode is the basic game: put together the machine using the least amount of times and number of moves. Challenge Mode allows you to replay the puzzles you’ve solved, either in fewer than ten moves or in less than 30 seconds.

The one disappointment on the iPhone version is that the initial purchase only gets you ten puzzles. There are five “puzzle packs” in all, each available for $.99 (with a bonus 51st puzzle at the end). After you solve the first ten puzzles there’s a button to purchase the next pack in-game. But $4.95 for the whole thing is not a bad deal, and half as much as the (still not so expensive) $9.99 PC download. The PC version, appropriately enough, can be downloaded from Steam.

I really enjoyed the app, particularly since I’m the sort of person who likes to go for all the awards and achievements. Once you’ve gotten all the achievements, though, the replay value goes down. The iPhone version is tied to Crystal, a system for tracking your position on leaderboards and achievements as well as integration with Twitter or Facebook. (I generally don’t use this sort of feature but I suppose kids may like the bragging rights.)

One nice touch for the iPhone version is a tiny spark that shows where you’re touching the screen: depending on the puzzle it helps to have that pinpoint accuracy. Also, I was told there were some minor tweaks for the iPhone version to “smooth out the learning curve and get players into the 3D puzzles faster.”

Fellow contributor Jenny Williams had this to say about the PC version:

You have to do the first puzzle to unlock more puzzles, then do those to unlock more, etc. Once you solve a
puzzle, it gives you an medal for finding a solution, for how much time it took and for how many moves you used. As soon as you click “Play” for a puzzle, the timer starts up so you better be ready!

This game adds a whole new level of complexity to conventional slider puzzles, because you have to design the system while you move things around. You have to have the design in your head, and then figure out how to get the pieces in the right places. Often, though, there are two or more possible pieces which could both work in one place. Definitely a thought provoking game.

Since there aren’t too many puzzles, you could easily solve all of them in a short period of time (my husband and I played about 15 puzzles in an hour or so). So it’s a good game if you like to try to beat your previous scores on things, but once you figure out how to solve a puzzle, the charm may be gone. (Not sure how much the PC version of this game cost.) It’s a great game, though, very different from a lot of what’s out there, so major points for that.

If you like puzzle games, it’s definitely worth a try. You can download a free trial for the PC, or just buy the first puzzle pack for $.99 from the App Store to get a feel for it. Visit the Cogs Game website for more details (and a really cool demo video).

Wired: Very cool steampunk look, nice take on sliding tile puzzles. Just an all-around pleasure to play.

Tired: iPhone version separated into five puzzle packs (still not expensive, but disappointing if you’re not expecting it). Loses some replay value after you’ve gotten all the achievements.

Disclosure: GeekDad received a free download code for each version for review purposes.

Image: MultiEducator, Inc.

Are you an engineer who wishes they had access to some work-related calculations out in the field? A series of handy new apps may offer what you need. The Formulator Series by MultiEducator, Inc. is a series of iPhone/iPod Touch apps designed and packaged for a variety of engineering and other professionals. Depending on the application you choose, there are many formulas, calculations, regulatory codes and industrial code requirements included.

I volunteered to review a free copy of the Civil Engineer app, since my husband has been a registered professional civil engineer for 8 1/2 years. I knew he could give me some great expert input. I looked around the app first, and noticed many things I learned in high school math classes, but most of the rest was industry specific calculations with which I had no experience.

The main calculation categories for the Civil Engineer app are area formulas, beam, bridge, column, conversion, elevator, piles, piping, plates, roads, shear, soil, structural steel and wood. These are listed in the Contents, accessible at the bottom of the screen. Then each of those categories is broken down further, listing many different subcategories. Other options at the bottom of the screen include Recents (for recent calculations), Favorites (which you can set), Saved (where you can access specific number calculations you have saved in the past) and Search (very useful, since there are so many calculations included in the program). In Search, when you start typing in your search term, it immediately starts listing possible calculations to use.

Once you find the calculation you need, input the numbers for the asked-for variables, and it gives you the result with units. Once you have a result, you can see the definition of the formula, add it to favorites, save the calculation or email the entire result.

Image: MultiEducator, Inc.

Both my husband and I found some mistakes in the program. Perusing the area formulas, I noticed that some of the shapes were listed in the singular, and some in the plural. In another area, they talk about Hazen-Williams friction head loss, but they list it as Hazen William friction head loss. They definitely need a proofreader who is an actual engineer to go back through their program. There are so many special terms specific to the industry that a specialist is needed for this task.

The program doesn’t always use standard industry terminology, spelling things out like “cubic feet per second” instead of just saying CFS. This takes up a lot more room on an already very crowded screen. The program also sometimes uses terms like “cubic feet a second” which isn’t the way most people say it. Also, the program says “circular curve” instead of “horizontal curve” and “parabolic curve” instead of “vertical curve.” Some of the options could be a lot more clear. It talks about the area of a pyramid or area of a sphere when they really mean surface area.

There are some sections with plenty of useful formulas, such as the beam section, and some with very few, such as for roads, bridges, soils, drainage and simple things like grade and distance. For horizontal curves and vertical curves, for example, it has about 1/3 of what it needs. My husband said that it looks like it is designed for structural engineers, based on what is included. The app doesn’t have a unit conversion from square feet to acres, which is the single most common conversion that my husband uses. So you’d have to do multiple calculations to make it all work, since there is no apparent way to send the result of one calculation to an input field of another. Also, there are missing conversions: they have a conversion for gallons to cubic feet, but not cubic feet to gallons.

Image: MultiEducator, Inc.

The Civil Engineering app is by no means comprehensive, but it is a handy app that could save some time out in the field. You would have more than a calculator at hand, so you’d be able to do much more complicated calculations. To improve the program, my husband’s suggestion is to get the formulas in the book that is given out at the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam (formerly the EIT), and that would be a good start for the formula list.

I asked him if it was a program he would use. His answer, “Probably, but not frequently. Most of the equations I use regularly I know off the top of my head.” He thought it would be helpful for a brand new engineer, or perhaps one in school. Would he pay $4.99 for it? “Yes.”

My husband thought that the big problem with this app is that it is a function solver, not an equation solver. A function will say, “Give me a couple of inputs and I will solve for one particular answer.” An equation allows you to input all but one of the variables and it will solve for the one you’re missing. This is a big difference. Because of what options are available in this app, you often triple your work to get the information you need. If it was an equation solver, you could just plug in what you have and get what you need.

The Formulator Series includes apps for architects, building engineers, builders, carpenters, civil engineers, electricians, environmental engineers, finance and business people, HVAC professionals, hydraulic engineers, mechanical engineers, plumbers and real estate investors. I can only assume that these other apps have similar strengths and weaknesses.

Individual apps are available for $4.99 to $6.99. They have about 100 of what they consider the most commonly used formulas. The professional packages are available for $9.99 to $19.99. These are bundled with the full regulations and also have the formulas from the individual apps.

Wired: It gives a lot of calculations that you might need quickly. Might be great for new engineers or engineering students. Good price.

Tired: It is by no means comprehensive. There are large gaps in what it covers. It seems to need some proofreading and more explanation.

Bottom line: A good start to a program that with a number of updates and enhancements could be a great program.

Down in the garden there is a war being fought … slowly. Two armies of slugs face each other across the battlefield, each determined to break into the opponent’s base. Armed with acorn guns and salt shakers, they race—er, trudge—into the fray.

Slug Wars is a new real-time strategy game for the iPhone and iPod touch, a little reminiscent of Plants vs. Zombies, but with both offense and defense. Instead of just defending your own base, the goal is to get three of your slugs into the enemy base. You queue up various types of slugs, each with its own abilities and cost, and when they meet the opposing line they do battle. Get all the way across the field, and your slug enters the enemy base.

There’s a campaign mode pitting you against the computer, and winning unlocks new slugs to add to your arsenal. You start with the Soldier (very basic but fairly fast) and the Tank (slower, but can shoot from farther away). Eventually you get such slugs as the Kamikaze (with a salt-shaker strapped to its back) or the Airborne, carried by a butterfly over the heads of the other slugs. You earn more funds by defeating slugs and by picking up flowers that sprout up on the field, and the trick is balancing firepower and speed with your available funds.

Skirmish mode is just a one-time battle against the computer, and Slug-It-Out pits you against a friend. There aren’t really any options to speak of: just turning sound effects on or off. There’s also a brief tutorial in case you need some help getting started.

The Slug Wars battlefield

The controls are very simple: dial the wheel at the bottom of the screen to select a slug, and then tap the lane where you would like to spawn the slug. Since some of the heavy-duty slugs are slower and cost more, you have to balance them with the faster Soldiers to gain ground and pick up flowers.

The graphics are great, with different color palettes for the opposing armies. The character designs are funny. Aside from the Kamikaze, who douses himself and the nearest enemy with a pile of salt, there’s the Nuke, sipping a cup of salted seltzer water—when he explodes, he wipes out half the screen, both enemies and friendlies. The sound effects are decent but nothing especially exciting (mostly some battle sounds, and each type of slug has its own battle cry as it enters the field).

While some of the earlier levels took me a little longer to beat, I found that the difficulty level didn’t really keep pace with me. Most games I won three to zilch; the one time I lost (right after the Missile slug was introduced) the score was two to three. Probably playing against another person would be a little more interesting because their strategy would vary some. I found I was generally getting by with only four or five of the eight available slugs, and I was starting to lose interest in the game. I’ve gotten up to level 35 with the computer rarely getting a single score, and even that mostly just to see if it was going to get any harder. (It doesn’t seem to.)

A few other minor quibbles I had: you can actually start deploying slugs before it says “Ready, Fight!” so for a while the computer was getting a few slugs on the field before I was ready. Also, I did find that the slug-selection dial was a little, well, sluggish for me. (Note that I’m using a first-generation iPod touch so I know the processor speed on this is a bit slower than the newer versions.) Also, there wasn’t a very clear indicator of progress in the campaign, other than a small label at the bottom of the screen during the fight. It would have been nice to see that on the splash screen, perhaps, and maybe some statistics would be fun as well.

That said, until I had gotten all the slugs, it was fun trying to decide on a strategy and discovering the new slugs. If you’re a fan of tower defense games, this is certainly worth trying out, but you may want to find a partner because I didn’t find the AI particularly intelligent—I’ve settled on a strategy that seems to be unbeatable against the computer. They do promise to release more slug units in future updates, so I’m looking forward to see what they come up with.

Slug Wars is $1.99 in the App Store, and you can visit the Republic of Fun website for more information.

Wired: Amusing take on tower defense games that throws in offensive strategy; great graphics and character design.

Tired: Computer doesn’t put up much of a fight; bare-bones options.

Disclosure: I received a free download of Slug Wars to review.

Battle Blasters title screen and character selection screen.

The year is 3042, which of course means that there are death match tournaments. Fighters across the world strap blasters to their arms and shoot it out for fame and glory—or at least a high score on the Facebook Leaderboards.

Battle Blasters for the iPhone and iPod Touch is an arcade-style one-on-one shoot-out. There are six different unlockable characters, each with different speed, defense, power and abilities. The controls are pretty simple: swipe to the side to move, forward to shoot at the enemy, down to block, and tap your character to activate your special ability. The trick is learning the strengths and weaknesses of the various characters, and eliminating them as quickly as possible.

The campaign mode is reminiscent of old-school fighting games like Street Fighter: you pick a character, then battle your way through all the characters (fighting your doppelganger, of course), each with their own background setting. The last opponent is B.R.O.C., a massive robot who freezes you and then unleashes a hail of bullets. Each fight is best-out-of-three, and ends with the victor making some quip about the fight. (Some are more amusing than others, but with a limited repertoire they do get repetetive.) You also get very detailed stats about the fight for both you and your opponent: shots fired, accuracy, shots deflected, etc.

Quickplay lets you choose your player and opponent for practice. Multiplayer is interesting: since controlling your character only requires half of the screen, you can actually play against a friend on one iPhone. However, because it’s not a true top-down perspective, Player Two has to work upside down. (The biggest thing you’ll need to watch for is sharp fingernails!) I’ve been informed that Online Multiplayer is in the works for a future update.

Fight stage and post-battle quip.

You start the game with only Easy mode and one character, Jerett (that handsome bald guy in the blue armor). Beating the campaign unlocks a difficulty level and another character. So far I’ve beaten Easy, Medium and Hard, but Supreme has proven to be beyond my abilities; although it appears that B.R.O.C. will be the reward for doing so.

It really does feel somewhat like an homage to Street Fighter, with its colorful manga-esque in-game charcaters (and the more detailed portraits before and after the fights). However, unlike Street Fighter there isn’t any pretense of a plotline here. You have a blaster, you’re trying to shoot everyone else. Who needs a story?

It’s mostly kid-safe as long as you don’t mind the idea of people with guns where their arms should be. There’s no blood and gore, just glowing balls of light. But for kids who have grown up with first-person shooters, this may be a little too simple. It may in fact be more popular with people like me, nostalgic for old Sega games. (I did, after all, play it enough to beat three difficulty levels, and I’ll probably keep trying to beat Supreme.) The increased difficulty levels and unlocked characters add replay value, but it does start getting repetitive. I haven’t played much of the two-player version, but that would certainly add some interest to the opponent.

Battle Blasters is $2.99 at the Apple iTunes Store.

Wired: Fun old-school shooter game; two-player mode on one device; nice variation in character abilities; easy-to-learn controls.

Tired: May be too simple for your kids (but that means they won’t be stealing your iPhone to play it, right?); until online multiplayer is available, it might not keep replay value for long.

Disclosure: GeekDad was provided with a free download of Battle Blasters for review.

As always, the first episode is free, so if you didn’t check out Robot 13 the first time around, here’s your chance to try it for yourself. You can watch the trailer on YouTube or in the embedded player below:

Download Robot 13 from the iTunes store.

Erfworld: The Battle for Gobwin Knob

Okay, I know, “Geekiest Comic Ever” is a big claim to make, considering there are other comics like “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth.” But I had to get your attention somehow, right? And Erfworld is incredibly geeky in a fantastic way. (As opposed to geeky in a sci-fi way.) Here’s the plot: in the magical realm of Erfworld, the Overlord Stanley the Plaid has basically killed off all his warlords in battle due to poor strategy. His spell-caster Wanda suggests they buy a spell which will summon the perfect warlord from anywhere in the universe, a military genius who will save them from certain defeat. So they cast the spell and who should appear but Parson, an overweight strategy gamer from Columbus, Ohio.

Parson reminds me a little of the character Eli Wallace on SGU. Here’s a man-child who is obsessed with spaceships and science fiction, and he finds himself on a starship hurtling through space. Yes, it’s a bit worrying and, yes, they could all die. But he’s on a frikkin’ spaceship! Parson is a bit like that, only with a gaming obsession: he finds himself inside a world similar to his strategy games. And while it takes him a while to accept that it’s actually happening to him, he quickly warms to the task and starts plotting strategy. (And this even after he realizes that Stanley the Plaid is, to put it bluntly, the bad guy. Parson doesn’t mind.)

Riding a "dwagon" to Gobwin Knob.

The comic was originally published online under a Creative Commons license, and you can still read Book One: The Battle for Gobwin Knob online. (I will warn you: when I first went to check out Erfworld to see what it was about, I wound up reading the entirety of Book One in one sitting, staying up until about 2 a.m.) There are all sorts of tongue-in-cheek allusions: from Charlie’s Angels to the Eyebooks, magic books which the characters use to communicate with each other via a system which is, well, instant messaging, complete with a “Quack” noise when a new message is received.

The sound effects are absurd and hilarious: from the “Fer-Durrrp!” of the bugles to random words reinterpreted as onomatopoeia: “Golem!” for the appearance of, well, Golems, and “Decrypt!” as the sound of somebody being raised from the dead. The names of things are cutesy: “dwagons” and “gwiffins,” and they all look cute, too, even the giant vicious teddy bears. But then, in the midst of all the adorable stuff a warlord gets an arrow through his head, or a giant marshmallow peep gets bitten in half by a dwagon. The artwork is a good match for the writing, with its own mixture of bitter and sweet.

Android users, scan this barcode for the Erfworld app

It’s hard to describe the breadth of geekiness contained in Erfworld; I’m not even a strategy gamer but it sucked me in. And now, thanks to Robot Comics, it’s available as an app for the iPhone, iPod touch, or Android phone. The first episode is available for free, and later episodes will be available for $.99 each, released one per month. (Book One will be broken into 13 episodes, and the first two are available now.)

And for those of you who have already read Erfworld Book One, Book Two is now well underway on the website.

Wired: The best sort of humor: one that satirizes and embraces its subject matter at the same time. Robot Comics’ app has an easy-to-use interface and allows you to read Erfworld on the go.

Tired: You may not want to wait a month per episode once you start reading.

Dinomixer for the iPhone

Don’t you ever wish you could combine the head of a Triceratops, the body of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and the spiky tail of a Stegosaurus? (No? Okay, maybe it’s just me.) Now you can, without all the cutting and stitching or DNA manipulation! All you need is an iPhone or iPod touch. DinoMixer is a fun little app that combines two kid favorites: dinosaurs and your iPhone.

I got a review copy and both my daughters love it. (Even the three-year-old has had no difficulty with the controls, which are simple and intuitive.) There are currently fourteen dinosaurs to choose from, with more promised in future updates. Each dino is separated into three pieces: head, torso, and tail, which you can swipe up and down to mix and match. Or, you can just shake the iPhone and they’ll spin around, jackpot-style. The background and foreground can also be swiped left and right for different scenes (or an entirely blank background if you want a better look at the dinosaur).

Allosaurus details

When you do get three pieces of the same dinosaur lined up, the name appears at the bottom, along with a button to push to get a few screens of data about it. My daughters currently skip the text and the screen showing geographical information to get to the third screen, which shows the dino’s relative size to a human. Also, each dinosaur makes a different noise when it’s completed; I don’t know how well-researched this particular aspect is, but it’s kind of fun.

There are general sorts of jungle-ish sounds in the background while you play (and can be shut off), but one feature I would have liked in addition is an audio pronunciation of each dino’s name, so that when younger kids are playing with it they’ll hear the name rather than just trying to muddle through it.

The artwork is excellent with just the right amount of detail: it’s certainly comparable to what you might find in a book about dinosaurs. The best part? DinoMixer is only 99 cents, so it won’t set you back much and will keep your kids entertained (and educated!) for hours.

Oh, one minor complaint about the interface: on the first info screen, the lengthier text about each dino can be scrolled up and down; sometimes this interferes with attempts to scroll right to the next info screen. It’s not a big deal, but maybe could be addressed in a future update.

Wired: Mix-and-match roaring dinosaurs for only 99 cents.

Tired: Would be nice to have pronunciation of the dinosaurs; minor interface issues.

Ike-Dog Image: Dave Banks

There’s a great little app that’s just made its way to the iTunes store. It’s called LEGO Photo (links to iTunes), and it allows you to take any photo from your camera lens or your existing library and turn the pixels into LEGO bricks. It’s simple to use - just take or pick out a photo, click the button … and you’re done. If you’re not happy with the outcome, simply touch the screen and the app chooses a new palette of colors. Once you’re satisfied, click save and your LEGOized photo is saved to your photo library. And the best part of all - LEGO Photo is free.

Update: A fun suggestion from GeekDad Matt Blum: Take a screenshot on your phone (press Home button & Sleep/Wake button simultaneously - it will be saved in your photo album) and turn it into LEGO bricks.

Screencap of the ESRB's iPhone app

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB)–the people who bring you parental advisory ratings on videogames–have released an iPhone app that lets users search for rating summaries on games.  Here’s their pitch:

The main attraction of the app is that you can access rating summaries, which describe the activities involved in the game, giving some insight into why a game got a particular rating.  The summaries, which aren’t on a game’s packaging, are only available for games released since July 2008.

The app is fairly bare-bones: It’s basically just a wrapper for the mobile version of the ESRB website, without much added functionality (no ability to save searches, or any kind of customization).  Having said that, if you don’t know much about the video games your child is asking for this holiday season–or at any other time–then the ESRB app can provide you with a little more information.  And it’s free.

The app is available now on iTunes.