Roger Fingas
Apple on Monday released a surprise 2.0 update of "Texas Hold'em," a poker game it originally produced for clickwheel iPods, now available for the latest iPhones.
The remake was created to mark the 10th anniversary of the App Store, Apple said. In reality the App Store premiered in July 2008, for which "Texas Hold'em" was upgraded and released as one of the first 500 titles. The game's last update — version 1.1 — dates back to Aug. 31 that year.
Its new incarnation includes overhauled graphics and characters, 10 backdrops, and the ability to duel up to 8 other people over Wi-Fi. Players can also switch between first-person and top-down views.
The changes mean that while "Texas Hold'em" is still a free download, it's now sized over 1.5 gigabytes, and requires an iPhone or iPod with iOS 12 or later.
While Apple is not known for releasing games under its name via the App Store, it is the second such launch from the iPhone maker this year. In May, it released Warren Buffett's Paper Wizard as a free game in partnership with the investor mogul.
Apple is also expected to make a bigger splash in the mobile gaming market with Apple Arcade, a subscription service that will offer more than 100 games to users that is set to launch this fall.
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10 Comments
Weird. Searching on the App store, I can't find it. Your link is good though. Thanks.
Talk about a nostalgia trip! I really enjoyed the original release.
Ha!
There was an old article (pre-iPhone) that mentioned how much better the graphics were for this game for $1.99 on iPod vs. Palm-pre and Symbian versions that looks like garbage for $14.99.
Wow have times changed. "Greedy" Apple ushered in a new era of .99 cent games when $15 pixelated crap was the norm.
DAMMIT I really wanna find this article......
I had the Mini Golf app for the click-wheel iPod, but that was made by EA. I think that might have been the only game I downloaded.
Hopefully they kept the Apple employees that cameoed as characters; Phil Schiller and Joz were some of the more obvious ones, but apparently quite a few employees ended up in the final version.