Angry Birds take wing on Android

Angry Birds Angry Birds, the insanely popular iPhone game, made its debut on Android phones on Friday. Rovio, the developer, is making the game available as a beta "lite" version on Android Market. In a blog post, the company says that it is presented on an "as is" basis and that it can't guarantee functionality on every …

[aie93]

HTC Desire Froyo

I have a HTC Desire running 2.2 Froyo. Just installed the game from the Marketplace and it works fine. Not sure what this article is claiming about it not being available.

[TomP]

RE: HTC Desire Froyo

The article says "some" and "custom versions" before "2.2 Froyo". E.g. stuff like CyanogenMod.

Unfortunately this is the only way to get 2.1 or 2.2 on the HTC Magic since HTC/Vodafone basically gave up on the device a year after it was launched.

[Avatar of They]

Pricing

iphone is $0.99 for the game AND level packs? (apparently)

N900 is a free game with level packs at £1.50 EACH

Will be interested to see what Android pricing is, rip off or realistic?

[EvilGav 1]

Doesn't . . .

. . . appear for the X10 Mini Pro, rpesumably not a QXGA screen version released or it's Android 2.n and upwards only.

[Mark Boothroyd]

Not for Hero either

Got a HTC Hero on 2.1 (official) and doesn't show up for me either.

[Daf L]

Hero okay if loaded through AppBrain

I have run it on the Hero the day it was released. You can install it using AppBrain and the fast Web Installer.

You will find a few problems as it is not designed to run on HVGA. The screens will be a little too big but if you click the background or the trackball when the Beta disclaimer is on and the bottom right corner when the tutorial screens show then it will work fine (apart from some of the background graphics not displaying).

[gav_taylor]

your resolution is too small

the current beta build is only compatable with HDPI devices (desire,n1,etc)

[RichyS]

Fragmentation

And I thought Android device fragmentation was a myth.

[Jimmy Floyd]

"Hello, we're the Stasi. May we come in?"

Expect the Jobsian police to be banging at Rovio's door later, taking them for questioning over their loyalty to the Great Leader.

Yes, it's a joke - but if they can throw an app off the App Store simply for using the word "Android"...

[Anonymous Coward]

Cash cow

Apple only get upset if they're not making money - they're making far too much money from Angry Birds to throw them out. Bear in mind they take 30% of the sales... Even loyalty has its price!

[Sandy Ritchie]

I'd recommend trying it....

Its a good fun game, nice graphics, easy to complete most levels but very difficult to get 3 *'s in each level.

Play for 5mins and find you've lost an hour of your life! ;)

[Miek]

Fantastic Fun

Really enjoying this game, even the 15 level free beta is totally addictive. Only problem I have is a bit of lag after quitting the game. Guess I should have kept playing really.

[James 51]

later levels not great

I don't have a problem with the n900 pricing. more expensive but with a smaller market it's hard to make a profit. the third set levels aren't as good as the previous two but still worth it.

[Andy Nugent]

re: Pricing

So you think the iPhone version, with a mass market 100 million plus possible customers, should cost the same as the N900 version with a fraction of that userbase?

[M Gale]

Yes.

Or do you think that DS games should be more expensive than PS3 or Xbox 360 games? They still need to be developed, regardless of the specs of the target system.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really.

> They still need to be developed, regardless of the specs of the target system.

That's what middlewares are for: Write once, compile on many platforms (assuming that the developer did purchase the middleware SDK for each and every platform it plans to target).

Given that Apple doesn't allow middlewares tho...

[IndianaJ]

Nada

Not for us HTC Hero users.... does it require Froyo?

[Ben Brandwood]

Need portable saves

Yay for Angry Birds on Android - BUT

I already have the game on iPhone and on my iPad. What I *really* want is some way to sync my progress between versions. Either by some uniqe code or online service. Then I can play with whatever device is to hand and not worry about having to re-do levels on the stuff at home.

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you

... for letting us know that you have an ipad and an iphone and your particular complaint with this game. I am sure that it is entirely relevant to the topic at hand and further esteems you in the eyes of us lowly Android owners; and perhaps the developers would definitely want to spend some time investigating the synchronization of gameplay between disparate devices in order to save you the effort of having to walk a few feet and pick up the device you were originally playing on.

[Anonymous Coward]

Flounce

Yep, just a flounce.

[gav_taylor]

not showing up in market...

the reason its not showing up in the market for everyone is that the current build is only for HDPI devices (desire, N1, X10, etc) so that rules out a lot of us on older devices.

You can still run it on MDPI devices (runs fine on my Hero) but some of the menus run off the screen and it can lag a little sometimes but its more than playable...

Hopefully the next version will include support for other screens as for a beta, its pretty good :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Brilliant

Been annoying SWMBO with this for the last 30. Works fine on Orange HTC Hero running Android 2.1 update 1.

[Ian Yates]

Good fun

Been playing it over the weekend (Desire, MCR r8) and looking forward to the full version.

Similar game already available is "Blow Up!", though I suspect Angry Birds was first.

[LuMan]

Avian Flew (geddit!)

I've just played this on my mate's iPhone and can definitely say that it needs to be converted to as many different formats as possible!

Birds of different shapes, sizes and colours killing little green piggies!! Priceless!!!

[Jolyon]

Happy bird

I like this game a lot. It's keeping my girlfriend very quiet.

[[Yamthief]]

Custom Roms

I have no idea as to what's causing it, but my custom 2.1 ROM on my Hero can't find this app on the marketplace either. I'm pretty gutted about that, cause I've been waiting for this app for a long time.

[vegister]

good fun

enjoying it, hope it's a sign of better games coming our way on android. i would pay a nugget for a few more levels.

although this game has now filled my phone memory, so I'm waiting for 2.2 so i can transfer to SD.

[Russ Tarbox]

Isn't Android fantastic

"It doesn't work on my version, oh my screen is the wrong size, oh shit my custom interface is incompatible".

I bet half of you post on iPhone threads claiming that Android is best, though.

[Nic 3]

Techie none Techie

The comments above:

"so I'm waiting for 2.2 so i can transfer to SD."

"...running Android 2.1 update 1."

"have no idea as to what's causing it, but my custom 2.1 ROM on my Hero"

"current build is only for HDPI devices"

"does it require Froyo?"

and so on...

show a key reason why Apple have done so well with the iPhone. Homogeny is a good thing when it comes to mass market appeal. iPhone users don't have to faff around like this.

I await my torrent of downvotes ;-)

[M Gale]

Beta

See title. I'm sure it'll be sorted by the time it's ready for "proper" release. If it's not, you can lay the blame at the feet of the developers, not the OS. And are you saying that the iToy, iToy2, iToy3, iToy3gs, iToy4 and iToy Super Large Edition are not disparate devices with wildly differing specs?

Just think. If it was still in development for the Jobsian touchtoys, nobody would be playing it yet.

And no, no downvote from me. Takes a little more than simple ignorance for me to make with the little red 1.

[TomP]

RE: Techie none Techie

Android users don't *have* to faff about like this either. But they have the option to do these things with the device that they paid for, rather than being told what they can and cannot do.

[Anonymous Coward]

Vote up

Didn't we all say that Fragmentation would occur? Yes, I believe we did. Not saying that the Android is a bad platform, but myriad of generations from each manufacturer would be very annoying, to say the least.

Isn't this kinda like the Linux World. We have so many versions of Linux and they are all pretty good, btw, that it practically killed the mass market?

Too bad because I love Ubuntu and I really like the features of most the Android phones. I love the idea of Android but I think this is a case of too many cooks stirring the pot.

I too await the wrath of down thumbs. But I offer a beer to make peace.

[styven]

Working fine on the Desire (NT)

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