Motion video games: Attack of the Killer Virus and Moorhen Camera X for Series 60 – where are they now?

Space Impact (oh how I missed thee!) has just been revitalised again with a new “compass version” Meteor Shield where rotating the phone would control the game.

But it’s incompatible to phones without a magnetometer.

But old on….Do any of you remember a couple of games called “Attack of the Killer Virus” and “Moorhen Camera X”?

Back in the day when the competition could muster monochrome 20 pixel “games”, Nokia had stunning colour games (in glorious 176×208 – that was so high res back then) which you could move about and interact with the game directly. [the glory days when people bought Series 60 phones because they had the most apps eheh].

ATTACK OF THE KILLER VIRUS

In attack of the killer virus, your camera would see “virus/amoeba” like objects appearing on the view finder, maybe attacking your friends/furniture (whatever happens to be on screen). Your aim was to shoot down those amoeba thingys. If you move the screen about, different viruses would appear on screen, but remain in the correct original position like they were actually there and the camera phone was somehow revealing them.

[ image is animated .gif – a few screenshots in one]

MOORHEN CAMERA X

Moorhen Camera X was another really fun game where you had to move the phone to shoot the Moorhens flying across your screen. This time, the visuals are all in game (no using view finder). Moving the phone (detected by camera) moves your shotgun and moves you about the farm to shoot the moorhens. And it wasn’t only the visuals that was impressive but the sound effects too. No electronic “bleeps”, real bird screams, ricochets, gunshots and reload sounds.

I’m sure there were plenty more games like this in old series 60 first edition. Did they ever make the transition to S60 second edition? They certainly weren’t in third. Shame really as they were awesome games. (As I recall it there were tons of amazing apps that just gradually became extinct each time S60 moved from 1st to 2nd, then 3rd edition)

Well, unless I’ve missed them or someone revives those games there’s Space Impact Meteor Shield for you to try. CJ from zomgitsCJ has made a demo video showing the Compass based game in action.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBX0FaTJstA]

Hmm…would love to see  combined magnetometer, accelerometer,GPS,  compass and camera for really immersive mix of Gaming/reality experience. Would that just be an augmented reality game?

Tags: moorhen camera x, Motion Video Games, reminisce, S60, Series 60, Symbian

Category: Nokia, S60, Symbian, Video