Where to Begin with iPad?

[linmukai]

I probably should have searched before posting this. Sorry! Then again, maybe my situation is unique enough that I can get away with this...

 

I've been meaning to play the Spiderweb games for ages. It's a long story but some time ago I decided to put it off longer still once I knew some were coming out on iOS for iPad as I wanted one. Well, I got my dream iPad in the form of new 9.7" iPad Pro the other day and hit the app store of course checking out all sorts of stuff not the least of which was games and Spiderweb games. I was surprised to find Avernum 6 there.

 

Here's my quandary, not having played anything yet and knowing Avernum is a series of six games I am wondering where I ought to begin. Since the two newest ones are remakes and then there is Avernum 6 on the app store and meantime I could play 4 and 5 or even all the oldest ones on my iMac I am a wee bit confused about what the heck to do here. The other issue of course is simply time. I am disabled and at home by myself a lot so I have a lot of time but even I only have so much time. After all, for as much as I love gaming I do try to do other stuff too.

 

So, I was thinking well, maybe I should for fun play Avernum 6 first. Then I could play the fancier new releases not to mention the Avadon games. I could always go back and play whatever else if the creek don't rise and the Good Lord's willing, you know?

 

I guess the question kind of comes down to storyline across the games. I haven't a clue about that of course. Can I get away with playing these out of sequence, say playing Avernum 6, then the two remakes and we'll see after that. I'd probably want to play the Avadon games next and by then I imagine another may be out. If not, I won't even get into the other stuff I want to get around to playing.

 

I poked around here a bit and read rumors of the Geneforge series possibly seeing remakes down the road too. I hope so. Since I am so late to the party anyway, maybe it will pay off with fancy new ones.

 

Any advice here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Kelandon]

As far as iPad games from Spiderweb, my advice is not to start with Avernum 6. Start with Avernum: Escape From the Pit, which is the first game in the series. Then play Avernum 2: Crystal Souls. By the time you've finished those, it's possible that Avernum 3 will have been remade. If not, play the Avadon series in the meantime while you wait. (There will probably be three of them by then, so that will give you plenty to chew on.)

 

Avernum 6 really ought to follow all the other Avernum games. So once you've finished the Avernum 3 remake (eventually), you should go on to Avernum 4 and Avernum 5 on your computer before you do Avernum 6.

[linmukai]

My concern there is the great likelihood that Apple will move to all 64 bit apps with iOS in the not so distant future, permanently breaking the likes of Avernum 6 before I could ever get to it. As it is, I think everything preceding Crystal Souls will no longer be possible to play in iOS when that happens. Jeff's blog touches on this eventuality briefly in the article he wrote about coming back to iPad development I believe it was. I read his plan upon learning this is going to happen whenever it becomes apparent from Apple that it is going to will be to remove all the older 32 bit Spiderweb games and that'll be the end of that on iOS.

 

This was what made me think about playing Avernum 6 first but I understand that if the storyline is connected between the games in the series that maybe I should just follow the above advice and if I get to play it on iOS great, if not I guess I'll have to go with doing so on a desktop if I still have one. I probably will as I'm considering something like the Alienware Alpha strictly for Windows gaming and the iPad for everyday computing and whatever gaming I can enjoy there. Whether or not I miss OS X for some reason to want to add a Mac Mini into that picture I don't know but it really isn't relevant to the discussion at hand I guess. I should have the option to play anything I want on the desktop going forward and certainly Windows is the best bet for long term software compatibility given history versus Apple. I love Apple stuff but my greatest criticism of them is a failure to put effort into preserving consumer investments in software by working to maintain compatibility for longer periods of time.

 

Sorry to be long winded but that was essentially what brought the question up at all. Otherwise, I'd just default to playing any series in order as a rule including this one.

[Randomizer]

Part of the problem is that new Apple versions of the games aren't as backwards compatible as what you find on Windows versions. So start playing now since it will be at least a year and half before Avernum 3: Crystal Souls remake comes out.

[linmukai]

Thank you both for your replies. I am going to start with the new versions on my iPad.

 

For everything else, I've found an awesome solution you may be familiar with called Splashtop Personal to remote into either Windows or OS X as desired. You can read more about it here if interested: http://www.splashtop.com/personal

 

For personal use, it's only 5 bucks on the app store for iPad. The software needed for the Windows or OS X side of things is free from their site. It's gotten a lot of positive user feedback, is kept up to date and reviews on the web for it are positive as well. I'm looking forward to fooling with it soon to see how well it works but it should be great for this stuff and more. It's not the only game in town of course but this product looked very good to me so I bought it just now for a variety of purposes I can think of. Very cool stuff!

 

Amazing. Once again, there's an app for that!