Friday, April 29, 2011




Fri. | P90X Legs & Back | Workout
Thu. | P90X Yoga X | Workout
Wed. | P90X Chest, Shoulders, Triceps | Workout
Tue. | P90X Plyometrics | Workout
Mon. | P90X Chest & Back | Workout
Fitness Blueprint | Insanity/P90X #10 (Get P90X or start with Power 90)
Personal | Weight: 199 (Shakeology Snack Added)
Tracking Calories (iPad App)
Working at my Stand Up Desk (plans) (Why you should, too!)

I'm in fairly good shape for my age/work. But this rock climbing young lady from Europe... Yikes. Now that's strength/agility.

NO NUMBERS from Jure Niedorfer on Vimeo.



Saturday, April 23, 2011




Tips: How to run a Facebook contest, sweepstakes, or drawing

So your company is on Twitter (most) and Facebook (increasingly), and you've had a brainstorm: Let's run a targeted marketing campaign in the form of a contest to get more Followers and Likes.

First step: You've got the email addresses of your best prospects and current customers, and maybe (if you're in the K-12 school space) even reached out to the good folks at MDR to put together a segmented campaign to reach even more interested parties. An email campaign to drive interest is key.

Next is applying the same graphics, design, and messaging to setting up a microsite (small set of landing pages on your brand's site) to direct traffic, and explain what your contest is all about -- plus host your legal team's vetted rules.

Your microsite is also a good place to host an entry method for anyone who's not a Twitter or Facebook user. Some companies and schools/colleges block access to one or both of these sites, so having a secondary entry method is critical so as not to sour your visitors to your brand.

Last but not least is the contest entry point or app/tool itself -- this is not something you want to do by hand, setting up a webform and sorting through the results.

That's where Wildfire comes in.

Wildfire offers a turn-key system for creating online promotions in minutes, then deploying them to your website/microsite, Facebook, Twitter, and more. Wildfire also enables automatic sharing of your contest to all major social media channels, so entrants can auto-tweet/FB their entry to encourage others to participate. And it costs less than $50 for a generic campaign, with a decent amount of customization to insert graphics, etc.

Next week ( April 11-16: National Library Week #NLW11 ) you'll be able to see all of this in action at ProQuest's website (landing page, rules) and social media presences: Facebook and Twitter.

We're combining the Wildfire app posted to our landing page and Facebook presence to capture entries to win an iPad 2 and Amazon gift cards daily from M-F, then encouraging visitors to "Like" our Facebook page and comment on daily videos which will appear, letting everyone tell the world why they love libraries.



Here's all the details:

National Library Week, April 10-16, 2011
http://www.proquest.com/go/celebrate

Next week is National Library Week! We have a lot of fun activities planned for librarians and library supporters.

Database Access @ www.proquest.com/go/nlwaccess

We are offering open access to the following products from Sunday, April 10-Saturday, April 16:

· ProQuest Civil War Era
· ProQuest African American Heritage
· ebrary Public Library Complete and Schools Collection
· eLibrary
· SIRS Issues Researcher
· SIRS Discoverer
· Books in Print

New Library Marketing Tools

We have created new Web icons, banners, and a “Live. Learn. Laugh. Love your library!” screensaver. All are available for download at www.proquest.com/go/nlwaccess.

“My library rocks because…?” Sweepstakes

On the ProQuest Facebook Page we will post a video question about libraries every morning from April 11-15.



Facebook Page members can show their support for libraries by answering each question in the Facebook Comments section under each video question. (All of our videos are hosted in our YouTube Channel, and are embedded into Facebook as a Link.)



To enter the sweepstakes, click the Sweepstakes tab and fill out the entry form for a chance to win an Amazon.com gift card, and the grand prize, an iPad 2!

We encourage you to Like ProQuest and answer the daily question. (Official rules are available at www.proquest.com/go/nlwcontest.)

Questions? Feel free to comment on this post, and good luck with your social media endeavors.





Friday, April 22, 2011

P90X Legs & Back | Workout
Fitness Blueprint | Insanity/P90X #10 (Get P90X or start with Power 90)
Personal | Weight: 199 (Shakeology Snack Added)
Tracking Calories (iPad App)
Working at my Stand Up Desk (plans) (Why you should, too!)

Rocked the ol' legs... wall squats, nice.

Thursday, April 21, 2011



P90X Shoulders & Arms | Workout
Fitness Blueprint | Insanity/P90X #10 (Get P90X or start with Power 90)
Personal | Weight: 199 (Shakeology Snack Added)
Tracking Calories (iPad App)
Working at my Stand Up Desk (plans) (Why you should, too!)

Been too long since I had the chance to hoist those 30's over my head... So good. Still easing back into things, but the reps/weight is back in play. Nice.

More on the Reddit downtime thanks to the ol' Amazon Cloud...

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

7.5 mi. Bike Trail Ride | Workout
Fitness Blueprint | Insanity/P90X #10 (Get P90X or start with Power 90)
Personal | Weight: 199 (Shakeology Snack Added)
Tracking Calories (iPad App)
Working at my Stand Up Desk (plans) (Why you should, too!)

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

P90X Plyometrics | Workout
Fitness Blueprint | Insanity/P90X #10 (Get P90X or start with Power 90)
Personal | Weight: 199 (Shakeology Snack Added)
Tracking Calories (iPad App)
Working at my Stand Up Desk (plans) (Why you should, too!)

With the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster this year, very glad to see progress being made in funding its new containment vessel. Worth watching this 10 minute video from the Guardian UK.









Trivia phenom You Don’t Know Jack leads our iPad Games of the Week

In the mid-1990s, Jellyvision’s irreverent and crazy-entertaining You Don’t Know Jack trivia game took the Mac/PC world by storm. Originally delivered in several topical flavors on old school CD-ROMs, the animated, pop culture trivia questions delivered with twisted, semi-adult humor laced throughout always added up to a fun 15-20 minute game, either alone or with friends. Now the game makes its triumphant return to our modern Apple tablets, and not a moment too soon. We could all use a laugh this week, no?

The remainder of our iPad games of the week are focused on young gamers and physics puzzle lovers. Smart Pet HD brings the “adopt and play with your own virtual dog” to your iPad’s generous screen, while Bug Village will challenge your youngest to build, maintain, and decorate their own virtual bug habitat. Finally, Drop The Chicken brings a Cut The Rope experience to an all-new physics puzzler.

IPAD APPS REVIEWED

You Don’t Know Jack HD
A full 20 episodes of insane pop culture trivia laced with bombastic (mostly adult) humor. It’s a Jack Attack worth buying.

Smart Pet HD Light
“Daddy, can we get a dog?” Sure! This virtual pet adoption app gives kids all the fun of interacting with a puppy, without all the mess or expense of the real thing. BARK!

Bug Village
Challenges kids to build, maintain, and decorate their own virtual bug habitat. It’s colorful, fun, and family-friendly.

Drop The Chicken: Training
It’s Cut the Rope, minus the pesky rope parts! An instant-buy for every physics puzzle fan with a iOS device.

IPAD REVIEWS

You Don’t Know Jack HD ($4.99)

My first round of the resurrected YDKJ trivia game kicked off with this question: “How many human bones would two and a half men actually have?” The correct answer: 515. The wise-cracking game show host’s response when I got it right? “The real question is Charlie Sheen’s mistresses. How many bones are in them?”

And that, ladies and gentlemen is pretty much all you need to know about this must-have offering.

After playing through the CD-ROM originals in the ‘90s, I was totally jazzed to see this animated, pop culture treat coming back for more in the ‘10s. It’s silly-fun trivia questions delivered with just the right amount of twisted, semi-adult humor. (Anyone else still find themselves saying “ELEVEN!” with that irreverent crowd-chanting tone? Just me?) There are 20 full episodes to digest, Game Center achievements and leaderboards, plus the usual litany of question types: DisorDats, Jack Attacks, multiple choice queries, Who’s the Dummy?, Funky Trash, and the always-amazing Cookie’s Fortune Cookie Fortunes with Cookie “Fortune Cookie” Masterson. Yes, it’s a must-buy. (Winning!)

Smart Pet HD Light (FREE)

Between my son and his friends, I’ll bet five litters of virtual puppies have been chosen, loved, fed, played with, and then abandoned through the power of the Nintendo DS. Now it’s the iPad’s turn. Smart Pet HD lets you adopt a puppy into the huge virtual kennel that is your iPad, then touch him, train him, put on outfits, play with interactive dog toys, feed and clean him, and play a mini-game to earn money to buy items.

The light version gives you just the right amount of dogs to pick from (two) and toys to play with to decide if the $.99 full version is worth it. While the graphics aren’t as sharp as some of the latest DS versions, there’s more than enough detail and gameplay here to satisfy the most dog-crazed child under 8. Now, if I could just get my iPad out of the hands of my 9-year-old… You see, Maverick is hungry, and that’s all my son can think about right now!

Bug Village (FREE)

Why, hello there little red ant. Of course I can help you build a new bug village for you and your friends! Let’s get started. And with that, an entire hour was spent doing just that. Glu is no slouch when it comes to making addictive mobile games, and Bug Village has all the elements needed to spring it into the top free games listing in a hurry.

The graphics are top-notch, placing new buildings is a breeze, and the sheer variety of missions to take on and items to purchase and place make for a solid experience all around. Separating the “food” and gathering area from the village itself is a nice touch. In-game ads are there but not intrusive, and you will likely run up against the old “buy more coins to keep going FASTER” wall after a while. With a little patience, there’s no reason to hand over any real-world money. But no doubt the die-hard fans of this kind of game will fork over $5-$10 to super charge their villages.

Drop The Chicken: Training (FREE)

If you love Cut the Rope, you’ll enjoy Drop The Chicken. The free training app will get you in the spirit, and fast. Basically, there’s a cute chicken at the top of your screen who needs to make it down (be dropped!) into his nest below. You’ll need to eat the bugs on the screen as you fall and bounce, and arrange the scene to ensure his drop into the soft hay after his tumble.

It’s a tried and true physics puzzler, adding some new elements to the mix. Sure there are trampolines at various angles that you can drag around the screen to control his fall, but there are also blocks of wood to drag into place to stop him cold in his tracks. So there’s no rope cutting or bird-launching (think Angry Birds), but there are critical moments to drop your feathered friend, and some crazy levels that require you to move the elements more than once. Concentrate on getting all the bugs during a single drop, and be sure to concentrate, as you may need to move items into position several times in a row to get the perfect path. It’s one part frustration, and one part fun, just like always!

Monday, April 18, 2011


P90X Chest & Back (75%) | Workout
Fitness Blueprint | Insanity/P90X #10 (Get P90X or start with Power 90)
Personal | Weight: 199 (Shakeology Snack Added)
Tracking Calories (iPad App)
Working at my Stand Up Desk (plans) (Why you should, too!)

Great to get back into the swing of things after a crazy 7-day flu break. Eased into today, got downright dizzy and nauseous at 75% completion, so bagged it for some deep breaths and stretching. I'll get there.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Wings Over Wayne Airshow 2011
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, NC
Before the tornadoes rolled in...












Thursday, April 14, 2011



Trivia phenom You Don’t Know Jack leads our iPad Games of the Week

In the mid-1990s, Jellyvision’s irreverent and crazy-entertaining You Don’t Know Jack trivia game took the Mac/PC world by storm. Originally delivered in several topical flavors on old school CD-ROMs, the animated, pop culture trivia questions delivered with twisted, semi-adult humor laced throughout always added up to a fun 15-20 minute game, either alone or with friends. Now the game makes its triumphant return to our modern Apple tablets, and not a moment too soon. We could all use a laugh this week, no?

The remainder of our iPad games of the week are focused on young gamers and physics puzzle lovers. Smart Pet HD brings the “adopt and play with your own virtual dog” to your iPad’s generous screen, while Bug Village will challenge your youngest to build, maintain, and decorate their own virtual bug habitat. Finally, Drop The Chicken brings a Cut The Rope experience to an all-new physics puzzler.

Read all of my Apple iPad and Google Android application reviews at Appolicious and Yahoo! Tech.

IPAD APPS REVIEWED

You Don’t Know Jack HD
A full 20 episodes of insane pop culture trivia laced with bombastic (mostly adult) humor. It’s a Jack Attack worth buying.

Smart Pet HD Light
“Daddy, can we get a dog?” Sure! This virtual pet adoption app gives kids all the fun of interacting with a puppy, without all the mess or expense of the real thing. BARK!

Bug Village
Challenges kids to build, maintain, and decorate their own virtual bug habitat. It’s colorful, fun, and family-friendly.

Drop The Chicken: Training
It’s Cut the Rope, minus the pesky rope parts! An instant-buy for every physics puzzle fan with a iOS device.

IPAD REVIEWS

You Don’t Know Jack HD ($4.99)

My first round of the resurrected YDKJ trivia game kicked off with this question: “How many human bones would two and a half men actually have?” The correct answer: 515. The wise-cracking game show host’s response when I got it right? “The real question is Charlie Sheen’s mistresses. How many bones are in them?”

And that, ladies and gentlemen is pretty much all you need to know about this must-have offering. After playing through the CD-ROM originals in the ‘90s, I was totally jazzed to see this animated, pop culture treat coming back for more in the ‘10s. It’s silly-fun trivia questions delivered with just the right amount of twisted, semi-adult humor. (Anyone else still find themselves saying “ELEVEN!” with that irreverent crowd-chanting tone? Just me?)

There are 20 full episodes to digest, Game Center achievements and leaderboards, plus the usual litany of question types: DisorDats, Jack Attacks, multiple choice queries, Who’s the Dummy?, Funky Trash, and the always-amazing Cookie’s Fortune Cookie Fortunes with Cookie “Fortune Cookie” Masterson. Yes, it’s a must-buy. (Winning!)

Smart Pet HD Light (FREE)

Between my son and his friends, I’ll bet five litters of virtual puppies have been chosen, loved, fed, played with, and then abandoned through the power of the Nintendo DS. Now it’s the iPad’s turn.

Smart Pet HD lets you adopt a puppy into the huge virtual kennel that is your iPad, then touch him, train him, put on outfits, play with interactive dog toys, feed and clean him, and play a mini-game to earn money to buy items. The light version gives you just the right amount of dogs to pick from (two) and toys to play with to decide if the $.99 full version is worth it. While the graphics aren’t as sharp as some of the latest DS versions, there’s more than enough detail and gameplay here to satisfy the most dog-crazed child under 8. Now, if I could just get my iPad out of the hands of my 9-year-old… You see, Maverick is hungry, and that’s all my son can think about right now!

Bug Village (FREE)

Why, hello there little red ant. Of course I can help you build a new bug village for you and your friends! Let’s get started.

And with that, an entire hour was spent doing just that. Glu is no slouch when it comes to making addictive mobile games, and Bug Village has all the elements needed to spring it into the top free games listing in a hurry. The graphics are top-notch, placing new buildings is a breeze, and the sheer variety of missions to take on and items to purchase and place make for a solid experience all around.

Separating the “food” and gathering area from the village itself is a nice touch. In-game ads are there but not intrusive, and you will likely run up against the old “buy more coins to keep going FASTER” wall after a while. With a little patience, there’s no reason to hand over any real-world money. But no doubt the die-hard fans of this kind of game will fork over $5-$10 to super charge their villages.

Drop The Chicken: Training (FREE)

If you love Cut the Rope, you’ll enjoy Drop The Chicken. The free training app will get you in the spirit, and fast. Basically, there’s a cute chicken at the top of your screen who needs to make it down (be dropped!) into his nest below.

You’ll need to eat the bugs on the screen as you fall and bounce, and arrange the scene to ensure his drop into the soft hay after his tumble. It’s a tried and true physics puzzler, adding some new elements to the mix. Sure there are trampolines at various angles that you can drag around the screen to control his fall, but there are also blocks of wood to drag into place to stop him cold in his tracks.

So there’s no rope cutting or bird-launching (think Angry Birds), but there are critical moments to drop your feathered friend, and some crazy levels that require you to move the elements more than once. Concentrate on getting all the bugs during a single drop, and be sure to concentrate, as you may need to move items into position several times in a row to get the perfect path. It’s one part frustration, and one part fun, just like always!

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Fast Food in America Documentary





Doodlebug jumps into our iPad Games of the Week

Amiga.

If you’re instantly familiar with this early Commodore PC rocking graphics chips well beyond its time, then no doubt you played Doodlebug back in the day. Now you can relive the glory days of late 1980’s platformers on your iPad. Princess Lady Bug is waiting to be rescued at the end of five themed worlds, so get to it!

If retro games aren’t your thing, don’t miss PAC’N-JUMP, a fresh take on Doodle Jump, and CrosslogicHD which will give any Soduku fan a run for their money. Last and not least is 100 vs 100 HD, a real-time strategy game that gives you control of an army of stick figure fighters intent on destroying enemy castles. Glory awaits the victor!

Read all of my Apple iPad and Google Android application reviews at Appolicious and Yahoo! Tech.

IPAD APPS REVIEWED

Doodlebug
Late 1980’s-era Amiga platformer makes its way onto the iPad, and not a moment too soon. Jump, jump!

PAC’N-JUMP
Combine Doodle Jump with Pacman, and you’ve got an instant classic in PAC’N-JUMP. More jumping!

CrosslogicHD
Picross fans, it’s time for a new addiction. More than 1,000 nonograms wait to be solved! A must for Soduku fans as well.

100 vs 100 HD
It’s time for some serious stick figure real-time strategy mayhem. Have fun storming the castle!

IPAD REVIEWS

Doodlebug ($3.99)


I spent weeks of my first college semester in a new friend’s room, hammering away on his fancy pants Amiga to make my way through Doodlebug. Now my late-teens obession is back, this time on my trusty iPad tablet. What you have here, friends, is a full 20 levels of pixilated platformer goodness, lovingly wrapped into five uniquely-themed levels. Tip: Swipe up to jump, and down to attack. As you progress, you’ll meet vagabond dealers willing to sell you dragons, helicopters, and even space ships to help Doodlebug make his way to Princess Lady Bug, the object of his quest and affections. The secret sauce are is Doodlebug’s magic pencils and erasers. Literally wipe out the baddies that stand in your way, then draw umbrellas, balloons, and even time freeze clocks to move ahead. Be sure to keep pencil eraser smart bombs in reserve to take out a mash of enemies with one release. It’s perfect for retro gamers and children alike, so hop on the Doodlebug bandwagon this week. You won’t be sorry. (As a side note, a Fling Game Controller will help you rack up tons of progress in this app.)

PAC’N-JUMP ($.99)

Apparently the developers over at NAMCO love Doodle Jump just as much as the rest of us. I think that’s why they lovely borrowed the “jump higher from ledge to ledge and grab power ups” game theme, and added a decidedly Pacman feel to it all. PAC’N-JUMP puts you in control of our hero, Pacman, who’s become tired of mazes and just wants to jump, JUMP between stationary and moving platforms, grabbing power ups to eat his arch nemesis ghosts, and gobble fruit to get a blast of vertical life. My favorite part? When the platforms give way to fields of munchable dots, which have the same effect. Through in the usual raft of Pavlovian sound effects (drool!) and the Pacman musical score, and you’ve got yourself a sure-fire, million-dollar app. Crazy fun for the whole family straight from the App Store’s dollar menu.

CrosslogicHD ($.99)

Picross fans, it’s time for a new addiction. More than 1,000 nonograms (or grigglers) are waiting to be solved! Here’s the gist: You’re presented with a grid of open spaces, and numbers splayed across the top and left side. Your task is to figure out how the numbers apply to the empty boxes. So if you see 1-2-3 there would be one box, then some space, two boxes, more space, then three boxes. To select a box to fill in, just tap it with your finger. As you uncover correct boxes, a picture emerges. Too many “MISS” alerts (5) if you guess wrong, and it’s game over. If you get stuck click HINT, but watch time fall off the clock on the later levels as a result. There’s a total of 1,768 puzzles to keep you busy, and you’ll need a mountain of time to solve them all. A must for Soduku fans who will find this a natural extension of their number placement skills. (Trust me, Mr. Will Short is no longer my wife’s favorite purveyor of logic puzzles!)

100 vs 100 HD ($.99)

It takes the average person less than five minutes to eat a dollar menu hamburger. 100 vs 100 HD (and I use HD loosely here) is a similar lunchtime treat, easy on the eyes, stomach, and wallet. Your mission, as Lord of the castle, is to fend off attacks from stick figure raiders. You can generate warriors of your own and send them off across the field to take down your enemy’s castle. You also have access to special attacks (think tornado’s on command) which can cover a wider area and take down larger groups of enemies. One part tower defense, and another part strategy, 100 vs 100 will keep you fighting for the home castle for a few hours at least. And at roughly 10 times cheaper than a movie ticket, that’s not a bad thing.

Tuesday, April 05, 2011



P90X Plyometrics | Workout
Fitness Blueprint | Insanity/P90X #10 (Get P90X or start with Power 90)
Personal | Weight: 199 (Shakeology Snack Added)
Tracking Calories (iPad App)
Working at my Stand Up Desk (plans) (Why you should, too!)

Monday, April 04, 2011

P90X Chest & Back + Ab Ripper X | Workout
Fitness Blueprint | Insanity/P90X #10 (Get P90X or start with Power 90)
Personal | Weight: 199 (Shakeology Snack Added)
Tracking Calories (iPad App)
Working at my Stand Up Desk (plans) (Why you should, too!)

Saturday, April 02, 2011



Bloons TD 4 HD tower defense madness leads my iPad Games of the Week

There’s no shortage of tower defense (TD) games littering the App Store. But fans of the genre looking for a light-hearted, kid-friendly TD title that nails the interface and upgrade path on your tablet’s ample screen real estate will love Bloons TD 4 HD. It’s not just for kids!

Racing fans looking for a more destructive experience will give Death Rally the checked flag, while Great Little War Game HD brings a fresh, cartoony approach to turn based strategy games. Finally, Quietus bring a retro-80’s Mario-like experience to our tablets, dipped in a thick mixture of dark and dreary dungeon-style graphics. It all adds up to a solid set of iPad games of the week for early April. Get your game on!

IPAD APPS REVIEWED

Bloons TD 4 HD
A tower defense game with a perfect interface, cartoon-inspired graphics, and just enough action to keep kids and adults blasting fast-moving balloons all day long.

Death Rally
Leave those Mario Kart shells behind. This new racing title is all about destroying your racing opponents with extreme prejudice.

Great Little War Game HD
Turn-based strategy game that offers up a bevy of units and multiple mission styles to keep you on your toes.

Quietus
Offers a decidedly dark, 80’s-retro look and feel, challenging all comers to go through Hell (keep going!) to return to life rich and powerful.

Read all of my Apple iPad and Google Android application reviews at Appolicious and Yahoo! Tech.

IPAD REVIEWS

Bloons TD 4 HD ($6.99)


Monkey see, monkey… pop? Bloons TD 4 HD finally makes its way onto the iPad, and it’s a must-buy for tower defense fans of any age. Your challenge? Place monkey-themed towers onto each play field, and pop all the ‘bloons (balloons, get it?) before they can make it through the circuit. All tower types are clearly visible on the right side of the screen, while upgrade options are perfectly visible across the bottom. You’ll need to upgrade your towers, add new ones at strategic chokepoints, and think ahead about which types will work best at various locations. In the early going, the game does an excellent job of unlocking each tower type and giving you a chance to try them out in turn. Once you get beyond level 30, things get a little crazy. You’ll need to use the pause button to get your bearing from time to time, and the last few stages will cover your screen in some downright crazy mayhem.

Death Rally ($4.99)

If you’re in the market for a console-quality racing game that straps some serious firepower onto your racing rigs, Death Rally won’t disappoint. The game opens with a movie-like intro, drops you into your first death race, and never looks back. Winning the race takes second place to seriously messing up your opponents, and with the sheer number of weapons and upgrades available along the way, there’s always a crazy-fun way to unload ordinance during each contest. Put away those shells and banana peels, fellow gamers, it’s time to get serious. Each vehicle you unlock brings new handling characteristics to the table, and the sheer variety of tracks and super-smooth graphics engine add up to a perfect racing experience on your iPad or iPad 2. Pro tip: Strap on your Fling Game Controller to master the turns and dominate your opponents.

Great Little War Game HD ($2.99)

For shooter fans, adjusting to a turn-based war game might take some getting used to, but it’s worth the time. Great Little War Game HD drops your blue soldiers into an enemy landscape, and it’s up to you to move them forward, find the high ground, and attack in turn to wipe out your red foes. Each unit has a radius of movement and attack points to spend in each turn, and you’ll go back and forth over several minutes to see who comes out on top. The lack of an undo button for each move can be frustrating, so be careful before you click in that movement space. With 20 full missions to tackle, ranging from head-on assaults to base capturing, and vehicle support to boot, there’s a massive amount of content to plow through to get to the end of this gem. The graphic engine is clean and crisp, with weather effects adding to the overall experience, and the tap controls make manipulating every aspect of the game easy and clear. Here’s hoping the developers add in the ability to see the attack range of each unit on both sides, plus tanks need to be upgraded to do far more damage to unprotected foot soldiers.

Quietus ($.99)

Run a gauntlet in hell for the Devil himself in this decidedly dark, 80’s-retro 8bit graphics title. If you’re successful, you’ll return to life rich and powerful. Fail and it’s time to take up permanent residence. After dropping into Hell, you’ll need to swipe across the screen to move your little skeleton across each platform, then swipe up at the proper times to jump. You will die quite a bit before mastering the controls, but it’s worth the effort. The lava pits, dark stone environment, and plethora of waiting treasure chests are just wanting to be explored and opened. The one-touch control scheme is unique, and the developer is promising a set of additional games with this scheme in place in the coming months. As a retro-gaming fan, I’ll be anxious to see where Connor Ullmann takes us in the future.