My New Gen 1 iPad!
On my last post here, which was about Fruit Ninja Classic, I hinted that I would very soon be getting something that would allow me to play the actual original version of the game, amongst others. A few days ago (though a few days after I wrote about Fruit Ninja) I finally got it, and I am extremely excited to share it with you all:
I got an original 1st Generation iPad!
Funnily enough, the day before I got it was January 27, which was the 16th anniversary of this very iPad's announcement. I am writing this a few days later though, now that I've verified that everything is working properly.
This iPad has 16 GB of storage and is running iOS 5.1.1, which originally released in 2011. Unfortunately, since it is so old and hasn't received security updates in a while, the App Store no longer works, amongst other stuff. However, this has led me to doing something I have never done before but have really wanted to: Jailbreaking!
I followed some guides by CertifiedLegacy, and I installed Cydia as well as Veteris, which is the main App Store jailbreak alternative. I really like it, as features a lot of different versions of apps, though not all of them in most cases.
To get some of the other apps that I wanted, I connected the iPad to my computer and used the iExplorer demo to transfer the IPA files of the apps that I want, which I can then install using Veteris! At this point I've downloaded pretty much all apps with public IPAs I've been able to find, and that are available for iOS 5, of course.
There are still a few that I haven't found, and I will most-definitely need to find how to reactivate the App Store to get them, but I still have a lot to play with!
Similar to the iPhone 5, there are a lot of games here that I haven't played in a long time. Some of these I have technically played in the iPhone 5, but also there are some that have different versions here, mostly because it's an older OS.
However, a fun thing about the iPad is that a lot of its original games actually had iPad-exclusive "HD" versions, including Fruit Ninja, Cut The Rope, and Flight Control. Some of them were just standard ports made for the much larger screen, such as those first two, but some games actually have additional content which is exclusive to the HD version.
For example, Flight Control HD has some maps that weren't in the standard iPhone version, and don't even appear in the Steam port (which is still available btw). Three of these are just mashed up versions of the standard maps, but one of them is on the moon! And since it's a game from 2010, it also features a standard map with a stereoscopic 3D effect plastered on it as well.
Additionally, for some games I purposefully decided to download older versions, just to see how different they are. I did this with Fruit Ninja HD Lite, but also with Tiny Tower which has been especially interesting to see, and that might warrant writing about someday!
But that's about it! At least for what I want to share today.
I have to say, if you want to have an overall better experience with an older iPad, it might be better to get a 2nd Generation iPad. It goes up to iOS 9, which isn't skeuomorphic but still has access to a lot of these apps and more, and it also has more than 256 MB of RAM (seriously, this 1st Gen iPad struggles to play some of the more graphically-intensive stuff, such as Fruit Ninja HD).
However, I am really loving this Gen 1 iPad! I purposefully got it for its skeuomorphic design, slightly nicer form factor (in my opinion), and its nostalgic value. I have been playing games on it for hours these last couple of days, and I have been having a lot of fun with it that I'd love to share with you all!
