An independent developer is readying a program that will emulate the "known-for-its-remote" mech simulator Steel Battalion for Apple's iPhone. The program is approaching the beta stage and will be available for testing in the next couple of months. People who donated at least $1000 to the project will be among the first to try it out.

The original Steel Battalion game included a monstrous controller that included everything from actual foot pedals to a windshield wipers button. To accommodate this complex set up, players will have to sync up 5 iPhones, one for each part of the original controller. The developers wanted to emulate not only the game but the joystick scheme.

"We've figured out a way to link up iPhones to accomplish different types of tasks," said Royce Weathers, the lead programmer on the project. "It's such an exhilarating feeling when all of the components come together to create the sensation that you're actually piloting a giant mech. I mean, with the actual game controller. With our emulator, of course, it'll feel like you're using phones to move a digital robot on a tiny little screen."

Weathers believes that there is a demand for mech simulators in the mobile market. He says that there are plenty of casual games on mobile phones right now and that it's only a matter of time before more games geared towards the hardcore gamer start to appear.

"There's only so much time you can devote to playing casual games when you get to my age. I've got so many huge games that I have yet to play because I'm stuck on freakin' Diner Dash. If I had a way to play my hardcore games on the go, I'd really be able to get things done in life."

The Steel Battalion emulator will be available for all to download in the summer of '08.

ahem... Satire: n. - the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. (i.e. it's a joke)

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