How to handle home button - iPhone/iPod

Question

I am developing a game for the iPhone. I do not actually have an iPhone, so I am testing my game on an iPod device (version 4.2.1). When I press the home button the game starts from level one. I find this odd, since in the simulator, after pressing the home button, the game starts from the same state where I stopped. I am unsure as to why the behavior is different on the iPod, maybe I need to handle the AppDelegate method differently (is it not handled automatically depending upon the device?)

How can I handle this issue?

Answer 1

It appears that the device you are testing your app on does not support multi tasking. The older iPod touches and iPhones do not support multi tasking an close the app rather than suspending them.

All device that can run iOS 4.3 or higher will support backgrounding. Devices that can't update above 4.2.1 will not support backgrounding and app will be closed if you press the home button.

You will need to save the game state in the apps delegate applicationWillTerminate:

- (void)applicationWillTerminate:(UIApplication *)application {
    // Called when the application is about to terminate. Save data if appropriate. See also applicationDidEnterBackground:.
}

Save the current game state here and read them in - (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions