Mission Accomplished

Okay...I did it.  I got the sprite up and running on the iPhone simulator.  I found a little Christmas cap PNG file, and used the GLSprite sample, made some modifications and viola, I accomplished my goal for myself. 

Let's take a look at my status...

Key (red = task completed, green = in progress, black = not started)
Tasks/Status

1) Learn the iPhone Tech
* Download/install iPhone SDK
* Upgrade Mac OS $130
* Join iPhone Dev $99
* Read iPhone Docs/Samples
** iPhone OS Technology Overview
** Cocoa Fundamentals Guide
** iPhone Application Programming Guide
** iPhone Human Interface Guidelines
** iPhone Development Guide
** The Objective-C 2.0 Programming Language
** Write little tests programs to learn the iPhone Capabilities (memory allocation, file I/O, iPhone audio, WiFi, graphics, etc...) - (sprite displayed by Dec. 15th)

2) Test my game concepts out on the iPhone
3) Build tool(s) if needed
4) Solidify Game Design
5) Architect the game code
6) Develop game w/ scratch art
7) Drop in real assets
8) Test/Debug
9) Ship It

Well, I think it has been a successful weekend.  I managed to get my development environment all setup, getting passed the iPhone SDK limitations of only running on an Intel processor baloney (stay humble for the programming Gods, stay humble.  Alright, I am...I take back "baloney.")  I built and ran code in the xCode environment, and got the sprite up on the simulator.

I'm going to spend time reading the "Programming in Objective-C," (by Stephen G. Kochan) book I purchased, and get a better understanding of the language from the ground up.  The Apple Documents are not good (imho) if you want to know/understand the language.

Adios!