According to the Bartle Test, my primary gamer style is “Achiever.” One way this manifests itself is my never-ending pursuit of XBOX Live achievements. Trouble is, when I’m in the middle of the game, I have to stop and back out to my dashboard to see what achievements are available for the game and which are relevant to the current scenario/level/mode I’m playing in. This is a pain and takes me out of the flow of the game.

Thankfully, there is a cure. A number of generous developers have provided free mobile apps that provide me with a “third screen” so I can look up who’s online, what they’re playing, what achievements are available in the game I’m playing right now, and what tips or moves can help me achieve. All of this without exiting the game.

360 Live (iOS, Android) shows you achievement point totals for you and your friends, what your friends have recently been playing and who’s online. For each friend, you can get a complete list of their games and individual achievements and send them a message.

The XBOX Achievement Guide (iOS, Android) gives you info for all of the achievements – even the secret ones – for any XBOX retail or arcade game title. As of this writing, you won’t find the most recently published games listed, so it wouldn’t hurt for you to drop them a line and convince them to put out an update.

In my wallet I still carry a Mortal Kombat arcade game special moves cheatsheet from the 1990’s. Now that we have electricity, running water, and mobile phones, 2Dmoveset.com’s Super Street Fighter IV Moveset app (iOS) gives me a fighting chance by providing digital instructions to access any character’s special moves and combos.

Finally, when you need more info for an achievement, like which maps are in the Dark Corners expansion pack for Gears of War 2, searching on your mobile browser will get you to the right place before the next match starts.

Now get out there and achieve!