Slashdot Mirror
The State Of Cellphone Gaming
Thanks to IGN Wireless for their new column discussing the current state of U.S. cellphone gaming. The article starts by saying: "Post-E3, several magazines and sites have taken to dismissing the cellphone gaming scene - saying the Game Boy Advance has nothing to worry about... But we're talking apples and oranges here, fellas. The markets cannot be compared, nor should they be." It goes on to highlight titles like GameLoft's Splinter Cell and JAMDAT's Pitfall!, and further comments that: "It's pretty pointless to buy a phone that cannot play the kind of games you like, and then complain that cellphone gaming sucks."
I mean, seriously... why play games on your cell? As if the battery didn't last short enough as it is, you wanna waste more of it on a full-color screen? Just get a GBA and be done with it.
Oh, you want the best of both worlds, eh? Well, maybe Nintendo will produce a cell-phone addon for the GBA. Wouldn't that be neat?
"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
-Marilyn Manson
"It's pretty pointless to buy a phone that cannot play the kind of games you like, and then complain that cellphone gaming sucks."
Let me see if I understand this:
- I've had 3 cell phones all with games.
- The only games that could be portrayed really well were simple turn based games that had no real action.
- I have a Game Boy Advance.
I can't say that the state of cell phone gaming sucks? There may be a phone out that that's a shining start as a game machine, but until it's the type of thing that is widely accepted by the market, it is not the type of thing to tilt the state of gaming into positivity.
How long before the mothers and outraged crazy
people and politicians latch on to games on
cellphones as attention robbing devices that cause
people to walk in front of buses and drive off roads
and slaughter their classmates with uzi's. It's only
a matter of time I'm sure.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
I can get an awesome cell phone for free. Anyone can. It won't play decent games or browse the web in full-colour, but it... MAKES PHONE CALLS. Well, mind you.
Just about every cell company offers a free or nearly so phone when you sign up with them. Now, why would I spend $200 or so on a "better" cell phone to play a handful of games, when I can take the free phone and play games on my GBA?
The only people who will buy these things are upper-class twits with money to burn. As such, the games designed for them will cater to this demographic, and no good games will be produced.
Now, what someone should do is design a cart that makes the GBA act like a cell phone.
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
I've been noticing that the same type of people that
make sure to talk as loudly as possible when they
are on their phones at the supermarket, or the
movie theater are the same people that play games
on their phones and say things like:
"COME ON! COME ON! COME ON! YES! SCORE!!!!!"
or
"JUST ONE MORE POINT! JUST ONE MORE POINT!"
Even more loudly then they normally talk on their
phones in a bid for attention.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
Every time someone correctly points out that drivers should concentrate on driving instead of talking on their phones, they are inundated with slashdotters claiming that cellphones are an indispencible part of doing business. That they are serious tools. And then slashdot runs a story like this about using cellphones for videogames and I realize that all those people who vigorously defend cellphones as an essential part of life and a serious communications tool are really just bullshitting us. Cellphones are toys. They are yuppie trinkets. And even though cellphones are known to distract drivers and cause accidents resulting in death, yuppies and other techno-crazies will cry like children if you threaten to take their toys away from them.
People, leave your toys at home and concentrate on driving.
The only people who will buy these things [color cell phones that can play games]are upper-class twits with money to burn. Actually with slashdot being a geek site and all, many of us will fork over the money for the latest and greatest of gadgets including cool cellphones. We like to be on top of technology.
AMEN!
What a fine combination, i must say that c64 rick dangerous is the best game i've played on a celly, or maybe stuncar racer... Besides than that irc anywhere is a major plus too, cuts calls and sms. Oh yeah i'm writing this from a nokia 3650..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Word up, yo.
My fiancee and I are both software engineers. I think that would make us fairly techno-savvy people and we like gadgets. We don't have a mobile phone, though. (See, I even use the proper term 'mobile' because cellphones are a subset of mobile phones.) We don't need one. We have a phones at our homes. Sure, I can see their true, valued use in emergency situations. But why do I need some turkey next to me on the bus yelling, "Yo! You gonna be at Luther's crib tonight? What? What?" And why did I almost get hit head on last night on Silver Lane by a woman in a minivan who was (1) on the cellphone, (2) eating, and (3) digging in her purse as she drove straight towards me on my side of the road?
Bollocks to mobile phones! If you play games on your phone, take pictures with your phone, or shoot video with your phone, then come see me and I'll show you where to put that phone.
HELLO!? WHAT!? NO, I'M AT THE LIBRARY. NO, IT'S RUBBISH. YEAH, LIKE A PRISON. CIAO!
How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
It looks like they are being reasonable with the prices. $3.99 for a cell phone game is a lot cheaper than $39.99 for a GBA game. Sure GBA is a lot better, but it isn't 10x better.
Security is inversely proportional to the commitment of one desiring to circumvent it.
But I guess eating, putting on makeup, searching through cd's, reading the paper, and disciplining your kids while driving are all ok. Right?
blah blah blah I won't read his post cause I'm too good to read it and stuff cause cause cause ummmmmm. What was I saying? OH YEAH! cuz like, he puts in line breaks!!!! THE HORROR!!! and and and like, I didn't read the post I swear but I did reply to it. So yeah, I guess I did read it sorta. Wow, what a big dumbass I AM!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
I'd probably do whatever the fuck I wanted also. Dude is right. The AC's love him. It's kind of flattering really that someone takes the time to bitch about his linebreaks after all these years. I bet he laughs his ass off.
Not sure if the games are any good, but I love the idea.
I still like the fact that I can play the classic Doom on my Nokia 7650.
Now, if I could just find a Quake port...
Phones aren't the only mobile devices with games. They have company in the iPod. Second-gen iPods had one game, Brick (which is really Breakout, the old Atari coin-op engineered by Steve Wozniak), and the new third-gen iPods have three: Brick, Solitaire, and Parachute.
I haven't fiddled with a new iPod yet, so I don't know what Parachute is; but it might be that very old Mac game where you had to parachute into a moving hay-filled sleigh or something. Solitaire looks good.
The iPod's not exactly a Game Boy Advance, but at least it gives you something to do in a queue. Also, Apple's screens are always very good. The one in the iPod is, at 2", bigger than most phone screens. It's well backlit too - which, I hear, the Advance isn't.
What other kinds of devices out there have games?