Slashdot Mirror
The History of Cell Phone Gaming
Next Generation has a piece on the short history of cell-phone based gaming. From the article: "The first-ever mobile phone game was the black-and-white Snake embedded in the Nokia 6110 model in 1997. The gameplay was simple, as you led led the 'snake' (really just a thick line) around the screen to collect dots. Mobile gamers would remain color blind until 2001, when Nokia introduced the first color screens; a major step in the presentation of mobile games."
I'm too lazy to do the research right now, but I'm willing to bet you could subtract at least 3 years from those dates and roughly apply the timeline to Japanese cell phones.
...to play doom on a 2 by 3 cm keypad with only 12 buttons! Why can't we have thumbsticks?!
But at least it wasn't a demo that runs for 5 minutes then tells you to download the full version for $6.99.
Everyone is born right-handed; only the greatest overcome it
You call that an article? I was expecting something with screenshots or even movies. And a bit longer than two tiny pages.
While I'm in the rant, I might as well add my own thoughs. Ready for it?
I think that gaming on cellphones is pointless. Back in 1998 or in the 90s, it was fun. But right now, it just seems like one big scam to make money. Games on cellphones cost $5 for a piece of crap, they don't last and you don't even have proper ownership of the game (i.e.: buy a new phone, you have to buy everything again!) And speaking of that, most companies also make you charge for the bandwidth that you use to download the game!
I would better like more intelligent cellphones with a nicer interface. Not a crappy Java interface which lags behind evey button use.
Cellphones are so much commecialized. I want something that I can TALK, not take photos (for 25 cents) and send videos (50 cents) to "friends".
The hip way to get your IP. No ads, ever.
It's not even started yet. Wait until something on the platform other than a port of a 20-year-old arcade standby is actually fun to play, and then you can start making history.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
PAST: It sucked.
PRESENT: It sucks.
FUTURE: It will suck.
Cell phone games would be a lot better if the MIDP standards were more strictly followed, and included some sort of requirement for screen resolution. My phone only supports MIDP 1.0, which is extremely irritating, because it doesn't even dictate things like supported image formats or whether or not phones should do alpha layer (mine does, others don't).
The keypads on these things also suck. They're stiff and small and not very conducive to good gaming technique. I'd prefer something like the IBM keyboard nipples over the little thumbstick on my T610.
Java starts up extremely slow on my phone, and once it's up, it takes a long while to stop working so I can make phone calls again. There's also not a lot in the way of games for my phone (most likely because it supports only the crippled MIDP 1.0). I'm not really impressed with writing for cellphones, nor am I impressed with what's available. All I've really liked so far is a clone of Jezzball.
Cell games will continue to suck untill MIDP is thrown out the window. There's a million different phone models out there and half of them don't follow the standards. It's a nightmare for developers. Oh and here's a fun fact. MIDP allows for One button to be pressed at a time. Go ahead and read that last sentence again. You can forget playing anything but puzzle games. When every phone is running Windows Mobile (or whatever OS is crowned king), then we might start seeing better games.
...says that he is extremely happy with his phone. Add one USB data cable, a couple of gigs of games/apps downloaded off The Pirate Bay = playing Prince of Persia, Sands of Time and Warrior Within for the last couple of weeks.
Oh, and Pang. Addictive, muchness.
This is why I love the cell-phone market in India. I can switch providers like I switch t-shirts, and there aren't any crappy four-year plans with huge cancellation fees.
IMO here are some good pocket PC games (I have a pocket PC phone, the samsung i730).
Emulators:
Morphgear (tg-16 module) for devil's crush pinball (highly recommended)
PocketSNES: FF2+3
PocketNES
PocketPC Games:
4 pinball
Bounty Hunter pinball
GameBox Classics and GameBox Gems
Links
Mummy Maze
Age of Empires
Skyforce
Warfare Inc
Zuma
Baseball Addict
Soccer Addict
not on par with GBA games, but adequate and fun while you are waiting for anything, such as a passanger in a car, at a doctor's office, etc. I could bring my GBA with me, but I never do, and always have my cellphone with me.
When developers start realising that the games that are best-suited to mobiles are short, simple multiplayer games a-la 2-player Tetris, then more people will take notice. I can't understand why Bluetooth has gone unnoticed by virtually all developers, it's been on many phones since 2001 at least.