Slashdot Mirror
Bandai to develop online games for cell phones
whostudios writes "There's quite an interesting story on CNN about Bandai and cellular service provider NTT Mobile Communications Network (NTT DoCoMo) teaming up to develop online video games for cell phones.
From next month, the two companies will begin preparing around 20 of Bandai's gaming titles to run on NTT DoCoMo's new "i-mode" cellular handsets which the carrier is jointly developing with Sun Microsystems, representatives at the companies said today. "
$49-$59 ?!? Are you kidding me or just Canadian? Last time I checked, the high end was $29 for the newest games. If you're complaining about a "chunky, monochrome" display, you haven't seen a GB in a long time. The pocket GB's have a very nice, although mono, screen. And the GBColor's active matrix display is among the best. For about ~$80, that's a pretty sweet deal if you want a portable gaming system.
I'm quite interested to see what Bandai brings out. Competition is always good.
This may be off-topic. Moderate down if ya feel the need.
> If you ask me, pagers are the most worthless hack
... when I'm not working I don't
... theres nothing more frustrating than talking to a friend, and getting interrupting by them being phoned up in the street.
I've resisited getting a mobile phone for a very long time
want people to be able to get in touch with me, but I could settle for a pager.
It seems to me that very few people actually *need* mobile phones, people who are acting like their phone is a toy are doing that because their phone is a toy to them.
The reason that I like pagers is because I can just put it in my pocket, and not have to look at
it unless I want to
I like toys as much as the next man, but do we really need to be in contact with the world 24Hrs a day? (Forgetting Doctors/Nurses/Firemen/Tech Support/etc).
Steve
---
Although, I doubt if this type of technology will make it to the US... Maybe it will though.
:) Can be so much fun to play, and now you could play not only multiplayer, but multiplayer with anyone in the world (provided they have the same phone, and service)
:)
I mean, For me, I probably have more fun playing video games "on the go" Then I do at home. A gameboy, or graphing calculator (ti8x are the best
One thing I'd have to ask, however, is how much is this going to cost? I mean, Cell Phone calls arn't cheap, and I'd be willing to bet that the charges on this would at least be similar to the old charges of AOL, a couple bucks an hour, if not more.
Still good for a quick game of tetris though
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Well, you can already merge the cellphone and the pager, and soon the palm piolot as well... If you ask me, pagers are the most worthless hack
technology I'v ever seen, I mean, if you ignore the cost issue, theres no reason to page someone when you can just ring up there cellphone.
But, or course there *is* the cost issue, and people need to live with that, new CDMA cellphones in the US usualy have pager capabilitys, I don't know what there using in AU (GSM?), but I'd bet you could find one with a pager...
I heard about some company licensing the palm OS for a cell phone, that would rock, I think you can get a pager card for the palm as well
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
I can't see them having anything more gripping than "Tetris" on a cell phone's display. And I think we're all thoroughly bored with that now (I know I am). I remember back in the 80s reading a story about how they were going to put video games in coke machines...put 50 cents in, and you get to play coke-man for 30-45 seconds. The idea bombed, for obvious reasons. I don't see games taking off on cell phones...the most successful video games are the complicated ones, like Lara Croft or Madden '99 or Final Fantasy. The main reason people play games nowadays is to show off how burly their computers are. Don't believe me? Head over to any of the Quake/Tribes/Half-life forums and observe the discussions about how to get 76fps instead of 70fps, and how to increase your "mouse speed". Also, any new game that gets released that doesn't stretch a computer's abilities to the absolute fullest is labeled as a loser with chunky graphics, even though the game itself is deep, with many possible winning strategies.
Great now I just need someone to realease a multiplayer version of Druglord for cellphones.
Now I can sit in a subway with a pager, and cellphone, and complain to the guy next to me about how unbelievably expensive cocaine is.
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
-- H. L. Mencken
I never cease to be amazed that Nintendo is still promoting the GameBoy. Man, I gave up on that system for dead back in 1994. Its chunky, monochrome display, the z80(!) processor, and the pricey games (until a year or two ago they were still selling GameBoy games at $49.99 and $59.99, nowadays the 'base' price is $29.99) all didn't look good. Just goes to show you how far a crummy product can be pushed by a dominant company in the face of no competition in its category. Don't get me wrong, I liked the GameBoy (one of the most amazing moments in my life [okay not really] was when I found a copy of Elevator Action for the GameBoy in a Toys-R-Us...I bought it immediately, full price, no questions asked [this was before emulators]).
what ever happened to their pippin system that was the subject of many vaporware articles? did it just fade into nonexistence?
Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away
I think there is a market for just about any portable prestiege type electronics. Here in new york not only does everyone you meet have a cell phone and a pager, but every kid under 10 has a fake cellphone and fake pager so they can pretend they are grownups or something. Its gotten to the point where several of my friends carry multiple cell phones and those motorola walkie talkies. Why would you want multiple cell phones? to avoid conversations like "how come you got the foo 9000, the bar 7109 is better", If you have both the foo and the bar its an instant one up!
The point is that not many people really need most of the electronics they buy, unless you are a doctor on call nobody really needs to contact you anywhere in the world at a moments notice. Most people don't really need a palm v, they could accomplish the same task with a notepad and a 25 cent bic pen. The same urge that compels people to buy the nokia 50001, the damn things play midi music instead of ring, have better graphics than my desktop and can be networked using their iR ports, is the same urge that will compell people to buy a cell phone with ultima online and everquest built in, just to say that they have it.
Why is it any more dangerous to have a portible gaming system that is capable of online wireless gaming then one that is not? I mean, somone could try to play GameBoy while driving, but they won't. beacuse almost all games require two hands.
Just beacuse people like to talk on the phone while driving dosn't mean that they are any more likely to play games on there cellphones then they would be on there game boys, or palm pilots
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Well, I'm not bored with tetris, and nither are very many other people. Millions of people have monocrome gameboys, with 8-bit 10(?)MHz CPUs. they seem to be fun, If you can't have fun with simple games anymore, that's to bad. Many people can. Two player tetris on the Gameboy or a graphing calculator is very fun, and I would love to be able to do this over a CDMA network. To bad Cellphones arn't as widespread here in the US as they are in other industrialized nations :(
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
I don't think the GB is a crummy product, I love it. If some other company could have come up with one that had better games, not neccasarly better technology (as the Sega handheld proved) then they could have a market share of the handheld market. But now it's harder because of Nintendo's goldmine, Pokemon. The GB is FAR FAR FAR from dead because of Pokemon. And you can bet that the GBA will have a Pokemon game for it. They promote the GB because it makes them money, simple as that. The GBC is really good, and the GBA sounds to be better yet.
Cell phones have had games for quite some time. I have a Nokia 6120 phone with several games built into it.. I think the 5120 has them too.
Japan portable celphones have had games in them for years. Games like roulette, tetris, space invaders etc. Some phones have dictionaries. Most have 20 or so pre programmed rings (usually to famous tunes) as well as one user programmable ring (and there are books specifically for people to enter songs from, kind of like a play a song with your touch tone phone book) Nearly all the phones have 200+ hours of standby but only about 1-2 hours talk. -gregg tavares
"For the low low price of $0.15 a minute you too can play tetris against your buddies anywhere* in the US!
:)
* Additional charges may apply. Void in Tennessee, Redmond, and all precincts with the word 'cotton' in their titles. $0.15 charge is a 3 month introductory rate, whereafter users will be charged a $59.99 monthly fee for our TeleTetris package...
Etc, etc... Isn't technology spiffy?
Adam "Fogie" Fogler -- Professional Paid College Student
What audience do you think they're aiming for with this? ;-) I do agree that it's probably the dumbest idea I've seen come along in some time. As others have so eloquently pointed out, the last thing we need is some cellphone-wielding moron trying to play a game in traffic instead of watching where they're going. What ever happened to handsfree kits? I used to work for Motorola... the fixed-mount cellphones we installed all had hands-free as standard equipment, allowing the driver to keep both hands on the wheel and both eyes front and center. I still have one of those phones, and I certainly plan to use the handsfree feature once I install it. Anyway, this merging of completely unrelated functions also bothers me 'cause I certainly don't want to pay extra for a feature I'll never use. If you want to talk wireless, get a cellphone. If you want to play games, get a Nintendo. If you want to do real work, get a good computer with a decent Linux load. I wonder how long it will be before toasters have game screens built in?
Then you should try Benefon io. It has Tetris, Space Invaders and Minesweeper. And it's rather nice phone too... :-)
Things like this are from confused companies that don't realize the future is 1 unified thing. A color palm-sized PDA that can do cell-phone/paging, wireless or wired or ethernet internet, play games and mp3s, gps, and all the typical pda stuff IN ONE PACKAGE. without SWITCHING BS cards into BS slots. although a BS slot should be there just in case i left out some BS technology.
Chatelaines. The wave of the future.
There is a device called the GBGETTER. It sends out signals and anyone else with a GBGETTER is warned. The people can then play whatever game with a link-up cable
=========== Paul Knight ===========
All the people commenting about how the games on phones concept sucks because people can't even drive and talk much less play games are off base because they don't know Japan.
In Japan, nobody drives, and you spend alot of time on trains and waiting for them. When you don't have to concentrate on driving, you have time to kill, and this idea fits right in.
In the big cities, pretty much *everybody* carries a phone and most of the teens carry MD players, too. I predict that MP3 will make it into the phones there next.
Collin
Why we need this? Here are 2 possibilities:- 1) Fashionable - As some posters have pointed out, mobile phone is becoming a fashionable accessory, especially among young people. Here in Japan, this is especially true. People put stickers and straps (lots of them) of their phone. Some even painted their phone or replace the front panels. And phones with games are just so much more fashionable than one without :) 2) Long distance travel - It is not uncommon for people in Japan to commune an hour by train to work, each way, everyday. This adds up to a lot of time spent on the train. Gaming on their phones will be just another to kill the time. To some of you, this is just a gimmick, but to many other people, it is just the next step for their phone improvement :) Maybe time for me to pick up a new phone now ;)
I dunno how good Quake 3 is gonna look on that little screen. :)
My journal has hot
Great,so now the jerk cutting me off in traffic because he is on his Cell phone might be just playing a game!
But Seriously, why do we need this? If I have a cell phone and a cell modem can't I just link up via my laptop and frag away? I'm not sure this will catch on.I'd be very interested to see one though.
"When I look down I miss all the good stuff, When I look up I trip over things..."-Ani DiFranco
Well. I always supposed that some time in the near future I'd be carrying my Palm V, pager and cell phone all wrapped into one little gadget. But I never thought the manufacturer would throw in a Nintendo...
wheres the link to the nice story?
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent
I tried looking on the main page, but I'm not used to CNN's format
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent
The lesson to be learned from this is never to submit stories when you've just arrived at work... but anywayz, this should have been the link.
The Game Boy Advance is already planning a feature similar to this. You can connect and play against other people through your cell phone. Read about it here. (about midway through it)
BTW I did love the comment about being cut off by someone that was on his cellphone playing a Bandai game. LOL!
Good is never enough, when you dream of being great!
Now that, would be a game worth having on a cell phone.
Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting someone else to do the work. --John G. Pollard
Believe me, it's just not my day.. here's the link ...
Although most people seem to be against this idea I was wondering if any of you were developing games?
I have just downloaded a WAP toolkit from Ericson and the possibilities are great.
I think the US is way behind Europe in mobile phone usage when it comes to add on services (SMS, data services, etc) there will be a huge market for games, gambling and other phone based services in the near future.
[Please type your sig here.]
Signed, an irrate commuter stuck listening to conversing monkeys... ;>
Most people don't seem to be able to drive while talking on a cell phone, much less playing some game, much less playing the same game while interacting with other people. I can see this as positive in that it should cause these people to drive into trees and stuff, eliminating some of them and their annoyance. I'll stick to landlines thank you.
Head on over to freshmeat and search for 'dopewars'... I'm pretty sure its just an updated version of DrugLord... Although I may be thinking of DrugWars. Anyways, it's multiplayer and fun. Nothing like selling drugs and pimping girls against the rest of my family on a LAN
People can't handle driving and using the cell phone at the same time. How in the HELL do we expect them to handle games in addition. And don't tell me that it won't happen. Some looser is going to be on his cell phone in the car playing a game in traffic and hit me. At that point road rage will take over and I will promptly beat him with said cellphone.
"Fighting the underpants gnomes since 1998!" "Bruce Schneier knows the state of schroedinger's cat"
Talking on cell phones will be next year's favorite thing to bash in the name of ....>>
Any REAL data on when/where/if people in said category have more/worse/more frequent accidents?? Or it is all just hotair and bullshit. While you're weaving all over the road while watching some soccer mom talk on the phone are you listening to the CD @ 110dB or just thinking about loading your gun and if so are we all safer because of your pending rage???? Don't like being forced to evesdrop on the commuter next to you? Then don't - slap on some headphones - or is that another group of people who should be banned?
People are annoying - even you - so get over it. What's next?? Complaining about how loud people talk face to face while you're scarfing down your muffin and latte??
Why would we want to see a game on a Cell phone? Communications devices are not suited for games. I predict that this will flop horribly. I see NO ONE who would like this beside's the 14 year olds that have cell phones to look cool.
;-P
Not to mention, it scares the hell outa me to think that I may be in an acceident someday becouse someone was chatting with their wife while playing tetris AND driving down the road..
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
This is great, now the normal ass holes who just miss hitting me (sometimes) will plow into me for sure now! How cool... Seriously, 99% of the people out there don't seem able enough to talk on the phone while driving, what makes you think they can play a game while driving? The engineers of this product must not have to drive often...
Seen on a bumper sticker: "HANG UP AND DRIVE!"
My favorite bumper sticker: "Keep honking, I'm reloading!"
It was four years ago at a sci-fi con. It only had four megs of ram, set up to play Marathon. Kept crashing because it ran out of memory.
J.
damned vulpine http://sb.drtwister.com/