I’ve owned multiple Nintendo game consoles. I beat the new “Enter the Matrix” game for Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox in less than four days. I once played a Super Mario game for 15 straight hours. I consider myself a competent and informed video gamer.
And I must confess, I like wireless games.
I got hooked on “EverQuest” from Sony Online Entertainment, which I got through Verizon Wireless’ Get It Now application download service. It’s a role-playing game much like Nintendo’s original “Legend of Zelda,” and I made it all the way to the seventh level. I played Jamdat Mobile Inc.’s popular “Bowling” game, but could score only about as well
as I can in real life (meaning, not very well). I played Dwango Wireless’ “Star Diversion” spaceship shooting game on AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s mMode until my thumb ached. Right now I’m working on Mforma’s “Terminator” word-puzzle game for Cingular Wireless and have a high score of 65, which I am quite proud of. None of these wireless games can match the advanced graphics and game functions of an Xbox or a Sony Corp. PlayStation-but I must say, some sure are fun to play.
This, I think, is why analyst firms are predicting hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues for wireless gaming in the coming years. It’s why literally dozens of startups and gaming companies have entered the space. It’s because of people like me.
Take “Tetris,” for example. It’s a puzzle game that most people are familiar with, and probably most have played at one time or another. I remember pumping wads of quarters into the “Tetris” arcade game at the student union in college. It’s a simple, easy-to-understand game, and it’s absolutely perfect for wireless.
The game itself takes only a few hundred kilobytes to run, and the controls are perhaps the simplest ever-up, down, left and right. BlueLava Wireless scored the rights to distribute “Tetris” on mobile phones and is now selling it through Sprint PCS and others. BlueLava also signed a deal with Atlas Mobile to sell a “Tetris” game in the United States that will award high scorers with actual prizes, like gift certificates and CDs. “Tetris” is a fun and easy way to pass the time, and if there’s a chance to win stuff, it’s not hard to imagine bunches of wireless users (like me) dropping $2.50 per month to play it.
Another good example is “Doom.” This 3D first-person shooter is one of the most successful and well-known computer games in history. I have wasted plenty of afternoons hunting friends in multiplayer “Doom” sessions. “Doom” was an advanced computer game in its time, but the rapid evolution of computing and mobile-phone technology may soon bring this game to life in the wireless world. There are already versions of “Doom” for Palm- and Pocket PC-based personal digital assistants. Indeed, a Romanian software company called ExoSyphen Studios recently developed a version of “Quake” for Microsoft’s Smartphone operating system. “Quake” is the more-advanced follow-up to “Doom.” That a “Doom”-style game is on the horizon of the mobile-phone industry can only bode well for the market. If someone like me would pay $2.50 to play “Tetris” on his phone, that same person probably wouldn’t mind paying $5 to play “Doom.”
Naturally, wireless gaming won’t appeal to everyone. The screens are small, sometimes the controls are difficult to use, and some mobile-phone games are fantastically boring. Also, there are plenty of people who consider video games a waste of time. But for those of us who enjoy blowing up aliens and saving princesses (and who have a few dollars to spend) wireless gaming could become quite attractive. And now that this article is done and I have a few minutes to kill, I think I’ll see if I can score 70 on “Terminator.”
