HARRY HENDRIX

THE HISTORY OF MOBILE GAMING

Technology has come a long way, and there seems to be

no looking back. Mobile gaming is a large part of todays

society in both young and old people, and will continue to

play a large role in the technological future. It seems like

just yesterday mobile phones were non existent, never

mind mobile games!

THE GOOD OL’ DAYS

The evolution of mobile gaming is quite fascinating. One

of the first mobile games, snake, became standard on

Nokia cell phones in 1998. Snake is a game in which you

must pick up pieces and extend your “snake” until you

crash into the wall or into another piece of the “snake”.

SNAKE: SIMPLE, YET ELEGANT

Between 1998 and 2001 more than 100 million cell

phones were sold. This set the stage for the possibility of

expanding the gaming world on mobile devices. With such

a big market and an increase in technology, companies

saw the possibility of using mobile games to make money.

The storage and graphic capabilities of cellular devices rapidly expanded, allowing for higher quality games to be produced.

The mobile gaming industry took off in Japan before it did in North America. By 2003 a wide variety of games were available in Japan, ranging from puzzle games to virtual pet games, 3D games and arcade style games.

In 2003, Nokia decided to start its own mobile gaming platform in North America, the N-Gage. The N-Gage was a mobile phone and a handheld gaming system. Unfortunately for Nokia, the original N-Gage was extremely unsuccessful possibly because of its expensive price ($299). It was bashed by critics and eventually abandoned.

N-GAGE FAILURE

In 2008, Nokia tried to release the N-Gage gaming

platform. Rather than a single device, it was a platform

that would come standard on many Nokia phones. Once

again, it was unsuccessful and was largely overshadowed

by the release of Apple’s App Store a few months later.

THE APPLE TAKE-OVER

The App Store. Almost everyone has used it. Functional

apps, time killers, pretty much anything you could think of..

But most importantly, GAMES.

The launch of Apple’s App Store in July 2008 changed the

game forever, pun intended. In the first weekend, 10

million apps were downloaded, many of which were

games that have never been seen before. One of the first

games on the App store was called “Lights Off”, and like

most other of the original 552 apps, was successful.

MOST POPULAR GAMES

ANGRY BIRDS In December 2009, the first Angry Birds game was released. Over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased on the app store, and over 2 billion downloads on all platforms combined. Angry Birds has turned into one of the most recognizable game franchises of all time.

FRUIT NINJA With its app store debut in April 2010, Fruit Ninja became one of the most popular mobile games of its kind. In May 2012, Fruit Ninja reached 300 million downloads and was said to be on at least one third of all iPhones worldwide. Another game changer in the mobile gaming scene!

DOODLE JUMP With its iOS release in April 2009, doodle jump looked promising as one of the top mobile games. There were 25,000 copies sold per day for the first 4 months after its released, which is staggering. As of December 2011 there had been over 10 million copies sold on the app store.

THE FUTURE Just a few short years ago it seemed like most games were simple games. Nowadays with the increase in technology, things like improved graphics and capabilities have allowed for a new generation of mobile gaming. Where will it stop? Virtual reality? The future is bright for mobile gaming and the possibilities are endless!

Put your computers away, take out your mobile device, and enjoy the gaming!

REFERENCES •  http://www.androidcentral.com/talk-mobile/whats-future-mobile-gaming-talk-mobile

•  http://toucharcade.com/2009/01/22/first-iphone-game-returns-as-app-store-app-lights-off/

•  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Birds

•  http://www.funtrivia.com/en/VideoGames/Angry-Birds-21078.html

•  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_game

•  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doodle_Jump

•  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_Ninja

•  http://Photopin.com