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Handhelds Hardware

The Wireless Arcade 112

Posted by CmdrTaco from the waitin-in-line dept.
KeelSpawn writes "Techreiview has an article on Wireless gaming through handhelds. Quoted from article: "They don't have fancy 3-D graphics, but video games for handheld devices stand poised to capture a huge U.S. market. Why? Because we all have to wait." There are a lot of "Small" games that could be great time killers in lines if ported to cel phones, and made multiplayer, and cheap. Perhaps something like the Game Boy's Pokemon Crystal, but with hooks to play perhaps the people within X miles of you ;)
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The Wireless Arcade More

The Wireless Arcade

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  • Great! (Score:4, Funny)

    by MacGod ( 320762 ) on Friday June 28, 2002 @09:21AM (#3786392)
    Wonderful! Now, not only do we have people yakking all day walking down the street on their phones, they're alsso playing Pokemon! Just when you thought big-city life couldn't get more annoying, comes the daily squeek of "Pikachu!" from a hundred thousand cell phones!!

    FP BTW

    • Except what suit would lower himself to play pokemon on his tiny phone. This assumes he can get the rules something which in my experience is immpossible for non-geeks over the age of 12. :-)
      • Well, but just wait until the cell-hone-enabled stock trading games emerge. Just think, all the excitement of losing everything you're worth, without all that icky having to line up for soup kitchens thing!

      • Re:Great! (Score:3, Insightful)

        by _LORAX_ ( 4790 )
        Game Boy and GBA's biggest market segment has always been adults and not children. Now we are talking about a cell phone, something most people spend excessivly already, adding games is a logical extension if they are not compromising the rest of the system.

  • MAME, NES Emulators vs. Graphics (Score:4, Insightful)

    by FortKnox ( 169099 ) on Friday June 28, 2002 @09:24AM (#3786409) Homepage Journal
    People run MAME and NES Emulators (even Atari Emulators). Graphics do *NOT* define the game!

    Take Doom3 for example. Sure it looks pretty, but if its just another FPS DM game, no one will enjoy it. Its all about gameplay and innovation. These wireless games could become very popular as long as they have good gameplay and innovate the game for the new platform.

    I hope this sparks gameplay and innovation on all platforms...
    • Full ack! I downloaded a C64-emulator a year ago together with some games. Conclusion: Boulder Dash, Le Mans Joy, Donkey Kong still rule! On the other side I found Jedi Outcast very boring. Nice graphics, fast gameplay, but boring.

    • ..platforms all on innovation and gameplay sparks this hope I.


      Platform new the for game the innovate and gameplay good have they as long as popular very become could games wireless these. Innovation and gameplay about all its. It enjoy will one no, game DM FPS another just its if but, pretty looks it sure. Example for doom3 take. Game the define *NOT* do graphics. (Emulators Atari even) Emulators NES and MAME run People.

    • I love how people expand from "I won't enjoy it" to "no one will enjoy it".

      Speak for yourself, frankly. There's a lot of people who enjoy playing FPS games, either single or multiplayer.

      Yeah, I enjoy playing some old games too - Qbert, Qix, etc. are fun to play. But so is Quake3 CTF. It's a very different kind of game play. On the flipside, I don't enjoy RTS games... just not my cup of tea. But I'm not going to be so inane as to say "oh boy, Warcraft 3. Nobody's going to enjoy that."

      • "I love how people expand from "I won't enjoy it" to "no one will enjoy it"."

        Yeah, that attitude is common. I think when some people comment, they automatically go into 'cynicism mode' and ask "why would I want this?" Then the append it with "I could do the same thing if I build this, pay for that, or learn to live without it." I think people have equated cynicism with getting modded up. Heh.

        One thing to think about with gaming, though, is that the interface is every bit as important as the fun factor of the game. I love playing Donkey Kong Country, but playing it emulated presents a problem because I do not have a controller. One of these days I may break down and buy one, but that isn't high on my list at the moment.

        I think Solitaire on the PocketPC is extremely addictive, but man it'd suck playing it on my cell phone, even with a rocker switch. My old cell phone lent itself pretty well to playing snake. I found that out when I got to a theater 20 minutes early, but didn't want to give up my good seat. (the movie was highly anticipated...) I never thought of my cell phone as a game machine before, but I did enjoy having something to do besides watch the slideshow trivia. :)
    • What about the phone/camera combos.

      It'd be cool to be able to take a snap of some ass who cuts you off in traffic and paste his /her mug onto every demon on Doom.

      It might help relieve road rage if you could spend some time while stuck in a traffic jam chain-sawing them to death.

      I hardly use my phone though. I'd rather have a mobile phone interface for my Zaurus so I can carry fewer electronics about.

      Fat chance of wireless access in my neck of the woods at the moment.

  • ti-83 (Score:2)

    by shmuc ( 70684 )
    if wireless was a feature on the ti-83, tetris would've been so much more fun during calc class back in high school.
    • Heh. At my high school Drug Cartel was the game of choice.
    • Heh there was a dork in my algebra class that spent waaaaaaaay too much time playing with his TI-85. He was actually popular for a day when he found a way to view porn on it. People actually started talking to him for about a week, but his lack of personality killed that phase. Heh.

      Still, he did manage to drastically improve the popularity of those calcs.
  • Sort of like the arcade games of old, they were simple but blazingly addictive. However, this new generation of games has the advantages of portability and not having to shovel quarters into them.

    This looks like a lot of fun. Too bad it's only in Japan right now.
    • Too bad it's only in Japan right now.

      Coming to the US faster than you think.
      Check it out [verizonwireless.com]
    • I couldn't agree more. Despite all the advances in realtime 3-D rendering that get showed off in the newer PS2 and XBox games, a good old 16-bit game like Super Mario Kart still holds my attention for much longer.

      Too often, I think, game companies get so caught up in making games look dazzling that they don't bother making the games actually fun.

  • Great games (Score:2, Insightful)

    by bigjocker ( 113512 )
    Great games dont need great graphics, they need great playability. Take Monkey Island, KSirtet, Sokoban and Supaplex.

  • If you are writing these games, (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anne_Nonymous ( 313852 ) on Friday June 28, 2002 @09:26AM (#3786423) Homepage Journal
    please include a pause button. The first person who holds up my grocery line while he finishes up a level will get beaten to death with a baguette.
  • Some handhelds can have 3D graphics... Tomb Raider is being/has been ported [zdnet.com.au] to certain handhelds. And isn't Romero and is long, sexy, flowing hair the cofounder of some company that makes games for mobile devices? Monkey-something?

  • Great, as long as it doesn't eat up minutes... (Score:4, Informative)

    by systmc ( 92469 ) on Friday June 28, 2002 @09:28AM (#3786444) Homepage
    The particular Sprint phone I have doesn't have any games preloaded on it - you must use their wireless web to access games. Problem is, it's billed as a call the entire time you play. Not very fun.
    • Arcade game players who have learned to milk hours out of a few quarters will also likely find wireless gaming a far less congenial experience. Wireless distribution means that gamers essentially get punished--instead of rewarded--for their skills. "If you're successful at a network game," says Ovum analyst Roope Mokka, "you end up paying more in airtime charges because you have a longer session."

      This would be the largest stumbling block for me -- my Palm, with it's games stored locally, would win out over my phone every time. This is probably going to be the same for everyone who doesn't spend massive amounts of time in multi-user games already.

      Now if it was a flat rate access, then I'd probably go for it.
    • There should be a game rate, perhaps a special plan where games are a set monthly subscription. Also with 3G games can be billed as kilobyte squirts so, so long as the game client handles most of the work and data requirements are kept low this can work out pretty good. A lot of analysis needs to be done. I am trying to convince the 3G managers that what we need are multiplayer euro style games. Pricing is a major issue. On the one hand it will cost a lot to develop the games, on the other hand the customer is price sensative. I know I am one of the cheapest bastards around so I am using me as a model.
    • (I work for a wireless firm - what I say here isn't necessarily the views of my employer)

      One thing we're not used to in the US is paying for usage, but this is the trend everywhere else. Unfortunately, this will be the case very soon - the wireless carriers are looking for ways to bill for usage. Data is the next step (including your games). Your best bet if you don't want to pay usage will be to try out the J2ME and BREW games on your cellphone when they're available. I'm sure there will be games that don't require you to be online to play, however, you'll have to spend some money using your carrier's "vending machine" to load them onto your phone.
  • Heard on radio:

    And now for our traffic update. It seems that we have a head-on collision at the intersection of the 2 busiest highways in town. Our listeners report that there are three options. Teleport out of there, call home and kvetch, or join the LAN party in progress on your handheld.

    And now, a word from our sponsor, the good folks at Verizon. Can you frag me now?

  • Multiplayer? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RaboKrabekian ( 461040 ) on Friday June 28, 2002 @09:29AM (#3786452) Journal
    I'm not sure multiplayer as described would be that big of a hit. My guess is that most people who'd play games on their cell phones want something they can pick and put down quickly, with a minimum of hassle. Unless you can streamline a matchmaking interface so that it takes less than 30 seconds, I doubt you'll see much use for it. If you only have five minutes to play a game, and 3 of those are spent finding someone to play with, you're not going to bother.

  • Imagine the costs... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cheezycrust ( 138235 ) on Friday June 28, 2002 @09:30AM (#3786454)
    Imagine how much this will cost you - without you knowing it. Here in Belgium, these SMS games cost you 1 per message. A simple Login-Question-Answer-Score round would cost you 4. There was a guy who lost 6000 because he played a lottery 3000 times. Now he's complaining he didn't read the fine print.

    We need flat-fee access! How long will it take before we can get mobile Internet for a fixed price?
  • For a F1 game you can download... it isn't networked though, as there isn't G3 yet.

  • This is a killer app (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Nomad7674 ( 453223 ) on Friday June 28, 2002 @09:34AM (#3786471) Homepage Journal
    I must say this is something I have been wanting. I bought a Palm VIIx about a year ago, when the big promotion came out from Palm. I used the thing fr HOURS the first month, MINUTES the second month, and then barely at all after that. Wound up cancelling service as soon as was possible under the terms of my contract. The thing is, with high-speed internet at work, an Airport network at home, and dial-ups available while on the road, there was not much that I had left to do with a wireless unit which only did low-tech, no-color internet.

    But if it had been able to do wireless gaming, I suspect I would still be an owner and an enthusiastic user. Even without the graphics, even without sound effects, the ability to play new games all the time and to play against real people is compelling.
  • awhile ago. In a flash of inspiration, I even registered walkaroundgames.com. Somehow, I never really got around to doing anything though.
  • I'm so tired of reading reports saying "real games in your cellphone/PDA/GPS coming soon!" and then waiting, waiting and waiting for something to show up. I'd like to see one of these games actually making waves with users using a cell phone CPU, especially when you consider the user base of "enhanced" phones like the newest Nokia phone with Java (but no color). We all know this is a killer app, my baby sister can write the business model, but where are the platforms and where's the beef?

  • Other things you could do with a palmtop (Score:3, Interesting)

    by pokeyburro ( 472024 ) on Friday June 28, 2002 @09:43AM (#3786508) Homepage
    Yeah, I'm gonna sound like a snob, but I'd really like to read a book while waiting instead of turning my brain off for yet another Tetris clone. Trouble is, many of the books I'd like to read are too big to fit nicely in one of my pockets. If only I could put them in a palmtop or cellphone... Sure, this method of entertainment is clever and cool, but geez, I play enough games already.
  • ...while waiting in line, on the subway, on hold...

    10) Pong
    9) Backgammon
    8) Nethack
    7) Poker
    6) Bomberman
    5) Scrabble
    4) Hearts
    3) Columns
    2) Go
    and ...
    1) FreeCiv

    that would make me want to wait on long lines. :-)
    • FreeCiv, on a PDA screen...you'll go blind!
    • Let's see, the Sharp Zaurus has NetHack, Chess, various Solitaire games, Scrabble, Bomberman, Hearts and Go. With FreeCiv being ported.

      The future is now. :)

    • Come on, what about a MUD!?!

      The only difficulty I see there is that it's not peer-to-peer.

      However, given the text interface for the mud and the lack of graphics on the hand helds/cell phones it could be viable.

      All you'd need is some kind of input device. On the handhelds with the tiny keyboards this would work, but on cell phones I'm not sure.

      Maybe a text->voice, voice->text translator for sending commands and then getting descriptions back. Can you imagine the conversations you'd be having in line.

      Phone: "You're creeping thorough a deep dark forrest. Tall trees with vines curling up their sides surround you. The moisture in the air is making it hard for you to breath.

      There is a large wolf here."

      You:
      "Kill wolf"
      "cast magic missle"
      "cast cone of cold"

      The looks you'd get standing in line would be worth standing in as many as possible! ;)

      Seriously thogh, I don't think MUD appeals to the populous.

  • You should check out Fathammer [fathammer.com]. I've seen these people on various places on the net and their engine looks pretty cool.

    In fact you'll notice from some screenshots [fathammer.com] that this is the engine used in some of the games that the article talks about
  • Its seems to me that people are missing the boat a bit. The largest growing martket for cell phones and PDAs is the 12-16 year old tweens. These kids already play their gameboy advance interminably. Why don't they start with a gameboy and add cell phone features. This would be pretty easy, even if they had to add a nother processor, they would make up for it in air time. It would bigger. heck call it gameboy.NET...oh wait.

  • How about the games FIRST? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by benzapp ( 464105 ) on Friday June 28, 2002 @09:52AM (#3786555)
    I think this article was missing some fundamental problems with wireless games on PDAs... graphics do not matter THAT much, but they certainly do matter... in anything other than a text mode role playing game.

    I think anyone who uses a PDA, especially a PocketPC based platform, is well aware of the machine's hardware capability. There is just no excuse for not making some games that look half way decent, and are interesting.

    It is really a damn shame when my (formerly) $500 Casio E125 with a 16-bit color screen, a 150mhz MIPS processor, 32 megs of ram, and a 256 meg flash card can't produce a single game comparable to a game on my $69 Game Boy Advance.

    Has anyone seen Microsoft's Entertainment Pack for PocketPC??? That hing is a joke, it is like a video game rendition of Office Space.

    The article is right about one thing, adults are somewhat ignored by the market. I don't think that is the problem with PDAs, I think software developers just think there a) are not enough of them out there and b) people just use them as a rolodex.

    These same marketeers have to sit on a subway car during rush hour in Chicago and they will realize nearly one in three yuppies has a PDA.

    Once we have a game that is fun to play, then we can talk about wireless. Its the old chicken before the egg scenario here folks.
  • The Ericsson T68 includes a Naval Fleet game that can be played by two players over Bluetooth. It may not be that exciting, but it would kill time a little faster when standing in line, although it may be difficult to find an opponent in the same line, with a T68, which is also looking for a Bluetooth game partner...

  • Been here for years. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Monthenor ( 42511 ) <monthenor@goge[ ]org ['ek.' in gap]> on Friday June 28, 2002 @09:54AM (#3786565) Homepage
    I don't know about all you gee-whiz PDA users, but my number one game of ALL time on ANY system, the one I've spent the MOST time on in my 17 years of gaming, is ZTetris3.0 for the TI-85.

    It has everything this article mentioned except wireless: portability, cheap graphics, multiplayer, and the air of dignity from my sleek black calc. It is also (IMO) the greatest version of Tetris ever made.

    It has gotten me through the most boring classes and the longest waits. It doesn't eat batteries like some other TI games I could mention *coughbreakoutcough*, yet it is still endlessly fast and challenging. The two-player battle mode is perfectly balanced, with all sorts of different tactics my Chemistry buddies and I developed in high school. I would seriously consider teaching a class on Tetris Theory if someone would pay me.

    So I'll leave my phone in my pocket, thank you. TI has me covered.

  • I wish the cell phone manufacturers would spend some time improving the sound output a little instead.

    I am really tired of hearing the same beep-beep tunes.

    I'd like a mobile phone with at least a Commodore Sid chip inside (yay, Thing-on-a-spring music).
  • Did anyone else use to log onto their favorite BBS every day just to take their turn at L.O.R.D, Global Wars, etc?

    That would be a killer network app on these things.

    -Pete
  • This [technologyreview.com] sure as hell isn't going to be available for my [allwirelessproducts.com] cell phone!

    Also, it's sad to see Romero focus on cell phones games... I used to think he was (and probably still is -- one of the most talented game programmers around)

    My personal thoughts on this issue are that sure it's a great idea in principle... But I remember when the nokia's started shipping with snake on them, I would see people sitting down at the food courts in malls, at parties, at school in the halls, all playing snake (/w sound effects on!), and it looked pathetic.

    No one really *needs* to play games on their cell phone. Also, no one needs a cell phone in their tooth [slashdot.org], nor do they need an optical laser mouse [slashdot.org], nor a really cheap digital camera [slashdot.org] built in!

    Since when did cell phones become the utility tool of the businessman? Find the right tool for the job! My cell phone will never offer as good a gaming experience as my PC/Console system, nor take a better digital picture than my kodak digital camera, nor... well... okay -- i currently don't have anything built into my teeth besides fillings -- but dammit that's crossing the line!

    Cell phones used to be about calling people and being able to get help when the car broke down, etc... Trully -- it's sad to think how consumer oriented this society has become -- every clammoring to get the latest gadget and gizmo on the market. I for one am not buying another cell phone, until mine [allwirelessproducts.com] stops working the way it was designed to.
  • What a marvelous way for amusement parks to make even more money while standing in line for two hours to ride that 45 second ride.
  • Some points made in previous posts:
    1. Enjoyable gameplay is not necessarily dependant on flashy graphics (just as enjoyable movie viewing is not necessarily dependant on flashy graphics - see Hollywood.)
    2. Multiplayer games on PDAs, cell-phones are somewhat limited by
      • cost in phone minutes
      • People-on-the-run finding the setup time inconvenient
    The tremendous market I see is in multiplayer games of chance, for money. That is to say, let's set up a multiplayer poker game for real stakes (or head-to-head Pong tourney for cash). GAMBLE ON YOUR PDA/PHONE, my friends! All human opponents! Best odds! Get your fix on Route 66 (literally)!

    Hmmm.. how to authenticate though... sadly, 'wireless security' is an oxymoron, and where there's a bill, there's a way.
    • 1. Enjoyable gameplay is not necessarily dependant on flashy graphics (just as enjoyable movie viewing is not necessarily dependant on flashy graphics - see Hollywood.)

      What a silly comment. Of course it's not TOTALLY DEPENDANT on graphics but only immature simpletons think graphics has nothing to do with the IMMERSION of a video game. Maybe geniuses like yourself can overlook faulty visuals in a game but most of us appreciate a helping hand towards suspension of disbelief that realistic graphics give.

      The tremendous market I see is in multiplayer games of chance, for money. That is to say, let's set up a multiplayer poker game for real stakes (or head-to-head Pong tourney for cash). GAMBLE ON YOUR PDA/PHONE, my friends! All human opponents! Best odds! Get your fix on Route 66 (literally)!

      Man, people driving with cell phones are one of the prime causes of traffic fatalities that take this country's children every day. If people like you pander to this and facilitate it with these inheirently evil money making schemes then I have only one thing to say: I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL. Or at the very least in a cold, lonely jail cell. Well, lonely except for Bubba.

      Hmmm.. how to authenticate though... sadly, 'wireless security' is an oxymoron, and where there's a bill, there's a way.

      So everybody who owns a cell phone is a moron, huh? Well, my WIFE has a cell phone. You should watch what you say, man. People actually READ this stuff you know.

  • pewp (Score:3, Funny)

    by Vodak ( 119225 ) on Friday June 28, 2002 @10:24AM (#3786788)
    oh boy the cell phone makes get to play "how many version of tetris can thier possibly be"

    then one of the cell phone makers is gonna come up with a version of tetrinet so you can curse at your phone for lossing to someone with wit teh h4x on thier phone.

  • Nethack (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It may bring snickers and jeers from some of you,
    but a very portable machine that had a 100% working
    implementation of the game Nethack would be wonderful to have.
    I would actually like to buy a portable for the express
    purpose of running nethack 3.4. That's the killer app for me,
    and the only app that has to run to satisfy me, but it must
    run well, and be both stable and playable. Any other addicts
    out there who can point me to a machine worth buying for this purpose?
  • "But Dad! [penny-arcade.com] I'm Bejeweling! [astraware.co.uk]
  • but games on my PDA suck. They are pointless adaptations of pointless games, I'd much rather read a good book, and I don't mean a lousy e-book.
  • The game in the upper left hand corner that is show isn't mulitplayer or wireless. It was just a demo of hammerhead's 3d engine (which by the way kicks ass). Gotta love the writers for picking the picture that is pretty rather then the right one. Don't know about the other 3 though.

    -Benjamin Meyer
  • The guys at Intellivision Productions [intellivisionlives.com] have started porting various Intellivision games to cell phones. A demo [intellivisionlives.com] was shown on the Screen Savers back in December.

    Astrosmash on my phone...very very cool.

  • To all you people who post that graphics dont matter in a game, I think you are wrong.

    Im not saying that a game cant be good if the graphis are bad, but the newer consoles/higher end PCs out there are getting to a point where the gamedevelopers can create pretty much what they want(i not talking polygon numbers where, im taking possibilities in the gaming world). And this IS great for gaming..

    I know that some genres today, are stuck. As somebody commented about Doom 3, its just another 3D shooter. And yes, that is true. But realize that IDs priority is creating new functionality to their engine(Doom3 is pretty much a techdemo). Since that is thier product, more than any of the Quake/Doom/Wolf games that has come out from them. That why at the E3 showing, what there was most talk about on the stand was the engines new algorithm that reduced polycont at runtime(with no visible effect loss on the models, it is actually kinda amazing). But that s only because they want to impress the little up and rising gamehouse from Florida, who are looking for a engine to put their creativity into.

    Todays platform games are a great example i think, theres a WORLD of difference between Siderman and Rayman. But more importantly, between sonic and mario the differnce have grown even larger. Platform games was all pretty equal when we had 2D,
    the only real diffence between playing sonic or mariobros. Was the speed of which you scrolled through the level(in the ealier versions, you even had to jump the same attack, jump on the enemy =)

    And its not just the platform games, games like shenmue, GTA3, BlacknWhite, Everyquest, FinalFantasy and more. Shows what can be accomblished inside a 3D world.

    There will probertly allways be the techdemos and the beatemups that will pretty much have their competion on pure gfx quality/speed.

    Graphics DOES matter, just my 2euros..
  • What the fsck happened to reading a paperback book while you're waiting for the train?
  • I just found the killer application for my Zaurus Linux PDA. Since it has a builtin keyboard, I was able to play the classic textadventure "Zork" [csd.uwo.ca] with the help of an Infocom game interpreter [killefiz.de] while sitting in a waiting room for nearly an hour yesterday. (The people around me must have thought I'm crazy while I was trying to figure out how to get down that &%$ chimney.)
    And of course I can always switch to a drawing application to make maps of all the rooms.

  • kmoria (Score:1)

    by jqh1 ( 212455 )
    When I got my Treo, I didn't know that it was really just a way for people to contact me while I was playing kmoria [sourceforge.net].

  • The Cybiko is a handheld "kids" PDA that has a 19.2 kbps, 900Mhz wireless connection that supports up to 99 users in a range of 300'. They don't seem to be selling much but it is an interesting platform, just marketed wrong IMHO. http://www.cybiko.com
  • Putting a game on a cell phone is roughly equivalent to playing Quake 3 on a high-volume Exchange server. Your average cell phone has barely enough CPU cycles to manage the cell phone connection, much less handle real-time input needed for a game.

    Let's take an example: my cell phone has the game "snake" on it (also sometimes called "nibbles"). I prefer to play it on the highest difficulty, which means the snake moves around pretty fast.

    Most of the time.

    There are times where the game completely ignores my commands, or decides to respond a fraction of a second after when the button is pressed. Sometimes the snake itself will slow down, only to have a sudden speed boost when the CPU becomes available.

    The result is that the game's difficulty comes not from the challenge of avoiding walls and yourself, but from the maddeningly inconsistent performance and response time.

    You'd think that the game would become more playable when in a tunnel (or other service-blocking zone), but actually the opposite happens because the CPU spends all its time trying to connect to the phone network.

    So, given the choice, I would much rather have a dedicated gaming device such as a Gameboy Advance than eat the battery life of my cell phone with a shoddy gaming experience.

    Nathan

  • There's a spiffy game called Jumble on Nextel's WAP deck. They give you a bunch of letters and you figure out what the word is. The hitch is, it keeps score over time (as you create a username and password the first time you play), and it's multiplayer. Usually in the mornings there are five to ten people on, up to fifty or sixty players in the afternoon.

    You enter your answer, and then you have to wait 15-30 seconds for all the other players to enter their answers or time out, and then you get to see a rank! Each game consists of a set of ten jumbled-up words to figure out.

    The concept might seem kind of lame but when you're waiting on the train, it's fun as hell!

    You can reach it on a nextel phone by opening up the net menu, selecting websites, selecting entertainment, and then selecting "Play Jumble".

    I see a lot of neat little games like this popping up on wireless devices in the near future.

  • Wait? (Score:1)

    by ugen ( 93902 )
    Any society coming to the point where any significant amount of goods or services need to be obtained through waiting in line, is bound to crumble and soon. See examples to the East.
    Providing "entertainment" to those in lines isn't going to help either...
  • ...but just in case.

    Game Boy's Pokemon Crystal remotely multiplayer by a cellphone attachment that Nin. never brought to America.

    cannot find a link except for this? [pgamers.com]

    Too bad I haven't heard a thing about this. [slashdot.org]

  • A friend of mine owns a company [airg.com] which is doing exactly this. They provide games for WAP, SMS or Java phones, and it fully supports multiplayer games. Best of all, its free, other than the copious amount of airtime you'll likely spend on the phone...
  • Thousands of books are available for free on-line and you can download them, the whole book, into the Road Runner (companiondevices.com) and listen. The Road Runner is a device designed for the blind but it works great for listening while you wait in line at the bank, when you jog, or garden or end up waiting for a companion to finish with make up. Put that wait time to good use, Voctor Hugo, Charles Dickens and Leo Tolstoy are waiting 4 u.

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