Mobile
This page will be centered around gaming on a mobile platform, and as such i will be looking at not only gaming on mobile phones, but also gaming on mobile devices such as hand held consoles. Through this i will comprehensively explain the features mobile gaming can offer, as well as the limitation too, much like the previous pages.
Timeline:
1976
The beginning of the mobile game genre begins in 1976, with the inventions of The Mattel Electronics Auto Race, widely considered as the first handheld electronic game. The device itself didn't sell an enormous amount, it still introduced the world to the possibility of gaming while on the go. The device was very primitive, and didn't feature a screen, but had LEDs instead, which represented the players "car" as well as the opponents. It was later adapted to feature a different game, this one being a football game, which sold more successfully, but still didn't reach a great amount of popularity, most likely due to the fact that there were much more exciting and innovative video games available in this time such as arcade machines or consoles. Both boasted much better games as they did not have to be compacted to the size where they can be carried around. This is possibly the biggest limitation the following hand held devices are faced with, and is why the technology used for mobile gaming devices are always behind the other platforms in terms of processing, graphics, and complexity, as they must be dummed down to the point in which it can fit in your hand.
1980
With the idea of mobile gaming now out there, and Nintendo's recent success in the gaming market, they decided to have a go at entering the mobile gaming world This is when lead designer Gunpei Yokoi came up with the idea of the Game & Watch, which he was inspired to make after watching someone play with a calculator to pass the time on a train. The Game & Watch can be considered the first successful handheld, and this time, the device actually had a screen. Like many of the past gaming devices, the first Game & Watch could only play a single game, which was named "Ball" in which the player had to move a characters arms left and right to juggle balls in the air. At the time of the creation, the LCD technology used within calculators was cheap, and made for a perfect substitute for LED based graphics, found in the bulkier handhelds on the market. Because they could only play a single game, numerous versions were released throughout the years, each containing different games on them. And as the games changed, so did the controls. What started out as having 2 buttons, one for left and one for right, soon evolved into having the very first directional pad. Something which revolutionized portable gaming, as this D-pad removed the necessity of a joy stick, making it fit well to carry around. Combined with a watch, this device sold well and gave Nintendo a great success in the handheld market. If you look at some of the models for game and watches, you can see a strong resemblance to the more recent Nintendo DS, especially when looking at the two screen models available.
1989
With the continued success of the Game & Watch, the concept of handheld devices were at its highest, and in 1989, Atari decided to release the Lynx. This device was released just before Nintendo's Game Boy, but offered a more supreme device technically with its 4096 color screen, as opposed to the game boys monochrome display. However unlike Nintendo's philosophy of making something affordable but fun, the Lynx was more expensive and overall a less popular device because of it. Upon the release of the Game boy, it sold 1 million units within the first week, and went on to becoming the 2nd most popular mobile gaming device in history. The device came bundled with Tetris, and offered a 15 o 30 hour battery life because of its simple yet effective processing. The 8-bit screen could display four shades of olive green and weighed nearly 400g. This is when the handheld systems began to evolve into what we see today.
1998
With handheld devices now able to work on interchangeable cartridges, more and more games were being created for the leading devices. In 1998, Nintendo's first major revision of the Game Boy was released, the Game Boy Color. As the name suggests, this device was able to play games in color, supporting 56 different colors on screen at the same time, and was a high selling point to players.
The next major step in the development of mobile games also occurred in 1998. As this was the year Snake was released onto Nokia Phones. Nokia proved that adding a game to a mobile phone was an excellent way to pass the time when bored, and without this ingenuity, it could have been a long time until gaming reaches the mobile phone market. Due to the limited space on the Nokia, the game Snake was a very simple and repetitive game, yet still highly addictive. As one would expect, the quality of the game was a lot lower compared to the Game boy because of limitation of processing within the phone.
2001
The ear of the Game Boy Advance. This new Nintendo handheld was the first to feature a 32-bit system, as well as being the first handheld to feature shoulder buttons on the top, something which has been included ever since. The device also had a stronger processing power, bigger screen, and smaller cartilages. Interestingly, the device bore many similarities to the SNES home console, showing that handhelds were in fact behind other gaming generations, but still retaining popularity because of its accessibility.
2004
Thanks to the leap in technology, handheld devices were getting more powerful, and this meant faster systems, without the cost of size or weight. However in 2004 the Nintendo DS was released, standing for Dual Screen. Many people criticized the system for its clunkyness because of the dual screens, but it still ent on to sell over 154, 000, 000 units.
Up until this point, Nintendo was pretty much unopposed in the handheld market, however this year Sony decided to jump on the wagon with its PlayStation Portable, or PSP for short. This device used the relatively new system of the optical disc format, or UMD, instead of cartridges hoping that it would catch on. It didn't. However it did allow Sony o release a number of films for the format, allowing people to watch films on the device. The sales more than doubled that of the DS in the first day of sales, possibly due to the high processing components it boasted, equaling that of almost equal to the PS2. However there was another big competitor soon on the horizon.
2007
The era of the smart phone. By 2007, Apple released the iPhone 2G. This iPhone had an impressive computer power for a mobile phone, and while it doesn't sound like much now, it had the graphical capabilities to surpass the original PlayStation. In 2008 when the App Store first opened, an online store accessed on the phone to purchase apps to download, the gaming genre hit the mobile phone market with more popularity than ever. The fact that the phone had such great processing power, and the accessibility for getting apps was so good, its no surprise that gaming apps became immensely popular. With little limitation when compared to previous phones, games designers were able to create many different games which played on the phone. In 2009, with the release of the game Angry Birds, the phone game market was in full swing. When Angry Birds became an enormous success, it showed people and companies the opportunities available for this platform.
2010
In 2010 Nintendo released a new DS named the Nintendo 3DS, and as the name suggests, it allowed players to view games in 3D. What made this truly revolutionary was the fact that 3D glasses were not need to do so. However it wasn't this gimmick that eventually led to success, but rather it was the software library that provided players with many useful and engaging features such as Streetpass, a function that allows players to connect their game data simply by walking past each other on the street. This feature is still popular today, with more and more DS games incorporating it. The ability to connect with people by simply carrying around the DS was a new stepping stone for handheld devices,a s it truly utilizes the main concept behind a handheld, the ability to carry it around with you. Through the following years, Nintendo has released a number of improved systems, including the 3DS XL, which has a larger screen and longer battery life.
With smart phone technology quickly evolving and catching up with the handheld devices in popularity, the smartphone genre has become a competitor for the gaming handheld systems. And because many people now have smartphones such as iPhones, even the most casual of gamers have at least one game app on thier phones to pass the time, much like snake did many years ago.
Timeline:
1976
The beginning of the mobile game genre begins in 1976, with the inventions of The Mattel Electronics Auto Race, widely considered as the first handheld electronic game. The device itself didn't sell an enormous amount, it still introduced the world to the possibility of gaming while on the go. The device was very primitive, and didn't feature a screen, but had LEDs instead, which represented the players "car" as well as the opponents. It was later adapted to feature a different game, this one being a football game, which sold more successfully, but still didn't reach a great amount of popularity, most likely due to the fact that there were much more exciting and innovative video games available in this time such as arcade machines or consoles. Both boasted much better games as they did not have to be compacted to the size where they can be carried around. This is possibly the biggest limitation the following hand held devices are faced with, and is why the technology used for mobile gaming devices are always behind the other platforms in terms of processing, graphics, and complexity, as they must be dummed down to the point in which it can fit in your hand.
1980
With the idea of mobile gaming now out there, and Nintendo's recent success in the gaming market, they decided to have a go at entering the mobile gaming world This is when lead designer Gunpei Yokoi came up with the idea of the Game & Watch, which he was inspired to make after watching someone play with a calculator to pass the time on a train. The Game & Watch can be considered the first successful handheld, and this time, the device actually had a screen. Like many of the past gaming devices, the first Game & Watch could only play a single game, which was named "Ball" in which the player had to move a characters arms left and right to juggle balls in the air. At the time of the creation, the LCD technology used within calculators was cheap, and made for a perfect substitute for LED based graphics, found in the bulkier handhelds on the market. Because they could only play a single game, numerous versions were released throughout the years, each containing different games on them. And as the games changed, so did the controls. What started out as having 2 buttons, one for left and one for right, soon evolved into having the very first directional pad. Something which revolutionized portable gaming, as this D-pad removed the necessity of a joy stick, making it fit well to carry around. Combined with a watch, this device sold well and gave Nintendo a great success in the handheld market. If you look at some of the models for game and watches, you can see a strong resemblance to the more recent Nintendo DS, especially when looking at the two screen models available.
1989
With the continued success of the Game & Watch, the concept of handheld devices were at its highest, and in 1989, Atari decided to release the Lynx. This device was released just before Nintendo's Game Boy, but offered a more supreme device technically with its 4096 color screen, as opposed to the game boys monochrome display. However unlike Nintendo's philosophy of making something affordable but fun, the Lynx was more expensive and overall a less popular device because of it. Upon the release of the Game boy, it sold 1 million units within the first week, and went on to becoming the 2nd most popular mobile gaming device in history. The device came bundled with Tetris, and offered a 15 o 30 hour battery life because of its simple yet effective processing. The 8-bit screen could display four shades of olive green and weighed nearly 400g. This is when the handheld systems began to evolve into what we see today.
1998
With handheld devices now able to work on interchangeable cartridges, more and more games were being created for the leading devices. In 1998, Nintendo's first major revision of the Game Boy was released, the Game Boy Color. As the name suggests, this device was able to play games in color, supporting 56 different colors on screen at the same time, and was a high selling point to players.
The next major step in the development of mobile games also occurred in 1998. As this was the year Snake was released onto Nokia Phones. Nokia proved that adding a game to a mobile phone was an excellent way to pass the time when bored, and without this ingenuity, it could have been a long time until gaming reaches the mobile phone market. Due to the limited space on the Nokia, the game Snake was a very simple and repetitive game, yet still highly addictive. As one would expect, the quality of the game was a lot lower compared to the Game boy because of limitation of processing within the phone.
2001
The ear of the Game Boy Advance. This new Nintendo handheld was the first to feature a 32-bit system, as well as being the first handheld to feature shoulder buttons on the top, something which has been included ever since. The device also had a stronger processing power, bigger screen, and smaller cartilages. Interestingly, the device bore many similarities to the SNES home console, showing that handhelds were in fact behind other gaming generations, but still retaining popularity because of its accessibility.
2004
Thanks to the leap in technology, handheld devices were getting more powerful, and this meant faster systems, without the cost of size or weight. However in 2004 the Nintendo DS was released, standing for Dual Screen. Many people criticized the system for its clunkyness because of the dual screens, but it still ent on to sell over 154, 000, 000 units.
Up until this point, Nintendo was pretty much unopposed in the handheld market, however this year Sony decided to jump on the wagon with its PlayStation Portable, or PSP for short. This device used the relatively new system of the optical disc format, or UMD, instead of cartridges hoping that it would catch on. It didn't. However it did allow Sony o release a number of films for the format, allowing people to watch films on the device. The sales more than doubled that of the DS in the first day of sales, possibly due to the high processing components it boasted, equaling that of almost equal to the PS2. However there was another big competitor soon on the horizon.
2007
The era of the smart phone. By 2007, Apple released the iPhone 2G. This iPhone had an impressive computer power for a mobile phone, and while it doesn't sound like much now, it had the graphical capabilities to surpass the original PlayStation. In 2008 when the App Store first opened, an online store accessed on the phone to purchase apps to download, the gaming genre hit the mobile phone market with more popularity than ever. The fact that the phone had such great processing power, and the accessibility for getting apps was so good, its no surprise that gaming apps became immensely popular. With little limitation when compared to previous phones, games designers were able to create many different games which played on the phone. In 2009, with the release of the game Angry Birds, the phone game market was in full swing. When Angry Birds became an enormous success, it showed people and companies the opportunities available for this platform.
2010
In 2010 Nintendo released a new DS named the Nintendo 3DS, and as the name suggests, it allowed players to view games in 3D. What made this truly revolutionary was the fact that 3D glasses were not need to do so. However it wasn't this gimmick that eventually led to success, but rather it was the software library that provided players with many useful and engaging features such as Streetpass, a function that allows players to connect their game data simply by walking past each other on the street. This feature is still popular today, with more and more DS games incorporating it. The ability to connect with people by simply carrying around the DS was a new stepping stone for handheld devices,a s it truly utilizes the main concept behind a handheld, the ability to carry it around with you. Through the following years, Nintendo has released a number of improved systems, including the 3DS XL, which has a larger screen and longer battery life.
With smart phone technology quickly evolving and catching up with the handheld devices in popularity, the smartphone genre has become a competitor for the gaming handheld systems. And because many people now have smartphones such as iPhones, even the most casual of gamers have at least one game app on thier phones to pass the time, much like snake did many years ago.
Features:
And so you can see through the evolution of portable gaming that popularity has grown for carrying around a game in your pocket at all times, whether its a game devoted device, or simply just a mobile phone. The main features of a mobile gaming platform therefore differs between the actual platform, as phones are now perfectly capable of housing games within them, but are also used for more important things such as calls and messages. Its because of this that the sales for game devoted devices such as the DS are slowly declining, as people no longer need to carry around an extra system to play games on. Evidence of how the current technology of mobiles are now more than capable to fill in for portable consoles can be seen from the many emulators they can play. Apps have been surfacing in which you are able to have full games, usually classics such as Pokemon, accessible. The fact that phones are able to play games which only devoted game machines could play tells us that the features of mobile gaming has evolved drastically since that first Mattel Electronics Auto Race.
Handheld:
As i have mentioned in the above timeline, the need for handhelds to small is important, as the whole point to handheld devices is that they can be carried around with ease. If they couldn't, then they do not serve any purpose, as they would become just an outdated console. Throughout he years handheld devices have changed in shape and size to eventually settle on a general design, as can be seen by the many versions of the DS. The fact that Nintendo has now settled upon the general conventions of a rectangular flip screen design shows that they have found an optimal design for player to feel comfortable using and carrying. This is why when identifying a handheld device, odds are they will be flat condensed pieces of technology, almost like a console controller with a built in screen.
PDA/ GSM:
Over the years mobile phones have become less like a telephone and more like a mini computer. This can be evidenced by PDAs, or Personal Digital Assistants. This is a term for any small mobile handheld that provides computing and information storage, for both personal and business uses. The fact that this is now possible with current day technologies shows that the mobile platform can offer a lot to the gaming community, as it can combine handhelds with computers, and then with consoles. The combination of these three gaming giants all into one device proves how useful mobile technology has become, and how one day, this platform may become the dominant genre for gaming.
Along with PDA, there is also the service of GSM, which stands for the Global System for Mobile communications. This is a digital; cellular technology used for transmitting mobile voice and data services. This is an important aspect to mobiles in general, but can also prove useful in the gaming community, allowing people to connect in more ways than general gaming handhelds, thanks to its main feature after all being for contacting people.
Limitations:
I mentioned near the start of this page the biggest limitation to handheld devices, and this was the size. In order for a handheld game to be a handheld game, it needs to be capable of being carried around. What this means is that the technology within the device must be so compressed that it can still do its regular job like a console does, but be really small while doing it. This is why handheld devices are lagging behind the most recent technologies. PC is at the front of technological advancement, as they have the freedom to be built as big as they want, and so all the new advancements go through the big stage first. Once this tech is created, it is then up to the inventors to better understand how to condense it to make it more useful to the public lives. Going by this theory, it means that the smaller the tech gets, the longer it has been around, as the time it takes to understand how to reduce and retain the components tends to be a long process. This is why handhelds, the smallest of the gaming platforms, is at the back. This means that while consoles are now playing at HD quality, with amazing life like graphics and thousands of polygons being rendered at a time, the latest handheld software is still at least a generation behind. Its this limitation that has kept the graphic capabilities and game complexities of a handled game down to lower level. You can see from these images the point i am explaining, as these are the insides of a household console compared to the insides of a handheld console. As you can see, needing to cram all of this technology from the console into a small device like a DS is impossible, because each one is completion filled to the case. s such, new technology is required to adapt the larger tech into working using less tech or more compact aspects, such as a more complex motherboard.
And so you can see through the evolution of portable gaming that popularity has grown for carrying around a game in your pocket at all times, whether its a game devoted device, or simply just a mobile phone. The main features of a mobile gaming platform therefore differs between the actual platform, as phones are now perfectly capable of housing games within them, but are also used for more important things such as calls and messages. Its because of this that the sales for game devoted devices such as the DS are slowly declining, as people no longer need to carry around an extra system to play games on. Evidence of how the current technology of mobiles are now more than capable to fill in for portable consoles can be seen from the many emulators they can play. Apps have been surfacing in which you are able to have full games, usually classics such as Pokemon, accessible. The fact that phones are able to play games which only devoted game machines could play tells us that the features of mobile gaming has evolved drastically since that first Mattel Electronics Auto Race.
Handheld:
As i have mentioned in the above timeline, the need for handhelds to small is important, as the whole point to handheld devices is that they can be carried around with ease. If they couldn't, then they do not serve any purpose, as they would become just an outdated console. Throughout he years handheld devices have changed in shape and size to eventually settle on a general design, as can be seen by the many versions of the DS. The fact that Nintendo has now settled upon the general conventions of a rectangular flip screen design shows that they have found an optimal design for player to feel comfortable using and carrying. This is why when identifying a handheld device, odds are they will be flat condensed pieces of technology, almost like a console controller with a built in screen.
PDA/ GSM:
Over the years mobile phones have become less like a telephone and more like a mini computer. This can be evidenced by PDAs, or Personal Digital Assistants. This is a term for any small mobile handheld that provides computing and information storage, for both personal and business uses. The fact that this is now possible with current day technologies shows that the mobile platform can offer a lot to the gaming community, as it can combine handhelds with computers, and then with consoles. The combination of these three gaming giants all into one device proves how useful mobile technology has become, and how one day, this platform may become the dominant genre for gaming.
Along with PDA, there is also the service of GSM, which stands for the Global System for Mobile communications. This is a digital; cellular technology used for transmitting mobile voice and data services. This is an important aspect to mobiles in general, but can also prove useful in the gaming community, allowing people to connect in more ways than general gaming handhelds, thanks to its main feature after all being for contacting people.
Limitations:
I mentioned near the start of this page the biggest limitation to handheld devices, and this was the size. In order for a handheld game to be a handheld game, it needs to be capable of being carried around. What this means is that the technology within the device must be so compressed that it can still do its regular job like a console does, but be really small while doing it. This is why handheld devices are lagging behind the most recent technologies. PC is at the front of technological advancement, as they have the freedom to be built as big as they want, and so all the new advancements go through the big stage first. Once this tech is created, it is then up to the inventors to better understand how to condense it to make it more useful to the public lives. Going by this theory, it means that the smaller the tech gets, the longer it has been around, as the time it takes to understand how to reduce and retain the components tends to be a long process. This is why handhelds, the smallest of the gaming platforms, is at the back. This means that while consoles are now playing at HD quality, with amazing life like graphics and thousands of polygons being rendered at a time, the latest handheld software is still at least a generation behind. Its this limitation that has kept the graphic capabilities and game complexities of a handled game down to lower level. You can see from these images the point i am explaining, as these are the insides of a household console compared to the insides of a handheld console. As you can see, needing to cram all of this technology from the console into a small device like a DS is impossible, because each one is completion filled to the case. s such, new technology is required to adapt the larger tech into working using less tech or more compact aspects, such as a more complex motherboard.
This in my opinion is by far the greatest limitation a handheld device will face, and i don't think there will be a time where the technology of a handheld device will surface that of the current generation of games at that time. Evidence of this is the fact that only now is the DS begging to have the processing capabilities to match that of GameCube or Wii, despite the fact that there are now much faster and higher powered engines out.
Another limitation of the mobile genre is the battery life. Unlike PC ad consoles which are plugged in 24/7, handhelds must work without a powers source. In earlier devices, this was left up to batteries, for example the Game Boy took AA batteries to function, and need them replacing whenever the battery was low. However in the recent years, rechargeable technology has become more popular, in both handheld consoles and in mobiles. This is possibly because the batteries are more cost effective, and it is now possible to charge the devise while using it. However the sign of a bad handheld is when you cant take it for long journeys because the battery runs out too quickly, this is why gaming devices such as the DS or PSP are always designed to squeeze as much play time as possible. As the games graphics have increased, the battery life of the device playing the game has decreased. This is because it takes a lot more procession and therefore power for the game to be run. Considering this, when it comes to marketing the device, it is almost always boasted how long it can last between charges. This battery issue is another aspect which limits the capabilities of video games, as the better the game graphics or game play, the more calculations and processing is needed, and therefore more power to jeep the system working well. |
This restriction and limitation in processing capabilities can be seen when looking at a game which is available on many platforms. Often the game remains unchanged for the different consoles, on the PC it may run a bit faster and with higher graphics, but then the handheld version is very different. Often becoming a completely different game by the the same name. This is because the control elements and game play mechanics must be dummed down to fit within the smaller more simple systems.
An example of this is can be seen if you look at the Lego Marvel game. This is available on Xbox 360, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii U, PC, PS3, PS4, and PS Vita. Now if you look at the graphical prowess of the Xbox one, compared to the DS, you can see how much of a difference is needed in order to have one run on a smaller device. This includes both graphical capabilities, as well as interface placement. You can see that the graphics are a lot more complex on the Xbox one, using particle effects and better textures,as the processing allows it. Wheres the 3DS is a lot more cramped because of the smaller screen. The interface also relies on more simple 2D sprites and the graphics have been toned down quite a lot. Finally, you can see further evidence of how this limitation effects the game as a whole. Below is a screenshot of the comparisons between ratings, and popularity of each copy for each platform on Amazon. You will see that the simpler the platform, the cheaper it is, to make up for the limiting game abilities. You will also see that more copies have been sold on the stronger more capable consoles than that of the handheld. |
Definition:
The definition of mobile gaming in the name. Mobile. If a device is not mobile, then it cant be considered a mobile device. This means that handheld gaming systems such as the DS for example, must remain small, while also packing in the tech and processors needed to play high processing games, equivalent to previous console specs. In addition to size, mobile gaming devices always rely on battery, as apposed to the previous game platforms, which require a main power source die to the fact that they are not designed for travel. A convention which has only recently become popular is the inclusion of other useful tools incorporated into the gaming device. for example, as of the third addition to the Nintendo DS family, the DSi, DS's have had a built in camera which allows player to take pictures and save them to the device. In addition to this, a lot of the recent DS systems have also included a speedometer, which counts how many steps the player has made in while the DS is in their pocket. Useful additions such as this, with the addition to downloadable apps for fitness, have helped give the devices more multitasking as opposed to just being for gaming. This is done to entice people to buy and carry around their systems with them, showing that they an help in everyday life and fitness.
The definition of mobile gaming in the name. Mobile. If a device is not mobile, then it cant be considered a mobile device. This means that handheld gaming systems such as the DS for example, must remain small, while also packing in the tech and processors needed to play high processing games, equivalent to previous console specs. In addition to size, mobile gaming devices always rely on battery, as apposed to the previous game platforms, which require a main power source die to the fact that they are not designed for travel. A convention which has only recently become popular is the inclusion of other useful tools incorporated into the gaming device. for example, as of the third addition to the Nintendo DS family, the DSi, DS's have had a built in camera which allows player to take pictures and save them to the device. In addition to this, a lot of the recent DS systems have also included a speedometer, which counts how many steps the player has made in while the DS is in their pocket. Useful additions such as this, with the addition to downloadable apps for fitness, have helped give the devices more multitasking as opposed to just being for gaming. This is done to entice people to buy and carry around their systems with them, showing that they an help in everyday life and fitness.