 This is the SF Productions podcast network I'm Mindy. Hold on Mark. You can check out our audio podcast how I get my way three comics on iTunes or on our website SFpodcastnetwork.com Video games on your phone Yes, Mark and I are addicted to playing The Simpsons tapped out right now indeed And so I thought maybe we should talk about mobile gaming on phones and tablet devices Do you know do you remember the first game you played on a phone by any chance? I'm not even sure when we got our first phones. Well, I had a I had the Star-Tac Yeah, we're having this a Star-Tac phone. So in 1999 That's when you know mobile phones were first coming out as like the flip phone right kind of thing With actual screens and everything and at that point there were some games available But they were mostly pre-loaded. Oh, it was all hard-coded The phone or you could get them through the phone operator sometimes. Yeah, and the first one that really took off was snake Yes, you do you remember snake? It was kind of like a little line that went around the screen It was sort of based off of blockade which was an arcade game Yeah, so the idea was this this snake would go around the screen and you couldn't have it run into itself And it kept getting longer and longer and longer. Yeah So, uh, yeah, oh fun and it was on this incredibly small post and stamp screen And they were all black and white screens And you had to use the buttons on your phone right to control the game Which is you know, what you know, like ten years and regular time. Yeah one year and in development time Yeah, you started getting things like the Tamagotchi like games on phones Tamagotchies in case you didn't know were these little mostly keychain size games that have little pets on them Right that you kept alive by doing things. There was a popular one called alien fish exchange Which basically like breadfish on your phone. Yeah, you know, they're still a black and white fish You tried to keep them alive. You had to feed them on a regular basis So they died and then there were some games that like you fed your Tamagotchi animals by taking pictures of the food Yeah, oh, that's bizarre 2002 rolls around and we start seeing Java on phones, right? Oh So actual actual games we're getting, you know, it's it's getting more complex. Yes, so there was a Company called jam dad. Yeah, does that sound familiar to you? I don't remember the name later bought out by a company you would recognize But they had a very popular bowling game on the phone things like that They're still pretty simple because really at this point. We're just now getting into colored screens There wasn't a lot you can do right when we do get colored screens one of the first games I remember playing on mobile shows up, which is bejeweled Oh, I absolutely remember bejeweled. I think I still play that And it's on every platform and it's still out there. Yeah, uh-huh. And and there are so many Games today that are essentially bejeweled with a different skin on it. Yeah. Yeah, it's a classic I'm in Japan where the gaming really takes off 3d games are starting to show up around 2002 2004 EA mobile gets into the game EA is the is the company that does our Simpsons game, right? Yeah, yeah, and they're a behemoth in the industry now. Yes. Yeah And at this point a couple years after that You start seeing some things happening like celebrities endorsing games Paris Hilton gets a game Diamond Quest, which is just a bejeweled clone But really The game market didn't take off until about 2000 or 2008 is seven or 2008 when the iPhone arrives and that is such a watershed moment because before then the Phone companies were like, okay We'll contract with whomever to make a phone for us and their main purpose was to talk on the phone Yes, you know maybe beginning of texting but that they'd rather you have a pager for that Yeah, you know and they didn't want to do any updates for that They wanted you to use it until it was time for the next contract They didn't give you a phone that was virtually identical to that Flip phones, you know, they were in no hurry to change the market and it was all button-based it was virtually nothing was touchscreen and Apple comes out and basically creates this Paradigm change in the industry, which is why every phone is like this soap bar type design With the touch screen and it's just basically this rectangle and an app store Most importantly and the app store wasn't there at the very beginning No, but once the app store kicked in that absolutely changed the industry and it also changed software development because Suddenly there was a way you didn't have to write something for Windows and sell it for $60 You could write this little game and suddenly you could sell it for $1.99 and make more money. Yes So I thought we would talk about some of the games we played on our touch screen phones After they started becoming popular and of course probably the biggest one In terms of people knowing it is Angry Birds. Yeah. Yeah, and this is a game That has had so many variations this cut this this company has been betting the farm on this and that's it That's another factor here is that you as a software company You're only as good as the last game you put out in the last two weeks. Yes, I mean It's they have a very for the most part a very short shelf life Angry Birds Because of all the variants they put out have extended it But even now people are like people aren't really playing Angry Birds No people are playing Angry Birds, but we did just see the Angry Birds movie About three years too late. Yeah, now another game that's sort of perennialist Tetris and Tetris goes all the way back to the Game Boy Yes You know and it's on every platform. Yeah, and And it's a very simple game Designed by this Russian developer who made huge amounts of money off of this thing And there is a pattern to some of the games that they did move from other platforms in right like Minesweeper I never played Minesweeper on my phone I was not a big fan of Minesweeper after it left wind after I left windows, right? Yeah, but the number of hours of productivity that have been lost to Minesweeper are incalculable Did you ever play Fruit Ninja? I played it a little bit. It was fun But it wasn't to me one of the addictive games although a lot of people thought it was Now I was gonna say about Fruit Ninja games like that if you go to one of the places that are arcades now that are doing modern games You'll see these huge cabinets that are just massive Fruit Ninja games that are it's the exact same game the exact same Mechanics instead of a little screen like this. It's a screen like this and you're going Yeah, which I'm like why I can play it on my phone for free Cut the rope. Yes. Do you remember that one? Yes. It was okay Yeah Did you ever play Doom on your phone? It's really hard to play first-person shooters on the phone kids can do it That's what I thought I it's it's really hard because you only have so much real estate and then it's really hard to control it Yes Doodle jump. Do you remember that one? I to me it was sort of like Frogger Instead of jumping across the street. You're jumping like from cloud to cloud or yeah Plants versus zombies. I played that a lot. Yeah, but again died very quickly and They did what many developers have done when they did a call it when they did a sequel to it They basically turned on the in-game or in-app purchases And they made it in such a way that you pretty much had to make the in-app purchases to really play the second version of the game Yeah, after you'd been trained to just Put you know power your way through. Yeah, you could do in-app purchases, but you didn't have to suddenly you did Yeah, and that's what killed it. Um Flabby bird. Yeah That was a stupid game and yet it was so popular and that was an example of a game that lasted such an incredibly short amount of time on the market, but made a huge amount of money. Yeah, and the big huge Waste of time Candy Crush I'm gonna include all of its Yeah, other clones there from the company that did it. Yeah, and that's the first time you saw At least I remember seeing television ads. It's like what is it? This is for this for a mobile game Yeah, that's for a mobile game. Yeah, and and I don't know I think this might be the first time I actually saw a tie-in from your mobile game to like Facebook Mm-hmm, and you know so you know your results are reported and stuff very kind of Integrated we're getting you to spend money kind of things right and these free games made Billions of dollars in in-app purchases Yeah, then there was another a whole nother series of games that you would play with your friends view your phones things like words with friends Mm-hmm draw something Clash of Clans. Yeah, I never played but is very big and people when they see me playing the Simpsons often say Oh, are you playing Clash of Clans? and so You know there's there are some social aspects that you can use with your phone games as well Right and draw something was and words with friends really both were games in which it wasn't just for kids anymore Yes, kids could play it, but it but adults could play it and I go, you know, I'm kind of playing this goofy little, you know But it was a game draw something in particular was huge for like two weeks and then Fell off the face of the earth. Yeah, and of course now you have Pokemon go Yes, which has become this enormous phenomenon that also has jump-started This augmented reality concept that most people like what do I need this for? They found the killer app Yes, or augmented reality And and certainly it's making people go outside and right do things and so We'll have to see what the next generation of mobile gaming is like right who knows Meanwhile, you can check out our radio podcast how I got my wife's read comics on iTunes or on our website Sfpodcastnetwork.com from the pop culture bunker. I'm Mindy, and I'm mark. Thanks for watching