The mobile phone as a game machine

The more than 20 text-based games that Smart Communications has successfully introduced are proofs that mobile phones need not be ergonomically built to be called a game machine.

By using SMS (Short Message Service), or "text" as we know it, as platform, an operator can develop a myriad of gaming applications that range from single-player time-passers to multi-player interactive contests.

For instance, Smart, in partnership with local content providers, has developed SMS-based games that mimic network gaming. Classic games like Tic-Tac-Toe, Gothello, Bingo Txt, Wordseek and Hangman were adapted to Smart’s wireless service to let two or more Smart subscribers play against each other.

It also introduced the interactive tamagotchi-type game called the MyPet Pal, a game designed to let owners take care of, play with and feed assorted virtual animals from a cell phone.

This virtual pet game has spun off various virtual buddy games – the Celebrity Pal, which features Joyce Jimenez and Troy Montero, and the PBA Cell Slam that lets the subscriber in to the various info about his/her favorite cager.

Another text game, the Tamiya virtual race, allows a mobile phone user to design and program his virtual Tamiya. This virtual car with personalized specifications is then entered into a virtual race, joined in by other mobile phone users.

"When we launched the SMS version of Tamiya, what we achieved was to take that popular game, just as we did to all the popular games we have adapted, connect all its players and put the game in everyone’s pockets," said Smart’s personal communications and mobile services head Anastacio Martirez.

Indeed, the wireless world is getting more serious about fun and games. Wireless adventure games such as Smart’s click-your-own adventure series were recently introduced to cell phone aficionados. These games, mostly interactive fictions, unfold stories that respond to SMS messages from the player.

SMS trivias have also cropped up. The Smart zed’s Text To Millions Raffle, the country’s first text-based trivia game, have enticed more than 180,000 participants in its first outing. It has since spun off PBA and Christmas trivias and the Name that Tone game.

The Filipinos’ world-renowned passion for texting and the large base of cell phone users in the country make SMS more efficient and effective as gaming platform. Smart, for instance, has over five million GSM subscribers whose phones can become instant terminals for gaming.

"However rudimentary it may be, SMS can push the development of wireless gaming. This will prepare the market for more complex and interactive games once faster General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and third-generation (3G) wireless service are in place," Martirez said.