I received my first cell phone in middle school. My parents had just switched to Sprint, It was a slider-type phone similar in shape to the Motorola Razr, but one that you pushed up to reveal the number pad. Mobile gaming back then was limited to games utilizing D-pads on the phone or using the number pad, in replacement of the D-pad. Limited movement in 8 directions meant that games were not too dynamic.

The games were quite pixelated due to the processing power of phones. While this did not take away from the functionality of games like Bejeweled and Pool, it did remove some realism from other games. Another feature was that mobile games that came with the free default phones provided by the cellular provider were demos with limited access. After a specific number of turns or a specific amount of time, the game would suddenly come to an end, followed by a screen asking for payment for the full game.

The most memorable of the early games were the simple ones that could be played over and over again such as snake, Bejeweled, or Tetris. They were easy to understand and play right off the bat without too much thinking. Snake was trying to survive as long as possible while running around and getting longer. Bejeweled was basically connect three. Tetris was trying to survive as long as possible while random blocks fly down from the top and flood the screen. All of these games were not as revolutionary as they already were on the computer. I spent countless hours on these basic games when window shopping with my mother and relatives.

Touchscreen Revolution

However, with the advent of the iPhone and iTouch, games on mobile were radically changed forever. Back in middle school word was getting out that there was a new type of phone. A phone where you could touch the screen to interact with the software. Within a year some of the students were walking around with iTouch and iPhones. It was impressive how the technological revolution had spread through society like an epidemic. One year most people had flip phones, and within the next couple of years, everyone was tapping their phones.

Games on the iPhone came to define a generation. There was AngryBirds with its careful building destruction induced via catapult. There was Floppy Bird an infinitely side-scrolling game with only one touch input. There was even a basketball simulator with crumpled paper. There was Candy Crush a revamped version of Bejeweled with an endless array of hard levels. As the phones got even more advanced with stronger rendering and processing capacity, the games also got more advanced. The mobile gaming market became the next lucrative business venture for many franchises. Hearthstone brought a new round of card game fun. Pokémon Go was the new shiny app combining GPS technology with Pokémon fights. Fire Emblem Heroes brought the well-loved series to cellphones. While games like Fortnite were successful PC games expanded to mobile ports.