Dial in to cell phone gaming

Dial in to cell phone gaming

"Sonic the Hedgehog," "Tetris" among favorites

Cell phones have been doing more than simply enabling owners to rack up substantial bills through calling friends and family members for a long time now. When it comes to wasting time between classes - or even, let's face it, during classes - cellular service providers now offer an overwhelming choice of games and distractions to choose from, if you're willing to pay.

Cell phone games have long since matured from the days of "Snake," in which a line of blocks grows larger as you move the pixilated line to eat food, or the rudimentary football games in which one dot would pass a smaller dot to a slightly larger dot.

In just a few years, things have moved from a simple version of "Tetris," to complete 3-D shooter games like "Dirge of Cerberus," one of the many "Final Fantasy VII" spin-offs that exist.

Ryan Dauphin, a freshman majoring in finance, said the only mobile phone game he really plays is "Solitaire."

"There's not a lot of smart phone software out there," he said. Dauphin said he owns a Motorola Q phone through Verizon Wireless.

He said he prefers to watch TV on his phone rather than play games.

When he does want to play a game on his phone, he said he doesn't like to do it through his phone carrier, which charges as much as $12 for one game.

"I procure them by alternate means," he said.

Clint Odom, a sophomore majoring in computer science, said the only game he has is "Sonic the Hedgehog," based on the classic Sega Genesis game.

"I used to own a whole bunch of games, but I switched services, so now I [hardly] have any," he said.

Odom said "Sonic" cost him about $7.

His old service was T-Mobile, but he switched to Verizon Wireless recently, he said.

"I don't play 'Sonic' very often, because it runs down the batteries really bad," Odom said.

He said with his experience, most games and extra features on phones do the same thing.

Games don't matter when picking out a phone, he said. Instead, he picked the phone he has now because of its music capabilities.

"It's kind of funny," Odom said. "I bought it for music, but I can't get the V-Cast thing to work, so I can't put any music on my phone."

According to wirefly.com, the most popular phones of 2006 were the Cingular, T-Mobile and Verizon Motorola RAZRs, so finding games for the RAZR is a rather easy task.

With older phones, games are less complex, with no 3-D options or splendid gameplay, while newer phones might have 3-D action, and games look about on par with the original PlayStation.

Browsing for games through different companies is easy online, but most cell phone carriers will allow users to buy games through their phones as well.

Games are simply tacked on to bills at the end of the month for contract owners, and deducted from minutes with a pre-paid phone.

According to their Web site, Cingular's most popular game is "Tetris" for $6.99. That's followed by "Wheel of Fortune" at $2.99 a month and "Bejeweled" at $5.99. Cingular generally allows cell phone owners to download games to their phone and keep them until they change the phone, with exceptions for some subscription-only games like "Wheel of Fortune."

Verizon Wireless works differently, according to the Web site. Games can either be charged monthly or as an unlimited purchase. Its most popular games are "Centipede," "Monopoly" and "Sonic the Hedgehog" for $3.49 a month or $7.99 unlimited.

T-Mobile does not have its games available online for viewing and can only be downloaded from users' cell phones.

Sprint's most popular game is "Tetris" for $3.49 a month or $6.99 unlimited, according to the Sprint Web site.

With tons of games from each provider, it would be difficult not to find a game worthy of at least trying out - if the price doesn't seem too high.