Today, when we switch on our smartphones, we’re spoiled for choice in the games that we can choose to play on it. Whatever kind of gaming you’re into, you can be sure to find a gaming app to suit you in Android’s GooglePlay or at the iOS App Store.
There are loads of games that work really well on mobiles. If you’re into word games, you can find all kinds of scrabble-esque games such as Word Feud or Words with Friends. Another really popular gaming category is the ubiquitous puzzler game such as Candy Crush or Bejeweled, where it’s your hand-eye co-ordination that is being given a work-out.
But however vast the range of contemporary games there are, it’s also nice to turn back the clock with some retro gaming now and then.
And you can do that just as easily on your mobile as anywhere else.
Casino games
If you want to experience the glamour of casino games and slots that enjoyed a popularity peak in Vegas in the 70s, you can now play them with mobile apps from sites such as bgo, Winner and Genting Casino. As people who already played slots at an online casino will know, you can access a wide selection of the bgo games on a mobile. And with the casino and gaming sites, the operators make sure that their apps are accessible across all mobile platforms – the mobile gambling industry is big business!
It took a while for casino games such as roulette and blackjack and slots to be available to play on a mobile. That’s because there wasn’t the technology for secure payments to be made on a mobile initially. But as online banking technology developed to allow people to do mobile banking, so the same SSL technology was developed for use by gaming sites, so that players could feel confident that the financial transactions they carried out on the mobile would be secure. Today, you can play with a wide variety of real money gaming apps, knowing that your withdrawals and deposits will be secure.
Video games from your childhood
As well as casino and slots games, you can also now play some of the original video games on your phone. Many of the most popular early games are now available as mobile gaming apps, and to make the experience even more authentic, you can also buy add-ons and accessories to transform today’s smartphones into retro gaming devices.
For instance, if playing Donkey Kong doesn’t feel quite right with touch controls, then you could always buy a G-pad. This is a phone cover with a difference; it’s a silicone cover that turns your smartphone into a Gameboy. So, while you’re playing your favourite Gameboy games you’ll get the familiar-but-forgotten sensation of the squishy rubber buttons instead of the touch controls that today’s phones have.
And for all those Atari games and other arcade-style games such as Pac-Man, you might want to invest in a little gizmo called the Joystick-IT tablet arcade stick. It sticks onto your smartphone screen with a sucker pad, and you can then control the games using this mini-joystick. True, this is probably something you’ll only want to do now and then as it’s a bit fiddly to use, but it is reminiscent of old-fashioned arcade gaming.
A new dimension to smartphone gaming
Rather than something to put onto your phone, the iCade 8 Bitty Retro Gamepad is something you can use in conjunction with your phone. It’s a battery powered pad that connects to a tablet or mobile using Bluetooth and has been designed to play gaming apps such as the Atari Greatest Hits app (which gives you access to 100+ games all in one app). The8 Bitty features two shoulder buttons in the centre, four red buttons on one side and a D-pad on the other. It’s not compatible with all the retro apps, but it’s fun to use now and then.