Making Cell Phone Games a Public Spectacle

By Erin Biba

Next time you’re in Times Square, put on your game face. You may be able to challenge the weirdos around you to a videogame on MTV’s big-screen billboard. The controller? Your cell phone.

It’s the latest project from MegaPhone, a mobile gaming company founded by Jury Hahn (above). Looking to connect strangers in public places, Hahn dreamed up the idea of multiplayer cell phone games where people can interact with rivals they’re battling onscreen. Here’s how it works: When players dial a special phone number shown on a public screen like MTV’s jumbotron, avatars representing the callers pop up on the display, identified by the last four digits of the participant’s cell number. They’re controlled using the phone’s keypad or, more often, by speaking (or shouting) into the handset. Scream “shoot” in one game, for example, and your basketball player shoots. Who are you schooling? Look for the other goofballs yelling at their phones.

“I personally hate waiting in lines at airports or amusement parks. You’re just looking at your cell phone, and everyone around you is looking at their cell phone,” says Hahn, a former user-interface designer for a major mobile manufacturer in her native Korea. “So why not play a game together?”

So far MegaPhone productions have popped up at NBA games, conferences, and even a supermarket aisle (dial in to fight stubborn dirt!). Next up: a DJ/VJ tool that lets callers in the audience add beats or images to the mix. It will bring Hahn one step closer to her stated “artistic goal” of collaborating with Daft Punk.