When clearing out some old files, I came across this newspaper page. Remember when you were looking for a new ringtone for your Nokia – Mobile Sheriff was one of the many mobile content providers in this area. In 2002, we were given a prototype Nokia 3410 to work on. This was one of the first Java J2ME gaming phones – this was the beginning of the mobile app industry. Unlike the sophisticated mobile developers portals now, we only had a bare bones API and in the great developer tradition “you have to figure out the rest yourself”. One day I will write about the fun we had trying to get the game on the phone – a degree in electronic engineering was required. We also became masters at writing Java in a non OO style – not an easy thing to do but necessary owing to memory restrictions..
After 4 months of blood, sweat and a lot of tears, we finished the game in late 2002. It was all of 37k in size. The game involved destroying the monster Kethlu and his minions, protecting your base and capturing key pieces Even with the memory restrictions, Monster Madness featured:
– huge enemy bosses with 16 levels
– small attack monsters, with varied attack patterns
– 3 different weapon systems: laser beams, atomic fire and sonic shockwaves
The game was published by Trust 5 in February 2003. It was localised into French and distributed by more than 20 mobile publishers. As far as we know, it is Ireland’s first commercial mobile game. Who knows, it may see life again on the iPhone.