Snake and space invaders are found on loads of mobile phones - never on house phones (as far as I know).

Why not? Could be something to do while you are put on hold. You could also play multiplayer games with friends - a cheaper version of internet games.

A further development could be that when you are put on hold, a small game is sent to your phone. If you manage to reach a certain score in the time that you are on hold, then you win a prize/discount from the company.
-- gardnose, May 17 2001

Phone games http://www.angelfir...k8er/phonegame.html
You didn't mean this then? [angel, May 17 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

I was thinking about this and similar ideas the other day - why can't my house phone store all my telephone numbers like my mobile phone can? why doesn't it have an alarm? why doesn't it keep a call register?

Of course, it comes down to cost - mobile phones cost more money, but you don't see this cost because it's hidden by tariffs and contract payments etc etc. I'm sure if you were willing to pay for this, then it can/will be/is baked.

Easy solution is to use a mobile phone in the house.
-- Rodomontade, May 17 2001


Angel - poor, rejected lad. Mind you, I'd have been scared too if I had been stalked by a Mr X over the phone for three and a half months. Now if the girl had had Tetris to play whilst talking to Mr X, at least she wouldn't have been wasting her time totally.
-- gardnose, May 17 2001


Back to the product, I say it should be an addition to phones. Just a small screen, line in (thru) and line out (thru) some memory and perhaps 6 buttons. The games are downloaded by phone. Also possible to receive the DTMF dial tones for the game (so no buttons or input device needed).

double's up as a chat box for "SMS" messages on regular phone.

Accessories: keyboard.

Service: "broadcast phone" (only incoming call) with music and games.

Extra usage: Music player, downloaded by phone when phone not in use. (similar to internet).
-- pashute, Oct 18 2002


The whole point of games on mobiles is to give you something to do when you're on the bus, waiting at the doctor's etc. If you're at home, why not just stick your PlayStation on?
-- sild, Oct 18 2002


I was wondering what voice-recognition Space Invaders would be like:

"Meep-meep-meep--MISSILE FIRED--pshwww---"

"Move left."

"---www-boom! MISSILE MISSED. MOTHERSHIP! woo-woo-woo-woo-woo---"

"Fire!"

"Phhhsssw-KABOOM! MOTHERSHIP DESTROYED! 500 BONUS POINTS."

More realistically, though, a multiple-choice quiz, with answers supplied by DTMF tones, would make hanging on hold a lot less boring. Really Catbertian organisations could answer in order of score.
-- JKew, Feb 01 2003



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