Making Cell Phone Games a Public Spectacle

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.

Making Cell Phone Games a Public Spectacle

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