15 ms·

An Oral History of ‘Snake’ on Nokia

90 points by andrelaszlo 7y ago

Apocryphon 7y ago
There oughta be an anthology of everyday fixtures. This essay can sit next to an account of the Jazz design (https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2015/06/17/internet-looking-designed-cup-springfield/28881969/ https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2015/06/...). Or, at least, the history of SkiFree.
- NortySpock 7y ago
  I can think of two podcasts along these lines; "99 Percent Invisible" and "20,000 Hertz"
app4soft 7y ago
For me, «Snake» is 2nd «Tetris». But I much more impressed when got Nokia 3230[0] with preinstalled «Agent V»[1,2] — AR mobile game which, think, is real predecessor of «Pokémon GO». [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3230 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3230 [1] http://www.nicolasnova.net/pasta-and-vinegar/2006/07/06/agent-v-on-nokia-3230 http://www.nicolasnova.net/pasta-and-vinegar/2006/07/06/agen... [2] https://pikabu.ru/story/agent_v_4349670 https://pikabu.ru/story/agent_v_4349670
- n4r9 7y ago
  My friends and I got very into Ingress [0] back when they only had 8 levels. Now that was literally a predecessor of Pokemon Go; I hear they used the portal data from the former to choose pokemon locations in the latter. Ingress seemed a lot more fun because you could be truly competitive, destroy other players' constructions and gain territory in your home area. There was even a running global count of how much territory each of the two factions had. That said my Pokemon career began and ended with Yellow on the game boy. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingress_(video_game) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingress_(video_game)
  - martin_a 7y ago
    Ingress was a hot thing while I was in university. We were roaming the streets at night, equipped with smartphones and powerbanks and were looking out for members of the other party, so we had enough time to build up solid links all across the town. Great time!
slantyyz 7y ago
It still comes with the latest Nokia feature phones. I just bought a Nokia 3310 for my father, and it has a fancy color version of Snake built in.
- app4soft 7y ago
  > I just bought a Nokia 3310 To be clear, you bought new Nokia 3310 (2017) by HMD Global, not old-school Nokia 3310 (2000) by Nokia Oyj, right?
  - corndoge 7y ago
    They said it has a color screen
    - cnasc 7y ago
      It's possible that the game is in color but rendered on a monochrome screen edit: I mean, it obviously isn't
wheybags 7y ago
Would love to see a similar article about Space Impact. Was it the same guy?
egypturnash 7y ago
How can someone confuse a Centipede clone (“Wiggle Worm”, an Apple 2 game that’s the subject of the video embedded in the center of the article) with Snake? I’m just gonna hope that’s a cut-and-paste error.
contingencies 7y ago
Strange there is no mention of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibbles_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibbles_(video_game) (released 1991 and present on all MSDOS after 5 and early windows machines), probably itself paying homage to https://www.mobygames.com/game/rock-olas-nibbler https://www.mobygames.com/game/rock-olas-nibbler * (1982). MobyGames' list of earlier Snake variants at https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/snake-variants/offset,125/so,1d/ https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/snake-variants/offset,1... attributes oldest position to Taito's 1977 arcade game Hustle https://www.arcade-history.com/?n=hustle&page=detail&id=19500 https://www.arcade-history.com/?n=hustle&page=detail&id=1950... which also received a TI-99/4A port https://www.videogamehouse.net/hustle.html https://www.videogamehouse.net/hustle.html (1981).
- sehugg 7y ago
  Or Gremlin Industries' 1976 "Blockade" which invented the Tron light-cycles genre, and probably inspired the Snake game genre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_(video_game)
  - empath75 7y ago
    That is in the article
- mb_72 7y ago
  I remember copying the code out for a Snake variant from a Commodore 64 magazine in '83 or '84 - back in the days when they would publish source code for things in each issue - and it made Snake a craze at my country Australia Primary school where we had 8 '64s sharing a single networked floppy drive. It also made me, the biggest nerd at the school, the cool guy... for a few days..
  - contingencies 7y ago
    Similar story at our school in Sydney ... mid 1990s we had a 2P (one keyboard) multiplayer snake hacking contest. I implemented flamethrowers and mines in my version, which enjoyed relative popularity.
acheron 7y ago
I distinctly remember thinking in 2001 that being able to play Nibbles on a cell phone was the apex of technology and it would be tough to get better than that.
wil421 7y ago
Love my Nokia Brick phones. I was so bored as a teenager I mastered snake and was able to dodge anything on a Nokia or a TI-83.
greggman2 7y ago
Play one here https://www.google.com/search?q=snake+game https://www.google.com/search?q=snake+game
- lucb1e 7y ago
  For those avoiding Google, this is an easter egg and not a suggestion to look for websites with Snake on Google.
aguzzi94 7y ago
Good old memories
fit2rule 7y ago
Want some fun? Play Breakout and Snake at the same time! :) First, take the Breakout code from here: http://labs.phaser.io/edit.html?src=src\games\breakout\breakout.js http://labs.phaser.io/edit.html?src=src\games\breakout\break... And paste it into the Snake game here: http://labs.phaser.io/edit.html?src=src\games\snake\part7.js http://labs.phaser.io/edit.html?src=src\games\snake\part7.js I discovered this trick when I introduced a classroom full of kids to PhaserIO, and happened to notice an 8-year old playing both games simultaneously .. I asked him how, and he said "I just copied the game code together" .. NEAT! :)

90 points by andrelaszlo 7y ago

There oughta be an anthology of everyday fixtures. This essay can sit next to an account of the Jazz design (https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2015/06/17/internet-looking-designed-cup-springfield/28881969/ https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2015/06/...). Or, at least, the history of SkiFree.

NortySpock 7y ago
I can think of two podcasts along these lines; "99 Percent Invisible" and "20,000 Hertz"

app4soft 7y ago

For me, «Snake» is 2nd «Tetris». But I much more impressed when got Nokia 3230[0] with preinstalled «Agent V»[1,2] — AR mobile game which, think, is real predecessor of «Pokémon GO». [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3230 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3230 [1] http://www.nicolasnova.net/pasta-and-vinegar/2006/07/06/agent-v-on-nokia-3230 http://www.nicolasnova.net/pasta-and-vinegar/2006/07/06/agen... [2] https://pikabu.ru/story/agent_v_4349670 https://pikabu.ru/story/agent_v_4349670

n4r9 7y ago
My friends and I got very into Ingress [0] back when they only had 8 levels. Now that was literally a predecessor of Pokemon Go; I hear they used the portal data from the former to choose pokemon locations in the latter. Ingress seemed a lot more fun because you could be truly competitive, destroy other players' constructions and gain territory in your home area. There was even a running global count of how much territory each of the two factions had. That said my Pokemon career began and ended with Yellow on the game boy. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingress_(video_game) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingress_(video_game)
- martin_a 7y ago
  Ingress was a hot thing while I was in university. We were roaming the streets at night, equipped with smartphones and powerbanks and were looking out for members of the other party, so we had enough time to build up solid links all across the town. Great time!

slantyyz 7y ago

It still comes with the latest Nokia feature phones. I just bought a Nokia 3310 for my father, and it has a fancy color version of Snake built in.

app4soft 7y ago
> I just bought a Nokia 3310 To be clear, you bought new Nokia 3310 (2017) by HMD Global, not old-school Nokia 3310 (2000) by Nokia Oyj, right?
- corndoge 7y ago
  They said it has a color screen
  - cnasc 7y ago
    It's possible that the game is in color but rendered on a monochrome screen edit: I mean, it obviously isn't

wheybags 7y ago

Would love to see a similar article about Space Impact. Was it the same guy?

egypturnash 7y ago

How can someone confuse a Centipede clone (“Wiggle Worm”, an Apple 2 game that’s the subject of the video embedded in the center of the article) with Snake? I’m just gonna hope that’s a cut-and-paste error.

contingencies 7y ago

Strange there is no mention of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibbles_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibbles_(video_game) (released 1991 and present on all MSDOS after 5 and early windows machines), probably itself paying homage to https://www.mobygames.com/game/rock-olas-nibbler https://www.mobygames.com/game/rock-olas-nibbler * (1982). MobyGames' list of earlier Snake variants at https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/snake-variants/offset,125/so,1d/ https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/snake-variants/offset,1... attributes oldest position to Taito's 1977 arcade game Hustle https://www.arcade-history.com/?n=hustle&page=detail&id=19500 https://www.arcade-history.com/?n=hustle&page=detail&id=1950... which also received a TI-99/4A port https://www.videogamehouse.net/hustle.html https://www.videogamehouse.net/hustle.html (1981).

sehugg 7y ago
Or Gremlin Industries' 1976 "Blockade" which invented the Tron light-cycles genre, and probably inspired the Snake game genre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_(video_game)
- empath75 7y ago
  That is in the article
mb_72 7y ago
I remember copying the code out for a Snake variant from a Commodore 64 magazine in '83 or '84 - back in the days when they would publish source code for things in each issue - and it made Snake a craze at my country Australia Primary school where we had 8 '64s sharing a single networked floppy drive. It also made me, the biggest nerd at the school, the cool guy... for a few days..
- contingencies 7y ago
  Similar story at our school in Sydney ... mid 1990s we had a 2P (one keyboard) multiplayer snake hacking contest. I implemented flamethrowers and mines in my version, which enjoyed relative popularity.

acheron 7y ago

I distinctly remember thinking in 2001 that being able to play Nibbles on a cell phone was the apex of technology and it would be tough to get better than that.

wil421 7y ago

Love my Nokia Brick phones. I was so bored as a teenager I mastered snake and was able to dodge anything on a Nokia or a TI-83.

greggman2 7y ago

Play one here https://www.google.com/search?q=snake+game https://www.google.com/search?q=snake+game

lucb1e 7y ago
For those avoiding Google, this is an easter egg and not a suggestion to look for websites with Snake on Google.

aguzzi94 7y ago

Good old memories

fit2rule 7y ago

Want some fun? Play Breakout and Snake at the same time! :) First, take the Breakout code from here: http://labs.phaser.io/edit.html?src=src\games\breakout\breakout.js http://labs.phaser.io/edit.html?src=src\games\breakout\break... And paste it into the Snake game here: http://labs.phaser.io/edit.html?src=src\games\snake\part7.js http://labs.phaser.io/edit.html?src=src\games\snake\part7.js I discovered this trick when I introduced a classroom full of kids to PhaserIO, and happened to notice an 8-year old playing both games simultaneously .. I asked him how, and he said "I just copied the game code together" .. NEAT! :)