Mobile gaming may become the bright-eyed, ambitious, new face of multiplayer online entertainment. Bold statement? And, a pretty good case was made for it when MPOGD took in the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment 2004 (WIE2K4) event on display at the enormous, glassy Moscone Center in San Francisco October 25-27, 2004.

So what’s the WIE2K4 event all about, you may wonder, and why should MPOGD cover it? The CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment event covers a wide range of professions and  industries, from government to health care to entertainment – united by their interest in ways of communicating ideas, partnering and working together. Quoting from the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment 2004 event website, “In just 4 short years, the global wireless gaming market will grow from $561 million to $41.3 billion!” MPOGD’s mission is to cover all multiplayer online entertainment, whatever its platform. The WIE2K4 event showcased what may become a major part of the future of online gaming.

From what I was told, this event in San Francisco was a small crowd compared to the springtime CTIA showcase event, which is quadruple in floor space, double the crowd – but I for one was impressed with the dizzying array of creative new technologies on display. MPOGD won’t be going into a lot of detail (like programming languages, network protocols, device platforms, and other fun stuff like that), since this is best considered an introduction to the world of wireless entertainment. So with that caveat, here’s a slice of what MPOGD picked up from a few days on the exhibition floor:

Exhibition Floor:
The exhibition floor covered a lot of territory, dominated by the major carriers and handheld device manufacturers, and dozens of wireless-related services in the IT and entertainment. Luckily for those of us who were wondering where to go for checking out mobile entertainment, the Mobile Entertainment Pavilion in the midst of the hall was an easy compass to follow.

Gameloft: Looking roughly like a PlayStation game from about 8-9 years ago, Asphalt: Urban GT presented itself as pretty sharp for mobile platforms. Asphalt: Urban GT is built like an arcade racer, reminiscent of Ridge Racer and OutRun, offering among other tasty features, unlockable cars as you progress. Displayed on large-screen monitors, it was easier to see that the game kept its frame rates up and kept a pretty convincing illusion of speed.

Hudson: Remember the days of the NEC Turbografx-16? For those of us old enough to remember, it will bring a smile to our face knowing Hudson will be bringing back some classics, such as the moon-based turn-based strategy game Military Madness, the labyrinth funfest many people know as Bomberman and the classic role-playing game Y’s. Those games – in surprisingly accurate renditions -- were featured at the Hudson booth space in the busy Mobile Entertainment Pavilion.

Digital Bridges: Digital Bridges arrived in spectacular form, on the recent partnership with EA. Digital Bridges was underway in rolling out several of their franchise hits, including FIFA 2005 and Tiger Woods Golf 2005, for mobile platforms. Like the other titles mentioned earlier, these versions seemed to be surprisingly playable miniaturized versions of their big-time console brethren.

Blue Lava Wireless: Tetris is old school, very old school, but Blue Lava’s mobile iteration did catch my eye. Tetris Battle, which focuses on numerous ways to experience multiplayer, including even the ability to compete against another player’s best high score within their network framework – much like the “ghost” competitions on a console system.

Taito: Taito appeared to be presenting its games it had already released and hardly anyone staffing the booth for a good part of the show, but since their games are so cool, they deserve mention. Games such as Linkle Twinkle, Battle Gear and Darius stood out as eye-catching – at least on the handout

Kayak Interactive: Kayak Interactive made themselves known with an old-fashioned pool table flanked by some cushy lounge couches, which alone was pretty sweet for those who wanted a break from roaming the exhibit hall. The reason for this attraction was to promote their association with the Unites States Professional Poolplayers Association, for their upcoming UPA Major League Pool game. Currently in beta, I had a chance to give it a try and the game had a pretty good feel, especially on a mobile platform. In a tip of their hat to the multiplayer game, the game will also have buddy list capability and other community interaction.

Qsound Labs: Why would the audio QSound technology be an eye-catch – excuse me, an ear-catcher? Now mobile users have the potential to hear the audio of games through normal headphones, with QSound's Q3D and Qxpander, which are part of their microQ 3D solution. Aside from the clever marketing terms for their audio technologies, I did give their demo a try and was impressed, at least with the sound of a running car motor, hearing it shifted in all directions. Based on my hands-on test, reasonably convincing front-to-back, side-to-side positional audio is possible for mobile platforms, for games, streaming audio, video and more.

The QSound (and SRS, to be fair) booth was proof that audio was keeping pace with the development of mobile 3D video solutions being developed by ATI and Nvidia – though they didn’t have a dedicated presence on the show floor unfortunately.

Wrap-Up:
The CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment 2004 event was not much like the neon-drenched fast-paced presentation of an E3, or even the collegial insiders gathering that is the GDC, it was very technical for the most part, catering to the technical and business crowd more than anything. The majority of the content was outside the realm of gaming. However, in the midst of that white noise were a lot of multiplayer wireless gaming jewels, that any gamer on the go might want to keep an eye on. In the near future, MPOGD will be covering more wireless games, so be ready for it! Attending the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment 2004 event is only the beginning.

Burning 3D polygonal rubber in Asphalt: Urban GT	The feature entertainment of the MobileFocus press party. Umm, 'nuff said.	Kayak Interactive and their sweet pool table, being stalked by a pro.
This gorgeous beauty in red stole the show as soon as you entered the exhibit hall.	Aww, man, where can I get one of those?	The Mobile Entertainment Pavilion was a huge draw smack-dab in the middle of the exhibit floor.
Hudson's boothspace showed off their mobile games, a reminder from the classic 16-bit console days.	It was elbow-to-elbow most times; I'm just glad I was tall enough to get a shot above the foot traffic.	Behold the glassy fortress that is the Moscone building!
The popular PC game Bejeweled is remade for mobile, courtesy of Jamdat LogicaCMG, a company outside gaming, is having way too much fun with their remote controlled Hummer.