layout: post title: My first mobile purchase created: 1126798629 categories:

• Series 60
• Nokia 6630
• cellphone
• Nokia
• Skype
• eBay
• PayPal
• mobile
• Game
• Wireless, Cellular, and Mobile

I can't remember what exactly prompted it: I wanted an application for my cellphone that *wasn't* a productivity app, that *wasn't* the half-finished handiwork of a lone developer, and that did just work. So I ended up buying a game.

My phone is a Nokia 6630, running on the Series 60 platform. The Fido site does sell applications, including games. It was basically useless for looking for stuff. My phone isn't sold by Fido, and they only offer browsing by type of phone. There is no way to say what platform your phone is.

Luckily, the Mobile Gamer site in the UK was great. Right at the top of the site, you can filter everything available by your model of phone, and mine was listed, so I got a full page of Nokia 6630 games. I browsed around for a bit, and settled on Might & Magic -- the same name of a game that I remember playing on the Apple IIe. Actually, the graphics on my phone look better than an Apple IIe.

Getting the game was ridiculously easy. I entered in my full phone number, including the +1 to show it's in North America. I paid via PayPal. Moments later, I got an SMS with the URL of a download. I clicked on it in my phone. It downloaded the installer. The installer launched, and downloaded the rest of the game.

That is what seamless delivery of mobile content is all about. I didn't try it, but I suspect I could have navigated the site directly, and completed the entire experience via my phone's browser. Hmmm...pay for something via PayPal, have it delivered immediately around an identity-based infrastructure that's encrypted. Skype + eBay ring any bells now?

Oh, right. You want to know about the game? It's nothing like the original Might & Magic, but it is a fun and well-built game. It's addictive and yet easy enough to put down and come back to later (except this one part I'm stuck at, where the wizard keeps frying me...).

While New World Computing doesn't exist anymore, there is a brand new version coming out for the PC -- Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Preview.