Cell Phone-Controlled Game Invades Times Square

johnnylooper writes "The bright lights of Times Square tend to draw the eyes of drivers and passers-by, but a new billboard is a whole new kind of distraction. According to NY1 News, high above Times Square, there is now a gigantic video screen featuring a car racing game that anyone with a cellphone can play by dialing an 800 number. Of course, you need to be nearby to see the screen, at 43rd and Broadway. Now if I could just afford an apartment in Times Sqaure..."

Webcam?

[shadowcabbit]

Anyone who lives near the billboard want to set up a webcam? Some of us are stuck in... (shudder) Pennsylvania!

Re:Webcam?

[Nasarius]

Ha! I may be in New York, but I'm in Buffalo, which is practically Canada. "Pop" my ass...it's called soda!

Re:Webcam?

[aBlooMoon]

Too late, it has reverted back into it's previous boring Reuters self.

Is this wrong?

[elasticwings]

I thought that we were trying to get people off their cell-phones while driving?

Re:Is this wrong?

[Frizzle Fry]

If you think it's possible to drive fast enough anywhere in that area to be danger because you're on your phone, you're obviously not from new york.

Re:Is this wrong?

[elasticwings]

Nope, I live in Tennessee. Not much to do, but damn if I have to drop below 55mph once on my way to work other than the parking lot and my driveway.

Re:Is this wrong?

[UWC]

Woo! Another Tennessean! Traffic slows during rush hours around Nashville, especially close to downtown, but otherwise is not bad.

Re:Is this wrong?

[rkz]

55 mph hahah.
I drive 110mph and its legal. Suck my eurocock

Uh oh..

[NanoGator]

"there is now a gigantic video screen featuring a car racing game that anyone with a cellphone can play by dialing an 800 number"

Wait a sec, I thought that was illegal in New York?!

Re:Uh oh..

[spood]

Attention humor-impaired mods: driving while "on a cellphone" is illegal in New York. I hope this doesn't have to be explained any further.

Interesting concept

[UWC]

I like the idea. It's a fairly simple game, though. You can apparently only control the speed of the car (2 and 8 keys = faster and slower, respectively) as it goes along a set path. Looks like there are obstacles and such to avoid, so you do have to adjust the speed throughout.

You apparently dial an 800 number and wait in a queue until it's your turn to play, so I guess playing in the car is not only illegal, but probably quite unlikely.

I seem to have a habit of stating the obvious. Ah well.

We NEED more of stuff like this

[spineboy]

This could be SOoooo useful in many different ways..
This could be used for (unscientific) polls, surveys, rating of areas, other types of multiplayer games (everyone in times square could play a deathmatch)

This stuff is the beginning of univeral interactivity/connectivity. You could play The possibilities seem endless to me - I'm getting excited about the future again..

Re:Interesting concept

[rvw14]

Considering the rate at which NY traffic moves, I believe it would be very possible wait your turn and play before you were out of sight of the billboard.

Too many connections in mysql_connect() on line...

[smack_attack]

1-800-660-4402

So, if we literally crash the game, does Slashdot get a pizza party?

Re:Too many connections in mysql_connect() on line

[Wog]

Calling now...

ring...
ring...

No answer. Maybe they took it down when there was so much traffic, or maybe you're full of crap?

Re:Too many connections in mysql_connect() on line

[smack_attack]

"...or maybe you're full of crap?"

Or maybe if you read the article you would see that I'm not.

Re:Too many connections in mysql_connect() on line

[Wog]

wheeeee

I'm playing now...

Man, it went on for like 2 minutes. What's your best time?

Snakes at waterloo station

[Flat Feet Pete]

You could play snakes at waterloo station over 3 years ago.

Apaarently up for 1.5 years.

Written by this dude: (only link I could find)
http://rugmd4.chem.rug.nl/hoesel/ [chem.rug.nl]

woohoo that was fun

[nocomment]

too bad I'm in seattle and couldn't see it. I hope I won :-)

Re:woohoo that was fun

[Micro$will]

Nope, you lost. In fact, I think I just saw your car stripped to the frame and sitting on crates in Brooklyn. I hoped you pressed "5" for theft insurance or Yahoo will be sending you a bill.

As a NewYorker...

[BTWR]

Now if I could just afford an apartment in Times Sqaure..."

No one in NY wants to live in Times Square (well, no one I know). It's loud, noisy, touristy (I have no problems with tourists - they're usually very nice and bring a lot of $$$ to the city) and expensive bad food. I know people that live on 42nd street, but either way on the west or east side...

Re:As a NewYorker...

[May Kasahara]

I guess a viable alternative would be to work in Times Square. You still have to deal with the tourists and whatnot, but not 24/7 (Oh, and as far as food goes, 9th street is only a couple of blocks away and has some decent restaurants-- good if you're going out for lunch).

I guess the only problem then would be getting away with playing games during working hours ^_^;;;

Are there any flight sim games too?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or would that just be bad taste?!

Hum

[tblease]

So... anyone else besides myself think that a live /. ticker would be more useful (and fun for that matter) than a somewhat silly cell-phone game?

Bad trade

[jspoon]

In the old days, Times Square used to have hookers. Now you're supposed to want to go there to play a game on your cell phone? I don't know about you, but this sounds like a downgrade to me.

Re:Bad trade

[spood]

The least they could have done is made it a 976 number as a compromise.

It's been done

[Stone Rhino]

Blinkenlights [blinkenlights.de] did the sme sort of thing: play a game on a giant screen from your phone. Of course, they didn't have the fancy color and high resolution of a Times Square billboard, but they did have open source code and the cool hack of turning windows into pixels. Plus, you could post your own animations and images, in addition to just playing games. 2600 [2600.com] used an image of big brother [2600.com] from blinkenlights as its Winter 2002 cover.

Worth the money?

[spyrochaete]

I wonder how much it costs Yahoo for one person to play the game. Do people really look at this display if it's one of about 20 at that intersection? The concept is extremely cool but is it really an affective form of advertising?

Other applications for this concept may work better:

• Change the design or colour of the ad
• Vote for which of the company's products will go on sale next week
• Vote for the billboard's mascot of the day
• etc., etc., etc.

It's a great idea! I'm curious to see how far it will go.

Cheaper than renting a plasma tv...

[Klatoo55]

I seem to remember that they hooked up a building in New York so that you could play tetris using the lights in the windows as the squares for the falling blocks. This is a bit different, but it's interesting that we keep going for the bigger screens. I think my racing skills are best kept hidden on a cell screen...

Re:Cheaper than renting a plasma tv...

[galaxy300]

I think that was at Brown University. http://bastilleweb.techhouse.org/

Mortal Kombat

[hiroshi912681]

I vaguely remember a videogame magazine article about two guys hooking up a game system to the Times Square big screen. They said it was really easy, had composite in and everything. They played a couple of rounds of Mortal Kombat (3?), they were 1:1, and then they got arrested.

Sorry about the sparse details, can anyone fill in the gaps? I couldn't google it...

Re:Mortal Kombat

[The Clockwork Troll]

They played a couple of rounds of Mortal Kombat (3?), they were 1:1, and then they got arrested.

This is really old news. Cops have been trying to cut down the fatality rate in Times Square for years.

Even better

[rudib]

A mobile phone operator (in Europe) showed something better a year ago on a local tradeshow: you could drive real RC cars on a little track with your phone. There were 4 cars, 4 numbers to dial... Fun.

Heh.

[aBlooMoon]

Oddly enough, I work half a block away and didn't even notice it until this thread was posted. Too busy fighting through tourists, I guess.