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DakshinaChitra Heritage Museum: An almost perfect first trip

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People often think of industrial visits in terms of noisy machines and factory lines. That is not what happened on our first one, we ended up at a spot focused on saving culture instead of making stuff in huge amounts and that place is Dakshina Chitra Heritage Museum. It sits along the East Coast Road near Chennai. This museum does not keep history locked up in cases. We found out right away that it works as a living museum and you do not only look at the past there, you step straight into it. Our trip turned into a real journey back in time. We did not stop at staring at photos of ancient homes. We went inside them. In Tamil Nadu style, we explored the wide open yards of Chettinad houses. The wood carvings there were amazing, and so were the walls made with egg plaster. After that, we moved along a trail. Suddenly we were in a Kerala Syrian Christian home. Its dark wood stood out, along with the way it caught breezes from all sides. Kerala Christian house All eighteen of the old house...
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The Console in Your Pocket — Call of Duty Mobile

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This marks the ninth and final entry in our Retro2Now series.  In the previous eight posts, we went on a trip down memory lane to the retro days of mobile games. We looked at those straightforward yet clever hits like Angry Birds, Temple Run, and Subway Surfers. Those titles really shaped how people used their smartphones for gaming. They showed that a phone could handle serious playtime. We began with games that worked fine with just one finger. To wrap things up, we turn to something that calls for real skill, quick reflexes, and smart planning. It feels like a premium console game in every way, we end the series with the perfect pick for Now, which is Call of Duty Mobile. From Time-Killer to Main Event Call of Duty Mobile came out in October 2019. It did not simply bring over ideas from consoles. Instead, it packed the full energy and excitement of the whole Call of Duty series right onto phones and tablets. Best of all, it did so without charging a dime, that launch felt like a...
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Ricochet, Repeat—The Geometric Genius of Stupid Zombies

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  Welcome back to Retro2Now: Mobile Gaming.  We dig into the roots of some iconic phone games every couple of weeks .  In this eighth part, we are looking at a title that showed zombies could turn into puzzles instead of pure chaos. Back in the early 2010s, mobile games full of physics puzzles hit their peak. Angry Birds ruled the roost, but Stupid Zombies stayed in the shadows as this overlooked hero with a shotgun. It went beyond being a typical zombie title. It felt more like a test in geometry hidden inside an end-of-the-world story with the undead. The Retro Core: Simple Premise, Devious Design GameResort put out Stupid Zombies around 2011 and it showed up in a busy App Store full of competition. The basic idea seemed really straightforward at first glance. You play as one survivor who looks a lot like Ash from Evil Dead. He carried a shotgun and the enemies were these dumb zombies that did not move at all, they just stand there waiting to get taken out again. Your j...
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The Neck-Snapping Joy of Hill Climb Racing

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  Welcome back to Retro2Now: Mobile Gaming.  We dig into the roots of some iconic phone games every couple of weeks and t his marks our sixth piece.  For this seventh blog entry it is time to get behind the wheel of one of the most deceptively simple games from the 2010s. That game was wildly addictive and it was called Hill Climb Racing. If you owned a smartphone back in 2012 then chances are good you spent hours messing around with a little red jeep. There was also a driver named Bill Newton and an endless road that was impossibly bumpy and you just kept going on that thing. The "Retro": Two Pedals, Infinite Chaos Fingersoft a Finnish studio developed Hill Climb Racing. It stood as the epitome of easy to learn but impossible to master. The whole premise stayed simple enough. You drove as far as possible on a 2D stage and the controls boiled down to just two pedals. One was Gas and the other was Brake. But those pedals did more than just move the vehicle. The Gas pedal t...
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Cut the Rope: Slicing through nostalgia

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Welcome back to Retro2Now: Mobile Gaming.  We dig into the roots of some iconic phone games every couple of weeks and t his marks our sixth piece. We are diving into one of the nicest and sharpest puzzle games to ever show up on touchscreens. Have your fingers set for some swiping. We are taking another look at the huge deal that Cut the Rope turned out to be. If you owned a smartphone back in the early 2010s, then you remember Om Nom pretty well, that cute green monster with the big eyes and endless hunger for candy turned into a quick favourite for everyone which ZeptoLab put together. Cut the Rope went beyond being some regular game, it turned into this worldwide craze that hooked tons of folks. The Sweet Simplicity of the Swipe You had a bit of candy dangling from a rope or maybe a few ropes and your job was to land it right in Om Noms mouth and you did that by dragging your finger across to slice those ropes. That basic move led into all sorts of tricky puzzles built around re...
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Jetpack Joyride: Endless runner on Steroids!

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Welcome back to Retro2Now: Mobile Gaming.  We dig into the roots of some iconic phone games every couple of weeks.  It serves as the spot for glancing at the golden age of smartphone gaming. This marks our fifth piece in the series.Now we bust right through a wall and we grab that machine gun jetpack too. That is right. We discuss the high octane coin collecting scientist dodging classic which goes by the name Jetpack Joyride. If you owned a smartphone back in 2011, you played this game for sure. Halfbrick Studios developed it. They created Fruit Ninja as well. Jetpack Joyride grabbed the endless runner genre. They polished it up nice and bright and it became one of the most addictive replayable experiences on a touchscreen ever. One Button, Endless Chaos The premise stays simple in a beautiful way. You play as Barry Steakfries who works as a disgruntled salesman. He spots a top secret machine gun jetpack and figures his life needs a real change. He breaks into the lab, straps...
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Subway Surfers: More Than Just a Run on the Tracks

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  Welcome back to Retro2Now: Mobile Gaming.  We dig into the roots of some iconic phone games every couple of weeks. This time around, we look at a game that started the crazy train escape and setting new crazy records. That game is our favourite Subway Surfers. Subway Surfers a game that goes beyond a simple run along the tracks. People still talk about it as a classic in mobile gaming. It came out back in 2012, the game hooked players right away with its easy but hard to stop kind of play. This bright endless runner has lasted through the years and it keeps its old appeal even as it changes with the times. Today, we'll look at how Subway Surfers went from an old school hit to something big today. The Golden Age of Mobile Gaming: A Retro Rewind Mobile gaming had its golden time in the early 2010s and everyone was excited about what was coming. A couple of Danish developers from Kiloo and SYBO Games put out a title that took off worldwide(i.e. Subway Surfers). They launched it...
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The Unkillable Charm of Plants vs. Zombies

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 Welcome back to Retro2Now: Mobile Gaming.  We dig into the roots of some iconic phone games every couple of weeks. This time around, we look at a game that started on PC and grew into a huge mobile hit. That game is the funny and crazy Plants vs. Zombies. Even after fifteen years since it first came out, this title keeps grabbing millions of players. It mixes strategy with humour and some funny wild plant versus zombie fights. You would think it would be a quirky tower defense game which might fade away. But it took over the world and shifted smoothly from an old classic to a big mobile thing. Get your seed packets ready. We dive into what keeps Plants vs. Zombies going strong. From a Coddled PC Pet to a Mobile Monster Hit Think back to 2009 now. The whole gaming scene felt pretty different then. PopCap Games put out this title that hooked many people right away. It was odd but so addictive, the idea behind Plants vs. Zombies was straightforward enough. You use plants as weap...
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Temple Run: The Endless Runner that Dashed into Our Hearts and Never Left

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 Welcome back to Retro2Now: Mobile Gaming. Last time, we got into the basics of mobile gaming stuff. Now, we're jumping into this wild ride through the past with Temple Run. The game that pretty much kicked off a whole genre and turned into a huge cultural thing. It came out on August 4, 2011. This husband-and-wife team at Imangi Studios made it. They dropped it right when smartphones were just starting to get big. The idea was super simple, but man, it hooked you bad. You're this explorer guy who grabs a cursed idol. Then, demonic monkeys chase you forever. You swipe and tilt to dodge through this endless temple path. Run for your life, basically.It even created such a fandom that some fans on Reddit created a whole lore about it! The Genesis of the Endless Runner Craze The whole endless runner craze started with this. Back then, mobile games were mostly these basic paid apps you downloaded. Temple Run changed that with its easy controls and freemium setup, where you play free...
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The Angry Birds Revolution

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  Welcome to the first post in Retro2Now, Mobile Gaming . In this series, we wind the clock back to check out games that didn't just hang out on our phones. They kind of defined whole chunks of mobile fun back in the day. We'll dig into where they started, what made them blow up, and how their impact shows up now in this super advanced mobile world we got. For the kickoff, it makes sense to spotlight the game that got everyone flinging stuff. You know, the one that turned thumb swipes into this huge worldwide thing. Let's get into Angry Birds. Back to the world before that flock showed up, think about 2009, the Apple App Store was just a year old. It felt like this wild digital frontier full of chances. Mobile gaming mostly meant quick time-killers. We had stuff like Snake on those old Nokia phones and some basic puzzles too. But nothing really grabbed the big crowd on these new touchscreen gadgets. Smartphones were like rockets ready to blast off. They just needed the righ...
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