Snake

Taneli Armanto is an unsung hero of mobile gaming. Meet the Finnish software engineer who developed ‘Snake’ for the late-’90s Nokia 6110 — launching a $100 billion industry Taneli Armanto doesn’t like to tell people he changed the world. In fact, unless you’re a family friend, I’d bet you haven’t heard of the guy. He never usually mentions his greatest achievement, but of course his kids will take any opportunity to brag about it. Back in 1995, Armanto, a software engineer in Finland, applied to a fast-growing company called Nokia. He had a bit of a gaming background, and so he was tasked with developing “some cool little games” on the upcoming Nokia 6110 mobile phone . He saw his little diversions as just another utility on the device, nothing more glamorous than the calculator and calendar his teammates were building. Armanto is low-key and humble when he talks about his career. “Very many people appear to be excited when they get to know my background with Snake ,” he reflects. “Which is fine, I guess. It’s still good to hear people have enjoyed the game!” We’ll pick up the story in ’95, when Nokia was just three years into a company-wide overhaul. The new mission: to focus solely on mobile technology . Though mobile phones hadn’t yet reached worldwide adoption , they were quickly becoming smaller, cheaper and easier to use. After releasing the Nokia 2110 in 1993, the company began work on the Nokia 6110 , which would debut in December 1997. Nokia wanted the 6110 to be smaller and faster, with an extended battery and more talk time. It would come with a new and improved user interface , allowing people to easily switch between features on the phone. The company needed developers, and Armanto answered the call. (Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and length.) Armanto: In 1995, Nokia was growing fast. We were all pretty new. It was exciting! We were developing new things into the handsets and we got to carry around the newest devices, because naturally, they needed proper testing. Some of my colleagues on the user interface implementation team thought I’d created computer games before, but I hadn’t! It was my relative they were thinking of. But the others on my team said they’d implement the phone book, calendar, calculator, etc., if I did the games. So, I was tasked with putting the games on the phone, which I was happy with, because I liked games. Board games especially. I had to consider the specifications of the 6110. I first needed to think about the constraints I’d have: very little screen, just a few keys to control the game, not too much programming memory space available… The game Snake existed) before 1995. It first arrived in 1976 as an arcade game called Blockade and spawned several clones from there. Whether it was Nibbler) , Worm or Rattler Race , the basic concept was consistent. Armanto: People might think Nokia was the first manufacturer to have games on their phones, but they weren’t. It’s just that the earlier non-Nokia handsets that had them didn’t sell in big numbers like the 6110 did. I had played a Snake -like game in my Apple Macintosh computer before. It was for two players controlling their own snake with a keyboard. Armanto: After some tests and planning, we knew those snakes would be the perfect solution. It was simple enough to live with those constraints. There is no point in using complex solutions when simple does the job. We tried to dig out some background information in order to find the “owner” for the Snake -like game types like we did find for Tetris , but we couldn’t. So we moved forward. Armanto: While testing the early versions of the game, I noticed it was hard to control the snake upon getting close to and edge but not crashing — especially in the highest speed levels. I wanted the highest level to be as fast as I could possibly make the device “run,” but on the other hand, I wanted to be friendly and help the player manage that level. Otherwise it might not be