PopCap offers free game for iPhone

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 31 July 2007 13:00

Your IT - Mobility

PopCap games has introduced a free version of its Bejewelled game tailored for the iPhone.

Already offered in a free web version for Macs and PCs, the iPhone edition has been tailored to suit the device's screen size and controls.

"We're excited to be providing the most popular puzzle game of the 21st century to users of the most advanced mobile device yet created," said Andrew Stein, director of mobile platforms at PopCap. "We wanted to give the hundreds of thousands of iPhone users a fun, fast gaming fix - and at no cost, no less."

PopCap officials said the company developed the Safari-based version of Bejeweled in partnership with Polish developer Arkadiusz Mlynarczyk, one of the first programmers to take advantage of the Apple iPhone's capabilities for video gaming purposes.

Bejewelled is vaguely similar to Tetris, but instead of manipulating bricks falling from the sky, the player must flip the position of gems with the goal of getting three of a kind in a row. Those gems disappear, and more slide down the playfield. As in Tetris, multiple rows can be cleared in one turn.

PopCap's games are also available in commercial downloadable versions for Macs and PCs.