Wednesday, June 17, 2020

The O.C Basement: The O.C. Cell Phone Game


In 2006 cell phone games were all the rage. Although the games created weren't the most technological or graphically beautiful, they served as a nice way to pass the time whenever you were waiting for your "buddy" to sign into AOL instant messenger, an actual telephone call, or the next O.C. episode to come out. 


One of which games was Gameloft's "The O.C.", a game that is based around The O.C. universe, created in 2006 (just one year before The O.C. ended). The games story depends on the character you select, but all stories revolve around the Harbor prom and Ryan being accused of stealing Taryn's (one of the Newpsies) car. Depending on the character you select you will get a different set of unique objectives. 

When selecting Ryan: "Prom night coming soon. Problem is, you've been accused of stealing a car and everyone is on edge now. It's up to you to set things right!"


In order to excel in the game, you must build relationships with the shows characters to gain points with them. This involves hanging out with them which also moves you through your goals and you earn more points..You get to also earn money in the game so you can buy things for the other characters and gain more favor with them (bribes). The game also features true to character dialogue which we think is actually pretty great, especially Seth's. 


When you start the game you get to choose which character you want to be, naturally there is 4 options - Ryan, Seth, Summer, and Marissa. Each character starts with a certain amount of trait points starting off (style, maturity, intelligence, and attitude. While playing, you may need a certain trait increased to proceed to the next objective. To do this, you can for instance boost intelligence by reading the book/magazine in the Cohens kitchen or build attitude by punching Ryan's punching bag. These trait boosting objectives are apart of the mini-games within the game. 



There are also multiple locations you can unlock and your character to "hang out" at. At first you only have access to one location (this is dependent on which character you choose) but as you play you gain additional access to the other locked areas as seen above. 


All the while there is an internal clock in the game - yes you're a teenager again and you must obey curfew! 



Additionally, the game features all the characters you would expect, Sandy, Kirsten, Seth, Ryan, Marissa, Summer, and even Julie (to whom you buy gifts from). Above is a video that shows how the game plays with actual footage from the game. No spoilers here, we wont disclose how the game ends!

Overall the game is pretty awesome but more-so because it's an OC game and let's face it, they are pretty rare! We'll take what we can get! Now, we know by now what you are thinking, "But can we still play it??"...Well, the answer is YES.

You can totally still play the game through an emulator that you must install on your computer. The one we tried was called KEmulator. They have emulators for nearly any device these days but an emulator basically makes your computer think you are on a Nokia phone. In order to play you must have the KEmulator (or another compatible one) and the .jar file (game file). 

Of course we wouldn't do you wrong and not include the download links!

Here is a link to the PC emulator you will need in order to play the game file (.jar file). If you are on a mac just search KEmulator + mac.
https://en.softonic.com/download/kemulator/windows/post-download
(we played on KEmulator Lite v0.9.8)

Game .jar file can be downloaded here!

If you are wondering if you can play the game via cell phone, you can but varies depending on if you are are on Apple or Android. In your application market you will have to search for a "J2ME" application that will give you the ability to play .jar files. From there you would load the .jar file into it and enjoy! 

Additional useful tip: When using KEmulator go to view then keypad to gain additional button access to fully play game. 

If you decide to play or appreciate this kind of post, please shout us on our official instagram page and let us know all about it!

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