Before the iPhone App Store revolutionized mobile gaming, and long before "free-to-play" became the standard business model, there was a different world. A world of polyphonic ringtones, WAP downloads costing a small fortune, and screens so small you had to squint. This was the era of Java ME (Micro Edition) .

In the early 2000s, mobile phones were not designed for gaming. They were communication devices with screens that acted as an afterthought. The first wave of Java games ran on 128x128 or 176x208 pixels. These were blocky, low-detail affairs.

Founded in 1999 by the Guillemot brothers (the same family behind Ubisoft), Gameloft understood something early on: mobile phones could be legitimate gaming devices if you treated them with respect. Gameloft didn't make "mobile games." They made consolidated console games. While EA and THQ ignored phones, Gameloft ported, adapted, and created original IPs that mimicked the AAA experience.

Artists and programmers at Gameloft were wizards. They had to draw a jungle in Prince of Persia using only 256 colors. They had to simulate a helicopter rotor in Brothers in Arms using three rotating sprites. This forced innovative solutions you rarely see in modern "4K ray-traced" games.