MMORPG fans of a certain age will already be familiar with Tibia, an MMORPG that’s been going on for over 25 years now, but even those folks might have forgotten about TibiaME, the “micro edition” of the game for mobile devices that we covered back in the olden days of Massively. Time’s inexorable march has now seen a milestone for the game that calls itself “one of the first MMORPGs for mobile devices” as developer CipSoft is celebrating TibiaME’s 20th anniversary.
The presser that heralds the game’s 20th year provides a bunch of context for just how ahead of its time TibiaME was, as touchscreen handheld technology has come an incredibly long way in 20 years. The announcement also brings to mind how simplistic and limited mobile gaming was back then, just in case you already don’t feel like you’re made of dust.
“The development of TibiaME started on Java mobile phones with monochrome displays and at a time when the cost of mobile internet was almost unaffordable. On May 12, 2003, TibiaME finally went officially online – in cooperation with T-Mobile and initially for feature phones with Symbian operating system. Since then, the game has been available for nearly every mobile platform that existed.”
As a way of celebrating the milestone, players of TibiaME can fight some of the MMO’s creators as in-game bosses or visit a special island done in the original game’s style to take on special tasks for unique rewards.
