Mobile games publisher Telcogames and video games publisher Codemasters today announced a deal to bring a number of classic games titles to the new generation of Symbian Smartphones.

Telcogames will be developing brand new, Symbian-based versions of the hugely popular and widely acclaimed titles: Cannon Fodder, Sensible Soccer, Sensible Soccer International Edition, and Mega Lo Mania.

All of the games will be created to incorporate and utilise the full power of the Symbian operating system and the powerful hardware present inside the current generation of Smart phones. Both Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder were recently released for Java-enabled mobile phones and have been a great success with mobile gamers and network operators. The new Symbian games will build on this success to give Smart phone owners a gameplay experience as close to the original titles as possible.

Mobile network operators and consumers alike see Symbian-based titles as much closer to the quality expected from dedicated handheld game devices such as the Nintendo Gameboy or DS. The popularity of Symbian and the number of handsets on the market is continuing to grow rapidly. The installed based of Symbian handsets has now reached approximately 39,000,000 globally with industry analyst Ovum predicting this figure will reach 100,000,000 by 2007.

Jamie Conyngham, the Chief Executive Officer of Telcogames, said, "The Co-Publishing deal with Codemasters represents a great leap forward for Telcogames. We are setting a higher standard of mobile gaming not possible with a small file size J2ME game. The demographic match is good, people who remember these games from Console make up a good percentage of the owners of high end handsets and 3G users."

Matt Davies, the Director of Codemasters Mobile, said, " Entering the market with such high end positioning in the market, echoes Codemasters ethos of quality products, which we want to reflect in Codemasters Mobile. Creating games for Symbian handsets allows us to provide an entirely new experience for Smart phone owners and deliver a revival for these top titles. We're delighted to have a co-publishing deal with Telcogames as their excellent distribution network will not only maximize sales, but enable us to make direct relationships with key carriers and aggregators. We are looking forward to giving players the chance to enjoy these new titles, which can truly be considered 'classics'."

Cannon Fodder, Sensible Soccer, Sensible Soccer International Edition, Mega Lo Mania and Psycho Pinball will be released through major mobile networks, portals and retail outlets in the run up to Christmas 2005.