Trip Hawkins founded Electronic Arts in 1982. Then he left. In 2003 he started a new game development company called Digital Chocolate. In 2009 Hawkins finally realized that the iPhone is useful to game developers, so much so that Nintendo (DS) and Sony (PSP) are “freaking out.” Well!

Yup, it seems Mr. Hawkins is all of a sudden rather bullish on the iPhone and iPod touch as proper gaming platforms. His Digital Chocolate has already released five iPhone games, four of which have sold Quite Well Indeed™. One of those, Crazy Penguin Catapult [iTunes link], looks pretty whimsical.

Speaking now to Middle America, where public transportation is all but non-existent: how often do you guys play portable games? Your DS, PSP, iPhone, etc. I know it’s easier to get in 30 minutes of Whatever for the DS in New York, as the subway takes at least as long to go anywhere, especially if you’re coming from Brooklyn or Queens, but when you have to drive 20 miles just to get to the mall it seems that playing time would be minimal. Yes, that’s quite the run-on sentence.