Developing Java Games on Symbian OS‐Based Mobile Devices

Games are one of the most popular applications on mobile phones. Even the first mobile phones with a monochrome screen had different types of game such as Tetris and Snake. Developing games for mobile phones differs from game development for desktop computers, as the capabilities of mobile phones are limited. For instance, it is hard to handle the keyboard, there is no mouse‐like pointing device, and the screen size of the mobile phone is small, which makes it difficult to display the game area effectively. Besides this, people usually play with mobile games in different conditions, such as on a bus or metro while travelling. This shows that developing games for mobile phones requires creativity from developers. One of the most popular platforms for mobile game development is Java ME. This chapter first discusses Java ME implementation on Symbian OS from the game development point of view. The processing power of mobile applications is then demonstrated via a small measurement. In the second part of the chapter, a complex interactive game is described, called MobSensor. MobSensor basically turns the mobile phone into a motion and noise detector and enables a sensor network to be created from mobile phones via ad hoc WLAN communication. MobSensor has several uses including actual game play, where the task of one player is to build up a sensor network from a specific number of mobile phones in a large area and the task of the other is to go through the area without being detected.