This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
J2ME Palm Games
The exact specification for J2ME on Palms and other PDAs is still being worked out. But early release versions of the Kilobyte virtual machine (KVM) and a reduced set of J2ME classes were made available to the public as far back as two years ago.
NOTE
Any MIDP game or other application can run just fine on the Palm, as long as the MIDP libraries are installed. See Chapter 2, "The Mobile World," for a full list of platforms and devices that support MIDP.
The following sections offer a sampling of some of the work that people have done with these early samples.
Torunda!
URL: http://www.aa.alpha-net.ne.jp/kataho/to/index.html
This simple game, created by a Japanese programmer name Kataho, allows you to control a fairy-like character. You move around the screen collecting gems, trying to avoid random flashes of lightning, as seen in Figure 3.35.
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The full source code is available at Kataho's Web site, as well as a level editor that lets you design your own game maps.
Figure 3.35 Torunda!
Karl Hörnell's Iceblox and PalmWarp
URL for IceBlox: http://www.javaonthebrain.com/java/palmblox/
URL for Warp: http://www.javaonthebrain.com/java/palmwarp/
These are examples of fast-action arcade games. In Iceblox (Figure 3.36), you control a penguin that must smash through or slide strategically-placed blocks, avoiding or crushing bad guys.
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Figure 3.36 IceBlox.
In PalmWarp, shown in Figure 3.37, you fly a space ship through 3D-looking levels. The goal is simple—move up and down shooting bad guys and avoiding their attacks. There are all sorts of cool-looking characters in this game, such as buzzsaws, tanks, and bazooka birds.
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Hobbit's Let Me Alone
URL: http://www.puzzle.gr.jp/hobbit/index.html.en
Yet another Japanese game programmer called Hobbit has created a slew of numerical puzzle games for J2ME. One of the most interesting is called Let Me Alone, shown in Figure 3.38. The goal is to fill blocks in a grid so that the same number doesn't appear more than once in a given row or column.
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Figure 3.37 PalmWarp.
Figure 3.38 Let Me Alone.