MIDP-Man
November 24, 2000. Last modified May 2002.
In the words of Sun Microsystems, "The Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP)
is a set of JavaTM APIs which, together with the Connected Limited Device
Configuration (CLDC), provides a complete J2METM
application runtime environment targeted at mobile information devices, such as
cellular phones and two-way pagers." Think of it as a smaller Java for cell phones.
On the left is a regular Java applet that demonstrates a small MIDP application
("MIDlet") I developed. (Click the button under "Start" and then use the cursor
keys.) In order to play the real game you need either a
MIDP-capable device like the phone Motorola showed at Comdex 2000, or the
reference implementation
available from Sun. (The latter is essentially a phone emulator,
from which I borrowed the graphics that surround the game demo.)
Update: After one and a half years, Namco
has suddenly decided to look
into the MIDP market and requested that I remove all downloadable material related
to MIDP-Man, as it would interfere with their possible future attempts at making
money on Pac-Man MIDlets. The same request goes to all other sites that feature
this game. I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted.
MIDP had great potential, but unfortunately a couple of technical omissions make
it unsuitable for game development. Read more about that on the
Technical Stuff page. Until Sun has updated their
specifications, all I can say is: don't bother with MIDP if you want to build
arcade games. It's like banging your head against a brick wall. Right now a
half-decent Pac-Man clone is pretty much the limit.
|