Beginning Mobile Phone Game Programming (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Build several fully functional games as well as a game engine to use for programming cell phone and mobile games with Beginning Mobile Phone Game Programming! The included CD provides the tool, code and graphics necessary to complete all exercises covered in the chapters. Beginning Cell Phone Game Programming demystifies wireless game programming by providing clear, practical lessons using the J2ME Game API. You will learn how to use the most popular mobile programming language, Java, to build compact games that can run on any Java-enabled device, including mobile phones, pagers and handheld computers. You will also learn to add a splash screen, create a demo mode, keep track of high scores, and test, debug, and deploy your games.

Topics covered include:

• How to construct a game engine to drive mobile games.
• How to use Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) and the Java Game API to get the most performance out of your mobile games.
• How to implement sprite animation and control interactions among moving sprites.
• How to play sound effects and music in mobile games.
• How to take advantage of wireless networks to build mobile multiplayer games.
• How to design and develop a variety of different games spanning several video games genres.

About the Author

Michael Morrison is a writer, developer, toy inventor, and author of a variety of computer technology books and interactive web-based courses. In addition to his primary profession as a writer and freelance nerd for hire, Michael is the creative lead at Stalefish Labs, an entertainment company he cofounded with his wife, Masheed. The first commercial debut for Stalefish Labs is a traditional social/trivia game called Tall Tales: The Game of Legends and Creative One-Upmanship (http://www. talltalesgame.com/). When not glued to his computer, playing hockey, skateboarding, or watching movies with his wife, Michael enjoys hanging out by his koi pond. You can visit Michael on the web at http://www.michaelmorrison.com/.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Sams (December 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672326655
• ISBN-13: 978-0672326653
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #899,448 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Download Free Example Games, January 31, 2005

By	Michael Morrison "Author" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm the author of the book, and I want to point out that you can download all of the example games directly from my Web site (www.michaelmorrison.com) for free. Think of it as a "try before you buy" option so that you can see exactly what kinds of mobile phone games are developed in the book. I also offer online support forums for the book on my Web site, so if you have questions or suggestions about the game code you can share them and get feedback directly from me and other readers.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good book, October 19, 2006

By	Jendrek (Camarillo, CA) - See all my reviews

I have been using this book as a textbook for a one-semester introductory course to game programming. Thanks to the book the students can learn the main principles of game development in an environment that guarantees that they implement their own variations withing a tight time constraint.

The course has a heavy hands-on component based almost completely on the game samples from the book. Amazingly, the students are in the lab when I come, and they stay when I leave.

I used the book successfully in a Linux lab with Eclipse, EclipseME, WTK 2.2, GIMP, Rosegarden, Audacity, and Tiled, with some small help from timidity and awk.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best so far, November 30, 2006

By	Short Dog - See all my reviews

This was the book that got me interested in mobile games. I love it. Well written, good examples that are easy to follow, and it covers everything including graphics, audio, and AI. It also uses MIDP 2.0 which is the de facto standard. Another book by Wells is not bad but Wells assumes MIDP 1.0 and teaches from a single game project, Star Assault, which is too big and besides, not always easy to follow. However, Morrison is really straightfoward in comparison. If there is a downside, it might be that Morrison, like all the others I've looked at, assume the Wireless Toolkit. Firstly, the WTK has no debugging facilities which makes learning and fixing games harder. Secondly, games in Morrison are WTK 2.1 which means you'll have problems if using WTK 2.2, the latest version at the time of this writing. If you are serious about learning and writing J2ME games, you need to get Eclipse and the Eclipse plug-in, EclipseME. You'll still have to get the latest WTK since EclipseME depends on it. However, you can import all of Morrison's projects and single-step debug them. (Remember to read the EclipseME pages on setting up the J2ME debugger; otherwise, the debugger won't work.) I've also used Morrison with Sun's NetBeans Mobility Pack. I prefer Eclipse since it seems to have a larger community.