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Games Entertainment

DoCoMo, Sony To Create Mobile Phone Game System 53

Posted by timothy from the repetitive-stress dept.
A developer writes: "Sony and DoCoMo announced they will jointly develop on-line games worldwide. Sony, Motorola and JVC have greatly invested in a new Sun Authorized Java Virtual Machine which is also being used in the new Amiga computer. Founder of the UK based Tao Group and ex-Amiga developer Mr. Charig just returned from Japan for the launch of DoCoMo`s new Java technology based i appli service. Interestingly Tao demonstrated its technology running on the Dreamcast a year ago as well and recently it was announced that Sega is going to make games for new set-top boxes and mobile phones. BTW every C, C++, Java or Vitual Assembler written Amiga/Tao application can be executed code identical on top of other operation systems as well including Linux. :)" edhak also points to this BBC article on the possibility of worldwide handheld wirelessly distributed games, and gloats "Wipeout on a mobile!"
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DoCoMo, Sony To Create Mobile Phone Game System More

DoCoMo, Sony To Create Mobile Phone Game System

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  • Re:Emulation is nothing new... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The Tao VP code is a better bytocode than java bytecode, basically. Also, it is *always* entirely compiled to native code before it is run - no interpreted virtual machine. It's also designed (like amiga m68k macro assembler was) to be coded in directly - amiga m68k macro asm allowed you to declare C-style structures, define functions, call libary functions (CALLGFX OpenWindow, for example, is pretty much legal DevPac-style amiga assembler...could have been CALLGRAF, but you get my point...)
  • The Nokia Game really just involved reading email and text messages, occasionally buying a paper or watching a TV advert, going to the specified web sites, and playing some buggy Shockwave games. For about the first 25 days it was really easy, then most people (including me) were eliminated by a game in which the best tactic was to go for maximum points by completely ignoring the instructions. It was fun in parts, but it could have been much better.

  • I played something like this as a member of the Oxford Guild of Assassins [ox.ac.uk]; they just call it the Assassination Game. I believe that some other variants are known as "Killer".

  • Q&A (Score:1)

    by unitron ( 5733 )
    Answer: "Wipeout on a mobile!"

    Question: What happens when the guy who's always on his cell phone while driving gets one with game playing ability?

  • Yea, it's something so NOT Amiga but calling itself that .. kinda sick really. I fail to see any Amiga-likeness of it all. Where's the custom chips with the cute names, the chip-ram/fast-ram split, the OS-in-a-ROM-chip .. I doubt too that that Workbench and Intuition could be recreated in Java with the slickness that I remember in REAL Amigas.

    Jay Miner wouldn't have been happy.

    :/

    Yes, Amiga deserves to Rest In Peace.

    --
  • PC, wired InterNet connections were stymied by
    expensive national telcos, limited infrastucture,
    and english-based apps. In the US wireless is
    stymied by a lack of a national standard.

    It remains to be seen whether US customers will
    be swayed by the rather limited user interfaces
    of wireless compared to the decent PC stuff they
    get now. In Asian cuntries the wired stuff was
    worse.
  • Of course Java isn't dead. Even if Java isn't very popular at the desktop, because of bad browsers and the lack of demand for platform independance (because 95% of all desktops run Windows), it's very alive at the server, which is (together with others like IBM) Sun's domain. And I mean real servers, not these funny little NT boxes. ;-)

    If you take a look at the raw numbers, there are more mobile phones than PCs and the numbers. If you can get the mobiles into the internet, there is a *huge* demand for servers. Got it? :-)

    Microsoft tries something similar with .NET, but IMHO they have two drawbacks: they are some years behind und their world picture is PC centric.

    Here in Germany, the oncoming standard for set-top boxes includes java. So if Java is already there, why bother with two (very similar, but incompatible) standards for very similar markets?
  • Even if the core APIs of operating systems are quite similar, the GUI APIs aren't. This looks like the biggest problem for Java and Swing for me. There are few cross-plattfrom GUI libraries and if you dig a little, you find lots of unhappy people. In my eyes, cross-plattform GUI development is quite tricky and I don't expect redoing it in Java from scratch to fix the common problems.

    As far as I know Sun is working hard to improve Swing performance. I dont know details, there are two more releases (1.3.1 and 1.4) planned for this year. Hopefully with faster swing.

    BTW: Last week I got a notice that the bug, that prevented Swing apps running through a ssh tunnel, was fixed. Looks like they are really working at Swing.

  • That's it (Score:4)

    by Shoeboy ( 16224 ) on Monday January 29, 2001 @06:35AM (#473517) Homepage
    This is the last straw.
    I'm never getting in an automobile ever again.
    Jesus.
    I though drivers were dangerous when they were talking on the phone, but this is ridiculous.
    Anyone know where I can buy a tank or APC?
    --Shoeboy
  • . . .look here [tanksforsale.co.uk]

    Shocked me: I had NO idea you could BUY a tank or APC. . . .

  • "For those who don't know it yet"? Please.. C# is just one language that "powers" the .NET platform. Another language is Perl.. And VB.. And C++.. And get this.. Java. Java is no more history with .NET than it was with J++ a few years ago. J++ on the other hand *is* history. I firmly believe C# and .NET *will* be big things and yeah, they probably will eat away a little bit from Java, but kill Java? No more than it will kill Linux.
  • Who cares about lack of Java VM's in the browser? That has nothing to do with running Java on Microsoft operating systems. I've NEVER used a Microsoft VM (other than testing) for running Java on Windows - Sun's and IBM's VM's are *SO* much better.

    It's silly to compare Java to Delphi since Java is far more successful than Delphi ever was. In fact, I'd guess Java is the most successful language ever, next to VB maybe..

  • Java dead? (Score:5)

    by macpeep ( 36699 ) on Monday January 29, 2001 @06:44AM (#473521)
    Funny how Slashdot used to be full of people talking about "the death of Java" in past tense. It's pretty amazing how Java keeps finding new homes these days.. First it was applets in the browser; bad Java VM's and even worse coders who gave Java a bad rep ruined that. Then there was the servers, which worked great (maybe the coders are better, at least the VM's are) and now there seems to be something of a comeback of Java to the client side with digi-TV and cellular Java.. First Symbian, then Siemens, then Nokia, Sega, Sony, Motorola.. I'd say Java is about as far from dead as can be - and this is DESPITE Microsoft's furious efforts to kill it.
  • Actually, playing games on mobile phones is not as stupid as it sounds... The Nokia 51xx/61xx was Nokia's best selling phone ever. Why? At least partly because they included three silly games, such as Snake...

    When the average person is bored and wanting to play a game (say, you're waiting for the bus), do you really think they'll pull out (or even have with them) a PDA or Gameboy? Probably not. But, you can basically assume that in 5 years pretty much everyone will have a mobile, and will be willing to play a game on it.

  • There's a funky discussion eGroup on this topic
    What do you think of this?

    Pervasive Gaming - Always on. Always under the spell.

    Pervasive Gaming is a suggested next generation RPG (Role-Playing Game), to use net enabled mobile devices with a location-based element. Pervasive Gaming is live role-playing gone berserk, potentially invading everyday life at every turn of the corner.

    Consider this short gaming scenario: In everyday reality Avi is a system guy at a small start-up in Tel-Aviv, however in game-reality he is a member of the Israeli Shaper's Hypno-Clique, a group that uses manipulative mind control techniques to disrupt technological advances and convert members of other cliques to it's cause. Anticipating another boring day at work, Avi uses his mobile phone to switch ON gaming mode, grabs something to eat and heads to the office. Just before lunch time, Avi receives an email from his Clique's HQ, saying that a rival faction are now holding a meeting in a coffee-shop not far from where he is working [using location-based services authorized only to game players.] Avi takes an hour break from work and heads there. On his way, the game server beeps Avi that Ilya, an old game enemy of his and a former defector from the Hypno-Clique, is in the area [Avi has previously planted a tracking bug on Ilya, remote-uploading it stealthfully to Ilya's game-profile on his mobile without his knowledge, using the game's bluetooth options.] Avi takes a sharp turn and heads in an alternative route to the coffee-shop, while downloading a hypno-bomb from the hypno-clique's servers to use later...

    The above scenerio spans technologies which in some shape or form are already available, and should be popularized in around 2 years - Mobile internet usage should spread with the deployment of GPRS and similar networks, LBS (Location Based Services) Technologies should also be deployed, and the Bluetooth standard for close-range interaction between electronic devices is also destined to hit gold.

    Sounds cool? Let's Talk :)
  • This is soundling like MS and .NET and C#. Well... i guess id rather have Java, then an MS product ... cause id be driving and playing multi-player Space Invaders when suddenly my cellphone would BSOD and id have to take my other hand off the wheel so i could Ctrl-Alt-Del my phone ... (by entering the ASCII codes...)

    ARG! ;)

    But hey ... following amiga traits ... i'll bet it'll be the first phone that'll be able to full-screen decompress a dvd ;)
  • I think alot of the "death of Java" talk stems from Linus Torvald's statement where he claimed the death of Java. I guess most folks just don't examine the technology in detail and try to measure the pros and cons but blindly follow whomever they see as the "visionary" at the time. And for the Slashdot crowd I think Mr. Torvalds can be seen as one.

  • Seriously. Run "ejb" through any job search engine. Or "servlet"...

    If Sun would just give up on Swing and use something mature and stable, their client-side problems would disappear pretty quickly as well. I'll never understand why they're still using Swing, it's a horribly useless pile of crap for building applications.

    But server side... There I'd rather be dealing with Java than anything else out there.

  • i can see the pileups now... (Score:5)

    by AugstWest ( 79042 ) on Monday January 29, 2001 @06:41AM (#473527)
    You are at a red light
    >wait

    You are at a red light
    >wait

    You are at a green light
    >look

    You see three people crossing the street while talking on cell phones and a man with a white-tipped cane.
    >go north

    You have killed 3 pedestrians and avoided the blind man, for a total of 300 points.

  • it's still a freaking tiny screen

    Indeed - so you go for visually simple games where you don't need to fit a lot of information on-screen at once. It's a limitation (as is the keypad; text adventures aren't going to be fun with SMS-style typing), but it doesn't mean you can't do games at all. Certainly it's a lot less limited than Game-and-Watch's fixed graphics.

    With cell phones ever shrinking, into the size of ballpoint pens, why not just make a better Game Boy and have it do phone?

    I very much hope that the screens won't shrink with the phone. Certainly there are devices coming this summer which forego the keypad in favour of a bigger, touch-sensitive screen. They'll be expensive to start with but I believe that's the way forward.

    Not that I'm likely to get one. I don't want people to be able to interrupt me with phone calls!

    Oh, and could the Slashbots stop with the weak traffic accident gags now please? Thanks then.


    --
    This comment was brought to you by And Clover.
  • Don't give up on swing so quickly. I used to have the same sentiments as you until I actually built a few swing apps. The MVC (model-view-controller) architecture is really good. Being able to make custom redererers for the controls without affecting the model is really a big plus. I look forward to the performance enhancements that will be coming in 1.4. Hopefully by then most of the performance concerns will be long gone.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I s'pose its a total accident that this bears a striking resembalcen to what little is known of EA's project Majestic??
  • PC gamer did an article on this EA stealth project a few months back.

    They have soem kidn of media auhtoring system thatballwos them to easily customize and scale the game utilizing everything from fake web pages to mid-night phone calls.

    Otehr then that its all pretty hush hush

  • Where to go for the SDK and Doc (Score:3)

    by phlake ( 107104 ) on Monday January 29, 2001 @06:58AM (#473533) Homepage
    Sun's got a bunch of info at JavaSoft.com [sun.com] if you wanna switch from the consumer angle to the developer angle...
  • i think the end idea of this technology is obvious, at some point everyone will be wandering around seemingly talking to themselves like crazy people, while really on their cell phone.

    i am all for this because i feel it finally destroy that age old stigma that talking to yourself has.

    not that i talk to myself

  • This sounds a lot like a game that I used to play in college. I don't recall its name; hell, I don't know if it even had a name. But the rules were simple: Try to "kill" the other players before they "killed" you.

    For example, lets say that you're with an opponent, and they foolishly ask you to get them a drink. You bring back a can that has a PostIt® [3m.com] note on the bottom that says "Cyanide" [cdc.gov]. If they drink the can without noticing the note, you get a point and they lose one. Or you can plant an alarm clock somewhere, with a PostIt® [3m.com] note reading "Bomb" [rjlsoftware.com]. Anyone in the room when it goes off loses a point apiece, and you get them all.

    P.S. This was back in 1976, before the term "LARP" [larp.com] was invented. Ah, the good old days, before all those new-fangled computers showed up.

  • Sorry, officer, I couldn't have noticed that red light -- my arse was being whooped by some level 35 paladin from Australia...

  • Someone forgot to tell you about the recent Sun vs Microsoft settlement on all their Java intanglements. Microsoft is completely dropping Java support from its next version of Internet Explorer, and they, for sure, are not going to support Java in .NET

    Microsoft has, however, made it known that they will supply Java source code converters, to aid in the migration from Java on windows to C# on .NET

    Sun's only way to save Java from becoming the next Delphi is to run to a standards organization and standardize the language. Then release the Java VM and its APIs under a true Open Source license, such as the GPL.

    Otherwise, with a Bush in office, Microsoft will continue with their nasty tricks, and destroy Java. Many commercial companies have shown that Open Source is the way to compete with Microsoft. IBM is a good example.
  • This mobile phone was sponsored by the darwin awards committee
  • Forget games on your mobile phone, play games with your Mobil phone instead. try Nokia Media Games

    What is Media Nokia Game? It's a new type of gaming that we call an 'all media experience'. As a player, you have to step into the shoes of the main character in a fictional story. You will experience life from his point of view - along the way, encountering a series of problems that you'll have to solve on his behalf. Messages and clues will reach you via every imaginable media (Internet, TV, radio, voicemail, SMS, magazines and newspapers). Your job is to follow the leads and stay connected by visiting the game web sites. Nokia Game will keep you busy for a month - that is, if you survive all the stages...

    http://www.nokia-game.com/ [nokia-game.com]

  • That's exactly what my morning commute needs: cellphone-wielding drivers trying to play Space Invaders.
  • If amiga is dead, how come OS3.9 just got out?

    If amiga is dead, how come I can use recent technologies (cable modem, cd-rw, etc etc) on it?

    If amiga is dead, how come I can run linux on it?

    If amiga is dead, how come my 4 systems are still up and running?

    oh well... I don't know what scares you the most, the fact that you KNOW it was superior in late 80s and early 90s and it didn't get noticed, and this time it's ran by better people so it might have a chance to succeed (and maybe even more than linux??) or are you just scared of something you don't even know?

  • According to this story [theregister.co.uk] at The Register [theregister.co.uk] Sega and Pace [pace.co.uk] have announced that Pace will license Dreamcast technology for their next generation set-top boxes. Pace are Europe's largest digital TV set-top box manufacturer and has made set-tops for all the major UK digital networks (BSkyB, OnDigital, NTL and Telewest) and for US cable networks (Comcast and TimeWarner) as well as digital networks in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia. Looks like their tackling the home gateway challenge from the other side than Sony.

  • Buzzword City (Score:3)

    by CarrotLord ( 161788 ) <don...richarde@@@gmail...com> on Monday January 29, 2001 @06:44AM (#473543) Journal
    So now we have mobile wireless internet access, PS2, Java, Amiga, Distributed Online Games, Linux, set-top boxes and multitudes of other buzzwords buried in links all in the one story...

    Is there a story that could possibly have more?

    :)

    rr

  • It's actually interesting to see the USA behind in something technological for a change. Yeah we're used to all the funky gadgets coming from Japan, but usually you know something is big when it becomes big in the USA. In this case, Europe is far ahead of the states (not to mention Japan which is light years ahead of the rest of the world).
    The Wireless Internet is definitly going to take the world by storm. There is no doubt about it. Conversion of the PDA and the Cellphone, Location Based Services, Bluetooth enabled devices and what have you. All of those are gonna be here very soon, in color, in 3D and in your face (or rather palm).
    The interesting thing to watch is if things will develop differently now that European companies are such a big driving force. Seems like they did a better job with Wireless standards then the American companies did. Let's see if they can make a better job with solving the many problems and questions they will face very soon.
    I for one, both as a developer and as a consumer (a geeky one, but still a consumer) hope to see some real standards this time, some real security (transferring sensitive information over the air, what fun!) and as a result market acceptance, lots of applications, and definitly lots of COOL games. once we break a few more obstacles, we're on our way to some really amazing never before seen stuff that is gonna blow the hell out of everybody's shorts and will completely redfine gaming as we know it.
  • when all those M$ programmers (plus the companies using M$ tools) move to C#...
    As a JSP developer, I believe I speak for all the other Java Developers when I say: "Thank God."

    I had a feeling you were going to say that.
  • I recall the first LCD TV's I saw, 10+ years ago. Little larger than a deck of cards and you could get color and black & white. They didn't catch on. Sure, they sell, but I haven't seen anyone watching one, anywhere. I assume they're mostly used at work, to catch ball games or soaps, since they're still available.

    Cell phones are everywhere. Seems like 1 out of 3 cars are driven by someone chatting away on one. (by percentage driving cell users probably cause less accidents than drunks, but as a gross I'm positive it's many more) I expect at some near point you're cell phone will be not just _a_ but _the_ combination of phone, PDA and entertainment center on the go.

    I'll stick with playing games on a larger screen, since I like larger screens games better.

    --

  • Are you playing with your mobile phone? (Score:3)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Monday January 29, 2001 @06:42AM (#473547) Homepage Journal
    Space Invaders? Ok, when the CPU's get up there and they cram some dense memory in there, sure, but this is as silly as trying to play games on one of those silly watches they sell at Toys R Us. It could be color, it could have sound, it could be BattleTech XXVII, but it's still a freaking tiny screen. With cell phones ever shrinking, into the size of ballpoint pens, why not just make a better Game Boy and have it do phone?

    --

  • Fusty knew this would happen. (Score:3)

    by 3G ( 220614 ) on Monday January 29, 2001 @06:55AM (#473548)
    Justin Hall (of Gamers.com fame, among other things) predicted this [thefeature.com] would happen a while back, and offered up some insight into its ramifications. Imagine the whole (unwired) world taking part in a series of games that never really end, only evolving over time. The Internet introduced the concept to a large degree (Everquest, anyone?), but the mobile Internet makes this a truly personal experience. Pick just about anyone on the planet out for a match of Quake 3 Arena at wireless broadband speeds, or role-play with friends anytime anywhere. A whole new way of interacting with people is introduced, and over the next couple of decades it'll prove itself to everyone just how revolutionary the idea is.
  • BTW every C, C++, Java or Vitual (sic) Assembler written Amiga/Tao application can be executed code identical on top of other operation systems (sic) as well including Linux. :)

    You could say the same thing about regular Amiga apps, not to mention Win32 apps, MacOS apps, SNES apps, Gameboy apps, System16 apps etc etc. Emulation is pretty much a given for most platforms nowadays.

    And as long as your target has to interpret/compile what you give it, you might as well give it something well-standardised, eg. C/C++ source. If you're set on producing bytecode, why not compile to Java bytecode? Or just pick an arch at random, compile to that arch, and use existing emulators on other platforms?

    I'm trying to give up cynicism, but isn't this just inventing stuff for the sake of it?
  • Leave it alone! It would spin in its grave at this announcement, if it hadn't been turned into an undead zombie by the evil Tao / Eyetech / Fleece-the-customers Moss conspiracy.
  • Three words: Read My Webpage [uklinux.net]. What machine do I use every day? An Amiga. What machine have I used for the past 8 years? An Amiga. The Amiga died soon after Commodore went bust, but its community lived on. Here are some opinions for you to chew:
    • OS3.5 and OS3.9 are *not* real OSes; OS3.0/3.1 are. Linux m68k / PPC are.
    • The set-top box dream, the convergence dream are just that: dreams. The A1200 and A4000 are *real*, and in wide supply.
    • The greatest contribution to the Amiga Community is not made by H&P, or even Amiga Inc, but Aminet.
    • Amiga Inc are a *threat* to the Amiga community - just look at their posturing over AROS, they think they should have control over things that aren't theirs to control.
    • Before their Amiga involvement, what did Taos do? Yes, write an OS for deader-than-dead transputer technology.

  • Are you saying the jump from 3.0 to 3.1 is more substantial than the leap from 3.1 to 3.9-- 3.9 has updated libraries, bug fixes, setpatch, new prefs, extra features, an improved workbench (as far as functionality and aesthetics)... That is what an OS update is.

    3.1 is basically the same as 3.0. The requirement of 3.1 ROMs to upgrade to 3.5 or 3.9 is a cheap ploy to clear out the back stock of 3.1 ROMs that didn't go into new Amiga models. Everything that is in 3.5 or 3.9 is either already done by or actually taken from the software available from Aminet - it just has an 'official' gloss now.
  • This already exists. SprintPCS offers a ton of games via their system. They even have a great game where you play a hacker trying to get through other people's firewalls, systems, etc. They also have action games, role playing games, and sports games.

  • They also sell other things..

    Military vehicle sales,Off road vehicles,Military vehicle,Trucks,Oldtimers,Vintage Vehicles, Tanks, Halftracks, Trucks, Military vehicles, Armour,Tatra813,Praga,T34,Sdkfz251, MVT,milweb,olive drab net,renactors, weapons, military equipment,painting commissions, limited edition prints, art, artist, oil paintings, transport artist,World War 2, World War II, WWII,military vehicles, military surplus, militaria, jeeps, Militaria dealers, military surplus dealers, reenactment, ,SdKfz 251, Hanomag, Halftrack,ot810, tatra, praga,t34, ot64 APC.

    Oil Paintings anyone. Should help me ward off any Trolls.

  • Don't tell me this is going to be at 9.6kbps. No one mentions the speed. Ya, sure you can play games, but what type of games?? Bricks anyone??

    Is this going to be the same games we played years back or is there going to be some PS2 eating, Xbox slaying RPGs??

    I-mode is like WAP. Its a mechanism for transferring information. Its not a Broadband technology. Modern Games *need* bandwidth.

  • Wait until C# is officially released. For those who don't know it yet, C# is the same as Java, except that it has a different name and syntax and that Microsoft calls it a new language and programming paradigm.

    I'm afraid that when all those M$ programmers (plus the companies using M$ tools) move to C#, Java will be history...
  • It seems that people are forgetting that the phones sold by DoCoMo are all going to be sold in Japan (or never realized that in the first place) Most commuters in Japan are on trains and/or busses rather than driving. In that environment a game or two is a welcome relief for people shoved into overcrowded subway cars.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday January 29, 2001 @07:25AM (#473559)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Something went flewy with my previous post.

    It seems to have come up as anonymous even though the preview clearly showed my name, which, just in case is William F. Maddock. This boy ain't no coward. :)
  • Surely you jest. Neither the network nor the contents of SprintPCS can play in the same league as DoCoMo. HW/SW manufacturers can align production cycles and the content options via docomo dwarf anything in the states or europe. With 3G rolling out in may, this lead will only increase. that said, the screens are liliputian and the interface is suboptimal.

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