This page is for people who need help putting my Java j2me midlet programs on their phone.

INTRODUCTION

So you want to put free Java games on your phone? Well, the first thing you need is a mobile phone that supports Java J2ME (Java MicroEdition). You also need to know which version of J2ME your phone supports. Currently there are two versions usually called MIDP 1.0 or MIDP 2.0 (sometimes called J2ME 1.0 and J2ME 2.0, but I always refer to them by their nerd names MIDP :). If your phone supports MIDP 2.0, then you should be able to download all the Java programs from my J2ME page. Otherwise, most likely only the MIDP 1.0 programs will work. Also, each phone can have different sets of packages, so for example, your phone may support MIDP 1.0, but not support the MediaManager package and not be able to play J2ME games with sound. Also, the MediaPlayers may be different too, for example my SonyEricsson T610 will play AMR files but not WAV or MP3. Nice, eh? If you don't know which version of J2ME your phone supports (or if it supports it at all), I've found that http://www.phonescoop.com/ is a great site for this kind of information.

Other problems you may experience (that I've noticed) are things like some of the Motorola phones mix up keycode values for the joystick/cursor pad. I always try and make it so my J2ME programs use the phone's number keypad and the cursor pad just incase a phone has this issue. Another thing could be your phone's display is too small. Fonts also sometimes get rendered differently which can cause some ugliness (something I noticed in a Motorola Razr). Also, there is a model of SonyEricsson where I've been told the "back button" or cancel key or whatever won't shut off a Java program unless you hold it down for a few seconds. Nice.

If you want to know more about J2ME, you can read about it on Sun Microsystems' Java page at: http://java.sun.com/j2me/index.jsp.

WAYS TO PUT JAVA GAMES ON YOUR PHONE

There are 3 basic ways that I know of to put Java J2ME games on your phone. The easiest (but may cost airtime) is WAP. WAP is (in dumb man terms) special web pages for mobile phones. Most web browsers can not look at WAP pages (test it with yours by pointing your webbrowser to http://www.mikekohn.net/wap/. The only webbrowser I know that can render these pages is Opera. Anyway, if your mobile phone has a webbrowser, you can point it to http://www.mikekohn.net/wap/ and click on J2ME Java Games link, and then pick either a .jad or .jar file to download. I think typically you need to load the .jad file, but some phones seem to only work if you click on the .jar. All I can say it try one and if it doesn't work try the other.

If you have no WAP access and your phone supports bluetooth or a datacable, you can put the .jar or .jad files on your phone by using software to transfer it. If you need help with the bluetooth, I have a small blurb below on how I got it working.

HINTS FOR SPRINT USERS

I was at the Sprint store a few weeks ago with a friend and we loaded most of their phones with these Java programs to see if they'd work. Almost all the phones worked. Some looked a little gross because of a small display, but the games were still playable. Anyway, if you have Sprint and your phone does Java, you can load these programs over WAP. You need to find the web browser in your phone and go to this URL: http://www.mikekohn.net/wap/. Note: You may need the VisionSomething plan in order to use WAP. Select J2ME Java Games off the list from this page, and then from this new page select a .jad file to load on your phone. The .jar files will not work for Sprint.

HINTS FOR CINGULAR USERS

Cingular has always seemed to be one of the more friendly companies for letting you do what you want with your phone. While I've never been able to load an SCKL ringtone on a Nokia T-Mobile phone, Cingular hasn't given problems. I know a bit of their phones do Java J2ME and are able to load these problems. So, if you have Cingular and your phone does Java, you can load these programs over WAP. You need to find the web browser in your phone and go to this URL: http://www.mikekohn.net/wap/. Select J2ME Java Games off the list from this page, and then from this new page select a .jar file to load on your phone. I'm not sure if the .jad files work or not.

If WAP doesn't work, I know at least 2 phones from Cingular that do Bluetooth and can be loaded over Bluetooth (read below for some info).

HINTS FOR T-Mobile

I've never tried putting these programs on a T-Mobile phone myself, but I've been told by now multiple people it works.

HINTS FOR VERIZON AND VIRGIN MOBILE

I heard Verizon blocks you from going to any WAP website you want to, so you might have trouble loading your phone. You may need to do it over a datacable. I heard there is a hack for Verizon where you can point your phone to a different proxy and get out to any WAP site for free (infact I have a friend who did this) but I don't know how it's done. When in doubt, go with Cingular.

Virgin Mobile... ahhh... this is my current phone provider. Lemme say one thing. This is the absolute best phone plan for me. I spend $7 a month on my cell phone and the service (other than the retarded MTV sms's I get sometimes) is pretty damn good. BUT, the only phone they provide (in the USA) that does Java J2ME is the AudioVox V7 Flasher (aka. 8910) which is a decent phone, but it's so heavily guarded from letting you put your own Java, ringtones, or pictures that it ruins the whole thing. I think I'll actually be switching to Cingular soon, which will cost me a little more money (since minutes don't roll over after 3 months) but at least I can have a phone that has cool features. Btw, the AudioVox 8920 (from Sprint) is a piece of absolute JUNK. Wooo.. I feel better now :).

I'm still working on trying to get Java on the AudioVox V7 Flasher. If you want to read about how (badly) that is going, you can go to my RMS Util page.

If you don't have WAP access (or don't want to pay for downloading these programs over WAP.. if your WAP isn't free), the easiest way I found to load my SonyEricsson T610 with these programs is over Bluetooth. I'm assuming doing it over a data cable will be similar. Since I haven't found any good docs on how to do this, I guess I'll take a few minutes to explain what I did. Maybe sometime soon I'll include pictures too :).

WARNING: Verizon wireless sells some bluetooth phones that are crippled. The phones have bluetooth on them, but you cannot connect to a computer with them. If you'd like to load your phone with bluetooth it's highly recommended by me to avoid Verizon Wireless.

Anyway, to load my phone with these programs, I use my Apple Mac to make a Bluetooth connection to the phone. I clicked on "Browse Device" which showed me 3 folders: Bilder, Ljud, Temen. The phone is Swedish, so for those of you who aren't Swedish: Bilder=Pictures, Ljud=Sound, Temen=Themes. Anyway, in the Bilder directory are all the pictures I took with the built in camera and backgrounds and such. In Ljud would be all my ringtones and such. This kinda confused me since there wasn't a folder for Java. So anyway, all I did was I drag the icon for the MemoryT610.jar file into the root directory of the Bluetooth device, and the phone immediately accepted it and saved it under the "Games and More" section. The game is now stored on the phone (you can delete it later). The other programs were loaded the same way.

Copyright 1997-2024 - Michael Kohn