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I have some friends who are doing alright making Java games for mobile phones. As I mentioned in a previous post, since graphics on mobile phones and other limited devices are so cruddy development focus tends to be on addictive gameplay rather than eyecandy. It is possible to be a small independent game studio, since there are a lot of free tools for J2ME programming and the APIs are simple (what is difficult is making them run well on all different phone models). There is also no need for a big art studio to render orchestral music, hours of CGI, etc. At least not yet.

It seems most of the money in that market is not trying to sell your game through a portal (though if you get a really big hit you can rake in the cash), or even worse trying to sell it yourself, but to make ad games that companies can make available for free as part of a competition. I think there is a big potential market for really innovative and addictive mobile games, as at the moment a lot is just re-releases of games for old platforms, with slightly updated graphics.

A few links if you are interested in getting started on J2ME programming:
J2ME.org discussion board
J2ME Gamer
Midlet.org

Is it possible to run J2ME games in a PC using free software, proprietary software available at no charge, or proprietary software available for less than 100 USD for one seat?

Yes, just google for J2ME emulators, I think Sun even has one included when you download the J2ME development kit. I know for sure Sony Ericsson/Nokia/Motorola et al have emulators. You might have to register at their developer sites first, but it should be free if you are a student or doing non-commercial development. After all, they want developers to make software that works as good as possible for their own devices.

Mobile developer sites:
Sony Ericsson
Nokia
Samsung
Motorola

Some good intro sites:
J2ME Gamer
Midlet.org

Does this Bluetooth thing work even with phones sold by prepaid service providers? Or does, for instance, Virgin lock its phones so that I can't just buy a Virgin phone and a Bluetooth adapter for my PC and transfer games that way?

I don't know how things work in the US, but I haven't heard of anyone locking Bluetooth file transfers on the phone, it would defeat the whole purpose of having Bluetooth. So you should be able to buy a simple Bluetooth USB dongle for your PC ($20) and then use a OBEX push program to transfer the game. The phone senses what the file is (game, image, mp3...) and where to put it, and will ask you if you want to accept it.

Over the air transmission though (OTA) is often locked to the service provider you got the SIM from.

I used Mandrake 10.1 when I was playing around and all drivers and programs were available as official packages on the CDs. No compiling or configuring needed after install to get Bluetooth working, everything worked like a charm.

that this is not what they're talking about?

Apparently, the entry rules allow games developed for J2ME, of which there are quite a few. These games are also fairly simple to make (harkening back to the glory days of my 8-bit 2D sidescrolling youth).

I think the entries for this contest could be pretty interesting. Mobile gaming is one of the few markets left where a lone wolf developer can make an innovative, even radical game and still have a decent chance of it being a hit.

TryMicroDevNet which is a developer orientated site for J2ME, but only provides links to the authors web site for listed apps. (and you have to be a member..)

Another one is Midlet.org, but I've been mailing the site admin for 2 months trying to get a J2ME RSS reader I wrote posted on the site, with no reply. The downloads look like they were last updated on Jan 23rd and there is a fairly lively forum.
You can download via wap at http://midlet.org/wap

Look here

You can get some really cool games for J2ME enabled phones such as Dragon Island. A great palce to read about new games is Midlet Review and you can try midlets out from Midlet.org

"As it supports both J2ME and it's own C++ based API's it can support anything you write for it, I'd be very supprised if both Go and Chess don't exisit for J2ME, and I know EPOC has Chess, which would not be hard to port over to Symbian 7."

Actually, Series 60 is Symbian 6.1, not Symbian 7.

...And yes, there are lots of both Symbian software, and j2me aplications out there. :)

ooops, forgot the http. correct link: midlet.org

> But with no support for multimedia now (sound)
> don't expect these games to be anything amazing.

They're not tooooooo bad. There are a few to try at midlet.org

Actually there is no significant difference between JDK118 and J2ME. Minor security classes.

you sure about this? :) J2ME is a subset of the standard Java API's that has been specifically designed to suit embedded systems such as PDA's, mobile phones yada yada.. - you can dig up more information at http://java.sun.com/j2me/ - if you have ever messed with J2ME, you'll be familiar with a concept known as MIDlets - yep, try http://www.midlet.org/ or http://www.midletcentral.com/ - and, you'll see exactly what they are. they are nothing but applets really, with a very limited subset of API calls so it is possible to squeeze such applications/applets into embedded systems.

as for the zaurus, i have not played with the unit myself - and, i am not exactly sure if it is capable of executing MIDlets (but, shouldn't take long to set this up). i doubt it is strictly J2ME. sure, a Java virtual machine may have been written - but you'll find it along the lines of KVM or similar, providing a small subset of the Java language (as another poster mentioned - no Swing et al) :P Java can get big, but, if you trim it down, the virtual machine and base classes can be as little as 256k - ideal for a PDA environment.