Position-based games for mobile terminals: development of a
prototype for Pocket PC

Abstract: It is predicted that the market for position-based services is going to
reach an annual turnover of billions of dollars in a few years. Besides
this, also the game industry is estimated to meet a bright future, and there
is a great interest already. This master’s thesis looks at a service that
combines these two areas. The result is a position-based game called Mystery
that is developed for the handheld computer Compaq iPaq 36-serie, which is
well suited for this kind of game.

To be able to locate a player we have used Ericsson’s Mobile Positioning
System, MPS, which uses GSM positioning. The alternative would have been to
use the Global Positioning System, GPS, but then the handheld computer would
require extra hardware that is not available on the market yet.

The prototype consists of a client and a server application. They are both
developed in Java and they are communicating with each other through an http-
protocol.

One conclusion we have drawn form our work is that the kind of game we have
developed requires higher accuracy than is achieved with GSM today, even
though it is still possible to play the game. The disadvantage now is that
the players have to move long distances, which is most likely if they are
going by train, bus etc. A better accuracy would make it possible to shrink
the distances so that it would also be remunerative to walk. When a better
accuracy can be achieved a new possibility for this kind of game will open
up.