IPHONE NEWS
Port mobile games from Java to iPhone in a jiffy
That's the idea behind Innaworks' new AlcheMo for iPhone tool |
As any fule kno, to make native iPhone games developers will need to sign up for Apple's SDK. However, what to do if they've got a bunch of existing Java games that they want to port across?
New Zealand firm Innaworks reckons it has the answer in its new AlcheMo for iPhone technology. The claim is that it'll "instantly" port a standard Java mobile game to iPhone and iPod touch, without any need for manual tweaking.
The idea is that developers and publishers can save time and money by porting their Java games to iPhone automatically, although just how automatic that is remains open to question, given that Innaworks also says that the tool lets developers take advantage of the iPhone's accelerometer and multi-touch features.
"iPhone is emerging as a serious gaming platform," says Innaworks CEO Stephen Cheng. "We are amazed by the effectiveness of the touchscreen and accelerometer on enhancing gaming experience. We expect the early backers among game publishers to significantly benefit from their first mover advantage."
Innaworks hasn't sprung from nowhere – the company already has a tool called AlcheMo for BREW, which publishers have been using to port their Java games to the BREW platform that's popular in the US (for example, Vivendi Mobile Games used it for Urban Attack).
However, thinking about this from the point of view of gamers, we hope that technologies like AlcheMo aren't misused by developers to simply shovel all their Java games onto iPhone, without thinking about how the gameplay should be adapted for the strengths of Apple's handset.
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Mar 2008
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How could it be possible?
Nishi
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Oct 2007
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105
Magic?
Actually I don't see why it's not possible since code is just a structured document which is how IDE's analyse code. Since both SDK's will have equivalent methods (ie drawing images, saving to file system) then it should be a simple case of replacing the lines of code and changing the structure of the application.
There are a few other companies who also offer this server, Mobile Distillery is one I have heard some stuff about, they also do J2ME -> Brew
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This is Stephen Cheng, CEO of Innaworks.
@chandhok: alcheMo is based on advanced optimizing cross-compiler technologies. It compiles Java source code into C++, rather than the more traditional approach of compiler to Java bytecode. alcheMo for BREW is widely used by tier 1 publishers (including Vivendi, Superscape, I-Play, etc). It does work - you can judge it from our testimonials on www.innaworks.com/alcheMo.html.
@vaga222: Mobile Distillery is our partner, and Mobile Distillery's Celsius product integrates with alcheMo, such that a single Java code base can port to J2ME and BREW handsets.
@Stuart: "However, thinking about this from the point of view of gamers, we hope that technologies like AlcheMo aren't misused by developers to simply shovel all their Java games onto iPhone, without thinking about how the gameplay should be adapted for the strengths of Apple's handset." I totally agree - a tool is but a tool and its power is determined by the wielder. We have already worked on many iPhone games with our publishers to explore what works and what doesn't work on iPhone. As I said earlier iPhone has the potential to be a really powerful gaming platform; I can say the companies we work with have similar respect for iPhone. The great thing about a tool like alcheMo is it allows the game designers and developers to really focus their energies (and time and dollar budget) on what really counts - the best playing mechanisms and play experience.
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Feb 2008
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Well the fact remains that iPhone is relatively low volume, so will all that money spent on making games use the extra features pay off?
I think tools like AlcheMo from Inaworks and BedRok from Metismo are great and help keep costs down for publishers wanting to target native platforms, I do however also think that they are a relatively short-term solution. The real pay-off for publishers will be when they can target a huge volume of phones with native content as the primary (or "reference") build then port (and cut-down) the games to run on Java-only devices.
Once the addressable market swings this way we will start to see a much higher quality of mobile games. In the mean-time Java-to-Native porting tools will help to sustain and grow the native markets, which has to be a good thing.
