The objectives of this paper are to analyze the benefits of the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) 2.0 application programming interface (API) for game development, and to describe the porting of an application from MIDP 1.0 to 2.0; these goals are just partially achieved.

The paper introduces the new API, briefly describing the main new classes related to game development (GameCanvas, Layer, TiledLayer, Sprite, and LayerManager) and suggesting uses for them, and then jumps to a 1.0 case study (the ship case game), illustrating how to port the application to 2.0. However, the authors just describe how the 2.0 version was developed, what classes were used, and what design decisions were made. There is a brief comparison between the implementations, based on code size and speed.

Williams and Burge were ambitious in trying to achieve their posed objectives in a short paper, and the work, which is well written and organized, motivates the reader to explore the new API in search of the promised enhancements. References are very limited, but the source code mentioned in the paper is available online. The illustrations are excellent, but the best feature of the paper is the real excitement that comes from developers that found a better tool to produce better software.