MobileFIBS is a client program for mobile devices running Java/MIDP for playing Backgammon, or watching Backgammon matches, on the First Internet Backgammon Server, FIBS.
If you have never played backgammon on FIBS before, it is strongly recommended that you play a few matches there from your PC before playing with MobileFIBS.
On most mobile phones with Java support, you can install MobileFIBS by entering the URL in the Downloads section into the phone's WAP browser. You can also download the JAR file to your PC and then transfer it to your mobile phone using a data cable, Bluetooth, or IrDA.
If you do not have a mobile phone with Java support but want to try MobileFIBS anyway, you could download the Java 2 Platform Micro Edition Wireless Toolkit for your PC and run the program in the emulator. There are also emulators from most phone manufacturers that can be used to run the program.
MobileFIBS was written by Staffan Ulfberg and is copyrighted by Harmonicode AB 2003. All rights reserved.
MobileFIBS can currently be downloaded and used without charge.
You may download MobileFIBS only for running it on your mobile device, or on a mobile device emulator. The licence to run the program for free does not permit re-distribution, reverse-engineering, or any other activities not directly related to personal use of the software.
The current version of MobileFIBS is 1.1.
To run MobileFIBS you need a device that supports the MIDP 1.0 specification by Sun Microsystems. MIDP (Mobile Interconnected Device Profile) specifies a number of APIs on top of the CLDC (Connected Limited Device Configuration), which in turn is one of the configurations specified in J2ME (Java 2 Platform Micro Edition).
Although the MIDP 1.0 specification only requires that Java programs may access the Internet by means of HTTP, MobileFIBS also requires that the device supports connections to the Internet using general TCP sockets. Most mobile phones that implement MIDP 1.0 support this optional part of the specification, with the notable exception of most Nokia models.
MobileFIBS has only been tested on phones with color displays.
The size of the JAR file containing the Java class files and some other data is approximately 47 kB. This corresponds to approximately 93 kB of uncompressed data.
Unfortunately, MobileFIBS may not work, or may work poorly, on a particular device for a number of reasons, including too little memory, the Java interpreter being too slow, the Java implementation having bugs, or MobileFIBS having bugs that are exposed on a particular implementation. The following lists show devices that seem to work ok, devices that do not currently work with MobileFIBS but I think should, and devices for which there seems little hope in ever getting MobileFIBS working.
If you have tried MobileFIBS on a device that is not in any of the lists, or on a device that you think is currently on the wrong list, please inform me of your results.