Only two games have attempted this subversive move thus far – Kart (pictured) is a creditable attempt at a Mario Kart clone and World Rally Driver 4K is a top-down racer that even includes ghost cars – but more are being tested out in the Java4K forums all the time.

The competition closes on January 31st, with prizes including respect, kudos, good will and minor internet celebrity.

[Java4K]

Well, that’s all well and good, but a different gaggle of experts (Juniper Research, this time) are casting worried glances at the non-iPhone end of the market. Apparently Java game development has “flatlined across North America and Western Europe,” although the quoted jump from $US5.4 billion in 2008 to more than $US10 billion by 2013 doesn’t sound that flatliney.

Ironically, it could be the iPhone’s fault. “The revenue share offered by Apple to games publishers is incredibly attractive,” said the report, “The danger is that if operators do not respond with a similar business model, publishers faced with low margins may simply exit Java completely”

Sales of mobile games have “flatlined” – report [GamesIndustry.biz]

There are decent games out there, but there is a lot of dross – derivative, badly designed and poorly implemented.

Nokia want to change all that. They have been running the Mobile Games Innovation Challenge – a competition that asks developers to submit their most innovative game designs for – running under Symbian or Java on N-Gage or standard Nokia handsets

Being Nokia, they have a certain amount of hard cash to throw at the problem and have put up prize money worth €70,000 – that’s €40,000 for the winner, €20,000 for second place and €10,000 for the third runner up.

The ten finalists up for the big money are:

* Active Tecnologia e Consultoria Ltda. (Brazil) with Cinemarena – set in a movie theatre, controlling avatars on the big screen
* CreatePlayShare (India) with Ball – play any ball game on your mobile or even create your own new game
* Different Game (Sweden) with Ghost Wire – use your mobile device to communicate with ghosts
* Eclipse Interactive (UK) with Watchers – conspiracy adventure game that uses Nokia Maps and other real world tools to find locations
* Int13 (France) with Kweekies – augmented reality virtual pet game
* Jadestone (Sweden) and C4M (France) with Melokey – a music game for mobile devices where you learn to master songs and play them against other in-game characters to win the hearts of your fans
* LemonQuest (Spain) with Wave Pirates – turn into a pirate navigating the seven seas, looking for gold and glory
* Onur Yazilim (Turkey) with Comet Hunter – a 2-D shooting game which combines the excitement of shooting with natural sound effects made by players themselves
* Simlife (China) with XDancery – a music game where players can touch the screen, draw patterns on screen, shake the device or sing into it to hit the music tempo notes
* TechnoBubble (Spain) with Fun Cam – a mixed reality game that connects your camera on your mobile device to the TV

The winners will be announced at the Nokia Games Summit in Rome on 29 October.

Who will win one of the most prestigious mobile gaming prizes of 2008? [Game Challenge via NokNok.tv]

Perilar is a nostalgic nod back to the early Ultima games, without which we would arguably not have Fallout 3, Ultima Online and Richard Garriot being sick all over a cosmonaut. Turn-based RPG adventuring, quests, leveling up, the whole kit and kaboodle.

The iPhone bereft need not despair – Perilar is a conversion of a freeware Java game – JPerilar – still available for download here. If only there was a decent Java VM for the iPhone you could save yourself $US5.

Perilar RPG for iPhone, a Tribute to Early Ultimas [Touch Arcade]

She notes that “…the game bit comes in through some devilishly simple grammar. Each ball can, if you so chose, be designated a goal, hazard, or player token. The token can be controlled by the arrow keys: touch a hazard and it’s game over, touch the goal and it’s a win.” Robertson’s conclusion?

“I’ve done my time with idiot-proof game creators – with RPG Maker, and Dark Basic and various modding tools, but am usually defeated by the same failings that Meccano used to reveal. With Newtoon, it will take an actual act of an actual god to prevent you from making a game. It’s the Wario Ware of game-makers, something you really can play with for 2 minutes and find rewarding.”

Sounds like a bit of a laugh, then – and yet again showcases the fact that physics is the new black.

Doing it for myself [Lookspring]