HuguesJohnson.com - Sega 32X Collector

A couple years ago I got on something of a video game collecting kick. One constant lamentation is the lack of a (good) way to track what games I own on a mobile phone. Yeah, I can get by with spreadsheets or text files but being a nerd I have to over-engineer another way to do something relatively simple.

My first thought was to create a mobile-optimized web site with a MySQL database on the back-end. Then I started worrying about not being able to access it without a network connection. I also didn't want to bother with user access permissions and all the other stuff that goes along with running something like that.

Instead I decided to try writing a Java mobile (J2ME) application to track my collection. It's something I wanted to play around with for a while and this seemed like as good an excuse as any. I decided to start with a small proof-of-concept instead of biting-off too much and eventually scrapping the idea. I chose the Sega 32X for this project because it has a small library and I can never remember what games I have for it.

A while later I started reading about these fancy new Android phones. It wasn't the phones that intrigued me but rather the development kit. It was free, Java-based, and integrated with Eclipse. So to learn that I went off and ported the Sega 32X collector to it.

Here are the results of these two efforts. At the end I added a little bake-off to weigh the pros and cons of each.

Installation
Please refer to the instructions for your mobile device. I wish I could offer more guidance than that but unfortunately the install process varies from device to device. If you have Java installed on your device there's some way to do it. Oh, JSR 118 support is required but chances are your device supports it and you don't really even know what "JSR 118" means anyway.

The very first time the program runs you may briefly see a message that says something like "Creating record store 32XCollection", unless there's an error message afterwards just ignore it.

Using

From the main menu select what you'd like to view.

All 32X games displays a list of all 32X games including CD titles. This application only includes US releases.

My 32X collection displays a list of all 32X games in your collection.

My missing games displays a list of all 32X games you are missing. Use the checkboxes if you want to display games that you have but are missing the box or instructions.

Press the CONTINUE button to view the selected list, EXIT to quit the application.

From the game list select the game you wish to view and press the SELECT button or the center button on your phone.

Press the BACK button to return to the main menu.

Use the checkboxes on this page to record whether you have the game in your collection.

Press the BACK button to return to the game list, changes will be automatically saved.

Download
Sega 32X Collector 1.0 - executable .jar file
Sega 32X Collector 1.0 - source code

I considered calling this a "beta" version because after seeing what can be done on the Android there's so much more I'd like to do with this. As it stands now this is basically a straight port of the J2ME version. It works fine and everything but has lots of room to grow still.

Using

The main page shows all 32X games by default. Hit the drop-down list (which Android calls a "spinner" for some reason) to change the game list.

Use the back button on your phone to return to whatever you were doing before.

Use the menu button on your phone to bring up the quit menu (to totally close out the program).

Maybe I should have resized these pictures so there wouldn't be so much dead space here?

Alright, thanks for scrolling down. Here's the list of options when you click on the drop-down list.

All 32X games displays a list of all 32X games including CD titles. This application only includes US releases.

My collection displays a list of all 32X games in your collection.

My missing games displays a list of all 32X games you are missing.

My missing boxes & instructions is for the obsessive collector who wants to know which games they have, but are missing the box or instructions for.

When you select a game from the list you'll go here. I assume you can figure out the purpose of the checkboxes.

Either use the button on this page, or the back button on the phone, to return to the game list. Changes will be saved automatically.

Download
Download Sega 32X Collector on the Android Market
Sega 32X Collector 1.0 - source code

Since the whole purpose of this was to test drive two mobile SDKs I suppose I should talk about what I learned from it. In no particular order:

Java Mobile (J2ME)
Pros

MIDP development is really easy, the total time I spent developing this application was easily under 8 hours.
Eclipse setup was also incredibly easy.
Runs on just about everything, I think there's a version of J2ME that runs on my toaster.

Cons

The UI capabilities are highly limited. Since the Java mobile platform supports some pretty bare-bone devices you're stuck with the lowest common denominator. This is extremely evident when using the lcdui classes where you can't do simple things like change the color of a Form.
The database capabilities are even more limited. RMS was used for this application and there's no way it would scale. Without relational capabilities it's not good for a whole lot. Still, it was simple to use and worked on the first try.

Android
Pros

Overall the development was easy, anyone with Java experience will pick it up quickly.
Tons of potential, especially in the UI department.
Real database support, this would scale to support larger systems.
Eclipse setup was as easy as the J2ME version, the emulator setup even easier.

Cons

Took longer to develop than the J2ME version, most of that was trying to learn the nuances of UI programming on Android. I burned a bunch of time because I thought it worked like Swing but is actually quite different (which is for the better).
Only runs on Android phones.

So what's next?
I have two options for this program - 1) port it to the .NET compact framework for Windows Mobile devices 2) make the Android version really good.

I'm leaning heavily in the direction of 2), specifically:

Adding camera integration so you can store photos of your collection.
Creating a 32X theme for the program.
Adding a search feature.
Adding an export to XLS or CSV feature.
Expanding to include more systems.

Everything on this site is free If you've found something here to be especially helpful or entertaining please consider making a small donation, this can be done through a secure PayPal transaction. Thanks for visiting my little web page

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