SwirlyMyself

2005-10-04T00:28:27+00:00

Tapu - Taboo for the mobile phone

Do you know the game "Taboo"? It is a great word game, where you have to describe a word without using any of the five taboo words. I quite like the game, but it is always a hassle to carry it to where you want it - especially to far off mountain huts where you have to hike to (more about this exicting weekend, including burning cars, later and probably in German, so planet readers: see here).

So today I wrote Tapu, which is an implementation of Taboo for the mobile phone. It should work on any phone with Java support. It will present you the cards and keep track of the time and score. To give it a try, just put the jar file on the phone. I have only tried it on my Sony T610, I'm looking for reports on other mobile phones. Note that currently, the UI and the 100 words, copied from the original game, are all in German, but the code is not. If someone writes an i17n-patch, that would be terrific.

Also, since I assume that the words of the original game are copyrighted, I'm looking for help developing a free word list for taboo. Just think of a word and five taboo words that make describing this word interesting, put them all in one line and send it, together with lots of other such lines, to me, so I can add them to the list.

Oh, and why is it named Tapu? Well, it was Taboo first (since I thought it is wise to not call it Tabu, the name of the German version of the Game), but sice the English version is already called that, I renamed the Program to Tapu, which is the Tongan origin of both Tabu and Taboo, according to the Wikipedia.

Comments

Tried it on a Nokia 6021. It works mostly, but it went to the folder Applications instead of Games, and the screen is too small or something so the fifth word is partly on the same area as the scores. Actually, perhaps that's because the game is not using fullscreen so there's a title bar on top and button descriptions on bottom.
#1 Anonymous am 2005-10-05T01:06:50+00:00
Are you finish? (I get the comment notification mails in the language of the commenter, so I wonder)

My phone puts it to applications too. Can't help that, I think, as all Java midgets go there. To the screen: Could you send me a screenshot, by mail? Then I'll see if that can be adjusted. Or try it yourself: If it's only one word, it might be enough to change the variable "shift" from two to one.

I don't have a title bar on my phone, no idea how to change that.

(And I hate how serendipity puts the whole comment in one paragraph, even though I made paragraphs)
#2 nomeata (Homepage) am 2005-10-05T09:13:32+00:00
Ok, I fixed that with the comments :-)
#3 nomeata (Homepage) am 2005-10-05T09:22:28+00:00
Does fine on a T630 :)
Your "list" Link points to the wrong repository.

Tapu is a fine idea! Tabu is one of my favourite games and now i can carry around a version of it all the time.

Suggestion: What about word packages to adapt to certain audiences. A word pack for geeks or one for role players or ...
#4 beza1e1 (Homepage) am 2005-10-05T13:55:06+00:00
Yes, this is indeed planned. As soon as I have a proper Makefile running, it should output one .jar per word list.
The link was fixed shortly before your post, thanks.
#5 nomeata (Homepage) am 2005-10-05T14:35:13+00:00
Hehe. Ich seh gerade dass wir uns wohl kennen. Zumindst laut deiner Homepage hast du auch Info 2 gehört. Du kennst mich vielleicht von so Aktionen wie http://lkwiki.nomeata.de/
#6 nomeata (Homepage) am 2005-10-05T20:01:25+00:00
<strong>Trackback:</strong> <a href="http://joachim-breitner.de/blog/archives/111-Tapu-goes-live-ohne-mich.html">Tapu goes live - ohne mich</a><br />
Vor einigen Wochen schrieb ich das Programm Tapu, eine Implementation von Tabu für das Handy. Leider wurde mir kurz darauf mein Handy geklaut, so konnte ich es selbst nie spielen. Nun hat Andreas Zwickau das ganze im Z10 in Karlsruhe getestet, und auf s
#7 nomeata's mind shares (Homepage) am 2005-11-13T21:33:39+00:00
<strong>Trackback:</strong> <a href="http://www.joachim-breitner.de/blog/archives/125-Copyright-infrigment-without-Layers.html">Copyright infrigment without Layers</a><br />
As blogged previously, I wrote a mobile phone version of the game &#8220;taboo&#8221; called tapu, for personal use. But as I like to share my work, I put the game with code and cards on my website. I did know that I most likely infringed someones copyr
#8 nomeata's mind shares (Homepage) am 2006-01-26T19:42:04+00:00

Have something to say? You can post a comment by sending an e-Mail to me at <mail@joachim-breitner.de>, and I will include it here.