In our study we only made two games with our prototype, but it can be used for more purposes like the following.

• Video Phone – With the Gameboy camera and a headset it could be possible to use the Gameboy as a videophone.
• WAP/HTML browsing – If one has a mobile phone with a small display, the Gameboy could be used as a browser together with the PlayMobile prototype.
• Remote control – As the Bluetooth has standard profiles of how to communicate with different devices, one could make the Gameboy control a lot of things around the house as a remote control. (Not very useful, considering the high power consumption of a Gameboy compared to a remote control, more a fun thing one can do and therefor rises the value of the PlayMobile prototype)

In the first quarter of year 2001 Nintendo will start selling a new Gameboy called Gameboy Advance [12] [21], it will look like shown in Figure 7.1. This is much more powerful than the old Gameboy and Gameboy Color. The new more powerful system will most likely be a success as it has few competitors and all the old Gameboy games will still work with the new system.

If the PlayMobile should be turned into a commercial product it should be implemented on the Gameboy Advance. Not only because it is the new system, also because it would make the implementation more easy as it has a built in UART and some other hardware features making the GBA a more suitable system. The built in UART makes it possible to just attach a Bluetooth module to the system link port without needing any additional hardware.

The following table shows differences between the GBC and the GBA:

The built in UART in the GBA makes it possible to attach a Bluetooth module to the link-port without adding any additional hardware. One might just want to add a blue LED to show BT activity. There is power supply available in the link port, enough to support a Bluetooth module, so there is no need for batteries in the plug in. The antenna could be etched on the PCB together with the rest of the circuit.

The software in the BT module must be at Application level to be able to setup piconets and to connect to a GSM phone. To support DoCoMo games some additional software is probably needed.

Standard multiplayer games for the GBA will not work. It is possible to connect a GBA to a DoCoMo phone (using a special cable) and play some of the games, these games will most likely also work with Bluetooth and also with GSM phones connected through Bluetooth. (If the Bluetooth module is set to emulate a DoCoMo phone when it receives non Bluetooth commands, it would require some additional software modification to the Bluetooth module)

If this product is made, there will be a need of cooperating with major game developers to create games that supports Bluetooth and GSM over BT. Games supporting this product could be marked with a Bluetooth logo or a Viking or similar to indicate that it has been approved for use with this product. (In the same way as multi player games that support gaming over a cable has a cable symbol on the package)

The mechanics for this product will be quite simple, only two plastic pieces forming the box, some contact elements and the PCB. This thesis focuses on electronics and software, but just to demonstrate how simple this product would be to manufacture we show a simple drawing of what the mechanical solution could look like in Figure 7.2. Two plastic casing halves are snapped together, the PCB is attached to the bottom half with a screw that not only keeps the PCB in place, it also is applying pressure to the contact spring ledges to get a reliable connection. The light guide is needed for the blue LED on the PCB informing the user of Bluetooth activity.

Figure 7.2: Ideas for the mechanical solution.