CitiTag, a wireless location-based multiplayer game designed to explore spontaneous social interaction and novel experiences in city environments, was due to undergo multiplayer, real-life testing today. Alas some technical problems meant that only four out ten iPaqs could contribute to the first trial! The hardware consists of a GPS receiver, to provide positional information, connected to a Wi-Fi enabled iPaq PocketPC. It seems that the extreme cold is not good for these devices … so, our second trial needs to be somewhere warmer, perhaps. Nevertheless, the few players who were able to try out the game model seemed to have some fun!
The wireless base station was powered by Lewis' car, via an inverter and UPS to provide a stable mains supply. The photo shows pre-game preparations of the hardware involved, next to the Mulberry Lawn at the OU's Walton Hall campus.
The game is being developed in close collaboration with the Mobile Bristol team at the Hewlett Packard Laboratories in Bristol and trials in the centre of Bristol are being planned.
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