JAVA ME · CLDC 1.0 · MIDP 2.0
100 original games for button phones
Arcade, puzzle, board, card, racing, sports, RPG and experimental games, written from scratch for classic Java feature phones. Each one is a tiny JAR + JAD you can install on a real handset or an emulator, and each one has a browser demo you can try right here.
RETRO SNAKE
Featured
A taste of each category. Every game has a title screen, help, pause menu, restart and game-over screens, and plays entirely on the 12-key keypad.
Block Fall
Rotate and drop falling four-block pieces to clear rows, in endless Marathon or a 40-line Sprint.
Pixel Jumper
Run, jump and stomp through eight scrolling levels of pits, spikes, springs and walking blobs.
Tower Guard
Build and upgrade Arrow, Cannon and Frost towers along the road to hold back 20 waves of monsters.
Keypad Chess
Full-rules chess against an alpha-beta AI with three strengths, played entirely on the keypad.
Klondike
The classic patience game: build four suits from Ace to King, with Draw 1 and Draw 3 rules.
Dungeon Quest
A pocket roguelike: explore ten generated dungeon floors, level up, and slay the dragon at the bottom.
All 100 games
Pixel Paddle
Vertical table tennis against a CPU opponent that predicts your shots. First to 7 wins.
Block Fall
Rotate and drop falling four-block pieces to clear rows, in endless Marathon or a 40-line Sprint.
Keypad Chess
Full-rules chess against an alpha-beta AI with three strengths, played entirely on the keypad.
Brick Buster
Bounce the ball off your paddle to smash eight hand-built walls of bricks, with power-up capsules.
Number Place
Fill the 9x9 grid so every row, column and box holds 1-9. Fresh puzzles generated on the phone, always with exactly one solution.
Pixel Jumper
Run, jump and stomp through eight scrolling levels of pits, spikes, springs and walking blobs.
Traffic Dash
Weave through highway traffic at speed, grab fuel cans and chain near-misses for a bigger score.
Tower Guard
Build and upgrade Arrow, Cannon and Frost towers along the road to hold back 20 waves of monsters.
Star Defender
Defend the planet from a marching alien formation, hiding behind shields that crumble under fire.
Tile Merge
Slide numbered tiles around the board and merge equal pairs until you build the target tile.
Four Drop
Drop discs into a seven-column grid and line up four before your opponent - against the CPU or a friend.
Twenty-One
Play the dealer at the classic 21 card game: hit, stand or double, and grow 100 chips into 1000.
Dungeon Quest
A pocket roguelike: explore ten generated dungeon floors, level up, and slay the dragon at the bottom.
Spot Kick
A football penalty shoot-out where the goal is mapped onto your keypad: press 1-9 to place your shot or pick your dive.
Pocket Farm
Till, plant, water and harvest a 30-plot field and earn $1000 before the 28-day season ends.
Echo Tones
A light-and-sound memory game played on the keypad itself: repeat ever-longer sequences of tones.
Rock Blaster
Pilot a drifting vector ship through wrap-around space, splitting tumbling rocks and dodging a sharpshooting saucer.
Crate Pusher
Push crates onto targets in 20 original warehouse puzzles, each verified solvable with a known minimum push count.
Noughts Grid
Noughts and crosses where the keypad is the board - plus a 5x5 four-in-a-row variant.
Sky Hopper
An endless vertical jumper: bounce from platform to platform, steering left and right, and climb as high as you can.
Klondike
The classic patience game: build four suits from Ace to King, with Draw 1 and Draw 3 rules.
Monster Duel
Raise a monster partner and battle through eight trainers with turn-based, element-driven combat.
Mini Golf
Nine top-down crazy-golf holes with bank shots, bumpers, sand traps and water hazards.
Lake Fishing
Cast from the dock, strike at the bite and play the fish on a tension meter. Six species, one golden rarity.
Multitap Rush
Type falling words with old-school multi-tap texting (press 2 three times for C) before they hit the ground.
Slide Fifteen
The sliding tile puzzle: put the numbers back in order by sliding tiles into the gap.
Flip Disc
Outflank and flip your opponent's discs on an 8x8 board - against a positional CPU or a friend.
Cave Escape
Explore six flip-screen caverns, climb ladders, collect five crystals and find the key to escape.
Checkpoint Rally
A top-down rally time trial: steer a free-rotating car through numbered checkpoints over two laps.
Box Claim
Dots and boxes: draw lines, complete boxes to claim them, and avoid handing your opponent a chain.
Hi-Lo Cards
Guess higher or lower to climb a seven-card ladder, doubling the prize each rung - bank it or risk it all.
Island Dig
Comb a random island with a metal detector and three compass readings to dig up three buried chests.
Corner Shop
Stock the shelves, set your prices and read the weather to turn $50 into a fortune in 30 days.
Mole Bonk
Nine molehills laid out like your keypad: press 1-9 to bonk moles, but never the bunnies.
Gem Swap
Swap neighbouring gems to line up three or more, setting off cascading chain reactions.
Keypad Checkers
English draughts with forced captures, multi-jumps and kings, against a three-level CPU.
Ladder Loot
Grab every gold bar on a screen of ladders, ropes and bricks while guards chase you - dig holes to trap them.
Drag Strip
Quarter-mile drag races won on launch revs and perfectly timed gear shifts, with a garage full of upgrades.
Land Grab
Pick a colour to flood your territory into matching neighbours - out-grow the CPU to own the board.
Draw Poker
Jacks-or-better video poker: hold cards with keys 1-5, draw once, and get paid by the table.
Lost Keep
A graphical text adventure: explore a ruined keep, solve item puzzles and restore the tower's gem - no typing needed.
Hoop Shot
A 60-second basketball shoot-out: time the aim and power, bank it off the glass, and catch fire.
Deep Mine
Drill deep for coal, gold and diamonds, sell your haul at the surface and upgrade your pod to reach the core.
Orbit Jump
A one-button space hop: break orbit at the right moment to be captured by the next planet up.
Light Trails
Light-cycle duels: leave walls of light behind you and be the last rider standing.
Pixel Logic
Picture-logic puzzles: use the number clues on every row and column to reveal hidden pixel art.
Five Stones
Five in a row on an 11x11 board, against a CPU that weighs every open three and four.
Treasure Run
An endless temple runner: jump pits and crates, slide under beams and scoop up gems as the pace builds.
Snow Slalom
Carve down the mountain through 25 flag gates against the clock - or freeride through the forest.
Kingdom Ledger
Rule a small kingdom for ten years by deciding how much land to trade, grain to feed and acres to sow.
Cell Solitaire
The all-cards-face-up patience game with four free cells - nearly every deal is winnable.
Pocket Saga
A tiny console-style RPG: roam the overworld, fight random battles, shop in towns and defeat the Dark Knight.
Pocket Cricket
Chase down a target in a two-over, super-over or five-over run chase - pick the shot and nail the timing.
Diner Rush
Run a busy diner single-handed: the room is laid out like your keypad, so key 1-6 sends your waiter to that table.
City Shield
Aim a crosshair and launch interceptors to protect six cities from falling, splitting warheads.
Switch Grid
Every switch flips its neighbours too - turn all the lights off. On the 3x3 board, the keypad is the grid.
Seed Sowing
A count-and-capture mancala-family game: sow seeds round the board, earn free turns and capture across.
Gravity Flip
A one-button runner that cannot jump - flip gravity to fall between floor and ceiling past holes and spikes.
Hill Climb
Drive a little 4x4 over endless rolling hills - feather the gas, tilt in the air and land on your wheels.
Galaxy Conquest
Real-time space strategy: send fleets between planets to out-produce and overwhelm the red empire.
Eights Shed
Shed your hand by matching suit or rank - eights are wild - against one to three CPU players.
Arena Champion
Gladiator duels: read high and low wind-ups, block to stun, punish the opening, and upgrade between six bouts.
Court Rally
Top-down tennis against the CPU: time your swing to aim, rally, and win a three-game set.
Tiny City
Zone homes, shops and factories, lay roads and power, and grow a town of 2000 citizens in ten years.
Road Hopper
Hop a frog across five lanes of traffic and a log-strewn river into the homes at the top.
Pipe Flow
Rotate pipe tiles to connect the water inlet to the drain - every grid is generated around a guaranteed solution.
Nim Sticks
The ancient take-away game: remove sticks from one row per turn - take the last (or avoid it in misere).
Barrel Climb
Climb five girders by ladder while barrels roll down at you - jump them for points.
Pixel Racer
Top-down three-lap circuit races against three AI drivers on two Grand Prix tracks.
Grid Tactics
Turn-based squad battles on an 8x8 field: move, attack, use cover and outmanoeuvre the red army.
Memory Cards
Turn over cards two at a time and find all the matching pairs - solo or in a duel against a forgetful CPU.
Deep Crawl 3D
A first-person step-and-turn dungeon crawler: find three rune stones and the stairs on each of three maze floors.
Bullseye
Target archery: steer a swaying sight, hold your breath to steady it and allow for the wind.
Factory Line
Run a sorting line: open the right chute with keys 1-3 as each coloured part rolls past.
Copter Cave
Hold to climb, release to sink: fly a helicopter through an endless, narrowing cave.
Race Home
A cross-and-circle dice race: roll a six to leave base, race round the board and knock rivals back home.
Wall Kick
Wall-jump your way up an endless shaft, timing each kick to dodge spikes while the screen keeps rising.
Ring Racer
Fly a behind-the-ship space race through a course of rings - every ring adds time to the clock.
Siege Lanes
Three lanes, two castles: spend gold to send spearmen, archers and knights up a lane with keys 1-3.
Domino Line
Draw dominoes against the CPU with a double-six set: match the open ends, draw when stuck, go out first.
Spell Deck
A pocket deck-building duel: draw four spells, spend three mana, read the foe's intent and grow your deck after each win.
Puck Rush
Fast table air hockey against a CPU opponent: slide your mallet, bank off the rails and score first to seven.
Lemon Stand
Run a lemonade stand for fourteen days: read the forecast, tune your recipe, price and batch size, and build a reputation.
Bubble Shot
Aim, bank off the walls and pop groups of three matching bubbles before the ceiling pushes down.
Laser Mirrors
Rotate mirrors to bounce a laser beam through every crystal; fifteen generated puzzles with walls, decoys and bolted mirrors.
Peg Jump
Peg solitaire on three boards: jump pegs over each other until only one remains, with unlimited undo.
Volley Beach
One-on-one beach volleyball: run, jump and head the ball over the net, with three touches a side.
Pet Pal
Hatch an egg and raise a pixel pet to adulthood: feed it, play with it, clean up and tuck it in.
Space Trader
Buy low and sell high across six worlds in thirty days, dodging pirates and chasing price spikes to pay off your loan.
Rail Switcher
The keypad is a signal box: flip seven sets of points with keys 1-7 to route coloured trains to matching stations.
Morse Signal
Turn the 5 key into a telegraph key: tap out words in Morse code or read a flashing signal lamp against the clock.
Math Blitz
Rapid-fire mental arithmetic typed straight on the number pad, checked the instant you enter the last digit.
Cell Garden
Plant a handful of seeds and let them grow by cellular-automaton rules; score the plants that end up on golden soil.
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Install on a phone
1. Download
Grab a game's .jar from its page or the download list, or every game at once in the all-games ZIP.
2. Copy to the phone
USB mass storage, a memory card, Bluetooth, or a vendor PC suite all work. For over-the-air installs serve the .jad and .jar from your own plain-HTTP server.
3. Open it
Select the file on the phone and accept the install prompt. The game appears under Applications or Games.
No phone? Use an emulator
MicroEmulator (desktop), J2ME Loader (Android), KEmulator and FreeJ2ME all run JAR files. The project runs every game on MicroEmulator automatically.
Requirements
MIDP 2.0 and CLDC 1.0 or later, about 512 KB free heap, any screen from 128x128 to 240x320.
Compatibility, honestly
We only claim what has actually been checked. These numbers are generated from the test reports in the repository.
Compiled against the CLDC 1.0 / MIDP 2.0 API; JAR and JAD produced.
Real JAR run automatically at all five screen sizes on the project's headless MIDP runtime.
Automated smoke test on MicroEmulator 2.0.4: launch, start, random keypad input, no errors.
Reported working on physical phone hardware.
No game has been tested on a real phone yet. If you have a Java phone, please report how it went.
Under the hood
Built for 2005 phones
Java 1.3 language level, compiled by ECJ straight to preverified CLDC class files against the CLDC 1.0 and MIDP 2.0 APIs, so nothing a phone lacks can sneak in. No floating point: positions are fixed-point integers, trigonometry comes from a 64-entry sine table.
A shared framework, gamekit, provides the game loop, menus, input latching, fonts, sound and
high scores, and is compiled into each JAR so every game stands alone.
Tested and playable everywhere
A headless MIDP runtime written for this project runs each real JAR at five screen sizes. The same runtime, compiled to JavaScript with TeaVM together with the game's own source, powers the Browser Demos on this site. They are previews, not the original Java ME version.
Every JAR is also smoke-tested on the independent MicroEmulator 2.0.4.