Running Bluetooth multiplayer games on a PDA that has the MS (not Broadcom/Widcom) BT stack

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=372693

Q: Can I run Bluetooth multiplayer games on a PDA that has the MS (not Broadcom/Widcom) BT stack? A: If you're using a mobile phone to access the Internet (because the game uses a central server-based model), then, you can play the game. Multiplayer (MP for short) games that belong to this category are I-mate and DreamQuest titles, Chesscapade, Valentin Iliescu Chess, Intelli Chess (ICC), Olmichess (FICS), Multiplayer Championship Poker - Texas Hold'em, CanTris and Snails (and, in the very near future, pocketadventures.com's The Travel Collection). If, on the other hand, you'd like to use a local, internet-less connection: a. First, you can forget BT PAN. It rules out several, strictly IP and/or LAN broadcast discovery-based, serverless p2p games (Warfare Inc. in TCP/IP mode, OmniGSoft titles (when you run the server on one of your PDA's), Quartz 2 1.2, Fathammer titles, RocketElite 2.1, CanTris. Finally, pocketadventures.com's The Travel Collection, as of version 1.5.1, only supports IP-based games; as of version 1.6, it'll also support a central server-based model, meaning the ability to be played over GPRS, which does work on the Magician.) Note that you can still use Wi-Fi p2p connections to play these games – if your PDA supports Wi-Fi and the much bigger battery consumption aren't a problem. Also, if you really want BT PAN and all the goodies it supports, you can also try installing the Widcomm/Bluesoleil BT stack on your MS BT stack PDA. It's not guaranteed to work, though. See for example this thread on installing it on the HTC Magician and this thread on the HTC Blue Angel. Unfortunately, there're no known ways of installing an alternative BT stack on the HTC Universal as yet. b. On the other hand, games that use strictly serial connection (instead of PAN) may be playable because the MS BT stack supports the serial profile. Give a try to TapzMania (see the TapzMania section in this MP game roundup on setting it up). c. Finally, much as programming the MS BT stack is much easier than that of Widcomm, most games that have native BT support (NOT just IP-based playing over BT PAN!) still only support the latter. You may, however, want to give a try to the following games: Infinite Dreams titles Quartz 2 Warfare Incorporated 1.2 (the fourth software developer that has MP games with native BT support, Mobirate, has declared to have Widcomm support only).