We are witnessing the development of large-scale location systems and a corresponding rise in the popularity of location-aware applications, especially games. Traditional computer games have pushed the limits of CPU and graphics card performance for many years and experience suggests that location-aware games will place similar demands upon location systems.

Unlike traditional gaming platforms however, the mobile devices that interact with location systems are heavily constrained especially in the number of ways that feedback can be provided.

In this paper we describe a location-aware, fast-paced, close quarters action game and use it to experiment with three key components of future location-aware gaming platforms: (i) the location system, (ii) the network to connect the mobile devices, and (iii) the feedback and computational capabilities of the mobile devices themselves. We investigate the tradeoffs that are possible between these components, the effect of the feedback channel and the suitability of Bluetooth as a network for mobile game devices.