I've just held an n-gage


woogal

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As I was leaving the office yesterday I noticed one of the tech support guys had a non working sample n-gage on his desk (I work for a telecoms company). It looks like it's the full shell, with usb socket etc. Don't know what they've put inside it though so I've no idea if the weight is accurate. It fits quite nicely in the hands, but the buttons feel a bit stiff (especially the joypad) and the screen size looks horrible. I asked them about costs and release dates but as they're only tech support they don't know for certain. One guy swears it will be out (in the uk) at the end of oct, the others think it will be end of nov. Cost is supposed to be £2xx sim free, and much less on contract (I'll try and find out more about costs and release dates soon).
 
The nGage is absolutely no alternative to GP32 or GBA. The screen is way too small and the same high format as the other Series 60 phones (7650,3650).
Most of the games are 2D, just the highlights like Tomb Raider (looks the same sh** as on PS1, even the texture-flickering is visible) are 3D.
The handling is quite nice though, also many keys available... :)

I've seen it on the GC in Leipzig and in my office as i work for the German mobile games creator elkware.

Hope to get a GP32 soon, still waiting for an answer from this Mitsui guy... :) Shame that elkware won't make any games for it. Maybe I convert one or two of our little java-games, GemJam for a start... if I ever find the time...
 
From what I've "seen" of this gizmo, it's not going to be anything to write home about... I'll stick with the hand-helds I already have - And I already have a good phone, so don't feel the need to get another gimmick! :)
 
The fact that the game carts go under the battery is a non-starter with me. I wouldn't want to have to take the battery out every time I wanted to play another game.
 
im curious if they were actually smart enough to have a small amount of power builtup in the phone so when u change cards you dont have to put the time and date in cause of no battery.

Then again they did put the card right behind a battery compartment :rolleyes:

:ph34r:
 
All phones can keep their details stored when the battery is removed (I'm taking batteries out and swapping sim's all the time). But then again, it is being built by nokia and they're not exactly famous for getting things right :)
 
All the n-gage is is a phone that is just more for gamers than for just strictly cell phone use. As a matter of fact, a cell phone company here in Japan called J-Phone has a megapixel digital camera, SD card slot, MP3 player, and just read below about the games it can play. It's amazing, and I've considered buying it, but not sure. I have seen images of the games it can play, but can't find them now. But they look like PS1 or N64. Quite amazing!




Realistic 3-D Games
256KB compatibility means you can choose from a rich selection of Java[TM] games, animations, and enjoy the latest that Java[TM] has to offer.
 
The keep the stuff stored cause its on the sim or phone but it doesn't keep the time and date in there as it needs a constant electricty to keep the clock running.

My phone does this and its damn annoying <_<

:ph34r:
 
Thats a strange phone you've got there then! I've never seen one that forgets the date and time (well, they probably would if you left the battery out for ages). I just took the battery out of mine for 2 minutes, and when I put it back in the clock was still accurate.
 
The N-Gage will burn and die, because it's a nasty hybrid between a cellularphone and a gamemachine. I read that the price will be around $400!!! For that kind of money you can get a GP32 and a cellularphone. It's too much money to go around, and the screen is sh*t, loudly spoken! Bah... <_<
 
The prices being mentioned are more than likely going to be sim free prices. I'd guess that contract prices will push the cost to around that of a gba before long. I doubt that will save it though 'cos all nokia's experiments like this disappear after only a few months (and rightly so - they're all crap).
 
Nobody takes the N-Gage seriously. I have no idea what market it's supposed to cater for. I don't consider it a games machine at all, I consider it a mobile phone that mimics one. I cannot see EB stores making room for N-Gage software in the future or anything like that. Sure, it'll appeal to people, but those people can't afford it anyway. I suppose it'll float for a short while, before it sinks fast when newer phones come out. Honestly, no right minded gamer would ever accept this as a games machine, and a little thing like that could undermine the entire distribution of such gizmos...especially considering how much more advanced mobile technology is in Japan, as mentioned before.

Mind you, I expect the key demographic audience is the teenage/young adult group, so it shoots over my head anyway. I could waste time pretending to understand, but meh. Like I said, I doubt the target audience can afford it anyway.
 
brutaLIzer posted on Aug 28 2003 said:
I've seen it on the GC in Leipzig and in my office as i work for the German mobile games creator elkware.
Maybe I convert one or two of our little java-games, GemJam for a start... if I ever find the time...
Hehe, I've installed GemJam on my Nokia 6310...
quite messy playing that game in B/W ;)
 
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One of my brother's mates is developing games for the N-gage (my brother's got LOADS of mates in the biz) and they're investing quite a bit of effort into it.

The situation he put forward was imagine being on the train home. You start up a game of Doom. The phone comes back saying "Game of Doom in progress - Join?"

You have no idea who you're playing against, but it's still MP Doom.

I'm a little skeptical about this. I toyed with the idea of buying one of the 3 phones (the NEC 606 so non-UK readers may have an idea what I'm on about), but the battery life was appaling (just over 40 hours standby). If you were to make a phone call, you would HAVE to put the phone on charge that night. With all that charging and discharging, how long will the batteries last? N-gage will obviously have a more powerful processor, making it even more powerhungry. When the battery is flat it's just a useless chunk of plastic no good to anyone.

If I buy a mobile phone, I like to be mobile, not tethered to power sockets. Playing games on a phone will make me more tethered. With my GP I can play games and not worry about battery life, but then carrying a GP around more than quadruples the size of the game/phone combination. I can't see it taking off myself, unless the N-gage has some other killer app up it's sleeve (or monster battery life).
 
Klown posted on Aug 31 2003 said:
Clocks can stay accurate when no batteries are inserted because they use an INTERNAL BATTERY.
Some do, Some don`t. ;)

Nokia 3210 Doesn`t. :rolleyes:

Trooper
 
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