N-gage Qd

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Is somebody here experienced with ngage mobiles? All the talk about the dpad mod made me think about purchasing one. Since my cellphone was stolen and I am into mobile gaming anyways, I thought about adding an ngage to my collection.

I founf a few nice auctions on ebay which I am going to try my luck at. There is a swap unit on sale for a laughable sum which I am trying to get my hands on right now. Swap unit meaning: a replacement unit without battery, hull and buttons. These are fairly cheap though and if I can get the unit, I will get the case including button, a battery and charger from ebay seperately.

Question is: is it worth the effort? How is the homebrew scene for the ngage? I know it's got symbian OS and there is a load of apps out there for symbian which are really neat. Is it easy to run unsigned code on an ngage or is it desperate (like with those sony ericson cellphones, as they are locked etc...)?

 

[Ganepark32]

Ummm.... I would say not to bother with buying an n-gage. For mobile gaming, i think its awful.

 

[CUPC4KES]

to be honest i enjoyed having a qd, good emulation (genesis, nes, gameboy, snes), n-gage games were quite good, tomb raider and tony hawk were on a par with the ps1 versions (full 3d etc), they easily run off the memory card if you know where to find them and they run all series 60/symbian apps, the only downfall is the controls, the d pad is stiff as hell, games like tony hawk are extremely hard to play, and then the big thing that bothered me is the screen being long from top to bottom rather than from side to side which results in the screen having either side chopped when using emulators, unless you flip the screen in the options and hold the qd sideways, and i never felt comfortable getting it out to text in public for some reason, but it was a lot smaller than i imagined it to be, im interested to see what the n-gage 2 games are like, i know the n95 is the first phone to support these.

 

[jimid2]

I owned both N-Gages for a while, and while the QD was definitely an improvement in most ways over the original, I prefered the original's D-Pad for the reasons cited by CUPC4KES above. Ultimately, however, I found the unit too bulky to be a convenient phone and the screen too small to make a decent gaming device. What I do now is use my phone (Sony W810i) as my MP3 player, and carry a dedicated gaming machine when I know I'll want one (and my Gameboy Micro when I'm not sure)... In fact, I'd recommend a good cellphone with MP3 capabilities and a Gameboy Micro with a flash cart over an N-Gage any day - combined, they'll be less bulky and of more use than the N-Gage ever was for me...

 

[Ravnos]

I want to get an N-Gage just to play Rifts. I can't think of many other reasons to get one though, personally, and I'm still pretty choked that Rifts was an N-Gage exclusive. Who at Palladium thought that would be a good idea?

 

[Exophase]

good emulation (genesis, nes, gameboy, snes)

I have grave doubts that any of those aside from Gameboy are even worth playing on a 176x208 display (and if the SNES emulator is fast at all then I'd be astounded.. someone would definitely need to port that thing elsewhere)

 

[CUPC4KES]

good emulation (genesis, nes, gameboy, snes)

I have grave doubts that any of those aside from Gameboy are even worth playing on a 176x208 display (and if the SNES emulator is fast at all then I'd be astounded.. someone would definitely need to port that thing elsewhere)


well, for a mobile phone i was impressed with the emulation, nes more or less is full speed, when i tried snes it was ok, depending what game you were playing but i believe theres been many updates since, i think the company is called vampent who did the snes emulator, but like i said the only downside on emulation on n-gage is the screen, the best 'mobile' games machine is gb micro with a super card in my opinion, theres nothing on the market that does phone/games/mp3 all in one package very well.

 

[Exophase]

the best 'mobile' games machine is gb micro with a super card in my opinion

How do you figure that? GBA is alright, but it lacks resolution, buttons, RAM, and CPU speed compared to many alternatives... I know people are obsessed with size and go for GB Micro for that reason but if you ask me it's really too small, and I don't like the design at all. At the very least a DS Lite should be small enough, and GP2X and PSP both work well if you can manage the extra size (me, I keep such things in my coat pocket, although I don't have much of a solution for the summer.. not like I take these things with me very much).

 

[nickspoon]

I know someone who had an N-Gage (the original). The controls suck, the screen is tiny, most of the games are crap and it really is useless as a phone. I mean, look at the shape of it. The speaker and microphone are actually on the top of the device, so to call, you hold it up *sideways* to your face. Not only do you look like an idiot, it's also really difficult to hold.

Do not get it if you want to actually make calls.

 

[CUPC4KES]

the best 'mobile' games machine is gb micro with a super card in my opinion

How do you figure that? GBA is alright, but it lacks resolution, buttons, RAM, and CPU speed compared to many alternatives... I know people are obsessed with size and go for GB Micro for that reason but if you ask me it's really too small, and I don't like the design at all. At the very least a DS Lite should be small enough, and GP2X and PSP both work well if you can manage the extra size (me, I keep such things in my coat pocket, although I don't have much of a solution for the summer.. not like I take these things with me very much).


quality of games (for pure gameplay value, obviously, not graphics/sound etc..) on psp comes no where near that of gba/nes/gbc/genesis/pc engine, you can keep a micro in your pocket and not even notice. if i were taking a bag somewhere then id take a ds lite, but my opinion on truely portable gaming is gb micro.

 

[OMars]

the best 'mobile' games machine is gb micro with a super card in my opinion

How do you figure that? GBA is alright, but it lacks resolution, buttons, RAM, and CPU speed compared to many alternatives... I know people are obsessed with size and go for GB Micro for that reason but if you ask me it's really too small, and I don't like the design at all. At the very least a DS Lite should be small enough, and GP2X and PSP both work well if you can manage the extra size (me, I keep such things in my coat pocket, although I don't have much of a solution for the summer.. not like I take these things with me very much).


quality of games (for pure gameplay value, obviously, not graphics/sound etc..) on psp comes no where near that of gba/nes/gbc/genesis/pc engine, you can keep a micro in your pocket and not even notice. if i were taking a bag somewhere then id take a ds lite, but my opinion on truely portable gaming is gb micro.

It's awesome man, I keep it in my sweatshirt sleeve during the winter!

 

[___]

Okay, I am pretty convinced now that the ngage will not fullfill my expectations. I guess screensize and bad controls are the best arguments not to get one. Too bad actually. I wonder why there is so many multifunctional little gadgets out there but every one of them is lacking one or more aspects. Do companies not learn from each other at all?