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Nokia's Cellular GBA - The N-Gage
An anonymous reader writes "Hold on to your Game Boys, folks! It appears that the Finland cell phone manufacturer, Nokia, will be throwing in its lot in the handheld gaming industry with its N-Gage. Not only is this critter capable of playing games, but other noticeable features include a cell phone, radio, and MP3 player. Game companies such as Sega, Taito, and Eidos have already expressed support for it."
I just gave mine to my little brother yesturday!
Well, /. ate my long and insightful post so I'll just give you the gist of it.
Read a fucking book.
I have been pwned because my
Besides the fact that Nintendo has the obscene stranglehold on the world when it comes to portables, Nokia creates terrible, unreliable, buggy phone software. I highly doubt that their gaming software will be much different. I also bet that people will look at you like you have the retardation if you are trying to have a conversation with a friend through what appears to be a gameboy.
Carl
Vote Libertarian
It's been delayed until fall. They didn't mention that did they?
"Not only is this critter capable of playing games, but other noticeable features include a cell phone, radio, and MP3 player."
It's also a flashlight, keyring, and garden hose!
TLoM: Nerds + DDR + Rednecks for the win!
plus an MP3 player and a TV
now all it needs is a PDA and GPS !
i think thats enough TLA IMO
i think the big question will be how is Nokia going to be on supporting you and i, the folks without the dev kits, for writing the games. if they let us write some of the games and do emulators and stuff, they could have a huge hit on their hands... a gba emulator using bluetooth for zelda ;)
Wow, the rate of technological progress these days is amazing. I mean, wasn't it just last year that everyone was excited about HO-gauge Nokias?
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
I *just* got a cell phone through T-Mobile, and the games suck. Oh, I love the phone otherwise, and I certainly love my plan so far.
I didn't even look at the games until after I bought the phone. "If I want games," I said, "I can bring along my Game Boy." Indeed, depending on where I'm going, maybe I'll just swap SIM cards and bring my GBA after all. At the very least, this'll be something fun to carry around. Price it right and I'll probably get one.
i don't see as it's the most useful, ground-breaking thing in the world, but it might just be fun!
...are price, and battery life. Neither of which were addressed on this web page. If it's $200 and lasts three hours on a battery charge, then we've probably got another Lynx. (is that what is was called? There were a couple of those deluxe handhelds out in the early 90's)
The GameBoy has survived because it's cheap and the battery life lasts forever (well, an impressively long time, at least). That, and the Mario/Zelda/Pokemon franchises.
And all from Sega. Puyo Puyo, Tennis and Sega Rally.
I cant find any specs, but this sounds like a cellular phone with a lame-o processor in it that will play very weak game-n-watch type stuff, like the T-Mobile, and not a serious competitor for GBA.
I'm assuming I cant find specs because they're thoroughly unimpressive.
I mean I might choose it over another cell-phone, but I doubt it will compete seriously with nintendo in the handheld gaming arena.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
"Game companies such as Sega, Taito, and Eidos have already expressed support for it."
Expressed support? The resolution hasn't passed?
... bluetooth, games, tri-band, PIM, etc. Is this the first Nokia with integrated bluetooth that hasn't sucked? No camera, but then again cameras aren't terribly useful on fones imho, less'n they support live video.
Now if only it's supported in iSync...
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EN-Gage!
Ah, that was a knee-slapper.
More seriously, what the hell kinda name is 'N-Gage'?
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
Nokia's N-Gage??? more like celda!
Y2K Compliant since the late 1890s
N-Gage specs
And back to Excellent for me!
I have been pwned because my
I can play a GBA on an airplane. Would I be able to turn on my N-Gage?
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/04/155920 3&mode=nested
Okay so its from back in Nov. but its still a dupe.
So okay at least they link to the new story
Okay so its not even a real dupe
Damn it, I like screaming Fire.
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
from the hope-it-has-a-better-backlight dept
the gba sp doesnt have a backlight. it has a reflective lcd and a frontlight
I dont understand why everyone is trying to jump on the all-in-one unit bandwagon. If I want a cell phone, I want a cell phone, not a bulky handheld that has 50 other functions and is 10 times the price of a standard cell phone. If I want something to play games on, Im going to choose something like a gameboy that has a large game base. I just dont think the mass markets are going to support and hold on to this type of all-in-one technology.
On the bright side, I guess these make cell phones less likely to be discarded - repair prices would probably be under the cost of a new phone unlike most standard cell phones today.
If someone can get a kernel, a bash shell, X11 and Tux Racer running on it I'll have one.
Omnis amans amens
Geez, these people and their technology, next thing you know they'll be putting cameras on cell phones. These people are just outa control.
X has just announced that it has ported Linux to the N-Gage! No colour, phone or game support at this time....
does it slice and dice too?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I got to see one last Friday when the nice boys from Eidos came to my office, and I can say it is a lot more impressive than the GBA.
Height- and width-wise, it's about the same, but it feels a lot slimmer, which was a surprise to me as I'd been expecting something like Nokia's ill-fated 5510. It also seemed pretty light.
It also has a very nice high-res back-lit screen. It sure blew my GBA away.
Now, this doesn't mean it'll win the handheld console war. There is the question of price: can it compete with a $100 GBA? And then there are game; Eidos, THQ, Sega and Activision are (reasonably) big names, but they are not Nintendo.
That said, it will be useful indeed to see the Big N get some competition.
--- My dad's political betting
The cameras aren't that useful, but they're fun. My friend has one programed with visual caller ID, when it rings, the person whos calling's picture shows up if its loaded on the fone.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
In related news, n-gage will include a rumble pack.........
Don't read stupid books, Shinji.
It would be great if one of the handset manufacturers would make a true mobile phone with wireless peer-to-peer walkie-talkie-style communications. You could talk free of charge for as long as you like on your mobile phone to other users on your chosen frequency channel whenever they are within range of your handset. Unfortunately, Nokia's new handsets can't do this. Here's hoping...
Scroogle
According to the specs on Gamepsot the batterylife is 3-6 hours. So in reality would be like 1-4 hours in real world usage. That is too damn short, considering that the Gameboy advance claims 30 hours on two AAs(only around 20 hours in realworld usage).
e ws/0,10870, 2910338,00.html
Considering that you can buy GBAs for around $70 and pretty soon the new back-lit lithium-ion GBA SP for $99, the Nokia better be priced to competitively or the consumer would just go out and buy a PocketPC or Palm device; considering that Capcom, Sega,and Verant are already producing games for those platforms (like Everquest, 1942, Section Z, Colomns, Ultima Undrworld, Simcity, etc.).
Link to Gamespot;
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/n
...I like that one...mod this guy up, pls. Glad to see it in the first batch of comments
It's all about spontaneity when it comes to phone cameras. It's about catching that once in a lifetime event that you didn't expect at all (like a shuttle explosion or some other catastrophe). You aren't always going to carry around your Elph (great camera, btw), but you can be counted on to have your cell phone nearby at almost any time.
The tiny pics that are produced by the phone cams aren't made for printing. They are for sharing with friends. You're right, if you were really serious about taking pictures you'd use a real camera, but you never know when you'll need a camera and taking it with you everywhere is not exactly the easiest thing to do.
So where's the USB2 or Firewire? Wheres the built in 5G hard drive? If this is going to be a useful MP3 player and store my contacts 64 MB isn't going to cut it. I wish Apple would splice the iPod with Handspring's Treo and let me have 1 useful device in my pocket instead of 2 or 3.
not even on my radar without nethack... :)
http://www.n-gage.com/n-gage/gd_tech_spex.html
Some random quotes:
- Full email support (IMAP4, POP3, SMTP, MIME2)
- Tri-band EGSM 900/GSM1800/GSM 1900
- Bluetooth
- Slave USB 1.1. for digital music download from PC
- 64 MB memory card for music
http://press.nokia.com/PR/200302/890630_5.html
Usage times:
- Games up to 3 - 6 h (depending on game type)
- Talk up to 2 - 4 h
- Standby up to 150- 200 h
- Music up to 8 h
- Radio up to 20 h
if i hadn't heard about it last year.
it'll fail, guarenteed...if Sony would enter the handheld arena, they'd have a chance. but until then, nintendo owns the portable market.
p.s. i'm not a sony fanboy...
104mhz arm?
Doom 1 runs at 120x120 pixels with a good frame rate on the 16.78 MHz ARM7TDMI processor in the GBA. If you want to see what even that slow speed (one-sixth of what the N-Gage has) can do, check out some of the GBA demos from Assembly '02.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Will I be able to synchronize my Tomb Raider saved games on the PC with the N-gage?
I don't see a built in digital camera!! this thing is useless.
Nokia N-Gage: First Impressions
Apparently you have to remove the back and take out the battery to switch games. Not very clever.
GBA SP
The Game Boy Advance SP charges its Li-ion battery through the headphone jack. So unless some third party comes out with a splitter, you can't play on a GBA SP with headphones while recharging the battery.
Will the Nokia N-Gage have the same handicap?
Will I retire or break 10K?
So much work.
I just put
127.0.0.1 images.slashdot.org
127.0.0.1 images2.slashdot.org
in my hosts file and I don't get any ads.
Whenever they add another ad server, I can just plop that URL in there as well.
Sure, it means there's no icons here, but it's definitely a cleaner looking site without all the crap on it.
It's even sweeter to just not see the ads...
Usage times: - Games up to 3 - 6 h
Reminds me of those other battery munching handhelds called "Lynx", "Game Gear", and "Turbo Express" that failed in the USA market precisely because they ate batteries too quickly.
The GBA SP is reported to run for 10 hours with the internal light on.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Anyone else think this is going to be popular for about a week before it dies? They think they're going to have an advantage becase they're blending all sorts of units together.
Lets compare shall we?
according to Nintendo, The GBA has a 2.9" reflective TFT screen capable of 32,768 colors and a resolution of 240x160. It is powered by a 32bit ARM processor.
This phone has a slightly higher resolution, only 4096 colors, and no mention of how good the gpu unit underneath is. Their main selling point is that you're getting games, a phone, an mp3 player and whatever else they think they can squeeze in there.
No one's going to buy this for the games if the games look only marginally better than game gear games. The game gear can match this new system color for color. If the OLD gameboy beat down the Game Gear, then how is this thing supposed to compete with the GBA as far as games go? Because it's a phone? Because it's an MP3 player? Please... most people are not going to want to carry something that big around with them. This is why phones and mp3 players are being made smaller and smaller all the time.
~shakes head~ I can't see this one going far with crowds outside the teeny-boppers, and even they will probably stick with Nintendo and a better cell phone.
----- I want my LART.
Likes:
- The bluetooth wireless gaming will be AWESOME (I can already imagine finding people on the streets, airports, bus, trains and playing with them with no cables).
- Integration of gaming, radio, mp3, agenda, sound recorder, cell phone, address book and [limited] internet is a HUGE plus (will this be the future of PDAs?)
- Ability to play Java games.
Dislikes:
- The screen resolution is a joke.
- No camera.
- No Palm OS compatibility.
- Size (I'd have made the unit as wide as the screen itself, and then make the screen larger to the sides, and to save space have the joypad or the keypad slide out from underneath.
Overall, if the price is right (under US$200) I'll buy it.
Forget my useless ramble, there be facts up there!
The ______ Agenda
Actually, the parent is better if you want less work. It won't show any image linked to a site with "ad." in the host name. Using the hosts file means you have to type in every host that's serving ads.
However, yours has the advantage that nothing gets downloaded, whereas the CSS trick just stops it from being rendered -- broadband users only.
I think the new gameboy will have one (the awesome clamshell folding one) Even Nintendo's decided to add that feature to its (relatively) inexpensive handheld.
Daniel Steel and Tom Clancy are surely the saviors of civilization.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
the way they seem to have no target market with this product.
Is it for the same kinds of people who carry a GBA around constantly? no, those are mostly kids.
Is it for wired techno business folk who like to play games, too? no, they wouldn't want to be seen talking to a Game Boy by the boss.
Is it for people who just like toys too damn much? Sorry, I think that the only product the slashdot crowd can support on its own is slashdot.
Nokia has chosen not to release it in Japan because they don't support Japan's mobile phone protocol.
That alone is a good reason to assume that it will go the way of the Atari Lynx.
Which is too bad. . . the handheld game system market really needs a kick in the pants.
I RTFA isn't that enough?
As an adult, your son will also experience more pleasure from sex because the exposed glans are more sensitive than uncircumcised men's.
Actually the converse is true, uncut = more sensitivity.
Sir, you must be a fucking idiot.
I would have thought that the real benefit for Nokia of this exercise was that it would build up a huge library of arcade-quality games, which it can then embed in future 'normal' colour-screen mobile phones.
A bit like with the 7650, where the phone is almost built around the camera, but in later models (the 6100?) the camera is just a small discrete part of the phone. No-one will actually buy the N-Gage, but the games that are developed for it (which will presumably be the subject of hype and marketing activity) will be built into all new Nokia phones, making Nokia the phone manufacturer for gamers.
Anyone knows if Bitboys Oy, a company dedicated to the development of graphics chips and with a history of products not reaching silicon, has something to do with the 3D engine of N-Gage? Quoting an article:
Also, the article mentions Bitboys have a contract since some time last year, but doesn't give any details.OK. don't start any rumors.
I'm thinking Game Gear guys? It's going to be hard for this thing to establish a market.
Sure it plays mp3s, but you can't use them as ringtones. And it only uses mmc's, not sd cards. Plus it doesn't look like something I'd use in public.
If the games are good, though, you can count me in.
http://www.wildpalm.co.uk/GoBoy7650.html :)
There is already Gameboy Color emulator for 7650 (although it doesnt have sound support or allow saving yet), if someone manages to write fully working emulator to allow Gameboy advanced games played with N-Gage, things might get quite interesting...
Hmm, this is odd. It appears that most of nokia's other new phones don't support Bluetooth, and yet this one does.
Could it be that they are now implementing Bluetooth according to the spec, rather than using their own extensions? I was always annoyed that they called their old phones (like the 6310) bluetooth compatible, when you could only connect it to your pc if you used their proprietary connector.
If they've changed their practive then it would be worth paying for.
Um, people. Lets talk obviousness.
The point is that Nokia has realized that the cell phone is a genuinely asstastic action gaming platform, but the delivery mechanism for the games can't be beat. So whether they're hyping it or not, network game delivery is *the* next big thing that carriers are going to be able to support.
Pay by the day. Pay by the month. "Lifetime subscription." Whatever. The carts are so hard to get access to because eventually you wont use the carts.
--Dan
Kitchen sink anyone?
Moderation: +4. Modded 70% Funny and 30% Overrated. 100% Saturated.
Uh...the kids who carry GBAs around will also have phones. So why not combine them into one device?
2002 called, it wants its news back
yet another gadget for some git to forget to turn off in the movie theater. ):
The wise follow a damned path, for to know is to be forsaken.
In fact, Novell came up with the name earlier than Nokia did.
Novell Ngage
Sigged!
"Game companies such as Sega, Taito, and Eidos have already expressed support for it."
Don't get too excited about this, folks -- after all, based on initial announcements, even the Atari Lynx and the Atari Jaguar got support from big-name companies like Konami, Taito, and Electronic Arts (as the author of the FAQs for those systems, I ought to know). "Support" at this stage is nothing more than a codeword meaning "we'll be there if it takes off, but with an option to ignore it if it sinks." Sega gets a partial pass on this prediction, since they've got announced games for it already, but don't count your Soul Reavers until they hatch (or whatever it is soul reavers do)
Then again, Nokia is a mite bigger (and more competent) than Atari was during the Tramiel era...
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
only one gadget in my pants that I carry with me always. Everything else is just an overpriced and unsatisfying substitute.
You don't understand why people want all-in-one units, and I don't understand why people want their pockets brimming with phones, text pagers, PDAs, digital cameras, gameboys, mp3 players, and GPS units. I'm as picky about size as you, so I don't know why anyone wants a huge phone either. I want a tiny phone that does everything, is that so much to ask? (see Samsung i500 for a phone that gets closer to what i want)
Both of us are likely to have products to choose from. There's no need to lambast the other side for liking something you do not. It's like a VI/Emacs argument-- who cares? Just use what you prefer and try not to proselytize. Nokia still makes plenty of "just plain cell phones," although most do have at least a simple address book and calendar. I imagine most other cell companies do as well, and will continue to do so in the future.
So, good luck to you in your cell-phone hunt, Giant-Bag-Of-Devices Man!!!
Your friend,
I-Do-Not-Have-Enough-Pockets-For-That Man.
maybe i can finally get bubble bobble on my phone! oh the minutes of fun!
it's only vapor so far anyway...... but i can't wait for this thing to come out, i can only fear how much it will cost.
Is it just me, or does that look like something someone would cook up as a "futuristic" interface in a movie? Am I the only one who finds it ugly as sin? It looks like an interface nightmare to boot, with virtually nowhere to grip it while you try to use those tiny buttons that are helpfully arranged in a random manner?
I read the internet for the articles.
The GBA is being updated, with the GameBoy Advance SP: which will feature a LiIon battery and self-lit screen, in a more compact form factor. And the GBA is getting MP3 and other features soon, and I see no reason why a cellphone via headset or wireless gaming should be any problem should the market demand them. And the gameboys have had FM radio options for years (I have one for my GB, GBC, and GBA)... And on top of that, not only does Nintendo make the best games (period...) but justabout every developer that exists makes games for GB. There are open source GB games and GBA plays all GB and GBC and GBA games. There are literally thousands of GameBoy games that the GBA will play. More than any other system ever made. In my not-so-humble opinion, I would rather have a GBA with GREAT games (like Metroid and Zelda) than a cell phone with "Snake extreme 3D". Besides, with all the GB games - you can probably get a version of just about any game for your gameboy... And one of the problems I can see with an "all-in-one" unit is that you can't do too many things at once. As it is I can play games on my GBA, listen to my iPod, and recieve a call on my cell phone... I would like to see something like PalmOS on GameBoy though. That would be nice...
You can forget a proper GBA emulation on N-Gage. Even P3-800 isn't fully capable of emulating GBA (in VisualBoyAdvance). Just think how much can 104 MHz ARM processor do?
I simply don't understand. They're serious, yes, but about what? Proving a point? That games can be played on a cell phone? sheesh.
http://www.walkingtaco.com
"It gets worse, too; games are distributed on postage-stamp sized MMC memory cards, which is a bad choice in itself as MMC memory is flimsy and expensive (expect to have to store your games in plastic cases for protection outside the unit, a far cry from the near-indestructible robustness of GBA cartridges), but worse again than this is the fact that the act of slipping in a new game involves removing the back of the unit, taking out the battery and sliding the game home into a SIM card style slot. This, needless to say, is a stunningly bad piece of design and the need to juggle about five separate bits of kit in order to play a new game isn't going to win the unit any fans."