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Nokia's Cellular GBA - The N-Gage

Posted by chrisd on from the hope-it-has-a-better-backlight dept.

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."

7 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. not 'till fall by theoramus · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's been delayed until fall. They didn't mention that did they?

  2. Re:hack support? by raynet · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, just by registering to forum.nokia.com you can download the SDK kits (the Symbian kit uses gcc even :) or order them on CD and the SDK CD is free, though they took some time to deliver them.

    --
    - Raynet --> .
  3. Gimme Karma by ObviousGuy · · Score: 3, Informative

    N-Gage specs

    And back to Excellent for me!

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
  4. Re:My two biggest concerns... by otis+wildflower · · Score: 4, Informative

    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?

    Believe it or not, display tech has progressed since the early 1990s.. The Lynx IIRC had a backlit passive color screen, while the even hoggier portable turbografx had a TFT. Lynx could run about 4-5 hours on a full nicad charge on its 6 AAs.

    I owned both the original and extra crispy, and I was a big fan of both, until I 'got a life'..

    I would definitely appreciate a phone with improved games, if only to pass the time on the ferry.. I can get seasick reading..

  5. Horrible Battery Life by doctor_no · · Score: 3, Informative

    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).

    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/ne ws/0,10870, 2910338,00.html

  6. Specs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    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

  7. Re:GameBoy vs.N-Gage by Linux+Ate+My+Dog! · · Score: 3, Informative

    The N-Gage is a Series 60 phone, like the 7650. That means it runs the SYmbian OS, which is a new generation of a PDA OS for Psion PDAs. It is a real OS, but optimized for phone-usage. Outside developers have already written the module to shut off the phone part while leaving other parts of the software running.

    If this capability isn't included in the phone outright -- and I'll be stunned if it isn't -- I am sure you will be able to download it from places like handango.com.