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Nokia N-Gage Cracked

According to Mr. Belvedere over at CD Freaks, the Nokia N-Gage has been cracked. From the article: "The games that were designed for the N-Gage will of course only work with the Nokia device but not anymore. Now that the security on the N-Gage has been cracked the games can be played on other mobile phones as well such as the Siemens SX1." The article notes that Sonic N is the only game seen in public yet, but others are sure to follow soon. It'll be interesting to see how Nokia handles this.

48 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Fortunately by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's still under warrantly, so you can get the screen fixed. Just be more careful next time, and don't drop it.

  2. Strange by autopr0n · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So nokia didn't do anything special with their hardware, it's just a standard J2ME system? That seems pretty stupid...

    Now that I think about it, that's basicaly what MS did with the Xbox. I wonder how easy/difficult it would be to play those games on a standard PC?

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
    1. Re:Strange by PierceLabs · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not true, most of the commercial games for mobile phones ARE coded with J2ME if we look at the ecosystem that the nGage lives in. There are games written in C/C++ as well and all of the games you buy at retail on carts are written in C, but the vast majority of content available is in J2ME.

    2. Re:Strange by gl4ss · · Score: 5, Insightful

      not standard j2me system(heck, the resolutions differ from in different j2me devices enough to not make them unworkable in most phones, in most phones apart from s60 phones the j2me is very freakking limited when it comes to .jar size and heap size anyways).

      it's a standard s60 system(as pointed out), and s60 has been available for a while and most software available for it can be found cracked on the net(yahoo groups, irc, the usual places where you would find warez). this shouldn't really surprise anyone.

      as for playing on pc, i'm not so sure about that(but it shouldn't be overhelmingly difficult to find enough docs that would make it possible to do such an emulator that would run binaries compiled for them).

      also theres slight differences in thos s60 phones, for example while the pad in ngage doesn't block itself(so that you can press both up and left at the same time) the pad in 3650 blocks itself(so that you can't press up and left at the same time). i'd just except them to come with up some better execution environment checks with the next range of games(after which the crackers find a way around them too).

      anyways, this should give some indication how much nokia had to shell out for actually developing the ngage hardware(not much, as they had done it for other phones already). kind of how their first mp3 playing phone was basicly a quick hack too(though, now it seems they're unifying the hardware to be pretty same in most of their phones, the cheaper smaller phones have already mostly exactly same innards).

      next week on slashdot: crackers crack securerom cd protection on pc! gp32 has copied games!

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    3. Re:Strange by pebs · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Now that I think about it, that's basicaly what MS did with the Xbox. I wonder how easy/difficult it would be to play those games on a standard PC?

      The XBox is a different architecture than a standard PC. For example, the video RAM and system RAM are shared. From what I've heard, it wouldn't be that easy, you'd need to emulate the hardware. Doing a little Googling, there are some XBox emulators and even a project that attempts to convert XBox executables to PC executables. I don't know whether these are fakes or not, though.

      --
      #!/
    4. Re:Strange by Hast · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, you can't play XBox games on a standard PC. (At least not yet, probably never.)

      When you develop on one you use Visual Studio with an XBox SDK coupled with a special developer edition of the XBox. (Which has special BIOS and 128MB RAM among other things.)

      You can then execute code and debug code on the developer Xbox from you PC over the network. (And if you mod your XBox you can develop like this too.)

    5. Re:Strange by kmarius · · Score: 3, Informative

      Too bad you have to be an "authorized N-Gage developer" to program in C/C++. With all the competition in the market, they need all the help they can get.

      From the source:

      N-Gage(tm) supports two different game styles: downloadable titles and rich games distributed on MMC cards.

      Downloadable titles for N-Gage are developed in Java(tm) MIDP in the same way and with the same tools used to develop downloadable games for any other Series 60 Platform device. You do not require authorization to develop downloadable games for any Series 60 Platform device.

      Rich games are programmed in C++ for Symbian OS. They are multiple megabytes in size and are sold at retail on memory cards. Rich games are developed using an N-Gage SDK that extends Series 60 Platform. Access to the SDK and details about the specific extensions available in the SDK are provided only to authorized N-Gage developers. The SDK is required to produce MMC cards compatible with N-Gage.

    6. Re:Strange by stilwebm · · Score: 2, Informative

      So, why couldn't I run and develop my XBox games on my PC? Wasn't that the hype - port PC games to XBox in no time?

      You're confusing a one-to-many relationship with a one-to-one relationship. In a "closed box" system like the Xbox there is only one possible graphcis device, one prossible sound device, one possible controller interface, etc. The code is targeted specifically for those exact devices and optimized heavily. Even the BIOS presents things to software differently from the standard AT BIOS. To run on a PC you would need to intercept requests, say to a specific IO address, then depending on which graphics hardware or sound hardware is being used, redirect and possibly reconfigure the request. This would need to be handled by virtualization of some hardware. The raw code for, say calculating artificial intelligence, however, could run natively.

      With the NGage the hardware is supposedly not as highly specialized (aside from the input controller layout and large screen), making it work well on many systems.

    7. Re:Strange by PierceLabs · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This most certainly isn't the fault of J2ME considering that both Nokia and Symbian have MIDP2 APIs available that would allow them to hardware accelerate rendering. They chose to go the niche C/C++ route and they'll burn for it :)

    8. Re:Strange by dthable · · Score: 2, Informative

      I thought that the Xbox was based on DirectX and Windows NT. Doesn't DX and HAL (from NT) provide this layer of abstraction. How the driver and these layers optimize the code is of no concern to the developer. All I need to know is calling DrawLine(...) will draw me a line in a virtual space that DX translates into a screen image.

      That's my understanding of Xbox internals.

    9. Re:Strange by ecki · · Score: 2, Informative
      Too bad you have to be an "authorized N-Gage developer" to program in C/C++

      As I understand it, that's only necessary to develop games which are supposed to use the copy protection feature. Otherwise, you can just grab the Series60 SDK and start programming. I'm not sure however if there is any additional benefit in the N-Gage SDK such as 2D/3D or input APIs. But reading that the N-Gage games seem to also run on other Series60 devices, I'm sceptical about that.

  3. Uber-nerds by pudding7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sweet! Cause I bet those games are worth playing on other phones!

  4. DMCA by pvt_medic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    so how long till a lawsuit is filed for violations of Digital Millennium Copyright Act?

    --
    30% Troll, 50% Underrated, 10% Interesting
    Score:5, Troll
  5. lookit me! by mekkab · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm not just side talkin', I'm also Side HACKING!

    --
    In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
  6. Hey good news for Nokia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    they might sell THREE games now thanks to this.

  7. More Importantly by SupeRobot+Ninja · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is this really worth caring about? I mean anyone who takes the N-Gage seriously as a console has severe issues. Not to mention that only a handful of phones are going to be capable of running the games anyway. Also, it's not like Nokia can do anything about it; it'd cost more (considering the N-Gage is *already* failing financially) to fix than what they might actually lose to piracy.

    1. Re:More Importantly by mekkab · · Score: 2, Interesting

      actually, this is GREAT for Nokia! A hacker-friendly phone platform! Why, they might actually SELL a few!

      (Who do you think leaked the info in the first place?!) [/conspiracy]

      --
      In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
    2. Re:More Importantly by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Interesting

      leaked? the symbian in it isn't exactly locked down very hard(and the crackers already had experience from cracking s60 programs).

      heck, you want to develop for series60 with c++? forum.nokia.com has all the tools you need. there's c64 emulator, zx spectrum emulator and a gameboy emulator along with gazillion homebrewed titles out there already.

      it is the most 'hacker friendly'(that is affordable) phone platform out there. which is the reason why i got myself a 3650 last summer, sure helped a lot of those crappy train rides. while the concept of having computer programs on your phone might be confusing to some, to nerds it's very convinient. ngages best selling point is that it is the cheapest s60 phone out there(and at the same time, the cheapest phone that has loadable programs more powerful than j2me, and while at that it has the most powerful j2me too).

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  8. article text aleady /.'ed by ed333 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nokia's N-Gage mobile gaming device has been cracked
    Posted by Dennis on 11 November 2003 - 14:50 - Source: SPOnG.com

    Mr. Belvedere, our Club CD Freaks Moderator, used our news submit to tell us that Nokia's N-Gage device has been cracked according to this information. The Nokia N-Gage device is primarily a handheld gaming device but it can also be used as an MP3 player, wireless browser and last but not least as a telephone.

    The games that were designed for the N-Gage will of course only work with the Nokia device but not anymore. Now that the security on the N-Gage has been cracked the games can be played on other mobile phones as well such as the Siemens SX1:

    Nokia will today be licking its wounds and doing a fair amount of worrying, with the revelation that the N-Gage's security has been cracked like an egg, with other manufacturers' handsets able to play the machine's software.

    Specifically, the Siemens SX1 is already capable of running N-Gage games, with Sonic N being the only game seen in public, though it's expected that the others won't be too far behind.

    This is expected to be the start of a process that will see third-party hardware add-on sales of devices that will enable many phones to simply suck up the N-Gage content, then go on their merry way.

    Nokia's reaction to this new, seemingly unforeseen problem, will be interesting to observe, to say the least.

    Some screenshots and video's of the Siemens SX1 mobile phone running the Nokia N-Gage games can be found on Club-Siemens. More information on the hacked N-Gage can be read here and here.

  9. While I respect the effort, ... by burgburgburg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the important question is: Are the games formerly soley available on the N-Gage that good that they're worth playing on other phones/devices/etc.?

  10. Not quite. by Kenja · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The standard Symbian package does not include OpenGL. Thus games for the NGage that make use if it will not run on anything else (for now). Even the Nokia 3650, wich is almost the same hardware will not run these apps.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  11. I'll give you one guess by _UnderTow_ · · Score: 4, Funny

    It'll be interesting to see how Nokia handles this."

    I assume it will be with lawyers?

    1. Re:I'll give you one guess by cgenman · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I assume it will be sighs of relief.

      If Nokia is like every other console company, they take a cut of sales of the cartridges. Sure, most make a little bit on hardware too, but Nokia has really lost that battle. Getting a cut of games released that will play on someone else's platform would be ideal. Think about how much money IBM would have made if they had some way to require licenses to release games on any hardware compatible with their system.

      As they don't control the hardware it isn't a viable long-term solution, but if Nokia was smart (tacophone aside) they would release their own attachments to other phones to facilitate N-Gage playing. That way, at least, they could bow out gracefully and make a little money along the way.

  12. Shouldn't this be true only for J2ME games? by fuxoft · · Score: 4, Informative

    I presume this only concerns the "simple" J2ME games. Certainly other mobile phones lack hardware to run "big" N-Gage games like Tomb Raider, Pandemonium or Tony Hawk...? (I don't know for sure, the article is already shlashdotted, but Headline like this seems to be misleading.)

    --

    --- Frantisek Fuka (Yes, that's my real name and you have no idea how it's pronounced)

  13. Big impact by Mechanik · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So let's see, this will let you add a total of, what, like 4 whole games to your library for your non-N-Gage phone?

    Don't get me wrong, it's still neat in a way, but "Crappy game system with no games gets cracked so you can play those nonexistant games elsewhere" seems somewhat underwhelming.


    Mechanik

    1. Re:Big impact by Nogami_Saeko · · Score: 4, Funny

      It may very well be that installing cracked n-gage games on other phones will be easier than performing the complex battery/compartment door/tinylittle memorycard operation involved in installing the real n-gage game modules inside the phone...

      --
      "Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
  14. Obligatory by Dwedit · · Score: 3, Funny

    You bought an N-Gage, didn't you?

  15. Gameboy emulator. by aardwolf204 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I dont know about you but I would much rather have a phone powerful enough to run a Gameboy emulator.

    --
    Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the /.crowd.May ur days b merry & bright & may al
    1. Re:Gameboy emulator. by secondsun · · Score: 3, Interesting

      A GBA is cheaper than most cell phones already, and it is much less ones that are powerful enough to emulate a GameBoy.

      Would someone please explain to me why I would want a game system, phone, answering machine, mp3 player, pda, web brwoser, toaster, ftp server, IceCast streaming server, microwave, linux ssh client, alarmclock radio, dvd player, and cell phone portable, buggy monstrosity that seem to be the norm these days? When my car breaks down I want to call a wrecker, not have to close apps and load a phone dialer program and worry about a system freeze/crash.

      --
      There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
    2. Re:Gameboy emulator. by glesga_kiss · · Score: 2, Informative
      Would someone please explain to me why I would want a game system, phone, answering machine, mp3 player, pda, web brwoser, toaster, ftp server, IceCast streaming server, microwave, linux ssh client, alarmclock radio, dvd player, and cell phone portable, buggy monstrosity that seem to be the norm these days?

      Eh? Because you only need to carry one device with you? I love being able to kill time by just doing daft things on my mobile, such as games, writing, eBooks, internet/e-mail.

      I can think of worse ways to pass time when you are away from home and need to wait for something, e.g. a bus.

  16. I wonder if that explains... by Theaetetus · · Score: 4, Funny
    this?

    [snicker]

    -T

  17. The crack is really easy too by doublem · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just hit A - B - A - A - A - C - Select and it gives you a "send ROM as e-mail" prompt!

    Sweet!

    --
    "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
    1. Re:The crack is really easy too by doublem · · Score: 2, Funny

      That starts playing the video of Bill Gates and "Monkey Boy" Balmer getting it on. You really don't want to see that one. The main image on goatse.cx is a screen capture from the film.

      Frightening Stuff

      --
      "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
  18. Lousy Games by bstadil · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Look at Game Ranking to get a sense of the poor quality of the N-Gage games.

    Game Ranking has ever removed the N-Gage from the frontpage listing of platforms, that they had a few week ago.

    --
    Help fight continental drift.
    1. Re:Lousy Games by Gumshoe · · Score: 2, Informative
      Game Ranking has ever removed the N-Gage from the frontpage listing of platforms, that they had a few week ago.


      They must have put it back then. Either that or I'm seeing things.
  19. This is Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    N-Gage games were cracked fe weeks back.
    It started with Tomb Raider.
    Last week a warez game group "Blizzard" released all 5 games plus a installer that installs directly to any blank mmc. The N-Gage does not have any special hardware all it uses is software to run these games. Kind of sucks I bought one for the fact it had a mp3, radio and a setup to be able to play java games and such easiar. Sad to say that it is cracked it was bound to happen anyways. Its a great phone has all the features anyone woudl want minus a camera.. and only bad thing i find about it is the ear speaker being on the side of the phone unlike the 3300

  20. sidetalkin' by joenobody · · Score: 3, Funny

    The N-Gage fails as a video game platform (take the battery out to switch games!?) and as a cell phone. If you wonder why it fails as a cell phone, well, you have to sidetalk.

    --

  21. Take the train by Migraineman · · Score: 4, Funny

    In an early morning press conference, Nokia announced that it would attempt to derail software crackers by changing it's N-Gage software to either O-Gage or the ever-popular HO-Gage. Model railroaders around the world were confused.

    1. Re:Take the train by glucoseboy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      LOLRF. I don't know why I found that so funny, I don't even have model trains. thanks for lifting up the day.

  22. Re:Whatever.... by botzi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Jeez??? Interesting?? /. can always surprise me. Let's put it that way *dude*. Have you seen THPS on the N-Gage? No? Well, let me than tell you that it is FAR AHEAD of the current state of mobile gaming and nothing before the PSP will even get closer. As for this crack the small catch* is that the games programmed for Symbian 6 will be surely played on every phone runnning the OS, what they forget to tell you is that having the hardware to run the Os, doesn't mean you have the hardware to run the game(SonicN is a 3mb 2d-game, there're even better java games there(imagine how ugly is it). So mod the whole article as flamebait at least till the next generation of 600$ phones and then spending 600$ for a smartphone and using it is a game platform is not magnificient move, IMHO.

    Oh, and to all the j2me trolls out there. The games for the N-Gage are done in C++ with the approriate SDK.

    PS: As for the major flaws: Another crack that come out this week is that all the N-Gage games can now be run from a memory card(not ROM). Conclusion => the original "flow" of having to change the card each time you want to play another game is somehow fixed by the *crackers*. The biggest game I've seen for the moment is ~15 MB. 5-6 games fit pretty well on a 64Mb card don't you think????
    Finally the N-Gage is a very good gaming system suffering from a restricted(if any?) game catalog and ridiculous price. I get mine for 90$ from a morron reading too many negetavie reviews, so kudos to you gyus.

    --
    1. No sig. 2. ???? 3. Profit!!!
  23. Here's Nokia's reply by Psychic+Burrito · · Score: 2, Informative
    Here's Nokia's reply:

    "We're aware of it and we're taking it seriously," Damian Stathonikos, spokesman for Nokia Mobile Phones, which is responsible for the N-Gage device, told Dow Jones Newswires.

    Stathonikos said after a cursory look at the Web sites it wasn't clear that the claims being made about hackers cracking the protection was true. "Sometimes it's not 100% clear what they've done and if they've done what they say they have. The bark can be louder than the bite," he said.

    Complete article here.

  24. N-Gage by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · · Score: 4, Funny

    3 out of 5 gamers agree,
    It's a better cell phone than the Game Boy Advance

  25. Pictures by billscarwasher · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here are some shots of Sonic running on the Siemens SX1.

    here

  26. But even funnier by The+Tyro · · Score: 3, Funny

    is the HUGE Business Software Alliance banner ad that greeted me when I opened their webpage.

    I don't know what to say...

    --
    Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
  27. WHAT PLAYS by exhilaration · · Score: 4, Informative
    Here's the list, from an unofficial source:

    Siemens SX1 plays:
    Sonic
    Tomb Raider
    Puyo Pop
    Pandemonium
    Tony Hawk

    Nokia 6600 plays:
    Pandemonium
    Puyo Pop
    Sonic
    Tomb Raider
    Tony Hawk
    (Puzzle Bubble fails)

    Nokia 3650 plays:
    Sonic
    Puyo Pop
    (everything else fails due to insufficient RAM)

  28. HORRAY! by Eric_Cartman_South_P · · Score: 2, Funny
    Oh happy day, this is great news! NGage games for me!

    * throws PS2 out of window *

    Horray!

  29. Surely you meant... by Phil+John · · Score: 2, Funny

    Prepare for bankruptcy in T-minus 90 days...

    N-GAGE! :o)

    --
    I am NaN
  30. IMHO, alot. by Ch_Omega · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As if the N-Gage wasnt having enough problems, now what reason do people have to actually pay money for this thing?

    Well, not to sound like an Nokia marketteer, but in my opinion, the N-Gage has recieved alot unfair critisism, maybe because of it trying so hard to be both fish and fowl.

    First of all, the N-Gage is a standard Series60 phone, exept for a few small differences, as f.eks. stereo sound(enabling Stereo MP3's/ogg's), FM-radio(which no other series60 phone has) and lack of camera(which all other series60 phones has). So, if you simply want a cheap series60 phone(to f.eks. use as a small PDA/web browser on the go(Opera)/radio/MP3/Ogg-player), and don't need a camera, the N-Gage might be a better alternative than f.eks. any of the other series60 phones. If not used primarly as a gamedevice, alot of it's criticism will be more or less irrelevant. And as of the speaker/microphone placement, using a handfree will solve that...

    Another thing that is worth pointing out, is that even though you can now download and run games on other Series60 devices(and that is, *ONLY on series60 devices*), most of them don't support more than one simultanous key-press, and the keys aren't exactly layed with gaming in mind. Anyone who has ever played emulated gameboy games on f.eks. a Nokia 3650 will probably nod their heads when I say that it sucks.

    So, even though it seems to be vogue to hate it, It's still a great device(in a PDA-sense) in my opinion, even though it's not too successfull at what Nokia had in mind, namely gaming.