M-Gage Shows Imitation Sincerest Form Of Flattery

Thanks to Lik-Sang for their news story showcasing the M-Gage bootleg handheld game, which contains "11 games, [a] calculator and alarm clock built-in", as found in Hong Kong's videogame district recently. Although Lik-Sang "doesn't really think about selling" the rudimentary device, taking a side-by-side comparison with Nokia's much-criticized N-Gage 'portable gaming deck' reveals unmistakable similarities, from the shape and button layout all the way down to the vertical screen orientation and the logo. Were the bootleggers ahead of the game on this incredibly basic handheld knockoff, or will they be Side Talkin' their way to bankruptcy?

Comments

not uncommon

[gl4ss]

it's not uncommon that such mockups appear, they appear all the time. however they're not sold outside the areas where piracy is at all controlled(devices that imitate some other real, better, useful device).

though heck, who buys a phone to speak nowadays anyways? opera and wireless irc are much more entertaining than the games(well, super monkeyball is kinda fun).

well.. i'm off to sidetalking.

and yes i did get myself a n-gage, traded my 3650 to it. it suits better for my needs(it has more ram for the programs to run in than the 3650 and i didn't use the camera too much anyways). talking to it isn't a chore and as i was already familiar with the ui i must say that it is great.

it's the cheapest series60 phone and at the same time it's one of the more useful series60 phones(because it has more ram than 3650/60), perhaps only rivalled by the 6600(and as wirelessirc and various other stuff don't work in 6600, and the gamepad like button layout in ngage is good for most of the activity) that is way much more expensive. ngage also has mp3 and fm radio(with headphones plug).

the things i think that are stupid about it are pretty much the inability to hotswap the mmc cards and the fact that the pcsuite software doesn't work with the usb cable(the usb cable shows the mmc card in the phone as a normal usb removable drive, handy for mp3's and *cough* games, roms and stuff *cough*).