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Next-Gen N-Gage Getting Ready to Go

Posted by Zonk on from the another-time-through-the-machine dept.

We've previously discussed the lackluster performance of Nokia's N-Gage handheld system. Just the same, despite a market seemingly sewn up by the DS and PSP the company is getting ready for another go. Pocketgamer reports that Nokia had a group of game development houses down to Santa Monica, to check things out and decide for themselves whether they wanted to make a game for the new platform. Another two-day event is slated for Madrid next week, and you'd expect there to be some discussion of the platform during GDC in March as well. No word on a release date from the article, but these certainly point to signs of Nokia's product having at least some chance coming out of the gate.

15 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Just Throw a Couple of Buttons... by dctoastman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    On a significantly powerful phone.
    Hell, do a flip up design like this (http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/9300/0,7747,,00.ht ml) but put buttons instead of a qwerty keyboard.
    Slap an ARM in there and your done.

    --
    My twitter
    1. Re:Just Throw a Couple of Buttons... by vertinox · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think the flip phone design would be best. I was thinking like the DS only smaller.

      The only way the nGage would ever succeed is if they:

      1. Alow and foster homebrew (aka Mame games).
      2. Have a touch screen. (Dual screen in your suggested flip design would be nice)
      3. Have the ability to read SD flash cards for memory (same ones you can put in your cameras)
      4. Have a USB port (well this one isn't 100% needed if they comply with #3)
      5. Make game development really easy (see 1)
      6. No tie in with any Cell phone provider.

      But seeing no company has the balls for #1 the device is doomed to failure...

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    2. Re:Just Throw a Couple of Buttons... by Goaway · · Score: 3, Insightful

      1. Alow and foster homebrew (aka Mame games).

      Nokia phones, and most likely most others, have done exactly that for like a decade now. Maybe your provider removes the functionality, but that's another problem entirely.

      Here's your MAME for N-Gage: http://www.harmonicode.com/EEMame/

  2. Why? by Mr.+Hankey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Not to sound too negative, but why? There are already handhelds on the market (one from Sony and two from Nintendo, even the GBA still sells) that are more than capable of fending off an uninspired phone/console combo. People who play games probably want to do so on a dedicated gaming device, to avoid killing their phone's battery life. A built-in game or two couldn't hurt, and there are already a number of games you can download based on Java. It almost seems like they want to lose money with these devices.

    I guess on the plus side it couldn't suck as badly as the original N-Gage, they must have learned something from the horrible control layout and weak graphics capability. Good luck to them, and let's hope for a solid implementation.

    --
    GPL: Free as in will
    1. Re:Why? by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "There are already handhelds on the market (one from Sony and two from Nintendo, even the GBA still sells) that are more than capable of fending off an uninspired phone/console combo. People who play games probably want to do so on a dedicated gaming device, to avoid killing their phone's battery life."

      This point of view comes up whenever there's a topic about a new gadget on a phone. The answer is very simple. I have a DS, PSP, GBA, and a digital camera. Most of the time, I ONLY have my phone on me. When I'm at work, or shopping, or eating out, I don't carry all those other things with me. Sometimes, though, I find myself in a position where I could really use one of those devices but they're not on me. Just the other day I was at Best Buy and I decided I was on the market for a new digital camera. So, I went around, saw what they had, and I used my phone to take pictures of all the cameras at the store that interested me. I'm going to go through the images, pull out the camera models, and do a comparison review. The camera in the phone was more than sufficient for that. I wouldn't use it for the tourism photos I like taking, but for informational purposes, it was great. Last week the network was out and it totally killed my ability to do any real work. So I played Indiana Jones on my phone. (SCUMM is cool.) I'd rather have played Liberty City Stories, but I don't often have my PSP at work. (not that I'd want to be seen playing it anyway.) I've got plenty more examples, but I hope the idea's becoming clear. The gadgets I've had on all my phones have become useful in some form or another. Heck, I even use it as a back-up alarm clock.

      Yes, the battery issue one is a significant one. But to be honest, I just let it charge while I'm asleep. As long as I'm getting my use out of it, it really isn't that huge of inconvenience. If my phone were just a phone, it wouldn't be as useful.

      "I guess on the plus side it couldn't suck as badly as the original N-Gage, they must have learned something from the horrible control layout and weak graphics capability. Good luck to them, and let's hope for a solid implementation."

      Despite what I said, I do agree with your assessment of the new N-Gage. Though it's great to have additional features in a phone, it's hard to run out and buy a game-specific phone. I appreciate what Nokia's doing, but honestly, I'd be far more interested in a GBA being built into a phone. I have zero confidence in an interesting number of games built specifically for the phone being developed. I think an MP3 phone would be great, but a game phone? Eh... Maybe I'm a fuddy duddy.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  3. New comers by lanceleader · · Score: 2, Insightful

    New comers often have a difficult time. Especially in the gaming world. One of the reasons that the N-Gage was a flop is that Nintendo has an iron grip on the hand-held gaming market.

    1. Re:New comers by Acy+James+Stapp · · Score: 2

      The reason the N-Gage was a flop was because it was woefully underpowered. Nokia was pushing developers to make 3D games on a machine with no 3D hardware and not even a hardware divider.

      --
      -- Too lazy to get a lower UID.
    2. Re:New comers by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2

      That was very dumb. The Nokia fanboy suck-up explaination I've heard for having to remove the battery to get to the game was to keep the machine from being on while running the game. That was an incredibly dumb idea. Anyone that's seen an original game boy would know that its power switch has a tab lock that prevents the game from being removed. If Nokia can't learn lessons from existing systems then they just stepped into the wrong market.

  4. Obligatory Question by jasonwea · · Score: 2, Funny

    But will it side talk?

  5. Awesome! by Sunburnt · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder which ethnicity's cuisine they'll tap for design inspiration this time?

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  6. Do a deal with Nitendo by curmi · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Do a deal with Nintendo to include the GBA chips in your phone, and integrate with that. Why try and compete with Sony and Nintendo, you will always be an after-thought.

    1. Re:Do a deal with Nitendo by mgblst · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Would you have given the same advice to Sony a few years ago? Or Apple when they were thinking about the ipod? Probably.

      Nokia is the biggest makers of Mobile phones in the world, with a huge market share. It is pretty obvious for them to expand in this direction. Some products succeed, and some products fail, for a number of complicated reasons. But nothing new would ever happen if you were in charge. Lets hope that never happens!

  7. You've got to be kidding by Control+Group · · Score: 2, Insightful

    We can't get a follow up to Advent Rising or another episode of SiN, but we can get an N-Gage 2?

    That's pretty fucked up, right there.

    --

    Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
  8. Sigh, Nokia, so close by Cadallin · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Yet so far. The N-gage is a dead end, drop it. It's never going to succeed, because you're never going to get development on it. Unless you're willing to start up a top tier development studio and market some AAA titles, which would be hugely expensive and would still probably fail. You're not Microsoft, you can't bull your way into a market running billion dollar losses.

    Now, what should you do? The Internet Tablets. These things are hot. However, they need some major tweaks. Stop trying to use your current smartphone batteries for them, their restricting your battery life and your power budget WAY too much. You need something beefier, around a 2200-2500mAH battery. What to do with the extra power? More CPU for Crissakes. The 300MHz arm is not doing what you need. You need either a much faster chip, or one of the hot new dual core ARM SOC. Also a media accelerator. Let's see some 2D acceleration on that bad boy. THIS is your game machine. It'll do everything. Wi-fi internet, SKYPE, media playback. Its potentially an iPhone AND PSP killer. Put some money into bluetooth gamepads and its suddenly a far cooler game machine than the PSP and GP2X combined.

  9. GP2X lacked two things: bricks and mortar by tepples · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think there must be more to it than that. Gamepark Holdings did 5 out of those 6 things with the GP2X, which is modestly popular but not a big hit in the general market.

    The "more to it" involves at least the following:

    7. Bricks
    8. Mortar
    9. Promotion
    GPH just failed to market the GP2X in the United States. It was difficult to learn of their existence, and anyone who wanted one had to have it individually shipped from overseas.