Gizmodo Australia » n-gage

Bang Bang, Nokia n-Gage: You’re Dead

Brian Lam — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:18:23 +0000

Bang, bang, n-Gage: you’re dead. Again. Maybe for the last time. Here’s a short look at your meaningless life.

You were born but a hyped, sidetalking Taco. Then, after we had our laughs for several years, papa Nokia ditched your dedicated hardware and opened it up to phones of all kinds — as long as they said N-O-K-I-A on them. It was a smart move. Because you sell lots of phones, and if your gaming platform was to live, it needed to be on as many of those as possible. It looked OK at this point, as a platform and service. And the hardware was nice at times. But that didn’t change the fact that no one I know ever talked about you, n-Gage, much less played with you. The button layouts, games and online vs. modes never really came together as well as you’d liked in terms of people buying and using it. Why? I don’t know. I guess, at least in America, we couldn’t get the handsets for less than the price of five Nintendo DSes. But beyond that, you never had any games that people cared about, despite having signed up companies like EA so easily because papa Nokia was still number one. And every year at E3, your booth was like a buzz-vacuum. So, I can’t say we’ll miss you. We hardly knew you were there. But let’s just chalk this up to more high end consumer failure to excite at Nokia, which has been a trend of late.

I’m done. Honestly, this much word count on n-Gage is charity, even as a farewell. See ya. Hope we never have to see you again. But the word is, you’ll probably just fold some games of yours into a general app store. The dead never stay dead for long in the gadget game.

Nokia Uses Two Guys In A Sauna To Explain N-Gage To Developers… Wait, WTF?

Nick Broughall — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:43:38 +0000

In Finland, your time is split between two things: working for Nokia and enjoying the pungent odours of man-sweat from your colleagues in the local sauna. Now, the mobile phone giant looks to have combined the two and created an online video series of it in an effort to communicate the benefits of their N-Gage platform to developers.

It looks to be an ongoing series, with the first episode showing more nipple-fur and ~~hot~~ engineer bod than I was hoping for, earning it a slightly NSFW rating (if only to protect your reputation among colleagues as a heterosexual male).

The first episode also keeps it quite simple, with the porn-mo’d host interviewing Miikka Skaffari, Head of Developer Product Management for N-Gage. The most technical he gets is explaining that the N-Gage SDK allows developers to code games in C++ rather than Symbian, making it easy to create games with the skillset they have (few games developers code in Symbian, apparently). He also explains that you can develop the game once and have it available on a number of devices, which is fairly evident to anyone familiar with the N-Gage’s rebirth.

There’s no word on how often it gets updated, but hopefully episode two will feature some more in-depth details of the platform, plus some of Nokia’s Finnish female staff… If only to draw attention away from the host’s nipple fur…

[Sauna Talk]

N-Gage Flagship Game Full of Videogame Character Knockoffs

Gizmodo US Edition — Sun, 04 May 2008 00:30:00 +0000

Nokia tells us that Reset Generation—their new “flagship” title for the N-Gage—will appeal to those who grew up playing videogames. The multiplayer puzzle-adventure is supposed to tickle you by using parodies of characters like Mario, Link, and even Master Chief, resulting in what they call “the world’s first videogame about videogames.” We are going to call it “yet another game that couldn’t use the real thing so they decided to do humourous knockoffs.” Although who knows, if it’s crazy enough, it may work.

You can choose your hero from a swath of “legendary champions,” whose ranks include a manic hedgehog, a space invader, a plumber, a bomb man, a Level 50 Elf, and some kind of Master Chief, among others. Every hero comes with a princess, and the object of the game is to rescue other players’ princesses before they can rescue yours. You accomplish this task by building combo roads to other heroes’ castles, firing cannons to defend your own abode from your opponents’ roads, and using your special power to finally get the girl!

Nokia promises that the game will appeal to all audiences, from casual gamers—how these are going to get who the heck is Bomber Man, we don’t know—to hardcore nerds. We hope so. The N-Gage platform has traversed a rocky road since its inception, and if there’s any princess in need of rescuing by a wildly popular and successful hero, that’s probably it.

The game is being developed by RedLynx, will feature a soundtrack by chiptune band 8 Bit Weapon and a price tag of US$10 to US$14 for the full N-Gage version of the game (the PC version will be free). Look forward to a mid-2008 release.

Nokia Wants To Give You 70,000 Euro To Save Make Games For The N-Gage

Nick Broughall — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:40:31 +0000

With Nokia’s N-gage platform recently being reborn into something that might possibly be enjoyable, Nokia are looking to entice developers to create games for the platform by offering up 70,000 Euro (or $118,750 in Aussie dollars) in prize money, plus publishing contracts.

The Mobile Games Innovation Challenge is open to developers worldwide from all levels. The three best concepts will take home the prizemoney in a 40k/20k/10k split.

If it means that mobile phone gaming gets better than tetris or solitaire, then it’s a fantastic move. Shame it’s only for N-gage devices though. Full press release below.

Nokia Mobile Games Innovation Challenge dares developers to ‘rock’ mobile games world

April 09, 2008

Three most innovative concepts offered Nokia Publishing pre-production contracts and cash prizes

Espoo,
Finland – Nokia today launched the worldwide Mobile Games Innovation
Challenge, a unique global competition with 70,000 in prizes, designed
to encourage development of innovative game concepts with the power to
positively disrupt the global mobile gaming industry and to help propel
mobile gaming with handheld devices into a new and exciting future.

The
first competition of its kind to encourage unique concepts in mobile
gaming from developers of all backgrounds and all levels, the Mobile
Games Innovation Challenge seeks the best in groundbreaking ideas and
game concepts from the brightest and most creative minds in mobile
gaming today.

Sponsored
by Nokia Publishing, the Mobile Games Innovation Challenge invites
developers to submit mobile gaming concepts to help drive mobile gaming
to the next level, relying on the advanced features and functionalities
of N-Gage compatible devices, and Java- or Symbian-based Series 40 or
S60 devices from Nokia.

The
three most innovative game concepts will be offered Nokia Publishing
pre-production contracts, targeting publication of their winning
concept on the corresponding Nokia device platform. In addition, the
first winner will be awarded 40,000, the second 20,000, and the third
10,000 to enable the participant to further develop the concept.

“Nokia
enthusiastically presents this Mobile Games Innovation Challenge as a
unique opportunity for the best and brightest mobile game developers
worldwide to really rock the industry with innovative, one-of-a-kind
concepts that showcase what you can do with our mobile platforms,” said
Dr Mark Ollila, director of games publishing, Nokia. “The
pre-production contracts and 70,000 in cash prizes toward development
of the winning game concepts is only part of the excitement – the
Challenge also gives developers a chance to truly make their mark on
global mobile gaming through unique and positively disruptive gaming
concepts never seen before.”

Beginning
immediately, developers wishing to compete for the Mobile Games
Innovation Challenge can submit their game concepts online at http://developer.n-gage.com/innovation.
Contestants are encouraged to enter more than one mobile gaming
concept, with the winners to be selected by an external panel of mobile
gaming industry experts on the criteria of innovation, fun, feasibility
of execution, and market potential.

Gaming
concept submissions will continue through August 20, 2008. The winners
will be chosen by the external panel of judges and announced during a
special award ceremony at the Nokia Games Summit in Rome, Italy,
October 29-30, 2008.

Deadline
for submission of all applications is August 20, 2008 at 11:59 p.m.
GMT. Further information on the registration process, including
description of entries and eligibility requirements are available at http://developer.n-gage.com/innovation.

Nokia’s N-Gage Mobile Phone Gaming Platform Is Up and Running

Jason Chen — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:20:00 +0000

The official announcement won’t be until next Monday, but the N-Gage blog just let everyone know that their mobile phone gaming platform went live today. If you’ve got an N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95 or N95 8GB, you can go download and install the service now (available on both Mac and PC). If you’ve got an N73, N93i and N93, you’ll have to wait a bit for support. Here’s our hands-on of it at Mobile World Congress. In short, it’s like Xbox Live for your phone. [N-Gage Download]

N-Gage to Incorporate GPS and Mobile Phone Camera Into Games?

Sean Fallon — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:20:43 +0000

According to NokNok, a meeting with Will Shen, N-Gage’s Head of Production in North America, revealed that Nokia is looking to use GPS and phone camera functionality as a utility in games. In fact, Shen noted that any functionality a phone may posses could be used to make a game more interactive. For example, users could be asked to take photographs that would be analysed by the game for relevance using “clever techniques,” then “feed” those images to an in-game character.

Shen also noted that GPS functionality could be used for location based gaming, but stressed that they want to make sure that they are not spilling over the line that separates innovation from gimmicks. Obviously, we will have to wait and see if they can actually pull any of this off but, at the very least, Nokia fans should be pretty excited about the potential that the new N-Gage platform is bringing to the table. [NokNok]

N-Gage Boss on PSP Phone: “We’re Not Scared.” Uh, Really?

Sean Fallon — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:30:57 +0000

When asked whether or not he viewed the upcoming PSP phone as a threat to the N-Gage, Nokia games head honcho Jaakko Kaidesoja responded thusly:

“I’m not scared about anybody. The real question is how do they [Sony Ericsson] do it? Can they create a link between the PSP games and a phone? Can they do the multiplayer and online stuff? We’ve been doing this for two years and it hasn’t been easy.”

Is that the real question—or is it whether or not Nokia can do anything right and finally get a gaming platform off the ground? [Pocket Gamer]

Nokia N-Gage Video Hands-On

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:26:54 +0000

We played a bit with the new Nokia N-Gage service, which will be one of the core services on all the new Nokia phones presented here at the Mobile World Congress 2008. As we already knew, it’s a very similar philosophy to Xbox Live, a social-oriented game service with N-Gage points, pictures, reviews, scores and rankings, so you don’t have to play against a friend live, but you can still compete. The experience was smooth, the games themselves fast and crispy, all of them playable before purchasing them. Could Nokia make it work this time?

Enjoy N-Gage On Your N95

Nick Broughall — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 01:29:25 +0000

It seems like only Tuesday that we were breaking the news that the Nokia N-Gage gaming platform Beta was available for download for the N81. Now, two days later, Engadget is reporting that the download has been hacked for all NSeries devices, provided they have the internal grunt.

That makes anybody on an N95 open for some cool gaming action. The modified download can be found here. If anybody’s brave enough, I’d love to get your reviews on the experience…

[Finest Fones via Engadget]

Nokia N-Gage Mobile Phone Gaming Platform in Beta…Looks OK-ish?

Brian Lam — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:47:03 +0000

The prerelease of the N-Gage gaming app for Nokia mobile phones is being trialled to N81 owners right now, and AllAboutSymbian has a hands on of the system, which has Xbox like Friends lists, over the air game demos, gamer points, and chat. The beta comes with three demos: Space Impact: Kappa Base, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, and System Rush: Evolution. The screenshots tell the tale best.

N-Gage was a bit of a joke as a hardware platform, their booth at E3 always embarrassingly vacant. But the N-Gage platform on every mid-to-high end Nokia phone sounds like a better proposition than having to deal with side talking on a taco handset. If you’ve got an S60 phone, Symbian Guru says you can just unofficially download the app and give it a whirl. There’s a lot more over at [AllAboutSymbian and Symbian Guru]