Official Nokia N-Gage Thread

[Tracer]

No way! That's handy, I'm all for convergence and to hell with the nay-sayers. if they can make it work then more power to them.

[maruchan]

do you think they will change the name of the N-Gage.. to stop confuseison... i mean it sounds like some kind of releated nintendo perherial, or new gadget...

[Shin Johnpv]

Originally posted by Andy
Nokia said the system and games will be competetively priced with GBA, and that it is a games system first, and a cel phone second. Eat it, PV

eat what

MS there would be no fees on Xbox live and we know how that turned out

lets see it when it comes out

i still think combining things is ass

[Jeremy]

I have no problems getting more for my money. They can pack in all the bells and whistles they want as long as they deliver some quality gaming content to it. I'm excited about the N-Gage. If it's $150 or less, I'll definitely pick it up at launch.

[sggg]

Originally posted by Andrew
I feel like most people: Get rid of the fucking phone and go pure gaming. The design of the face is clustered, while the engineering of the unit itself looks like a sharp GBA rip.

I don't think
"most people" will feel that way at all... but time will tell... It's supposed to be a gaming system first and a phone second. The phone functionality is secondary but a really important and nice add-on. I don't personally need a phone either..... but having the phone functionality is going to be a major selling point for many users.

And the original GBA was a much more direct (and cheap) rip-off of the NGPC in the first place... Since GBA is going with the new horribly wonky SP design, one can possibly look at the N-Gage as the NGPC's spiritual successor. It has a screen with similar dimensions and it has Sonic, Puyo, and Puzzle Bobble.

They have Sonic N? I don't know what that is but it's something, atleast. I just don't see it being functional with all of those buttons.

It's funny how people compain to no end about the lack of buttons on GBA... and now others will complain about having too many on N-Gage. With N-Gage, though, there are the two primary raised buttons. "5" and "7" are basically "A" and "B".

[thumbnail]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images//2003/news/02/05/ngage/ngage_screen005.jpg[/thumbnail]

If a game requires some extra buttons.. then I am sure many people will be glad to have them. Having a good control scheme will come down to the developer and the game. It's nice to have the options though, I think.

[Jeremy]

I have no problem with all the buttons, as long as they are at least USED, unlike the many buttons on the Jag controller, I have no problem with it.

[sggg]

Originally posted by Shin Johnpv
i still think combining things is ass

I think needing something like a purse to carry around a GBA, a mobile phone, and an mp3 player is ass.


I'd rather have one convenient device. This one has the right priority for me too.. since it's designed for gaming first and foremost. If N-Gage turns out bad (even though it seems great so far) then I hope someone else picks up the idea.

[Agent X]

This is looking very interesting. I do have some concerns, though:

1. Price. I'm in agreement with several people here who said that this should be released at under $150 to go over well, especially if the N-Gage is supposed to be a game system first and a mobile phone second (as GameSpot's article indicated).

2. The screen. I'm bothered by the fact that the screen is not only smaller than the GBA screen, but is also lower resolution than the GBA screen. They should've gone for a 320x240, horizontally-oriented screen, with the possibility of rotating the unit 90 degrees in the event that a vertically-oriented screen is needed (like the Atari Lynx did over 13 years ago). Yes, this would've jacked the price up a bit, but I'd be all for it because then conversions of most games from the 1977-1994 period could be done without sacrificing any graphic detail due to resolution limitations. If 320x240 would be too costly, then my next preference would be 240x180 (still higher res than GBA, and maintaining a 4:3 aspect ratio).

3. The game library. I'm a little iffy on the selection of games they have right now. It's an impressive list of names, that's for sure, but I'm not sure how well many of those particular games would translate to a handheld platform. I'd rather see something fun that takes good advantage of multiplayer capabilities, rather than yet another Sonic or Tomb Raider game. The Tiger Game.Com went this route (emphasizing big-name licenses over gameplay) and it tanked hard. Again, look to the Atari Lynx for inspiration--games like California Games, Slime World, Warbirds, Checkered Flag, and BattleWheels were great multiplayer fun, and it also had a good mix of contemporary arcade conversions to round out the library.

I do like the inclusion of Bluetooth networking (hopefully with a way to play with more than two players, also), and MP3 playback. I hope that it isn't required to use the device as a mobile phone, just in case my service provider doesn't support it.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the final product turns out.

[sggg]

Originally posted by Jeremy
I have no problem with all the buttons, as long as they are at least USED, unlike the many buttons on the Jag controller, I have no problem with it.

Jeremy, I have a feeling all those number buttons will quite important when making phone calls!



...and sending SMS messages.

[Drewbacca]

Originally posted by sggg
I don't think
"most people" will feel that way at all... but time will tell... It's supposed to be a gaming system first and a phone second. The phone functionality is secondary but a really important and nice add-on. I don't personally need a phone either..... but having the phone functionality is going to be a major selling point for many users.

And the original GBA was a much more direct (and cheap) rip-off of the NGPC in the first place... Since GBA is going with the new horribly wonky SP design, one can possibly look at the N-Gage as the NGPC's spiritual successor. It has a screen with similar dimensions and it has Sonic, Puyo, and Puzzle Bobble.

It's funny how people compain to no end about the lack of buttons on GBA... and now others will complain about having too many on N-Gage. With N-Gage, though, there are the two primary raised buttons. "5" and "7" are basically "A" and "B".

[thumbnail]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images//2003/news/02/05/ngage/ngage_screen005.jpg[/thumbnail]

If a game requires some extra buttons.. then I am sure many people will be glad to have them. Having a good control scheme will come down to the developer and the game. It's nice to have the options
though, I think.

Not enough means something like 1 or 2 more, not 50 (of course, exaggerated). I never complained about the GBA buttons though, I thought it was simple and to the point.

Press 9 to access the menu and navigate using the intercome connection module. BAH! I don't want to pay for minutes. So if it is a phone last while the gaming comes through I could see Nintendo losing alot of their market share they have sat on for so long, content to do nothing.

SP should have some of these features (such as blue tooth) in them.