Something about N81

xaozon wrote:What kind of buttons are tactile feedback buttons? I don't understand what they're like, maybe some example? They good for gaming?

As far as I know, tactile feedback just means they're clicky, so you can tell when you've pressed them.

xaozon wrote:And more about buttons... I'm also interested in playing with emulators...now N81 seems to have 4 buttons when the slider is closed..i'm not sure if that's enough for SNES and GBA since they have shoulder's and start+selects. I never had a S60 phone so i don't have much experince with playing, so do you think that SNES and GBA are playble too with N81? Would gaming be comfortable with slider open since then there would be lots of buttons?

Emulators are unofficial pieces of software designed for a whole load of different S60 models (N81 and all N-Gage compatibles are part of the S60 family of smartphones). They usually let you define your own keys, because different key combinations work best on different phone models.

If you have an N95 or N93 you can also play emulated systems through your TV set. If you connect a bluetooth keyboard you can control the phone from your sofa:

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/TV_Out_on_the_Nokia_N95-Part_4_What_retro_computers_have_become.php

It also works with modern games, or indeed anything that the phone does, because the phone pipes its picture straight through to the TV.

Yes i understand that they're unofficial and Nokia doesn't care how they work, but my main concern is that could playing SNES and GBA games on N81 actually be enjoyable because so far when i've played with my friend's S60 phones it's not very fun. I also wonder if it's comfortable to play when the slider is open (never tried that) because when it's closed there are not enough buttons i believe (media buttons are never assingable)

xaozon wrote:Yes i understand that they're unofficial and Nokia doesn't care how they work, but my main concern is that could playing SNES and GBA games on N81 actually be enjoyable because so far when i've played with my friend's S60 phones it's not very fun. I also wonder if it's comfortable to play when the slider is open (never tried that) because when it's closed there are not enough buttons i believe (media buttons are never assingable)

I think if you want to play games on an N-Gage compatible phone with the entire keypad, the best phone is the N93/N93i.

You can access all of the buttons and keypad at the same time, the screen is in horizontal mode, and the whole thing is laid out pretty much like a GBA SP:

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/images/features/n93fifa2008small.jpg

Yeah but N93 is too expensive for me.

I've always been intrigued by the N93/N93i, but as I'm in the US and they lack the 850 band, I've stayed away...

Although I've often thought, I never had trouble with my 7610, and it lacks 850. Hmmm.... But I digress.

I've wondered about this same question myself, regarding keys and gaming, including emulators. I like phone gaming in theory, but in practice, they controls all suck. Even when I had an N-Gage QD, I thought the buttons were terribly uncomfortable.

When I first saw the N81 and its two buttons, one of my first thoughts was, are they going to limit all N-Gage games to two buttons now? And of course, that does present diffficulties for emulators also.

I am leaning towards the US N95 as my next phone. It is well supported, and has plenty of buttons for all situations! 😃

riftweaver wrote:I've wondered about this same question myself, regarding keys and gaming, including emulators. I like phone gaming in theory, but in practice, they controls all suck. Even when I had an N-Gage QD, I thought the buttons were terribly uncomfortable.

If you didn't like the controls on the QD, you probably won't like the controls on any phone games. The QD is about as good as phone game controls get, especially the d-pad.

On the other hand, maybe you might prefer the simplicity of two widely-spaced buttons like on the N81?

If you plan on getting an N-gage compatible model, you'll be able to try all the games for free anyway, so I suppose it's no real risk to give the controls a go on each game and see how they suit you.

When I first saw the N81 and its two buttons, one of my first thoughts was, are they going to limit all N-Gage games to two buttons now? And of course, that does present diffficulties for emulators also.

I wouldn't get too bogged down in the "more buttons = better games" thing, it really depends on how much effort the developer puts in. K-Rally is one of the best phone games I've ever played, but it runs off just the d-pad and two buttons.

Citybloxx is another of my favourite-ever phone games, and it runs entirely off ONE button! (it doesn't even use the d-pad!) 😊

Another example is Snakes, which (with a few exceptions) just uses the d-pad but plays really well.

I think one of the problems on the original gen N-Gage's games was that they tried too hard to be PlayStation games shrunk to phone-size (some of them actually were direct PS1 ports), so the more complex controls could sometimes feel a bit overwhelming on a smaller keypad. The Next Gen N-Gage games have been designed entirely with phones in mind, and aren't trying so hard to be console-like, so the controls may feel a bit more intuitive on a phone. Haven't played them yet though so can't be sure.

I am leaning towards the US N95 as my next phone. It is well supported, and has plenty of buttons for all situations! 😃

(By the way, the N81 does have as many buttons as the N95, but they're a bit less visible because of the way it's designed.)

I assume by "US N95" you mean the N95 8GB which is due out in the USA very soon? It's got far more free system RAM, US 3G support, and the battery lasts far longer, which were all the main areas of concern on the original N95. It does look pretty darn good as a phone.

Also, speaking personally, I really didn't like the flat multimedia controls of the original N95, but the N95 8GB has small bumps on them which should be a big improvement.

Oh yes, and you may find the N95's TV Out feature very interesting when it comes to gaming:

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/TV_Out_on_the_Nokia_N95-Part_2_The_N95_as_a_games_console.php

and retro gaming:

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/TV_Out_on_the_Nokia_N95-Part_4_What_retro_computers_have_become.php

riftweaver:
N95 is not going to be good for gaming since it it has buttons only one side of the screen and that limits landscape gaming severely (i bet the multimedia buttons won't be assingable)

And i agree that N-Gage phone had too many buttons, it was very confusing! 2 action buttons is actually enough usually, i tried some Snes/Gba games recently and i was able to play them just fine with only 2 action buttons! More buttons are only needed to access inventory etc...My main worry is that those 2 buttons at the top are too widely placed from each other. To play some Nes/Snes games you must be able to press 3 buttons at the same time (Run,Jump,Direction). That means that i must be able to press both top buttons down at times. If this is not possible/comfortable enough i'm not going to get N81 and this is the only thing that is limiting me.

I haven't found it mentioned anywhere so can anyone tell me if the N81 has/will have TV out? Samsung seem to include this feature with almost all their new phones so it would a shame if Nokia left it out. I think that would make the N81 the perfect budget N-Gage phone.

Neil

Haggisheed wrote:I haven't found it mentioned anywhere so can anyone tell me if the N81 has/will have TV out? Samsung seem to include this feature with almost all their new phones so it would a shame if Nokia left it out. I think that would make the N81 the perfect budget N-Gage phone.

As far as I know, it doesn't have TV Out.

Apparently the TV Out feature is provided by the same chip that does 3D graphics acceleration, and the N81 doesn't have this chip.

I agree though, this feature ought to be provided as standard, and perhaps one day it will. Personally I think this could completely change computing:

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/TV_Out_on_the_Nokia_N95-Part_1_Will_the_smartphone_eat_the_PC.php