Which N-Gage compatible phone are you going to use at the Next Gen launch?

N93 is the only phone that actually fits for gaming but it's too expensive so i have to wait for bettter gaming optimized phones. According to symbian-guru review N81 gaming capabilities aren't much and i'm not sure if you can use N95 media buttons on gaming which would make landscape possible (too expensive anyway). N73 has no buttons on both sides of the screen which means bad landscape experience and i consider it very important.

xaozon wrote:N93 is the only phone that actually fits for gaming

I'd agree that the N93 is best for gaming overall because you can access all the buttons with two hands, but all the phones are capable of being used for games.

This is NOT a games console, it's a phone gaming platform, so it should be compared to other phone gaming platforms like Java and S60. Most phone games don't even have a horizontal mode, most phone games have very simple controls which you can operate with one hand.

Next Gen N-Gage games are meant to be a replacement for Java, that's why their prices are so cheap and they're sold as downloads.

According to symbian-guru review N81 gaming capabilities aren't much

They also said was the N-Gage application isn't available, so they can't review how well it copes with N-Gage games yet. The review mainly just complains about not being able to access horizontal mode in non-Ngage games, but the Ngage games will be able to.

I seriously think it's way too early to judge the games or the phones because the actual platform hasn't launched yet.

N73 has no buttons on both sides of the screen which means bad landscape experience and i consider it very important.

It depends what screen orientation the game has been designed for.

One of the problems with the original N-Gage was that it had direct ports of games designed for landscape screens, but the next gen platform has games that have been designed entirely with phones in mind, including landscape screens.

We're so used to horizontal screens because of home consoles and television sets, but just because we're used to them doesn't mean they're the only way for games to be designed.

I understand it's not a console, but playing in horizontal mode is so uncomfortable and unergonomical that i'm not going to give it a chance anymore. It's not about how good the games are, it just feels so bad not being able to hold the phone like a joypad. Of course this is only my opinion but i'm very confident about this. I've been playing mobile games in horizontal mode for many years and i hate it. Second thing is the emulators. I expect to be able to play those games since the hardware is capable of it. However N81's top buttons cannot be pressed at the same time so that rules out enjoying old NES/SNES games pretty well (of course Nokia doesn't give a f about this). I'm not expecting a PSP killer here, but at least some improvements for mobile gaming. I know the new N-Gage is aimed for casual gamers but this is just TOO casual for me. The new N-Gage seems to be nothing more than an attempt to get Symbian coded games to mainstream. Which is of course fine since Symbian is lot more powerful than Java and friends but these devices aren't good for my gaming style. I now really hope that PSP Phone is real or Nokia brings us gaming oriented device, which they maybe will if new Ngage is successful.

xaozon wrote:I understand it's not a console, but playing in horizontal mode is so uncomfortable and unergonomical that i'm not going to give it a chance anymore. It's not about how good the games are, it just feels so bad not being able to hold the phone like a joypad.

Obviously this is entirely personal taste, I didn't mean to imply there was a wrong or right answer to this. Sorry. 😊

Just out of interest, does gaming on a vertical phone feel uncomfortable to you even when the game has been designed for one-handed use?

Second thing is the emulators. I expect to be able to play those games since the hardware is capable of it. However N81's top buttons cannot be pressed at the same time so that rules out enjoying old NES/SNES games pretty well (of course Nokia doesn't give a f about this).

I love emulators too, I've done many articles about them for AAS/AAN, and I've even helped emulator developers test their products.

However, emulation is a minority interest, especially on phones, so I suspect Nokia just doesn't want to give this priority.

Like I said before, N93 is the way to go if you want emulation on a phone, especially as it lets you plug into a TV and see the picture just as it was on the original computer/console. I know they're expensive new but you can get them for about £150 ($300, €250) if you buy them second hand on ebay, which is about the same price the original N-Gage was when it launched.

I'm not expecting a PSP killer here, but at least some improvements for mobile gaming.

Improvements compared to what though?

If you compare Next Gen N-Gage games to Java games the N-Gage games are much better, not just better graphics but also much better online and community features.

This is N-Gage's biggest image problem, Nokia promoted it as a console-killer in 2003, but really they should have promoted it as a Java-killer, which is what they're doing now in 2007.

N-Gage has always been very good compared to Java, but not so good compared to consoles.

I know the new N-Gage is aimed for casual gamers but this is just TOO casual for me. ... The new N-Gage seems to be nothing more than an attempt to get Symbian coded games to mainstream. Which is of course fine since Symbian is lot more powerful than Java and friends but these devices aren't good for my gaming style.

I totally understand, and I think you're right that this is an attempt to make Symbian games mainstream. If you're after a gaming-centric device then N-Gage probably isn't for you.

I probably suggested this before, but the GP2X handheld is excellent for emulators and it's built like a console (you can even plug it into a TV and plug joypads into it if you want to use it at home).

I now really hope that PSP Phone is real or Nokia brings us gaming oriented device, which they maybe will if new Ngage is successful.

...the trouble is, will a PSP phone be any different to what Nokia is doing?

If the Next Gen N-Gage is successful then Sony Ericsson will probably want to copy the Next Gen's casual model of a general platform, not the hardcore gamer model of the single device original gen N-Gage. In fact, as SE also uses Symbian UIQ in its smartphones (which is relatively easy to port to from Symbian S60) we might see games appear on both Nokia and SE platforms.

I was at an official webchat with one of the heads of N-Gage in about 2005 when they'd just announced they were going to do a Next Gen platform. He did sort of imply that they could only do another gaming-centric phone if the Next Gen was a big hit.

At the end of the day though the market for gaming-centric devices is very small compared to the market for phone-centric devices. Consoles are something like 30 million a year, phones are over 1000 million a year. Nokia is betting on casual phone gaming being a much bigger market than hardcore console gaming, especially as phones become more powerful.

I don't think that i'm going to like any game that's designed for one-handed use.

As for improvements i mean mobile gaming in general...i kinda responded this in the post when i mentioned that N-Gage is about symbian oriented gaming, but personally i wished for a good gaming device too.

GP2X would be a great device for me but it doesn't have phone capabilites and that's a big problem for me. I want all-in-one device with media player,communicating and gaming. I'm not going to carry many devices with me.

As for PSP Phone, have you seen this patent image? (looks like i can't post links so just search for sony ericsson psp patent)
i think this looks really great for gaming and it looks like a phone too. Perfect.

well I am getting a n95 next month, not sure how ill i play on it?

as the ngage arena compatible device list shows that n95 ill only support potrait gaming & no landscape?

xaozon wrote:but personally i wished for a good gaming device too.

The new N-Gage is not about the hardware, it's about the software.

In fact, ultimately, NO gaming platform is about the hardware, it's always about the software. If a console doesn't sell games, it doesn't matter how good the hardware is, it is a failure as a gaming platform because it will not receive publisher support.

The only way to create a viable gaming platform is to have a large userbase. Gaming-oriented phones seem to sell badly because people's main priority when buying a phone are the core phone functions rather than the extras.

Nokia tried doing the gaming-oriented N-Gage model but it sold very badly indeed, while at the same time their other more phone-oriented S60 models sold very well indeed. Now they're moving the games to the phone-oriented models, to see if that will increase game sales (which I suspect it will).

I want all-in-one device with media player,communicating and gaming. I'm not going to carry many devices with me.

Well, that's what you would get with Next Gen N-Gage.

The hardware wouldn't be as gaming-oriented as you want, but that's because most people don't really want gaming-oriented hardware.

Like I said before, consoles sell maybe 30-40 million a year, phones sell over 1000 million a year, and phone sales are growing faster than console sales. Very few people actually buy consoles, and even the people who do buy them only buy maybe 5 or 10 games in the entire lifetime of the console (on handhelds it's even less, maybe 3 to 5 games in the handheld's entire lifetime). The number of people who buy consoles and buy dozens of games for them is very very very small.

As for PSP Phone, have you seen this patent image? (looks like i can't post links so just search for sony ericsson psp patent)

It doesn't matter whether they patent it or even manufacture it, if it doesn't sell well then game publishers won't support it. Without support, a gaming device is useless.

Even if it sold as well as all consoles put together (which is unlikely), that would still only give it a 3% share of the phone market. If it sold as well as the PSP (which is more likely) then you're looking at less than 1% of the phone market. It would be an incredibly niche item.

There just isn't that much demand for gaming-oriented hardware in general, it's a very small market. The problem is that when you make something gaming-oriented it turns off people looking for something phone-oriented.

The only way round this is to make the gaming platform available on both gaming-oriented and phone-oriented models, but then you end up having to make sure that the games are playable on phones without gaming-oriented controls, so they would have to be much more simplified than console games, which is what they're doing on Next Gen N-Gage.

well I am getting a n95 next month, not sure how ill i play on it?

as the ngage arena compatible device list shows that n95 ill only support potrait gaming & no landscape?

All the games have a portrait mode, and it's worth noting that the original N-Gage only supported portrait mode.

I don't believe either that trying to compete with other handheld gaming devices with a phone is smart and i think what Nokia is doing now is fine. I don't mind if the games are simpler but all i want is a proper device to play them. When i mentioned the PSP Phone i meant that is a good design for a gaming oriented phone. You say "Gaming-oriented phones seem to sell badly" what other phones like this are there than N-Gage (N-Gage was a bad gaming device (small screen, poor performance) and an ugly phone so no wonder it failed).

I put alot of thought into my new N-Gage compatible phone, being a big fan of the original N-Gage I didn't want to settle for a phone that wouldn't allow me to access buttons on both sides when in landscape mode.

Came very close to purchasing an N81 as I really liked the design, seems great for gaming, especially with the side(or top of course) dedicated gaming buttons, sadly the lack of a 3D accelerator chip put me off so decided to give it a miss.

As others have commented, I think the N93 is the best gaming device for N-Gage ATM and that's what I've just purchased in readiness for the roll out launch, nice looking phone and very practical for gaming, of course also has the 3D accelerator chip.

Yep, Nokia N93 for me😎

Tetlee, I totally agree. I use an N93 for doing phone game reviews whenever possible because its keys are so well laid out.

The other big bonus of the N93 is the TV Out, which lets you play the games on a big screen. I thought the games would all be really pixelly but a lot of them actually look very good on a TV, and some games actually play better because you can see all the details of the graphics more clearly.