All About N-Gage expands: say hello to Unofficial Games

A lot of people say N-Gage phones have hardly any games, but that's if you only count the official Nokia-approved titles.

If you include unofficial games (also known as Symbian S60v3 or S60 3rd Edition games) the total number of titles is much, much higher. The AAN Unofficial Games section only has a fraction of the total number of unofficial games, mainly because we're trying to stick to good games that are worth buying. We'll be expanding it over time as we find more unofficial titles worth including in the section.

http://www.n-gage.com/ngi/ngage/web/g0/en/showroom/gamedetail.423.GameDetail.html#
have u noticed this?

1. Really good section! But I wish it doesn't drive you attention from official games cause there's going to be a lot.
2. In Star Wars game page, star wars movie names are wrong. It says Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope but it is Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope! 😊

Hi , i saw yesterday the game metal gear solid in the showroom as coming soon , today i went back there and it was no longer there , instead they added the star wars the force unleashed , im waiting those two games to come out , but why take out metal gear solid of the showroom :con? , thats just weird , i hope some one can help me out with this.

by the way , im a fan of this site , keep up the good work. :icon14:

by the way , its no longer on the upcoming games on the n-gage arena forums :con?

I wouldn't pay too much attention to what comes and goes on the official N-Gage site. Things have appeared, disapppeared and reappeared quite often in its history and it doesn't seem to mean much.

One thing I would say though is that AAN is the only site that lists absolutely all of the upcoming games announced by Nokia so far, in the Games section:

http://www.allaboutngage.com/games/

We don't list rumoured games though, they have to be announced by Nokia themselves to get on the list.

I find it a bit weird to call these S60 games "unofficial N-Gage games", as they do not work from the N-Gage application or support any of the community features that separate N-Gage from regular S60 games. Yes, they are similar in a way they are produced, but from the end users perspective they are pretty much as unofficial "N-Gage games" as any other mobile game out there.

I find it a bit weird to call these S60 games "unofficial N-Gage games", as they do not work from the N-Gage application or support any of the community features that separate N-Gage from regular S60 games.

Okay, here's our official explanation... 😊

On a technical level N-Gage games are effectively just Nokia-branded Symbian S60 3rd Edition games. S60 games can do everything that N-Gage games can do, because they're the same thing.

In effect, S60 games are unofficial N-Gage games.

S60 games can't access the N-Gage app's community features, but that's entirely a decision by Nokia to deliberately exclude them rather than a technical failing. It also makes very little difference on most games, for example there aren't really any community features on Dirk Dagger.

And S60 games can provide their own community features if necessary. TibiaME is a Massively Multiplayer Online game, and it can run online because the publishers use their own multiplayer servers, so they don't need access to Nokia's infrastructure.

The most accurate way of labelling these unofficial games would be Symbian S60 3rd Edition, but the trouble is that Nokia has avoided making them consumer brands: "symbian" and "s60" and "3rd Edition" don't really appear anywhere on the phone or its interface, and they're usually not mentioned in the publicity for these phones either. There isn't really any obvious way for an ordinary user to know what these terms mean.

Most Symbian S60 phone owners simply don't know they own a Symbian S60 phone, whereas people who own an N-Gage-compatible phone may well know about it because the N-Gage app comes with their phone's firmware (or it will do soon) and appears as an icon on their main menu. It also seems likely that by 2009 Nokia will include the N-Gage application on all new S60 devices, which means that N-Gage-compatible and S60-compatible will be one and the same thing.

Because of this situation, we decided to call them "unofficial N-gage games" instead of "symbian s60 games", because N-Gage is a brand consumers might know about while Symbian and S60 aren't.

they are pretty much as unofficial "N-Gage games" as any other mobile game out there.

That's not quite true.

N-Gage/S60 games are native applications, so they can access the phone's hardware directly and use it to its fullest. There are some things native apps can do which non-native apps cannot do.

Java J2ME and Flash Lite games are non-native applications, so they cannot access the phone's hardware as directly, which restricts what they can do on the phone.

Obviously if a game is something as simple as Tetris the user is unlikely to notice what platform it's on, but there are some games where the differences between platforms become much more obvious, and that's why it's important to make a distinction between them.

Yes, that's your view, but I think the regular users (gamers) don't know care about these backgrounds...whether something is technically similar in a way it's programmed and so on. This doesn't matter to them. N-Gage = games that you can play from the N-Gage application, earn NGP, rate games, recommend games etc. Other games = games that are not integrated into this system.

What is an "unofficial N-Gage game" then? Definitely not e.g. K-Rally. There is nothing "N-Gage" in it for the average gamer, it's its own independent rally game without any N-Gage in it. In my opinion, it's "unofficial N-Gage game" only for techies. Well, maybe this site is just for techies, so in that way it's justifiable to use the term.

I would personally associate the term "unofficial N-Gage game" to something which was made (finished) for N-Gage (first gen or 2.0) but not officially released due to some last minute decision. That would make sense.

Yes, that's your view, but I think the regular users (gamers) don't know care about these backgrounds...whether something is technically similar in a way it's programmed and so on.

It's not just about the way it's programmed, it's about how the actual game works. This is not an obscure background thing, it goes right to the heart of how good the game can be.

For example the quality of graphics on S60 games can be much higher than on Java or Flash Lite games, and that is definitely something that ordinary gamers may care about.

It's like on the PlayStation 2, people could run PS1 games as well, but they wanted to know if a game had been specifically written for the PS2 because that meant it was probably higher quality technically.

Also there's the question of compatibility: S60 games will only run on S60 phones, but most S60 owners don't know they have an S60 phone, so they don't know the games will run on their phone. What's the solution to this? Use a brand that S60 owners know runs on their phone, i.e. N-Gage.

Well, maybe this site is just for techies, so in that way it's justifiable to use the term.

If this site was for techies we would call them Symbian S60 3rd Edition games.

The only reason we're not is because this site is intended for non-techies.

This doesn't matter to them. N-Gage = games that you can play from the N-Gage application, earn NGP, rate games, recommend games etc. Other games = games that are not integrated into this system.

That might be important to some people, but I think most people just want to play the games themselves.

The recommendations are pathetic, most of the reviews say stuff like "add me" or "demo too short" and it's impossible to tell if they've played the game at all. The ratings are virtually the same for all of the games, about 4 stars. It's much easier just to play the demo, and there are demos available for both N-Gage and S60 games.

NGPs are nice, but they're not the reason you'd play a game.

As for launching the game, does it really make much difference if you select an icon in the N-Gage application or an icon in the phone's Applications folder?

IMO, it doesn't matter how pathetic or minor those features are, as long as they are the very thing that makes a game an N-Gage game. If we are to talk about N-Gage, then let's talk about N-Gage, but leave out all the other games that only "look and feel similar". I loved your article on these other games, don't get me wrong, but they are simply not N-Gage games, nor unofficial or official. They are mobile games, S60 games or whatever, but not N-Gage, because they don't include those features that make a regular S60 game to become an N-Gage game in the first place.

IMO, it doesn't matter how pathetic or minor those features are, as long as they are the very thing that makes a game an N-Gage game.

Those are NOT the things that make a game an N-Gage game.

Are you saying that the only reason people buy N-Gage games is because of the user-written reviews and NGPs?

I don't think it is, in fact I don't think it would make any difference to game sales if those features disappeared completely. They're nice but they're not the central reason people use N-Gage.

I think most people buy N-Gage games because they tend to offer much higher quality graphics and gameplay than Java games, and the reason they can do that is because they're native Symbian S60 applications.

S60 games can do all of the cool things that N-Gage games can do, whereas Java and Flash Lite can't. If Nokia wanted to, they could release all their current N-Gage games on S60, but they couldn't do that on Java or Flash Lite.

In the ways that matter most, S60 and N-Gage are one and the same thing.

If we are to talk about N-Gage, then let's talk about N-Gage, but leave out all the other games that only "look and feel similar".

It's not just about looking and feeling similar, it's about them working on N-Gage phones, and working in exactly the same way.

There's also the point that S60 games cover many genres that N-Gage hasn't touched yet, so it makes sense to tell N-Gage owners that these games exist and where they can get them. They're not in competition, they complement each other.

If you're a fan of card games and you own an N-Gage-compatible phone, N-Gage itself officially only offers one card game with two more on the way. Unofficially though you can get lots and lots of card games through S60 which can work just as well as their N-Gage counterparts.

If you don't like any S60 games don't buy them, but a lot of people might appreciate knowing about these other games. It's better to hear about something than not hear about it.

If you don't agree with this then feel free to ignore that "unofficial games" link at the top. But for those who do appreicate this service it will be there for them.

Of course they are not the reason why people buy N-Gage games, I'm not that stupid. 😊

There are good games in S60, in N-Gage, in Java. People buy them because they are entertaining games. That doesn't make Java to be N-Gage. That doesn't S60 to be N-Gage, even though N-Gage is S60. Because N-Gage is more than that.

N-Gage game = a S60 game with N-Gage features. No matter how small or insignificant to purchase decision those features are, this is the fact.

I understand that they are technically very close to themselves. But for a gamer, N-Gage is simply the games inside the N-Gage application, not any other games. Let's try to keep things simple.

We did think quite careful about what to call this section. We're trying to make it clear to the maximum number of people.

Originally I was in favour of S60 games, but as Tzer2 pointed out to me S60 is really that well known a brand outside techie users and we wanted to have broader appeal.

i'm a little bored with nothing to do u and i'm waiting patiently for next n-gage game to come out
so in the meanime i'm going to try one of the s60 games you have listed which 1 should i buy ?

The native s60 games work on any s60 device even Eseries and no one talk about that...is the title of the topic more important??

well,its allaboutngage ngage is s60 Eseries is s60.

Please can u list the compatibility of the games...especially the E90 internal screen cauz even i hack my phone i cant play the E90 in full screen.

but am afraid that when the ngage lunched and became popular in 2009 may be...the developers interest in non-ngage games diminish and we dont see new games only in the ngage show room.

btw.....(why u dont say non-ngage games on yr title?)

I agree with tzer2 when i went to buy a "n" phone i had no idea what the advantages where. So i had no idea what so ever about s60. Naturally anyone who comes in to site have some idea that there phone dose or will support ngage in the "near" future. But till then (or if ur fed up with feeding your dogz😉 the chances are you will look for some other games. I think that this page will help them find some decent games. And if not unofficial ngage games what the heck should the link be called? "Click here and find out"? S60 3rd is out of the question because i know many people who had used s60 phones for months without knowing about s60. These games also cannot be called "other phone games" because they wouldnt work on"other" phones(most of them). Plus they are up to the ngage standerds and can also be even more engaging than ngage titles(lyk krally).

are accounts different ?do i have to make a different acount to use your shop ?
i'm a bit muddled up trying to buy a game

ccraig - yes you will need to - the ship is based on Handango - so if you ahve a Handango ID you can use that.

Rafe wrote:ccraig - yes you will need to - the ship is based on Handango - so if you ahve a Handango ID you can use that.

thank's
i just got a game ,I might get another game too
what's the game called what as the skeleton indian looking person in the screenshot ?
it looks good

ccraig wrote:thank's
i just got a game ,I might get another game too
what's the game called what as the skeleton indian looking person in the screenshot ?
it looks good