The very first original gen N-Gage launched five years ago today, on the 7th of October 2003. It's not exactly been a smooth journey since then of course, though the next gen platform seems to be doing better than the original gen did at this stage in its life. But enough about the next gen... Those of you who want to wallow in nostalgia for the device that kicked off this entire adventure should check out our Classic N-Gage section, which contains all of AAN's original gen game reviews, features and game news. The original gen forum is also still in operation if you've got an N-Gage or QD and want to chat about it.
Read on in the full article.
I bet the official Nokia sites don't mention this anniversary at all... 😉
Anyway, if you've got fond memories of the original gen this thread is the perfect place to share them.
I still carry my n-gage QD around. Very good battery life and nice little detachment every now and again. It's a little bit bulky though and I've been planning to change it. I just love it too much. I'll never get rid of it :love:
I am with N-Gage since day 1...I was one of the forst to buy the N-Gage tm here in Portugal...October 7th 2003 0:26AM... A day to remember...The years passed and in 2005 I bougth a N-Gage QD... And finnaly in March 2008 I bought the N81 SD... I still have the 2 N-Gage's fully funcional and I use them to play the good old N-Gage games!!!
Happy Birthday N-GAGE!!!
I wish they'd bring more of the original gen games onto the next gen, there were some really high quality titles on the original N-Gage which deserve a second chance.
For example, a lot of people have asked for an RPG on next gen N-Gage, so why not re-release Rifts?
I have the original N-Gage 😊
It pretty much stays in the closet all the time. The few times I take it out from there is to play Shadowkey and Rifts.
I would like to see Shadowkey and Rifts remakes to the new N-Gage so I can fully abandon the old N-Gage and have the games on my primary device.
But so many of the original games were good. Two of my mates also had the ngage1 and we used to play many of the games over bluetooth. I really loved colin mcrae and pathway to glory. I still maintain that colin mcrae was one of the best racing games on ANY platform. There was a very simple tennis game that was a load of fun over bluetooth too. I'm kinda disappointed in this new ngage. Surely they can at least match the quality of the original?
I'm kinda disappointed in this new ngage. Surely they can at least match the quality of the original?
Well, first off I think they have matched the original for quality with some games, things like Reset Generation and Creatures Of The Deep are as good as anything on the original gen N-Gage.
Also you've got to remember that the original gen's most memorable titles took a LONG time to arrive. Most people who bought one were extremely disappointed by the launch lineup, and it was only the people who stuck with the original N-Gage for one or two years that saw any good games.
The original N-Gage launched in October 2003, but Colin Mcrae was released in late 2004, over twelve months later. Pretty much every good game on the original gen was released in 2004 or 2005.
And there's the small matter of price: original gen N-Gage games cost 50 euros (35 pounds) each, whereas next gen games cost about 10 euros (7 pounds) each. I know people like having game packaging, but is it really worth paying five times more just for a plastic box? They dropped the price later of course, but that was mainly to clear dead stock, and most shops stopped selling the games after the disappointing launch so it was extremely difficult to find the later titles.
BTW I do agree Colin Mcrae was excellent, probably the best portable racer I've ever played. It had so much variety of gameplay, attention to detail and realism, and mixed in a bit of strategy too.
I happily, still have my Classic N-Gage, it's in excellent condition too. Wow, just can't believe it has been 5 yrs already.