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Portables (Games) Wireless Networking Hardware

N-Gage to Get Another Overhaul 53

Posted by Zonk from the for-the-love-of-tacos-why? dept.
MSNBC has the news that the ever unpopular N-Gage not only isn't going into that good night, but it's going to be receiving a redesign sometime in the future. From the article: "We're looking at new colors, a new look and feel for the QD in the next few months,"
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N-Gage to Get Another Overhaul More

N-Gage to Get Another Overhaul

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  • New colors will TOTALLY fix the problem of it being a crappy gaming unit but also a crappy phone!

    The N-Gage has pretty much failed, and no matter what color you make it, it cannot be saved.
    • There's always money to be made in prolonging the problem.
      • Are they making any money, though? If you have a product that nobody buys, do you make money?

        I've only seen one and that was at the local Cingular shop, but where do you go to get games? If you can call bad graphics on a tiny screen with horrible color "gaming"

    • fuck the games. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Tuesday March 08, 2005 @06:21PM (#11882105) Homepage Journal
      n-gage: free supported official sdk's(c++), shitload of applications(including ssh client, web browsers, movie players), python scripting support(official too), j2me support, bluetooth, mmc support(1gb going at somewhere around 80 bucks)... even flash now if that's your cup of tea for development.

      should be a pretty good nerd toy, no? and a bargain at the price they're going at.

      (besides.. even one of the penny arcade guys admitted that the qd is a pretty fun device - but congrats on your newly acquired karma you're sure to get from posting what you posted, a post without any real information)
      • I've got to admit that sounds very tempting. Especially the Python (my current favorite language). Too bad I have to use Sprint (good service, terrible phones).

        That said, I still can't see the thing as a game platform. I can see it as a geek toy, and I think they could have done better marketing it that way. But it will never be more much more than any other cellphone for games, I think. And I STILL don't get the portrait screen. Who decided on that? Square would be fine (the gameboy was square at ~160x160

        • OK, I just RTFA (yeah yeah) and I saw they are thinking about making a CDMA version. That'd be fantastic. That would open up the console more (betwen CDMA and GSM, you have most everyone with a cell phone in the US in your market) and gives you Sprint and Verizon (two of the biggest).

          Now if they could just keep Sprint and Verizon from crippling it to death...

        • Re:fuck the games. (Score:3, Informative)

          by Dehumanizer ( 31435 )
          The portrait screen is there because, at the time, that's all that Series 60 supported, I believe.

          As for games, it depends on whether you think $30+ is fair for NON-cellphone games (GBA, PS2, PC, etc.). If you think that games are just something to fill a couple of minutes, then no - you're not a gamer, no matter the platform.

          Also, the N-Gage plays 3 kinds of games: Java games (usually $3 or less, but a bit limited), Symbian games (usually less than $10, but more powerful - think "better than Amiga / SNES
        • *It just seems like they'll have a hard time making games that way (prove me wrong if you can, Nokia). That and price. No matter what you do it's still a cell-phone, and I don't want to pay $30+ for cellphone games (note I don't know what they cost). If most of them were more reasonable (say $10) I think they'd do better. And they could make more applications downloadable as an option if you have a large SD card (or whatever). That would be cool too.*

          you can also play normal s60 games, it's a normal s60 sy
    • Let me assure you that it is not a crappy phone -- at least the original N-Gage isn't. Can't really speak for the QD, though I suspect you've never touched either model.
  • Seriously, this has gone on for too long. I'm going to go to the Autumn gaming shows in London, and find the new N-Gage will be the highlight of the show.

    Nokia, you're fighting a losing battle, give up now and go back to developing phones. And save those of us who have to go to these trade shows the embarassment of having to talk to you about a handheld console that we didn't think would work, and didn't work.
  • The press - "Not going into the night" - is based on statements of Nokia marketers. This is not a valid base to believe that N-Gage will be with us much longer. Investments in new titles/developers would be - but just statements? I don't buy it.
  • Even if Nokia release something with specs that put the PSP to shame I doubt it would help them any. The fact that three well known handhelds (GBA SP, DS, and soon to be PSP) are already on the market proves this. When the console market had four consoles in the past one of them failed (Dreamcast). N-Gage would be this one because of its bad reputation and the fact that hardley anyone knows about it compared to the other three.
    • DS may be a seperate "Pillar" of Nintendo. Its still Nintendo. I think everyone will agree with me here, having one company have no competition in a marketplace will get you Pokemon colors til the cows come home.
      • Good point, in that case I would bring up the fact that previous attempts at handhelds by other companies (Wonderswan, Neo Geo) all failed even though they were better than the competition.
  • game gear atari lynx virtual boy neo geo pocket wonderswan N-Gage PSP... (did I say that?)
  • I've been using the original n-gage for quite about 9 months now. All i can say is if you've never used one, you don't know what you're missing. I don't know about the n-gage hating lot but i carry around a cellphone whatever the occasion. I also like to be able to listen to music so i have a bigger MMC card in it with a few cds of music. It has a radio if i get bored of the mp3s i've got loaded at the time. If i wanted to make it a better music machine, i'd go out and buy a 70$ 1gig MMC to fit a few more
    • I'm not going to flame you. It does seem like you are using your Ngage in much the same way as an ordinary smart phone (say palm or pocketpc) rather than as a gaming device.
      I use a PocketPC for various tasks including web browsing, terminal services, mp3 and video playback as well as game playing (especially through emulation).

  • Please -- every vote counts (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tom7 ( 102298 ) on Tuesday March 08, 2005 @06:43PM (#11882329) Homepage Journal
    Sign my online petition to bring back Sidetalkin'!
  • The N-Gage just sucks.

    The idea is good: a cellphone with kick butt games. But talking is hard and the games aren't to good (to my knolage).

    This is like the PDA/Cellphone combos. Good idea but no one can get them right. They are eather to big or they lack something. But mainly, as good of an idea as it is, people aren't ready for it. But if tomarrow someone came out with a something which can REALLY do both gaming and being a cell (and even a PDA) the thing could sell but no one can seem to make somethin

  • Ok, the Original ngage was pretty damn crappy, with side talking, card changing, etc, all done very wrong. I personally said I would never get one..

    Two months ago it was time to get a new phone, and I looked at the ngage qd with an apprehensive eye, but found what is a very sound device for a very small price tag. My only beef is the lack of IR or USB connectivity, but it was probably time for me to switch to bluetooth anyway. With symbian on the device, I've been able to get some nice apps working (put
  • If Nokia wanted the N-Gage to have even a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding, there are two things they would have to do:
    • Make it so that you don't have to remove the battery, put the game in, and put the battery back in.
    • Mark the game-playing buttons. Every time I try to play an N-Gage at EB, I'm stuck trying to figure out which buttons let me play the game.
    • If boarder8925 wanted the post to have even a snowball's chance in hell of not being retarded, there are two things he would have to do:

      • Realize that both of the problems he listed have been addressed with the QD.
      • Shut the fuck up.

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