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You bought an N-Gage, didn't you?
- Thread starter Krejlooc
- Start date
In India this thing got a lot of push. I remember seeing ads on every major TV show and sports programming. Some of my friends also bought it. I always wanted to own one, but the thing died before I could.
It was ahead of its time. Was a phone, could play all kinds of media, mp3 player with 3.55mm jacks (remember this was ages before the iphone), Symbian OS (that means emulator king and all kinds of apps).
It was ahead of its time. Was a phone, could play all kinds of media, mp3 player with 3.55mm jacks (remember this was ages before the iphone), Symbian OS (that means emulator king and all kinds of apps).
funkystudent
Member
I saw my first hardcore porn on a n-gage.
trudderham
Member
I remember my N-Gage QD fondly, especially playing Tomb Raider on the bus. Good times.
That's what was so funny about the n-gage. It got an enormous push world wide. It is probably one of the highest profile flame-outs I've ever seen in gaming.
Cpu is clocked at 104 MHz so I'd assume so
AlteredForms
Banned
I never truly understood why this got so much static. What was wrong with it? I've never owned one, knew one person who did and he sold it.
MichaelFassbender
Member
To this day, I still wish I had the entire library of both systems.
I'm a nostalgic motherfucker.
I'm a nostalgic motherfucker.
Leafhopper
Banned
The N-Gage was truly novel.
Jonneh3003
Banned
Not as hardcore as us..
BrettHeazy
Member
texting my mates and playing tomb raider, course I bloody did! haha
Nakkilokki
Banned
It was pretty huge in my childhood, but it might be a Finnish thing. Many of my friends got it.
aygomyownroad
Member
I always wanted one... Much sadness I never jumped on it.
very expensive, terrible marketing, really poor line up of rushed games for the first year and a half, required a phone contract to play (ATT was exclusive provider), poor build quality, questionable phone quality. I mean... truthfully, it did very little right in the first year or so. By the time it turned itself around, the public had lost interest and the PSP and DS were released.
I had the QD version. I liked it so much actually as I could do a lot with it and it played its games really well. Being Symbian OS meant that there was no shortage of apps for it at the time as well.
My only real complaint was that the rubber band around it keeps peeling off slowly and I had to replace it more than once.
Also, Ashen deserve a mention:
My only real complaint was that the rubber band around it keeps peeling off slowly and I had to replace it more than once.
Also, Ashen deserve a mention:
What was funny about the n-gage is that they were never sure if it was supposed to be a Gameboy Advance or a PSX. The N-Gage actually got TWO versions of splinter cell chaos theory, I have both. The other is a direct port of the GBA version, and, incredibly, that version received all the marketing. The 3D port came out way later, when the system was buried.
One of the best handheld games I've ever played, TBH.
One of the best handheld games I've ever played, TBH.
UncleScr00ge
Member
I wish Sega would port Pocket Kingdoms to iOS 
Neverforget
Member
No, I didn't buy one but I wanted it Badly!
I was going to ask how you could forget Sticky Balls but then I remembered it was a Gizmondo thing. Weren't there also some shenanigans involving a car chase in Europe with the guy behind N-Gage? Maybe I'm thinking of something else...I think that might have been Norton Anti-virus...
ANYWAY
I have zero experience with the N-Gage. There was one kid in my highschool who had it but he was the guy known for having the latest gadgets regardless of their quality or reception. I feel kind of bad for him now because in hindsight I don't think he had any close friends and would try to compensate with flashy brands and electronics.
I don't know if I find its library much more interesting than a historical curiosity but it's still super interesting to read and see all of it in more detail and attention than I ever bothered to give it when I was younger.
ANYWAY
I have zero experience with the N-Gage. There was one kid in my highschool who had it but he was the guy known for having the latest gadgets regardless of their quality or reception. I feel kind of bad for him now because in hindsight I don't think he had any close friends and would try to compensate with flashy brands and electronics.
I don't know if I find its library much more interesting than a historical curiosity but it's still super interesting to read and see all of it in more detail and attention than I ever bothered to give it when I was younger.
I had the QD version. I liked it so much actually as I could do a lot with it and it played its games really well. Being Symbian OS meant that there was no shortage of apps for it at the time as well.
My only real complaint was that the rubber band around it keeps peeling off slowly and I had to replace it more than once.
Also, Ashen deserve a mention:
I liked how you could do dual gamepad setups with games like this using the phone buttons. It controlled just like a normal twin-stick gamepad.
I thought ashen was rather dull, though, tbh. I preferred Call of Duty or Chaos Theory, even if CT was a stealth TPS game.
Also, I really loved the game cases n-gage games came in. They were little mini DVD cases, and when you opened them up, they had a plastic card carrier that could hold 4 N-Gage games that could be popped out and slipped into your wallet. It meant that, even if you only had 1 game, you could store 4 n-gage cards safely.
Speaking of which, I had this adapter once but can't find it anymore:
This let you pop in two more games at once, and they would appear in your menu so you could select them without having to change games. Even though the QD made switching games easier, this was cool for homebrew because you could dedicate two entire SD cards to storage.
Speaking of which, I had this adapter once but can't find it anymore:
This let you pop in two more games at once, and they would appear in your menu so you could select them without having to change games. Even though the QD made switching games easier, this was cool for homebrew because you could dedicate two entire SD cards to storage.
It is seriously a great port. There were certain games where having that many face buttons was a blessing, and tony hawk was one.
I also like King of Fighters on it because the numerous buttons let me have a full neo geo layout on my phone. The GBA ports always felt weird with the triggers.
OmegaDL50
Member
I think the fact that the N-Gage did get a port of Xanadu Next should of some wortwhile mention.
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/xanadu/xanadu3.htm
I personally never owned an N-Gage, but I do have an appreciation of Nihon Falcom games.
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/xanadu/xanadu3.htm
I personally never owned an N-Gage, but I do have an appreciation of Nihon Falcom games.
It's a terrible port, though. I was trying to mention only the good games.
Some store employee actually allowed me to take home the THPS cardboard quaterpipe ad stand thingy. It was pretty cool and since fingerboards were a thing in my school back then, it actually worked well as a part of a "skatepark", usually with other, homemade elements.
Other than that, I played Ashen on a stand and that's all.
Other than that, I played Ashen on a stand and that's all.
The game I was most interested in on the N-Gage was Virtua Cop. It was very highly advertised and was going to be a full port of Virtua Cop 1, but it got cancelled very late in development. There are supposedly protos out there and it is supposed to play very well.
The N-Gage port of Sega Rally Championship is god awful.
The N-Gage port of Sega Rally Championship is god awful.
It was dull overall yeah. I just liked that it was more monsters and a bit weird stuff unlike CoD. I didn't get to try Chaos Theory on it sadly.
You know, that's true about the buttons. For some reason, I remember it as working better than how the PSP was (less face buttons, but with a right stick) even though I liked my PSP.
bobawesome
Member
I wanted one before getting that GMR N-Gage blowout issue.
That was also the gizmondo. The N-gage was all legitimate, even if it was a pretty crappy handheld.
Something about the N-gage brand always reminded me of the Xbox, personally.
AlteredForms
Banned
So it was doomed from day one?
jacob armitage
Banned
I got the base model and the rerelease, but got them for free as i was working for EBGames at the time. Still have them in a box, somewhere.
It's partially because, in addition to having buttons in the cardinal directions, you had other face buttons to do other actions. Like, 8 was up, 2 was down, 4 was left, 6 was right, and 5 was fire. but then stuff like 1 would be jump, or 3 would be inventory. It sounds so cumbersome but it actually clicked and worked out in many games. Part of the secret is the way the 5 and 1 keys buldged out way further than other buttons, and felt like gba buttons almost.
They announced the PSP before it launched. It was doomed before day one.
The launch was hilarious to watch online. Like I said, only 800 or so were sold in the entire continent of europe on launch night. Gamestop did this whole nationwide launch in the US at midnight and nobody showed up. By the end of the first year, it had only sold like 5000 units world-wide.
Flop doesn't begin to describe the N-Gage. It made the Jaguar look like it sold hotcakes.
Garrett Hawke
Member
I had a QD. It removed the built in MP3 playback of the original though which was fucking dumb.
It was just an app anyways, you could download a 3rd party app and it was good to go. The 3rd party app was even better, actually, because it could reside in the background, so you could play music in other apps while you played your game.
What's funny is the MAIN reason I bought my n-gage was for real media support. I had TOOOONS of anime in .rm format back in the day. I'd spend hours converting it into a format for GP Media on my GP32, so buying a device with native real media playback was astonishing for me at the time.
Yes, which reminds me of what they did to the n-gage line as other phones later:
Which is worse in comparison for controls. I understand that they wanted to sell and move some units though...
It was really easy to add with the amount of apps out there though.
Sure did - I had a N-Gage QD and probably about 30 games by the time I was done collecting (mostly due to clearance sales at Gamestop). I waited forever for the release of Catan to come out - I distinctly remember it getting delayed and delayed from the website I had ordered it from. Of course, by the time I actually got it, I had replaced the QD with an equally archaic phone (a Blackberry Curve of some type). I sold off the collection a couple of years ago; whoever got my copies of Xanadu Next, Glimmerati, Shadowkey and Catan is probably having (zero) fun.
snoopeasystreet
Member
I won an N-Gage QD by getting a Hole in One in whatever Tiger Woods game came out on the N-Gage. Only game I ever bought was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, because what other game would you ever need? I 100 percent-ed that game and all!
Garrett Hawke
Member
I was like... I don't even know, 11 or 12 at the time though so I didn't understand any of that.Yes, which reminds me of what they did to the n-gage line as other phones later:
Which is worse in comparison for controls. I understand that they wanted to sell and move some units though...
It was really easy to add with the amount of apps out there though.
I remember I did download an MP3 player but it was like a trial thing and it would only play 30 seconds of a song.
Tanoooki
Member
I had a friend who's brother got one but never played it because I guess it was bad. Always thought it was cool because it had pretty good graphics for a handheld at the time (prior to the DS and PSP) but it was far too expensive to consider especially when it didn't have the name or library like Nintendo did with the GBA.
Nope, but I bought the Game.com
The Game.Com was waaaay before the N-gage
I had one too, though. I have so many crappy handhelds.
Tanoooki
Member
Was this a promotion inside of the game or like an IRL booth promoting the QD?