The N-Gage service is Nokia's mobile gaming platform that is available for several Nokia S60 smartphones. It is a follow-up to the N-Gage handheld game console. N-Gage is a part of Nokia's Ovi initiative. On October 30, 2009, Nokia announced that no new N-Gage games will be produced, and the N-Gage service will cease at the end of 2010.[1]
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The new N-Gage, also referred to as N-Gage Next Gen, N-Gage 2.0 or the N-Gage platform/application, saw a change in concept as Nokia explained to the world during E3 2005 that they were planning on putting N-Gage inside several of their smartphone devices - rather than releasing a specific device (although their N81 model with its two dedicated gaming-buttons next to the screen is being marketed as a phone built for gaming). Working behind closed doors, it took a little more than a year before Nokia actually started showing off next-gen titles such as System Rush: Evolution and Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, with the fighting game ONE perhaps being the most visually impressive - even making use of motion capture.
A public beta test of the N-Gage application took place from February 4, 2008 to March 27, 2008[2] and the client was then released on April 3 the same year for the Nokia N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95 and N95 8GB.
Because N-Gage is a software based solution, the first generation MMC games are not compatible with the new platform[3], though some games are making a comeback in form of a sequel (e.g. System Rush: Evolution) or a remake/port (e.g. Mile High Pinball). Similarly, games developed for this next-gen N-Gage platform do not work on the original N-Gage nor N-Gage QD, adding to the fact that newer S60 software, including the N-Gage client and games, aren't binary-compatible with older S60 devices and vice-versa.
So far, the N-Gage website lists the following devices as compatible with the new N-Gage platform: Nokia N78, N79 [4], N81, N81 8GB, N82-1, N85 [4], N95-1, N95-2 8GB, N96, Nokia 6210 Navigator[5], 6710 Navigator [6], 6720 Classic, E55, E75 [7], N86 [8], N97[9], Nokia 5320 XpressMusic[10], Nokia 5630 XpressMusic [11] and Nokia 5730 XpressMusic [12]
Due to memory issues, hinted in an interview in February 2008 [13], support for the following three devices has been canceled by Nokia: Nokia N73, N93 and N93i [14].
On February 4, 2008, after several delays ever since the beginning of 2007, the new N-Gage platform was released to the public - though limited only to users of Nokia’s N81 device. This period of time was referred to as "First Access" and only a public test of the client which could be downloaded for free from the N-Gage website. While not the final version, the user had access to most of the features that the new application had to offer along with three games to try out: Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, System Rush: Evolution and Space Impact Kappa Base. Eventually, Nokia also released Tetris, Block Breaker Deluxe and World Series of Poker: Pro Challenge for the users to try out. None of the games are entirely free but all offers a limited trial for testing purposes. In order to experience the full game - it has to be either purchased or rented.
Shortly after being released to the public, the N-Gage installation file was unpacked into components, which can be then installed separately, thus removing N81-only limitation. N-Gage has since been reported working on other Nokia N-series devices , such as N73 and N95. In response, Nokia released an advisory asking users not to install this unsupported version as it could cause errors or other issues.
On March 20, the N-Gage blog reported that First Access would come to an end on March 27, though all downloaded games at that time would still be playable through the application until the updated version was released - which occurred on April 3.
There have been a lot of hands-on articles with the First Access client and they all generally reflect both the positive and negative feedback of the official First Access forum, where N81 users shared their thoughts on what was good and what could've been made better - regarding both the launcher itself and the games currently available. The biggest issues at that point was that of players not being able to "activate" a purchased game but still having only the trial version to play. A lot of players have also been reporting connection issues.
Head of New Experience, Nokia Play, Jaakko Kaidesoja had this to say to Pocket Gamer in an interview on February 21, 2008 when asked about what early feedback they had received[15 ]:
"The feedback has been positive and well received within the company and some critical comments were well received as well. We know it's not perfect yet and there are some features people want more of. Those are the things we want to check and get on the roadmap."
The games themselves have received an overall good reception all over the Internet ever since the First Access beta, with Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep standing out as the most successful title.
Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep
System Rush: Evolution
World Series of Poker: Pro Challenge
After numerous delays and many vague release dates, the N-Gage platform was finally (and also quite suddenly) released to the public on April 3, 2008 through the N-Gage official website, though only five phone models are compatible to begin with. This probably has to do with the older models being less powerful as was pointed out in an interview earlier the same year whereas an N-Gage representative mentioned some memory issues with the N73[13]. The launch titles also changed from six to only five: Asphalt 3: Street Rules, Brain Challenge, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep System Rush: Evolution, and World Series of Poker: Pro Challenge. The first two weren't even on the original list but Block Breaker Deluxe and Tetris instead. The sixth game that was postponed was Space Impact Kappa Base. Some hours after the launch, Ikona (the man behind the official N-Gage blog) had this to say about the delay:
"We are currently ensuring Block Breaker Deluxe, Space Impact Kappa Base, and Tetris are running smoothly with our new application. These should be available in the showroom next week or two."
Four days later, on April 7 - Nokia posted their official press release[16] commenting on the release of their new mobile service, and at which point FIFA 08 also became available for purchase.
With this release, the website also saw a small change in appearance with price tags added to all games available for download, an event calendar, a tab for support on both the application itself and N-Gage compatible devices and much more. Players logged onto the website could now also see their Reputation level, N-Gage level, and gathered N-Gage points.
There was also a release party held at the N-Gage chat room shortly after the release, with several members from the N-Gage team attending to answer any questions asked. A few t-shirts were randomly handed out during the three hour long event and everyone was also promised a few N-Gage points for coming to the "party".
As expected, the launch was not problem-free but numerous people reported having trouble downloading, purchasing and activating games, installing the application and logging on to the N-Gage Arena.
With a user interface that resembles Microsoft’s Xbox Live service, at the top of the N-Gage launcher there are five icons that can be navigated through by simply pressing left and right on the phone’s thumb pad. These represent your games library, profile, friends list, and the showroom - all as explained thoroughly below.
The launcher welcomes the user with a Home screen where the last game played is shown along with some quick links to your friends, progress (score table), the Featured Game that Nokia wants to "highlight" for this week, and your Inbox for messaging within the launcher.
This screen shows all the games that are currently installed on the phone - be it a Trial version or the full game (purchased or rented). The ones that are trial versions have a pink stripe that says "TRIAL" to the far right of the game icon, overlapping what looks somewhat like a battery meter that, once you pay for the game, illustrates your progress with that game. At the bottom of the list of installed games is a quick link (Get More Games) that takes you to the showroom.
Games that are not paid for will show a pop-up every time you play it - asking whether you’d like to try the free trial or either purchase, enter an unlock code (purchased or given through promotions), or rent the game. More on this below.
From this screen, the user may also rate any of the games downloaded from 1 to 5 stars, as well as write a small verdict on it.
The next tab is your profile which shows how many N-Gage points you’ve scored so far from playing, your reputation level (ranging between 1-5 stars), the number of friends you have enlisted, and your chosen avatar/picture to represent you (will display a white silhouette of a person with an orange background per default). Further down is your current status (offline, online or away - the last two can each be assigned with a personal message), N-Gage Point Level, and a list of what games you have played (Gaming History). Selecting one will not only display how many points you’ve gathered within the chosen game - but also show how well your friends are doing with the same game. From here, users are also able to look at what achievements have been unlocked - or Point Pickups as they’re called.
This is where you go to add a friend to your friends list as well as check them all out. Once highlighted, you may choose to view recent conversations with the player, send them a message, view his or her profile, and rate the player. Messages can be sent regardless of whether the player is currently online or not and your friends list can be sorted by name, availability/status, or N-Gage points gathered.
The Showroom displays all games that are available for download as well as Game Extras for expanding a game with extra content, such as downloading new episodes/adventures for the adventure game Dirk Dagger. Games may be browsed by genre, latest arrivals, or just in alphabetical order. Select a game and you’re able to read a small (though maybe not very informative) description of it along with details on how big it is, estimated time for downloading the game, the number of supported players, who the publisher is etc. Here you may also read what other players think of the game and view their ratings.
Payment can be made by either using a credit card or paying through the phone bill (network operator). Apart from actually purchasing a game, there’s also an option of renting one - where you only need to pay a few euro or dollars in order to get full access for a limited time of either 24 hours or a whole week. When purchased, the games are tied to the user’s account and can be re-downloaded if deleted for some reason.
Games can be downloaded directly to the phone over the air (by GPRS or WiFi), or the user may choose to download it to a computer and then install it onto the phone using a USB-cable and Nokia PC Suite.
Several of the N-Gage 2.0 games were nominated for International Mobile Gaming Awards in 2007. Two out of three N-Gage 2.0 titles received an award:[17]
ONE by Digital Legends
Dirk Dagger and the Fallen Idol by Jadestone
Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep by Infinite Dreams
On May 8, 2008, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep won a Games Award during the 2008 Meffy Awards in Cannes [18].
Nokia are updating the N-Gage application on a regular basis and the first update was made available on October 2, 2008. Dubbed as v1.010_131, this update included the following major changes:
Version 1.20(1459) was released on May 13, 2009 but didn't do much more than eliminate a few bugs. In August 18, 2009, version 1.40(1557) introduced a new start-up icon, welcoming screen, and way of breaking down the installed games. The speed of the application itself was slightly improved as well.
Updating the application may be done through the app itself - by using the "Check for Updates" function on the device, or it can be downloaded in the "Get N-Gage" section on N-Gage.com.
As of yet, there have been no efforts to eliminate the BiNPDA SecMan exploit through a firmware update.
N-Gage games are packaged differently than normal symbian apps and have the extension ".ngage" and can only run via the N-Gage application. The game resources are protected by DRM. They cannot use any native Symbian APIs, instead they use a proprietry API from the N-Gage SDK.
The N-Gage API is in fact an extension of the RGA API available in the Open c++ plugin (http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/resources/tools_and_sdks/openc_cpp/index.html).
Only select companies are allowed access to the N-Gage SDK. To gain access they first must be approved by Nokia and sign a NDA.
As of October 23rdth, 2009, there are currently 49 games in the Showroom of the N-Gage website, with many more known to be in production (see further down).
Currently announced titles are:
Some of these games are sequels or remakes/ports of the first generation N-Gage MMC games.
Other games that are in development but are not yet on the official N-Gage games list includes:
Six games were originally planned to be available for purchase when the service launched, with the possibility of one or two more being added, but only five made it to the launch: Asphalt 3: Street Rules, Brain Challenge, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, System Rush: Evolution and World Series of Poker: Pro Challenge. The first two weren't even on the original list - which had Block Breaker Deluxe and Tetris on it instead. The sixth game that got postponed was Space Impact Kappa Base. Some hours after the launch, Ikona (the man behind the official N-Gage blog) had this to say about the delay:
"We are currently ensuring Block Breaker Deluxe, Space Impact Kappa Base, and Tetris are running smoothly with our new application. These should be available in the showroom next week or two."
The following list summarizes what games are available for download and purchase as of October 23, 2009.
| Title | Price | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Age of Empires III | £8 / €10 | April 28, 2009 |
| AMF Bowling: Pinbusters! | £6 / €7 | June 17, 2009 |
| Asphalt 4: Elite Racing | £6 / €10 | January 20, 2009 |
| Asphalt 3: Street Rules | £4 / €7 | April 3, 2008 |
| Block Breaker Deluxe | £4 / €7 | April 25, 2008 |
| BOOM BLOX | £4 / €7 | December 3, 2008 |
| Bounce Boing Voyage | £4 / €7 | August 7, 2008 |
| Brain Challenge | £4 / €7 | April 3, 2008 |
| Brothers in Arms | £4 / €7 | July 15, 2008 |
| Café Hold’ Em Poker | £6 / €7 | April 23, 2009 |
| Café Sudoku | £4 / €7 | January 27, 2009 |
| Café Solitaire 12-Pack | £4 / €7 | October 21, 2008 |
| Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D | £6 / €10 | December 22, 2008 |
| Dance Fabulous | £4 / €5 | June 9, 2009 |
| Dirk Dagger and the Fallen Idol | £4 / €7 | August 19, 2008 |
| Dirk Dagger and the Nuclear Zeppelin | £4 / €7 | October 15, 2008 |
| Dogz | £4 / €7 | August 25, 2008 |
| Ducati Moto | £4 / €7 | September 18, 2009 |
| FIFA 08 | £4 / €7 | April 7, 2008 |
| FIFA 09 | £8 / €10 | November 18, 2008 |
| Guitar Hero World Tour | £4 / €7 | September 18, 2009 |
| Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep | £6 / €7 | April 3, 2008 |
| Mega Monsters | £8 / €10 | October 23, 2009 |
| Metal Gear Solid Mobile | £8 / €10 | December 11, 2008 |
| MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition | £6 / €7 | March 3, 2009 |
| Midnight Pool | £4 / €10 | June 27, 2008 |
| Mile High Pinball | £4 / €5 | May 6, 2008 |
| Million Dollar Poker | £6 / €7 | June 30, 2009 |
| Need for Speed Undercover | £6 / €10 | March 17, 2009 |
| ONE | £6 / €10 | October 28, 2008 |
| Pandemonium | £6 / €7 | May 6, 2009 |
| Powerboat Challenge | £4 / €5 | October 23, 2009 |
| Prince of Persia | £6 / €10 | March 11, 2009 |
| Pro Series Golf | £6 / €7 | July 3, 2008 |
| Real Football 2009 | £6 / €10 | March 31, 2009 |
| Reset Generation | £4 / €5 | August 4, 2008 |
| Resident Evil: Degeneration | £8 / €10 | December 18, 2008 |
| Snakes Subsonic | £4 / €5 | May 22, 2008 |
| Space Impact Kappa Base | £4 / €5 | April 19, 2008 |
| Spore Origins | £6 / €7 | May 20, 2009 |
| Star Wars: The Force Unleashed | £6 / €7 | September 16, 2008 |
| System Rush: Evolution | £6 / €7 | April 3, 2008 |
| Tetris | £4 / €5 | April 25, 2008 |
| The Sims 2 Pets | £4 / €7 | June 18, 2008 |
| The Sims 3 | £6 / €7 | July 14, 2009 |
| Tiger Woods PGA Tour | £8 / €10 | October 23, 2009 |
| Tomb Raider Underworld | £6 / €7 | August 25, 2009 |
| World Series of Poker: Pro Challenge | £8 / €10 | April 3, 2008 |
| Worms World Party | £8 / €10 | April 7, 2009 |
   | Metal Gear Solid Mobile - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Age of Empires III - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | FIFA 09 - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Asphalt 4: Elite Racing - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | BOOM BLOX - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Need for Speed Undercover - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Real Football 2009 - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | World Series of Poker: Pro Challenge - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Dogz - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Brothers in Arms - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Worms World Party - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Café Sudoku - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Café Solitaire 12-Pack - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Prince of Persia - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Resident Evil: Degeneration - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Interview by Pocket Gamer - N-Gage interview, N-Gage (next gen platform), Pocket Gamer |
| | N-Gage boss Jaakko on memory issues with the N73 - N-Gage boss: 'We're not scared of the PlayStation phone' | N-Gage (next gen platform) news | Pocket Gamer |
| | New Eseries phones boast N-Gage support - Nokia shows it means business with gaming | N-Gage (next gen platform) news | Pocket Gamer |
| | official N-Gage games list - N-Gage | Games |
| | Block Breaker Deluxe - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Pandemonium - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Nokia N-Gage FAQ - N-Gage | Support |
| | Block Breaker Deluxe - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Midnight Pool - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | Next Gen N-Gage games revealed - Ovi Gaming - Next Gen N-Gage games revealed |
| | Feedback Forum - Customer Feedback & Ideas for N-Gage |
| | Asphalt 3: Street Rules - N-Gage | Games you can't wait to play |
| | IMGAwards 2007 - IMGAwards | The International Mobile Gaming Awards |
| | Get Out And Play - Get Out And Play |
| | official First Access forum - FIRST ACCESS: DEVELOPMENT FEEDBACK - N-Gage Arena Forums |
| | No N-Gage support for N73, N93 or N93i - Re: Where is that promised official support for N73, N93 and N93i? - N-Gage Enabled Devices Forum - N-Gage Arena Forums |
| | Worms cancelled or delayed? - Ovi Gaming - Worms cancelled or delayed? |
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