A mobile telephone is a convenient offering that is almost like an extension of one’s self and with a handheld game system gamers are in for a unique experience. The system has been designed to work with the Nokia Series 60 platform (considered to be the best platform in the world for smart phones).
Launched in 2003, the idea was to get gamers away from the Game Boy Advance and switch to their mobile phones that combined this gaming facility. Unfortunately, this was unsuccessful and in 2005, Nokia announced that it would soon introduce a series of smart phones that would have the N-Gage gaming capabilities. In 2007, the first generation devices had hit the market and gamers could download a pre-release version of the N-Gage application from Nokia’s official website. The full version of the N-Gage service is expected to be released in the first half of 2008.
In the late 1990s, Nokia had discovered that gamers carried two devices - a regular mobile phone and their handheld game consoles. Nokia felt this was an opportunity to combine the two. Thus was born the concept of N-Gage. The N-Gage was able to accomplish multiplayer options through the Bluetooth or Internet (login to the N-Gage Arena service), doing away with the need for cables. MP3, Real Audio/Video playback, and PDA features have been built into the new N-Gage system.
The October 2003 launch of the 1st generation of N-Gage did not see much success due to the poor selection of games, cost, and its standard MMC memory card. Nokia corrected a lot of the N-Gage flaws in its successor the N-Gage QD released in 2004. The new phone was smaller and rounder, the earpiece was moved to the obverse side instead of the side of the device. The cost was revised and was available with a pre-paid cell phone number at retail game stores. Some bulky features like MP3 player, FM radio and UBS connectivity were also removed. The list of smart phones compatible with the N-Gage platform include Nokia N81, N81 8GB, N73, N82, N95, N95 8GB, N93, N93i.
On the games front, Nokia launched its first in-house title ‘Pathway to Glory’ game. The one-level demo version on the N-Gage website became a success after which Nokia released 57 titles for N-Gage. ‘Snakes’ was considered one of the best games on N-Gage when launched in January 2005. As of February 2008, over 19 games are available on the second generation of N-Gage.
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