Engage with the best gaming mobile device -Ngage 2

In 2003 Nokia entered the portable gaming arena with the N-Gage. They were widely criticized for a bad design and a lack of video game knowledge, but they persisted. Releasing the N-Gage QD to address concerns with their first system shows that the platform is technically one that can last a good few years. Now as time rolls on the Gameboy Dual Screen and Playstation Portable are reaching the marketplace, and the Gizmondo is on its ways. One must wonder what Nokia will do next? They have long stated they are committed to the mobile gaming market and the N-Gage line till some point in early 2006... but where do they go from here?

My answer is the obvious one, the Zen-Gage. You could call it N-Gage 2, O-Gage, Next-Gage, the N-2, or even the name I prefer, N-Gage MkII (but Ewan thinks Zen-Gage reads better!), but it must happen and any video game historian will tell you the same: if a system fails to gain significant market share within a few years the only solution is to move to newer tech and try to grab market share with a head start on the next generation's hardware battle. To that end I've tried to explore what I think the Zen-Gage, should and could be.

Perhaps the most important change here is the move to a Communicator style foldable body and the options this allows. Some of the biggest general use complaints against the current N-Gage designs are the vertically oriented screen and two-handed use as a cell phone. Switching to a Communicator style body allows the unit to be a phone when a phone is wanted (ie the unit is closed) and stunning when it's game time.

By hiding the game screen inside and giving it much more physical real estate it can be easily grown to the new gorgeous wide screen dimensions mentioned above and when that new screen is powered by a jacked-up version of the new NVidia GoForce 3D 4500 mobile graphics chip could easily deliver gaming comparable to the latest in console gaming (I'm talking PS2 and GameCube here, no joke). Backward compatibilty can be retained with a 176x208 screen window easily accomdated. Nokia's version 3 of Series 60 promises support for different screen sizes, so compatibility will not be a problem. Making sure the Zen-Gage can run the original N-gage games is of paramount importance - even the new Gameboy can still run the original Tetris cartridge.

Now some are likely criticizing my belief that the original 104 Mhz ARM processor is still enough for the next generation, but think about it like this. What challenges the N-Gages processor in this generation is primarily the software 3D rendering and the real-time decoding of in game music. With both of those tasks moved to hardware specifically for these tasks, the bottleneck on performance has been removed and the CPU can scream like it's supposed to. Equally important, reusing the original 104 Mhz ARM processor assures backward compatible with legacy titles and keeps costs down.

Beyond the obvious performance bumps, this new model also ups the ante by adding touch screen capability (via Series 60 version 3 again) and voice recognition as a counter to their addition in Nintendo's new DS and with the dual MMC/SD cards (both standards to be supported) allows the possibility of multi-card games or the use of one as a hard drive for storing downloaded content and MP3s with which to enhance your in game and smartphone experience. Using the internal card like the XBOX uses it's hard drive to do custom game soundtracks is very cool, but with the added bonus that these could be accessed for ringtones or MP3 listening outside of a game. Over time this becomes a significant feature.

The Zen-Gage, if it was delivered in October of 2005 with a solid line-up of titles, at a contract free price of under £20 (including perhaps agorgeous Ashen sequel and one or two nice big original titles) would make huge waves and easily stand against the PSP when it debuts... so long as the 6-10 hour play time of the QD could be matched with this unit. If Nokia wanted to really push technology they could build in 3G support and allow real-time broadband style Arena gameplay, but this is more a question of world's networks being ready and would probably not be cost effective - why not go the Wi-Fi route while we're waiting? The Nokia 9500 Communicator has this on board already. And if we're talking about out and about in the world, can we think about a GPS reciever? OR at least allow the external card slot to accept SD I/O hardware so we can add our own?

So is this the Next-Gage? Is this what it will be? Only time will tell but the technology is there and Nokia has the finances, so hold on to your butts because the pillars of gaming heaven may yet get the shaking Sony's PSP was unable to deliver.

(source: allaboutsymbian.com)