Interesting anecdotes: - Despite the FM Radio being an outdated feature in 2003.. Android manufacturers were still using FM radio as a selling point as late as 2015. - The DS's flagship launch game was a port of a 8 and a half year old game. Just goes to show how marketing and execution is everything
Super Mario 64 DS wasn’t a port, it was a completely new remake. You can tell because of the physics difference and the new features that would’ve been impossible to implement on the old engine (like the coin counter being unlimited instead of glitching out and the camera physics changes)
Although FM radio is an obsolete function that continues to be marketed even in 2022... It must be recognized that more than an obsoleteness it is more of a necessary evil. -Because in the middle of 2022 now physical FM radios are becoming scarce [expensive] and rare (Yes, go to your nearest store or go to amazon and there are simply no radios or they are terribly crappy). -the need for cell phones to come with radio addresses a simple and classic problem: Cell towers, and the internet are not fail-safe and in a natural disaster or even war, they are the first media to fall. [and now with the arrival of more and more fiber optic lines also telephone lines are no longer reliable if there is a power outage unless you have a UPS and even then you only have minutes]. -So for years it has always been established that the radio is a backup medium and even a basic component of any survival kit. -and the more the digitization of things advances, the more and more it will be necessary to make FM radio a means of emergencies. -so if we consider the scenario that now physical radios are in short supply... it makes us rethink several things. That and that... there are simply those who really like the radio (And it's Free) [also the android FM Radio in some terminals is a digital Radio operated/Decoded by software [RDS] so it's a good way of saying: "The future is today, you heard old man"] although there are places where even the eventuality of a natural disaster is almost unthinkable... Believe me, when an earthquake occurs in mexico, a radio is the first thing you want to have on hand (both in case you are just curious about the magnitude and to know if the way back home is safe or usable) Like because even in the event of an aftershock the seismic alert system operates [both in NOAA band] and it is a government mandate that TV and radio stations replicate the signal. [since public loudspeakers are not everywhere and they are not exempt from failure] besides that they can go days without power or places that are completely inaccessible so you will need something to distract you
My dad worked at nokia at the time it got developed. He told us(my brother and me) that they called it "schnitzel" internally because how you held it if you took a call. Sometimes I was allowed to play Asphalt on one of the development units. Ahh the good old times ^^ EDIT: oh, this wasnt meant to be a reply.
The Ngage and QD sold quite well here in Singapore. Those night playing multi player games via bluetooth with friends were awesome. And it was really great for playing emulators on it. I still have both and they will always have a special place on my retro shelf.
I used to work for a U.S. cell phone company, and I vividly remember finding the support files for the N-Gage, to help frontline reps troubleshoot their phones. I started in 2009 and worked until 2012, and not once did anyone ever call in about that phone. Pretty telling.
I reflexively told myself I wouldn't download a car when it started playing. I probably hadn't heard that song since it was in front of new VHS movies, but those few bars made everything flood back.
@@kirbyfanprime Dude if I could, I would totally download a car, a house, a bed, a fridge, all furniture that could fit, and everything I would ever need
I have been testing/cataloging a bunch of old DVDs and I forgot how annoying the FBI warnings and movie previews are to skip through. Some DVDs (like paramount) don’t even let you skip to the main menu immediately and force you to watch each message for a couple seconds. Also Disney DVDs had so many movie previews that they explicitly tell you that you should skip to the menu at any time so kids wouldn’t freak out.
I discovered the N-gage in isolation, years later. No press, no forums, no TV ads... Just an imagination stoking magazine advert that drove me to mild obsession! I think I might still have sketches of it and my own wacky phone designs inspired by it at my parents home! All that and I never even saw one in real life😂
I would have really wanted Bandai and Nokia to team up and make the N-Gage. Most wrong decisions about the N-Gage were out of of ignorance of the video game market.
I remember when my brother saved up for MONTHS to buy himself an N-Gage when he was in 8th grade and when he got it he probably used it for 3 months and I could tell at an early age what a regrettable purchase that was for him lol.
Oof, thats a really painful story. Wasting your saved money on a shitty game is bad enough, but wasting it on this...I cant imagine the regret he must have felt.
I was 20 when I first heard of the N-gage in 2003, and I was legit excited for it cuz I was looking for ways to consolidate my gaming, cellphone and PDA functions into a single device. But years of being burned by being an early adopter taught me to wait for review and for new tech to ripen a bit more... and the N-gage simply reminded me on why I had that policy in the first place. Sadly dodged a bullet there...
@@Phyrrax yeah same here, this story hurts my heart it makes me feel really bad for his brother for some reason, maybe it's because I remember what it was like getting a game I saved up for from Funcoland and having it be terrible once I got home, but trying so hard to like it anyway.
@@flp322 I think Nokia would've been more successful in this day and age if they never touched Windows Phone and went straight to Android after they abandoned Symbian. Thanks, Stephen Elop.
I had (still have) and N-gage and I found it genial. it had audio input and output, radio, mp3, AAC recording, maps, games, emulators and apps including music apps and browser. it was so ahead of anything else.
I love that you brought up the goatse angle. I fully believe the story that the system was getting all sorts of designs rejected, and that a designer made this one as a joke before quitting the company, only to be mortified later once it had somehow been approved.
THIS is the legacy of the N-Gage. I accept nothing else. It's a shame that the speaker and microphone weren't on the front so that when the user took/made a call, they'd be metaphorically holding a poop-hole up against their cheek.
My dad actually helped design the n-gage, but he was on the hardware side. It, along with the n95 were some of the last projects completed at Nokia Vancouver before they shut down their hardware sector and began making massive cuts. The management at Nokia was pretty awful. They paid good, and treated their employees great, but they often ignored any recommendations the staff would make.
@@ianturnbow7011 Why would I lie about it? For clout on an anonymous UA-cam comment? He passed away 5 years ago but I can give you his LinkedIn if you really don't believe me. He went on to work for General Fusion after Nokia shut down here.
I almost bought an N-Gage back in the day. I was honestly pretty excited about it, which is far more than I can say for ANY other cell phone (only the Playstation Phone came close) and I can distinctly remember looking at the N-Gage display in Software Etc while weighing my various concerns. At the time, I heard about the problems like having to pull out the battery to swap games, and wasn't so sure I wanted it anymore. When I got wind of the QD, I decided to wait for that. But by the time it hit shelves, well, I still didn't see any good games I wanted on the system. And you could read the room; it didn't look like they were coming. If they had released even ONE game that I was genuinely interested in, I would have bought that sucker. I wanted it, I really did. But I didn't *need* a new cell phone yet, so I had to place my considerations as a game console. And it never saw a game I wanted.
I remember being a kid and seeing the N-Gage in a magazine. That thing somehow really caught my attention and I asked my dad for one. He said that phones were made to make calls, not playing games. Kinda funny to think about that now.
The early aughts were so pure with its wackiness. Sure, it was a bit cringe inducing now, but 2004/5/6 will always have a special in my heart as a video game enthusiast.
I feel ya. I'm especially a fan of the chrome and navy color palette electronics I own from then have. Ya just don't see that sort of aesthetic in mainstream electronics nowadays, just boring, minimalistic lameness. I'll totally be getting a chrome and navy case for my Moto Z whenever I finally have one.
As old as Tomb Raider and Tony Hawk were at the time, I still think those ports are really impressive. Like, those are full 3D main console titles running pretty decently in a hand-held, something not even Nintendo was able to do at the time (not without major compromises that is)
To be fair, Tomb Raider was made for being played on software renderer in DOS. 3D acceleration wasn't a priority for that game engine. All it needed was a decent CPU.
Is it something they couldn't do, or something they knew better not to do? Every time another company tried to take on Nintendo in the handheld market with a more powerful handheld, they always lost.
@@VaporeonEnjoyer1 oh, I see what you mean, but maybe I didn't make my thoughts clear. I'm not trying to say the tech was revolutionary or anything like that, but at the end of the day, the N-Gage was the first portable to get these games and I really respect that.
It was definitely cool for 2003 especially compared to the GBA. Unfortunately it paled in comparison a year and a half later when the newest Tony Hawk (THUG 2) was on the PSP with the console gameplay experience still intact. Along with actual PS1 games being available for the system in 2006. Tech wise it was a half step up and didn't have anything to be unique like the DS with it's two screens and touch capabilities.
I used to write for a German N-Gage website and I must say, the support Nokia gave us was amazing. Great work from marketing side. I always have a soft spot for the little taco that could. The later game library is actually not that bad and there are some titles you really should try out on an emulator. Pathway to Glory, both games, are amazing and a lot better than just Commandos-Clones. Gameplay, Graphics, Sound are top notch and the multiplayer really stood out. High Seize from the same developer is a pirates version of Advance Wars. Mile High Pinball can relax you after a stressful day. Ashen is a nice doom clone and runs fine on emulation. And it’s the only system with a mobile Elder Scrolls experience (which also runs flawless on emulation and a lot better than on original hardware).
worms world party war einfach nur krank ... und asphalt war auch echt nen schnieke racer ... colin mc rae war auch recht gut , wobei das nicht mit sonem free titel mithalten konnte ... hiess glaub nur rally.sys
*In an alternate universe where Nintendo and Nokia partnered up:* "Hey, you getting the new Samsung phone?" "Nah bro, I'm getting the new Samus phone next week." "ZS or Varia?" "Neither, I pre-ordered the limited edition JB model." "Nice."
I remember they were doing a focus group on the ngage at a local mall when I was in college. They lost everybody when they showed you how you were suppose to hold it when you were on the phone. They must have been pretty far along cause I don't remember the one they had people play on being that different than the released one.
@@TheSultan1470 It's one of those where it's sort of complicated. They didn't strictly steal it, it wasn't strictly free... it was that they purchased it for a specific use - presenting the clip at a film festival - and then used it in theatres, on DVDs, everywhere they could. Outside of licence! No granted permission! Not strictly speaking piracy, but heck of illegal and massively hypocritical in that context.
I remember thinking the N-Gage was such hot shit back in the day, and then a friend of mine who had one showed me how you inserted cartridges. What a disaster lmao
The games weren’t good either. I traded in my game boy color and a bunch of games for it, and there really weren’t any games that played particularly well on the NGage, I sold it and got a GBA within a year. That experience taught me so much about hype and trained me to try things before buying them.
@@Thor-Orion yeah I remember everyone was freaking out about how this was going to destroy the Game Boy and it didn't come even close to happening. How naive we all were.
19:57 I literally laughed out loud. Piracy was a nail in the coffin for any console that wasn't doing well. It really hurts less popular consoles disproportionately.
I love the Ngage, I ended up picking it up at a garage sale when 10. Then I ended up using it throughout my whole high school years 2010-2014. As you can expect, everyone made fun of it 🤣.
I have to correct you, Derek, but the N-Gage was not "allegedly" inspired by Goatse. It WAS inspired by Goatse. A developer of it was upfront about it. And now, that I seen it, I just can't unsee it.
When you think about it, handheld gaming has never been a very good market to enter. The only company that has been consistently successful there has been Nintendo. The only other major success was the PSP, but Sony quickly bungled that with their handling of the Vita. Now with mobile and game streaming, I don't think any company will ever try to enter the dedicated handheld gaming space.
I mean, even Nintendo stepped out of the handheld gaming space, the Switch Lite is basically just a portable only Nintendo Switch and not its own thing.
@@rcmero That doesn't make any sense when the Switch's unique selling point is its portability. You could just as well take the opposite angle and say they're only making handhelds now than can also be docked.
Maybe I didn't make myself clear, that was my bad. Yes, the regular Switch can be used as a portable that can then be docked to be used with a flat screen TV. I was referring to a dedicated portable system, like what the 3DS was. The Switch Lite fits that moniker now.
@@rcmero I get that. I'm just saying it doesn't make much sense to say they left the handheld gaming space when their console's major selling point is that it is a handheld (that can also be docked).
I remember being inside Funcoland, N-gage in one hand, Gamboy SP in the other. The choice was killing me... ultimately I went with the SP. *Best decision of my young life.* I thought I would've been so cool to be the 1st kid with an N-gage 😭
I never actually had the opportunity, but I did fantasies about it for a while. Wireless multiplayer, ooh, ah. Plus I was weirdly obsessed with wanting a colour-screen phone back then. But like you I’m so glad I went for the SP.
@@oshikiri999 yeah I had the 1100 called out in this video, haha. But I mean, snake and that shoot-em-up were pretty okay in the car at night or when my GBA batteries died. I didn’t have a colour phone until a few years after the N-gage, which was some crummy version of a Motorola flip phone. But by then I had replaced the GBA with the SP (I traded in and saved up) so having a backlit screen wasn’t so magical to me by then. Also the Motorola phone only had one crappy fish eating get bigger type game. Didn’t have a patch on Snake.
@@kaitlyn__L Haha freakin snake! I remember my older cousin bragging about her score all the time...meanwhile I'm 11 with a full maxed out party on Pokemon Ruby beating the elite 4 with only 1 Pokemon Like *Ok* lol I was actually trash at snake, so naturally I was a big ol' hater.
@@oshikiri999 I was kinda both lol. I was like 8 but good at snake and at Pokémon. A friend of mine insisted some of the bonus foods in snake were definitely specific animals but I could never see the resemblance. I’d keep playing until the snake literally filled the screen, there’s basically a cap on how high the score can even go.
A quick check on eBay says they're going anywhere between £40-150 depending on the unit, accessories, etc. One new-old-stock is selling for £400 and, of course, one chancer is trying to sell one a used one for £550. So definitely a market, but it probably consists solely of UA-camrs reviewing them. 😅
I remember there being a TV ad for this thing that advertised playing Tomb Raider in a phone booth. I was intrigued at the time, but stuck with my GBA.
To be fair, the N-Gage was a great idea on paper. Imagine a GBA or PSP, except you can also use it as phone if you want to. Kids and teenagers would have gone crazy for it back in the day. Had it not come out at a weird time, sort of mid-generation, and with better design (horizontal screen, no number keys, being able to put cartridges in directly) and price, I think it could have been a success.
The concept certainly fired up my imagination. Of course, mobile gaming is the biggest market now, which goes to show the concept is sound when you do it right.
Yeah, and the N-Gage came out a good number of years prior to smartphones. If it had been successful, Nokia could have made their own hybrid smartphone/handheld gaming device to succeed it and been a viable competitor today in the smartphone industry with a unique angle.
The idea seemd so great that Sony itself tried something similar despite the N-Gage failing. The Xperia Play was much better designed, but it had next to no software support, and it wasn't advertised much. To this day we don't have that no-compromise-phone-console-hybrid that the N-Gage was aiming at.
We did a cell phone show off at my work with everyone crowded around back in early 2000’s, between me and this guy who viewed himself as a big baller. my N-gage with tony hawk tore his Phone a new one.
Your scripting and production in general just gets better every video; I love that your content keeps improving and is an instant perk for my mood when I see a new upload. :) Also, glad to see you tackle this behemoth, it's a cool device well ahead of its time despite being doomed early on.
If I ever own a mobile phone one day, it'll be an N-Gage. Fantastic in-depth coverage of the topic and it was great to get plenty of history on the company.
The device designed as a classic troll meme before memes were even a thing ... good old Goatse *shudders from the memory and books another therapy session*
That's awesome! (not the algorithm part) IIRC, SSFF told me about Matt's channel and I've been watching all his videos since around The Ring playthrough
I remember when a friend of mine spent all his Christmas and birthday money for the year on this, only to be disappointed it came with one measly game and he had to hold it from the side to even talk
Man I didn't think that when you mentioned the N-Gage in your last video, you would be doing an entire 30+ minute documentary on it! Awesome video, it was super interesting to learn about the history of this forgotten piece of tech! Even though it flopped, I still unironicly want my own N-Gage someday
The N-Gage was incredibly stupid, but I loved it. It was my first cellphone. I saved up and got it after the price dropped, and I remember feeling so cool using the 30 days of unlimited data to browse the internet at school. I mean it was slow and the tiny screen made it kind of annoying, but still. In an age before smartphones, browsing the internet in any capacity on the go felt futuristic. I didn't actually play a lot of N-Gage games on it though. But I had a bunch of J2ME games, and it also had some pretty solid NES and Game Boy emulators. And I had like 10 songs from OCRemix that I listened to over and over.
Great episode, guys. I have a unique perspective on this as I actually bought a N-Gage on launch day, then later upgraded to the QD shortly after its release. I get why people weren't interested in it initially--it was expensive, the game lineup was all over the place and some physical design choices of the first model were awful (side talking, removing the battery to swap games, etc). That said, used as both a games machine and a cell phone (i.e., it was in your pocket at all times), I think it was a decent platform for the time. My biggest issue with the N-Gage as a whole was the inconsistency of the software. We'd get excellent titles here and there, but in between that was a slew of mediocre games that should have been great, but felt cheap and lazy in the end. Bomberman for instance feels like a basic Java cell phone game, rather than a title built from the ground-up for the N-Gage. King of Fighters looks good, but runs choppy and is hard to play. These are games you would expect to perform amazingly well on this platform, but they don't. Many big-name polygonal titles also felt like they were biting off way more than they could chew, like Call of Duty or the Elder Scrolls. Their framerates were sub-par even for the time, making them difficult to play and they were ultimately disappointing even when they were brand new. What I probably find the most interesting about it is the software lineup was really solid in the last part of its lifecycle. There was some really creative stuff there and it's like Nokia was trying their damndest to make it work, and I have to give credit where it's due. One thing I rarely see mentioned about the platform is the more open nature of it. Thanks to Symbian OS, I could load other forms of software on it. In the early days I had a Game Boy emulator and played a lot of those games on my N-Gage to mix things up, and it handled those well enough. One of the negatives to the QD was Nokia stripping MP3 functionality, but I was able to get it back via a third-party program. It wasn't the best.. but it worked. Pretty neat. Some of the N-Gage's games were really solid as well (Colin McRae 2004, Pathway to Glory, Snakes, Mile High Pinball, The Roots, Glimmerati, Requiem of Hell, etc). I'd also argue that some of its early games were also really impressive by handheld standards for the time. Sure, Tomb Raider and Tony Hawk were "old" in 2003, but they were interesting for the same reasons DOOM was on the GBA: No one had expected any of those to look and move as as well as they did on a handheld yet at that point in time, and that was a big part of the draw ("Woah! PS1 quality games in my pocket!"). It's a damn shame there was so much turmoil behind the scenes and that was something I was completely unaware of, so thanks for bringing all of that to light. That said, as a customer at the time, I still commend Nokia for actually supporting the thing into 2006. They made a lot of moves that were pro-consumer, like supporting the system longer than anyone ever expected, to releasing a fully-fledged, free game in the form of Snakes (a Tempest 2000-style remake of the classic game, and it was awesome), and even releasing devices that improved the quality-of-life of the QD (for instance, a device that swaps out the back battery cover, allowing you to keep two game cards in the system at once). It's a shame the platform worked out the way it did, but it is what it is. It's interesting history without a doubt. For the handful of us that actually lived through it and used it heavily, we have a lot of fond memories of it (and some of its best games are still a lot of fun to go back to today!).
Honestly the best game on N-Gage was custom made S60 port of Doom, which supported multiplayer over bluetooth. Imagine playing Doom deathmatch with your friend at highschool.
My favorite ones were THPS and Shadowkey! I absolutely adored Shadowkey and while there were some pretty bad framedrops here and there, it actually run pretty well and it was an impressive Elder Scrolls game in my pocket!
@@meanmole3212 i remember a doom port being about 1 MB on it, but it ditched the music. Half life, quake, and some other PC games were also ported. I disagree with bomberman not playing well, and having to hold it like a taco, i never had to.
@@D3sdinova That's true with the original N-Gage, sidetalking was not essential, simply by placing the N-Gage with the screen and keyboard facing out and placing the speaker at correct ear height, it can be used like any mobile.
3:32 I agree with Derek, Snake was the first mobile phone game I've played, because back then, I've only had a Gameboy Advance, and a GameCube, and even then I wouldn't get my first mobile phone until in the mid 2010s.
The story of the N-Gage has always been more fascinating than anything that ever came out on that doomed little handheld. Of course, it does not hurt that SSFK is the channel doing the telling. I have no doubt this channel's audience will likely turn up all the missing footage from that first press conference.
Absolutely killer video! I really appreciate the effort and research that went into this one. It would've been easy to just make a video poking fun at it. I've got an N-Gage and a sealed copy of Tomb Raider for it that I've had for like 4 years. I guess I'm saving it for, uh, a special occasion?
I used N-Gage from 2003 to 2007. You can easily position the phone to your ear so that you don't need to sidetalk. The real issues were the vertical screen and needing to remove the battery to swap the game card. I've also heard stories from the developer side, which sounded like a mess.
True, wirh the original N-Gage, sidetalking was not essential, simply by placing the N-Gage with the screen and keyboard facing out and placing the speaker at ear height, it can be used like any mobile.
I remember working for a Cell Phone Tech Support line and those things were the WORST to Troubleshoot. The first versions required to change the game to remove the back, the battery, unscrew a metal frame then you could remove the game.
Can I just say, I love that you're using music from Bomberman the Second Attack. Its one of my favorite games and I would recognize that music anywhere. I think that game needs more love. So thanks for the recognition.
Thank you for this awesome video!! As a long-term user (and huge fan) of the N-Gage, I love watching retrospect videos and hear other people's opinion about it - especially if they didn't have the phone themselves back then. I got this phone as a birthday present in 2004, and it replaced my (also incredibly quirky) Nokia 5510. Since I was so used to green backlit, monochrome screens, the N-Gage felt like alien technology and my perception was always a bit biased - to me, it was the greatest thing in the entire world! I held on to it for almost 4 years, until I finally laid it to rest and replaced it with a Nokia N95 8GB. Unfortunately, my original N-Gage doesn't work anymore. Luckily though, I bought another used one back in 2009 for very little money, that surprisingly still works! Every once in a while, I still take it out and play SonicN or Red Faction on it. Thanks for this nice walk down memory lane, greetings from Vienna (Austria)! ITX
What an interesting little failure the N-Gage was. I remember seeing kiosks of these set up right next to GBA kiosks in the GameStops I went to. Those N-Gage kiosks vanished in a year or less. Not even the almighty Sonic the Hedgehog convinced me to beg my dad to buy me one.
As the huge gamer I’ve always been, this was also my first phone. I used it for almost 10 years, believe it or not. When I finally changed, I got an iPhone - and it was mind blowing 😅
I can't help but ponder what the N-Gage would've been like had Nokia decided to drop the 'phone' element and embrace the gaming aspect entirely... a larger screen, better buttons, and more games might've made enough of a difference for the N-Gage to gain serious footing in the industry.
Yeah Eastern Europe generally refers to ex soviet countries (at least in common parlance). Finland is technically northern Europe but usually lumped in with West Europe politically speaking
it was poor word choice, but I think Derek was alluding to Finland being right up next to the Soviet union, but not part of it. He was talking about Gorbachev using a nokia phone afterall
I remember having to sell this when I worked in GameStop as a young lad - even then, no one I knew (myself included) was convinced that it was going to sell over. Great concept and certainly ahead of its time with its ambitious ideas, but this is very clearly a case of the statement that it's one thing to have an idea and altogether something else to actually execute on it. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when the Nokia engineers were in the design phase for the hardware.....
Sweet, time to sit back for a half hour and chill and man I wanted one of these SO BAD as a kid. Back then what was cooler than a cellphone+game console?
Aww common it wasn’t that bad. I remember playing tony hawk and splinter cell in this back in the day and being amazed that those games were on a phone.
If Nokia had released the QD FIRST instead of the original unit, it might have had a chance. But Nokia's own hubris is what killed the N-gage more than the games. I remember it's original release and wanting it during the prerelease period, and even the taco-phone wasn't enough to deter me... but what ultimately killed it for me was the fact that you had to remove the battery to change games. When I saw that I knew that no killer app could save it. To quote another UA-camr: "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!"
Honestly, my lasting meme of the N-Gage is the running gag from X-Play where one of the other crew members dressed up as Picard from Star Trek: TNG and doing an impression while shouting "ENGAGE!"
The N-Gage QD came with a dummy SIM card itself. It just has the N-Gage logo on it, and no EMC operator information at all (reports network ID 0 if you ask it). It let you put in that SIM to boot the phone the first time, where you could do the setup and then set it to airplane mode (which btw required a reboot to get into haha). Probably actually illegal but... somehow they were allowed to do it.
Ngl, I was actually missing the past mortem title screen for the longest time after binging the past videos. Glad to see it back! I seem to recall a friend of mine owning one, but never could recall how it felt to play. He absolutely made a point to never answer calls on the darn thing though.
This video was so well made! It’s extremely entertaining and flows perfectly! I’m glad Sonic N got a little bit of the spotlight too! Fascinating watch!
![Ambitious N-Gage Ports | Punching Weight [SSFF]](/img/n.gif)
N-Gage is a top tier Nugget 👌
This man, ladies and gentlemen. That’s enough Iphone knock offs, let’s see you finally embrace the N-gage mate.
Indeed 😌
THE FUNNY IPOD DRUMMER MAN IS HERE
Fancy seeing you here mr dank
The man himself
Hopefully this leads to a internet-wide search for that E3 footage.
THE N-GAGE RAP MUST BE HEARD.
Someone call the lost media youtubers! Blameitonjorge, Whang, etc.
Get Whang on it
@@DanPantzig Whang! gets results. (For the most part)
Someone call Nick Robinson, he has some legacy footage to find!
@@empoleonmaster6709 Don't you mean the Vtuber Car Misako ?
I remember an early 2000s insult on various message boards being "You bought an NGage, didn't you?" Ah, the good times.
newfigs can't sidetalk
same energy as "you fucked the chicken, didn't you?"
@@zicklane pfhahahaha i just saw the meme again today, nice seeing your comment.
It was a big one on GameFAQs.
"This is 2003. It ain't over until the booth babes show up" GOD, what a gem of a line. Takes me back to watching G4.
"SEX! Now that we have your attention, buy the N-Gage"
So sad to see a booth babe be marked down like that. They just don't hold their value like they used to.
@@freakyzed8467still too much
Interesting anecdotes:
- Despite the FM Radio being an outdated feature in 2003.. Android manufacturers were still using FM radio as a selling point as late as 2015.
- The DS's flagship launch game was a port of a 8 and a half year old game.
Just goes to show how marketing and execution is everything
Super Mario 64 DS wasn’t a port, it was a completely new remake. You can tell because of the physics difference and the new features that would’ve been impossible to implement on the old engine (like the coin counter being unlimited instead of glitching out and the camera physics changes)
Although FM radio is an obsolete function that continues to be marketed even in 2022... It must be recognized that more than an obsoleteness it is more of a necessary evil.
-Because in the middle of 2022 now physical FM radios are becoming scarce [expensive] and rare (Yes, go to your nearest store or go to amazon and there are simply no radios or they are terribly crappy).
-the need for cell phones to come with radio addresses a simple and classic problem: Cell towers, and the internet are not fail-safe and in a natural disaster or even war, they are the first media to fall. [and now with the arrival of more and more fiber optic lines also telephone lines are no longer reliable if there is a power outage unless you have a UPS and even then you only have minutes].
-So for years it has always been established that the radio is a backup medium and even a basic component of any survival kit.
-and the more the digitization of things advances, the more and more it will be necessary to make FM radio a means of emergencies.
-so if we consider the scenario that now physical radios are in short supply... it makes us rethink several things.
That and that... there are simply those who really like the radio (And it's Free)
[also the android FM Radio in some terminals is a digital Radio operated/Decoded by software [RDS] so it's a good way of saying: "The future is today, you heard old man"]
although there are places where even the eventuality of a natural disaster is almost unthinkable... Believe me, when an earthquake occurs in mexico, a radio is the first thing you want to have on hand (both in case you are just curious about the magnitude and to know if the way back home is safe or usable) Like because even in the event of an aftershock the seismic alert system operates [both in NOAA band] and it is a government mandate that TV and radio stations replicate the signal. [since public loudspeakers are not everywhere and they are not exempt from failure] besides that they can go days without power or places that are completely inaccessible so you will need something to distract you
@@CharlieRAnimaMX With the BBC now favoring shortwave radio for Russia and Ukraine territories, your comment rings more true than ever before
@@wolfetteplays8894 Probably called it one as a derogatory term cause a LOT of people think 64 DS is worse than the original.
I have a Motorola phone with an FM radio. As I can't afford unlimited data, FM gives me something to listen to on my walks.
Its a video about the N-Gage but we're treated to a full retrospective of Nokia. Goddamn, what a great, thorough video. A winner is you! 💚
thats the beauty of SSFF is derek is super thorough. top quality content
Agreed J, this was definitely a happening Lol
n gage killed my dog
Derek never makes kids cry, brah
My dad worked at nokia at the time it got developed.
He told us(my brother and me) that they called it "schnitzel" internally because how you held it if you took a call.
Sometimes I was allowed to play Asphalt on one of the development units.
Ahh the good old times ^^
EDIT: oh, this wasnt meant to be a reply.
It's nice that SSFF keeps making videos that "N-Gage" us.
Nice one
HA!!!! Love it
😑
🤦
Boo.
"So Wha Happun? Oh wait... that's not my show."
You almost fooled me for a second, Derek.
The confusion I felt for a moment
Matt McMuscles? In my SSFF videos? More likely than you think?
Well I mean they ARE both UA-cam channels that have blue skeleton icons and cover gaming histories along with the occasional review...
Both some of my favorite gaming history shows on UA-cam lol
This whole time I thought they were the same channel with another host. Son of a bitch!
The Ngage and QD sold quite well here in Singapore. Those night playing multi player games via bluetooth with friends were awesome. And it was really great for playing emulators on it. I still have both and they will always have a special place on my retro shelf.
In indonesia ngage also big win. Atleast that my perception when i was in elementary school. Its either ngage or other nokia or sony ericson.
@@TunaStrata same here
I used to work for a U.S. cell phone company, and I vividly remember finding the support files for the N-Gage, to help frontline reps troubleshoot their phones. I started in 2009 and worked until 2012, and not once did anyone ever call in about that phone.
Pretty telling.
What nobody had issues you mean? Sounds a pretty good phone
@@Nosaveddataretro Considering the kind of stupid shit some people call tech support for, the quality of the device means nothing.
@@ShadowStarkiller could be, could be. Or it's just the perfect phone that never has problems.
Inb4 the next Wha Happun starts with “Hey I’m Matt it’s me Matt”
I feel like the two would super get along
@@OhNoBohNo they already do :)
@@juanortiz9123 He shouted this episode out as soon as it came out
MundaneMatt McMuscles blocks you for telling him he's wrong about something.
the part where the piracy theme from the 2000s showed up I lost my mind
I reflexively told myself I wouldn't download a car when it started playing. I probably hadn't heard that song since it was in front of new VHS movies, but those few bars made everything flood back.
@@kirbyfanprime Dude if I could, I would totally download a car, a house, a bed, a fridge, all furniture that could fit, and everything I would ever need
I have been testing/cataloging a bunch of old DVDs and I forgot how annoying the FBI warnings and movie previews are to skip through.
Some DVDs (like paramount) don’t even let you skip to the main menu immediately and force you to watch each message for a couple seconds.
Also Disney DVDs had so many movie previews that they explicitly tell you that you should skip to the menu at any time so kids wouldn’t freak out.
YOU WOULDN'T DOWNLOAD A FROG
YOU WOULDN'T SHOOT A POLICE OFFICER AND THEN STEAL HIS HAT
As a Finn I can tell you that Nokia's Rubber Boosts were legendary. Top Brand. and they also made phones.
Also Ovi means Door.
I discovered the N-gage in isolation, years later. No press, no forums, no TV ads... Just an imagination stoking magazine advert that drove me to mild obsession! I think I might still have sketches of it and my own wacky phone designs inspired by it at my parents home! All that and I never even saw one in real life😂
"Nintendo has described itself as 'unthreatened' by Nokia's upcoming entry into the market."
Big N just downgraded the N-Gage into the n-gage.
What a nagger
I would have really wanted Bandai and Nokia to team up and make the N-Gage.
Most wrong decisions about the N-Gage were out of of ignorance of the video game market.
I remember when my brother saved up for MONTHS to buy himself an N-Gage when he was in 8th grade and when he got it he probably used it for 3 months and I could tell at an early age what a regrettable purchase that was for him lol.
Oof, thats a really painful story. Wasting your saved money on a shitty game is bad enough, but wasting it on this...I cant imagine the regret he must have felt.
I was 20 when I first heard of the N-gage in 2003, and I was legit excited for it cuz I was looking for ways to consolidate my gaming, cellphone and PDA functions into a single device. But years of being burned by being an early adopter taught me to wait for review and for new tech to ripen a bit more... and the N-gage simply reminded me on why I had that policy in the first place. Sadly dodged a bullet there...
@@Phyrrax yeah same here, this story hurts my heart it makes me feel really bad for his brother for some reason, maybe it's because I remember what it was like getting a game I saved up for from Funcoland and having it be terrible once I got home, but trying so hard to like it anyway.
I was using mine for 5 years ;)
Your brother got to be a part of history. He was literally gaming on a cell phone before it was cool.
As a Finn this video breaks my heart… we had our own ”game console” and it failed so bad. And so did Nokia after the windows phone fiasco.
But nowadays you can buy Nokia Android phones :)
@@flp322 I think Nokia would've been more successful in this day and age if they never touched Windows Phone and went straight to Android after they abandoned Symbian. Thanks, Stephen Elop.
@@flp322 those suck man
I had (still have) and N-gage and I found it genial. it had audio input and output, radio, mp3, AAC recording, maps, games, emulators and apps including music apps and browser. it was so ahead of anything else.
@@NMTCG Other Symbian smartphones had the same features. It was pretty much a Nokia 3650/3660 but with a different design
I love that you brought up the goatse angle. I fully believe the story that the system was getting all sorts of designs rejected, and that a designer made this one as a joke before quitting the company, only to be mortified later once it had somehow been approved.
THIS is the legacy of the N-Gage. I accept nothing else.
It's a shame that the speaker and microphone weren't on the front so that when the user took/made a call, they'd be metaphorically holding a poop-hole up against their cheek.
@@teranokitty Yes, but instead you show goatse to the rest of the world by holding it sideways and make the world a slightly better place.
My dad actually helped design the n-gage, but he was on the hardware side.
It, along with the n95 were some of the last projects completed at Nokia Vancouver before they shut down their hardware sector and began making massive cuts.
The management at Nokia was pretty awful. They paid good, and treated their employees great, but they often ignored any recommendations the staff would make.
@@ianturnbow7011
Why would I lie about it? For clout on an anonymous UA-cam comment? He passed away 5 years ago but I can give you his LinkedIn if you really don't believe me. He went on to work for General Fusion after Nokia shut down here.
Wait, what's goatse?
I almost bought an N-Gage back in the day. I was honestly pretty excited about it, which is far more than I can say for ANY other cell phone (only the Playstation Phone came close) and I can distinctly remember looking at the N-Gage display in Software Etc while weighing my various concerns.
At the time, I heard about the problems like having to pull out the battery to swap games, and wasn't so sure I wanted it anymore. When I got wind of the QD, I decided to wait for that. But by the time it hit shelves, well, I still didn't see any good games I wanted on the system. And you could read the room; it didn't look like they were coming.
If they had released even ONE game that I was genuinely interested in, I would have bought that sucker. I wanted it, I really did. But I didn't *need* a new cell phone yet, so I had to place my considerations as a game console. And it never saw a game I wanted.
I remember being a kid and seeing the N-Gage in a magazine. That thing somehow really caught my attention and I asked my dad for one. He said that phones were made to make calls, not playing games. Kinda funny to think about that now.
The early aughts were so pure with its wackiness. Sure, it was a bit cringe inducing now, but 2004/5/6 will always have a special in my heart as a video game enthusiast.
I feel ya. I'm especially a fan of the chrome and navy color palette electronics I own from then have. Ya just don't see that sort of aesthetic in mainstream electronics nowadays, just boring, minimalistic lameness. I'll totally be getting a chrome and navy case for my Moto Z whenever I finally have one.
04 was an especially good year for gaming
As old as Tomb Raider and Tony Hawk were at the time, I still think those ports are really impressive. Like, those are full 3D main console titles running pretty decently in a hand-held, something not even Nintendo was able to do at the time (not without major compromises that is)
I mean, the GBA had Tony Hawk, but it was in an isometric view and looked nothing like the ones on PlayStation.
To be fair, Tomb Raider was made for being played on software renderer in DOS. 3D acceleration wasn't a priority for that game engine. All it needed was a decent CPU.
Is it something they couldn't do, or something they knew better not to do? Every time another company tried to take on Nintendo in the handheld market with a more powerful handheld, they always lost.
@@VaporeonEnjoyer1 oh, I see what you mean, but maybe I didn't make my thoughts clear. I'm not trying to say the tech was revolutionary or anything like that, but at the end of the day, the N-Gage was the first portable to get these games and I really respect that.
It was definitely cool for 2003 especially compared to the GBA.
Unfortunately it paled in comparison a year and a half later when the newest Tony Hawk (THUG 2) was on the PSP with the console gameplay experience still intact. Along with actual PS1 games being available for the system in 2006.
Tech wise it was a half step up and didn't have anything to be unique like the DS with it's two screens and touch capabilities.
I used to write for a German N-Gage website and I must say, the support Nokia gave us was amazing. Great work from marketing side. I always have a soft spot for the little taco that could. The later game library is actually not that bad and there are some titles you really should try out on an emulator. Pathway to Glory, both games, are amazing and a lot better than just Commandos-Clones. Gameplay, Graphics, Sound are top notch and the multiplayer really stood out. High Seize from the same developer is a pirates version of Advance Wars. Mile High Pinball can relax you after a stressful day. Ashen is a nice doom clone and runs fine on emulation. And it’s the only system with a mobile Elder Scrolls experience (which also runs flawless on emulation and a lot better than on original hardware).
worms world party war einfach nur krank ... und asphalt war auch echt nen schnieke racer ... colin mc rae war auch recht gut , wobei das nicht mit sonem free titel mithalten konnte ... hiess glaub nur rally.sys
@@cringer8107 krank?
I might have to check out High Seize, I'm always down for more Intelligent Systems-esc SRPGs
You guys really deserve credit for how well your mini docs are put together and presented. Fun, funny, well paced and detailed. Kudos 👍
*In an alternate universe where Nintendo and Nokia partnered up:*
"Hey, you getting the new Samsung phone?"
"Nah bro, I'm getting the new Samus phone next week."
"ZS or Varia?"
"Neither, I pre-ordered the limited edition JB model."
"Nice."
I want to live in that universe
@@agentepolaris4914 same
I want my banking to work in bells.
Playing Pokemon Go 3 where there's a holographic projector near the phone camera so you could have your pokemon actually be next to you.
"I'm authorizing the use of your Camera feature, Samus phone."
Ah yes, the N-Gage. I believe this was Captain Picard's favorite cell phone.
Take your damn upvote and leave. -__-
I thought it was a Crash Bandicpot boss.
Heck yeah! Make it so!
Well, SOMEBODY remembers X-Play!
But he had a walking, talking Android.
4:56 “The forthcoming Willennium” omg, I completely forgot about that album lmao.
The cd stays in my car
“So Wha Happun? Oh wait that’s not my show” 😂😂😂
"Oh it doesn't look too terrible, I've seen wor-"
"You have to take the battery out to change games."
"YOU WHAT?!"
I remember they were doing a focus group on the ngage at a local mall when I was in college. They lost everybody when they showed you how you were suppose to hold it when you were on the phone. They must have been pretty far along cause I don't remember the one they had people play on being that different than the released one.
I still love the fact that the music for the "you wouldn't download a car" psa was in itself pirated for it!
Or was it free source
@@TheSultan1470 It's one of those where it's sort of complicated. They didn't strictly steal it, it wasn't strictly free... it was that they purchased it for a specific use - presenting the clip at a film festival - and then used it in theatres, on DVDs, everywhere they could. Outside of licence! No granted permission! Not strictly speaking piracy, but heck of illegal and massively hypocritical in that context.
@@Patrick-Phelan Well... techically it isn't infringement if the other party doesn't claim it is.
I remember thinking the N-Gage was such hot shit back in the day, and then a friend of mine who had one showed me how you inserted cartridges. What a disaster lmao
The games weren’t good either. I traded in my game boy color and a bunch of games for it, and there really weren’t any games that played particularly well on the NGage, I sold it and got a GBA within a year. That experience taught me so much about hype and trained me to try things before buying them.
@@Thor-Orion yeah I remember everyone was freaking out about how this was going to destroy the Game Boy and it didn't come even close to happening. How naive we all were.
Thanks, Derek. Now I cannot un-see N-Goatse. My eyes will never be clean again.
19:57 I literally laughed out loud.
Piracy was a nail in the coffin for any console that wasn't doing well. It really hurts less popular consoles disproportionately.
The design flaw I could never get over was requiring the battery to be removed in order for games to be changed.
Right that is a horrible idea
Derek and Grace really are my favourite gamer UA-camrs.
So passionate.
So unique.
So much fun.
I love the Ngage, I ended up picking it up at a garage sale when 10. Then I ended up using it throughout my whole high school years 2010-2014. As you can expect, everyone made fun of it 🤣.
I have to correct you, Derek, but the N-Gage was not "allegedly" inspired by Goatse. It WAS inspired by Goatse.
A developer of it was upfront about it.
And now, that I seen it, I just can't unsee it.
1 year later and the fact that the E3 presentation hasn't surfaced online still hurts.
This looks like the lovechild of the GBA and a fucking brick
Proof even the gba does a bag head every now and then
it looks like an nsfw meme on purpose
Yes this is what the product of incest between an SP and an original game boy looks like :\
You mean it looks like the GBA fucked a brick.
Imagine this. Goatse. Except the guy reaches in and pulls out a Ngage.
So it looks like that purple iPhone (which essentially is a love child between a GBA and a brick with less functionality) 🤣?
When you think about it, handheld gaming has never been a very good market to enter. The only company that has been consistently successful there has been Nintendo. The only other major success was the PSP, but Sony quickly bungled that with their handling of the Vita. Now with mobile and game streaming, I don't think any company will ever try to enter the dedicated handheld gaming space.
I mean, even Nintendo stepped out of the handheld gaming space, the Switch Lite is basically just a portable only Nintendo Switch and not its own thing.
@@rcmero That doesn't make any sense when the Switch's unique selling point is its portability. You could just as well take the opposite angle and say they're only making handhelds now than can also be docked.
Maybe I didn't make myself clear, that was my bad. Yes, the regular Switch can be used as a portable that can then be docked to be used with a flat screen TV. I was referring to a dedicated portable system, like what the 3DS was. The Switch Lite fits that moniker now.
@@rcmero I get that. I'm just saying it doesn't make much sense to say they left the handheld gaming space when their console's major selling point is that it is a handheld (that can also be docked).
Nintendo: This is MY domain!!!
I still have my QD, and I'm still sore that the Taito Collection never came out for it.
Can I say that I'm loving the goemon soundtrack in the background 😍
You're quickly becoming one of my top two cyan skeleton themed UA-cam channels.
My brain is having a hard time understanding short haired John Romero. He suddenly looks like early 2000s game dev #0075753.
I remember being inside Funcoland, N-gage in one hand, Gamboy SP in the other. The choice was killing me... ultimately I went with the SP. *Best decision of my young life.*
I thought I would've been so cool to be the 1st kid with an N-gage 😭
I never actually had the opportunity, but I did fantasies about it for a while. Wireless multiplayer, ooh, ah. Plus I was weirdly obsessed with wanting a colour-screen phone back then. But like you I’m so glad I went for the SP.
@@kaitlyn__L Haha yep, me to! I had the really old green screen Nokia just like...I REALLY want one of those color bad boys lol
@@oshikiri999 yeah I had the 1100 called out in this video, haha. But I mean, snake and that shoot-em-up were pretty okay in the car at night or when my GBA batteries died. I didn’t have a colour phone until a few years after the N-gage, which was some crummy version of a Motorola flip phone. But by then I had replaced the GBA with the SP (I traded in and saved up) so having a backlit screen wasn’t so magical to me by then. Also the Motorola phone only had one crappy fish eating get bigger type game. Didn’t have a patch on Snake.
@@kaitlyn__L Haha freakin snake! I remember my older cousin bragging about her score all the time...meanwhile I'm 11 with a full maxed out party on Pokemon Ruby beating the elite 4 with only 1 Pokemon Like *Ok* lol I was actually trash at snake, so naturally I was a big ol' hater.
@@oshikiri999 I was kinda both lol. I was like 8 but good at snake and at Pokémon. A friend of mine insisted some of the bonus foods in snake were definitely specific animals but I could never see the resemblance. I’d keep playing until the snake literally filled the screen, there’s basically a cap on how high the score can even go.
Oh damn I knew a kid at school who had one of these, hope he kept it - being one of 500 sold in the UK must mean it's kind of a collector's item now.
A quick check on eBay says they're going anywhere between £40-150 depending on the unit, accessories, etc. One new-old-stock is selling for £400 and, of course, one chancer is trying to sell one a used one for £550. So definitely a market, but it probably consists solely of UA-camrs reviewing them. 😅
I remember there being a TV ad for this thing that advertised playing Tomb Raider in a phone booth. I was intrigued at the time, but stuck with my GBA.
I have legit never heard the rumor about goatse. I'm in the airport and I audibly gasped.
"And there's an EDF Game!"
I can hear Matt McMuscles trying to find a way to get a 2008 Nokia phone with EDF on it.
“Wait, that isn’t my show.”
10/10 episode 👍👍👍
To be fair, the N-Gage was a great idea on paper. Imagine a GBA or PSP, except you can also use it as phone if you want to. Kids and teenagers would have gone crazy for it back in the day. Had it not come out at a weird time, sort of mid-generation, and with better design (horizontal screen, no number keys, being able to put cartridges in directly) and price, I think it could have been a success.
The concept certainly fired up my imagination. Of course, mobile gaming is the biggest market now, which goes to show the concept is sound when you do it right.
Yeah, and the N-Gage came out a good number of years prior to smartphones. If it had been successful, Nokia could have made their own hybrid smartphone/handheld gaming device to succeed it and been a viable competitor today in the smartphone industry with a unique angle.
The idea seemd so great that Sony itself tried something similar despite the N-Gage failing. The Xperia Play was much better designed, but it had next to no software support, and it wasn't advertised much. To this day we don't have that no-compromise-phone-console-hybrid that the N-Gage was aiming at.
We did a cell phone show off at my work with everyone crowded around back in early 2000’s, between me and this guy who viewed himself as a big baller.
my N-gage with tony hawk tore his Phone a new one.
Your scripting and production in general just gets better every video; I love that your content keeps improving and is an instant perk for my mood when I see a new upload. :)
Also, glad to see you tackle this behemoth, it's a cool device well ahead of its time despite being doomed early on.
5:08 That GBA screen looks WAY too good! What a bunch of liars!
It's funny that the PSP's mic and a speaker were aligned that you could hold it up to your ear like a phone, yet it never had a phone app
It didn't have a phone app because phones can't function without cellular antennae, something the psp never had (to my knowledge).
there was skype, iirc
it had skype
The n-gage qd was my first phone and it's still my favourite.
I'm here to stan John from Spawnwave cameo at 22:58
Also this video is SO GOOD!! I hope it does really well!!!
If I ever own a mobile phone one day, it'll be an N-Gage. Fantastic in-depth coverage of the topic and it was great to get plenty of history on the company.
What a weird thing to say, and certainly untrue
I cannot believe you are real
The device designed as a classic troll meme before memes were even a thing ... good old Goatse *shudders from the memory and books another therapy session*
The UA-cam algorithm didn't tell me about this video, but Matt McMuscles did.
That's awesome! (not the algorithm part) IIRC, SSFF told me about Matt's channel and I've been watching all his videos since around The Ring playthrough
Wha Happun: UA-cam algorithm.
I've even got notifications on for SSFF, but the only reason I knew this had released was because Matt posted about it. UA-cam is fucked.
SAME
My subs list did, but the algorithm reminded me of this video.
Despite all the flaws, I still somehow love my N-Gage. It it is the weirdo odball System in my collection.
I remember when a friend of mine spent all his Christmas and birthday money for the year on this, only to be disappointed it came with one measly game and he had to hold it from the side to even talk
Man I didn't think that when you mentioned the N-Gage in your last video, you would be doing an entire 30+ minute documentary on it! Awesome video, it was super interesting to learn about the history of this forgotten piece of tech! Even though it flopped, I still unironicly want my own N-Gage someday
The N-Gage was incredibly stupid, but I loved it. It was my first cellphone. I saved up and got it after the price dropped, and I remember feeling so cool using the 30 days of unlimited data to browse the internet at school. I mean it was slow and the tiny screen made it kind of annoying, but still. In an age before smartphones, browsing the internet in any capacity on the go felt futuristic.
I didn't actually play a lot of N-Gage games on it though. But I had a bunch of J2ME games, and it also had some pretty solid NES and Game Boy emulators. And I had like 10 songs from OCRemix that I listened to over and over.
In early 2000s, Symbian OS powered cell phones were called smartphone while non-symbian ones were called feature phones.
Great episode, guys. I have a unique perspective on this as I actually bought a N-Gage on launch day, then later upgraded to the QD shortly after its release. I get why people weren't interested in it initially--it was expensive, the game lineup was all over the place and some physical design choices of the first model were awful (side talking, removing the battery to swap games, etc). That said, used as both a games machine and a cell phone (i.e., it was in your pocket at all times), I think it was a decent platform for the time.
My biggest issue with the N-Gage as a whole was the inconsistency of the software. We'd get excellent titles here and there, but in between that was a slew of mediocre games that should have been great, but felt cheap and lazy in the end. Bomberman for instance feels like a basic Java cell phone game, rather than a title built from the ground-up for the N-Gage. King of Fighters looks good, but runs choppy and is hard to play. These are games you would expect to perform amazingly well on this platform, but they don't. Many big-name polygonal titles also felt like they were biting off way more than they could chew, like Call of Duty or the Elder Scrolls. Their framerates were sub-par even for the time, making them difficult to play and they were ultimately disappointing even when they were brand new.
What I probably find the most interesting about it is the software lineup was really solid in the last part of its lifecycle. There was some really creative stuff there and it's like Nokia was trying their damndest to make it work, and I have to give credit where it's due.
One thing I rarely see mentioned about the platform is the more open nature of it. Thanks to Symbian OS, I could load other forms of software on it. In the early days I had a Game Boy emulator and played a lot of those games on my N-Gage to mix things up, and it handled those well enough. One of the negatives to the QD was Nokia stripping MP3 functionality, but I was able to get it back via a third-party program. It wasn't the best.. but it worked. Pretty neat.
Some of the N-Gage's games were really solid as well (Colin McRae 2004, Pathway to Glory, Snakes, Mile High Pinball, The Roots, Glimmerati, Requiem of Hell, etc). I'd also argue that some of its early games were also really impressive by handheld standards for the time. Sure, Tomb Raider and Tony Hawk were "old" in 2003, but they were interesting for the same reasons DOOM was on the GBA: No one had expected any of those to look and move as as well as they did on a handheld yet at that point in time, and that was a big part of the draw ("Woah! PS1 quality games in my pocket!").
It's a damn shame there was so much turmoil behind the scenes and that was something I was completely unaware of, so thanks for bringing all of that to light. That said, as a customer at the time, I still commend Nokia for actually supporting the thing into 2006. They made a lot of moves that were pro-consumer, like supporting the system longer than anyone ever expected, to releasing a fully-fledged, free game in the form of Snakes (a Tempest 2000-style remake of the classic game, and it was awesome), and even releasing devices that improved the quality-of-life of the QD (for instance, a device that swaps out the back battery cover, allowing you to keep two game cards in the system at once).
It's a shame the platform worked out the way it did, but it is what it is. It's interesting history without a doubt. For the handful of us that actually lived through it and used it heavily, we have a lot of fond memories of it (and some of its best games are still a lot of fun to go back to today!).
MP3 support also. Better than the 5510 😂
Honestly the best game on N-Gage was custom made S60 port of Doom, which supported multiplayer over bluetooth. Imagine playing Doom deathmatch with your friend at highschool.
My favorite ones were THPS and Shadowkey! I absolutely adored Shadowkey and while there were some pretty bad framedrops here and there, it actually run pretty well and it was an impressive Elder Scrolls game in my pocket!
@@meanmole3212 i remember a doom port being about 1 MB on it, but it ditched the music. Half life, quake, and some other PC games were also ported.
I disagree with bomberman not playing well, and having to hold it like a taco, i never had to.
@@D3sdinova That's true with the original N-Gage, sidetalking was not essential, simply by placing the N-Gage with the screen and keyboard facing out and placing the speaker at correct ear height, it can be used like any mobile.
When I've been really depressed these videos have cheered me up a bit
3:32 I agree with Derek, Snake was the first mobile phone game I've played, because back then, I've only had a Gameboy Advance, and a GameCube, and even then I wouldn't get my first mobile phone until in the mid 2010s.
The story of the N-Gage has always been more fascinating than anything that ever came out on that doomed little handheld. Of course, it does not hurt that SSFK is the channel doing the telling. I have no doubt this channel's audience will likely turn up all the missing footage from that first press conference.
Absolutely killer video! I really appreciate the effort and research that went into this one. It would've been easy to just make a video poking fun at it.
I've got an N-Gage and a sealed copy of Tomb Raider for it that I've had for like 4 years. I guess I'm saving it for, uh, a special occasion?
I used N-Gage from 2003 to 2007. You can easily position the phone to your ear so that you don't need to sidetalk.
The real issues were the vertical screen and needing to remove the battery to swap the game card.
I've also heard stories from the developer side, which sounded like a mess.
True, wirh the original N-Gage, sidetalking was not essential, simply by placing the N-Gage with the screen and keyboard facing out and placing the speaker at ear height, it can be used like any mobile.
Man, I love how much Bomberman 64: TSA music you used for this video.
I'm not the only one that heard that, very cool!
"My name is Derek! That's me, it's me, Derek!" should have been the opening line of that rhyme.
I just realized something: I remember being excited for PSP and N-Gage was out around the same time. No-one was talking about the N-Gage.
I remember working for a Cell Phone Tech Support line and those things were the WORST to Troubleshoot. The first versions required to change the game to remove the back, the battery, unscrew a metal frame then you could remove the game.
metal frame is a lie
This vid was incredibly n-gageing. Thanks so much for bringing back the weird nostalgia.
Wow why tf is the comment some idiot saying "n GaGe iS a ToP tiEr NuGgEt" and this awesome comment only has 5 likes?? That's sad..
@@Gameboy-Unboxings If you watch his content, then you would know he has history of dealing with them nuggets.
Can I just say, I love that you're using music from Bomberman the Second Attack. Its one of my favorite games and I would recognize that music anywhere. I think that game needs more love. So thanks for the recognition.
Agreed, too bad it will be hard for it to get more love since it costs a fortune :)
11:29 NO WE CAN’T MOVE ON
that’s too accurate and I’m cracking up over that lmao! I can’t unsee it!
33:59 - THANK YOU, GRACE FOR EDDITING THIS OUT! lol
Nothing brightens up my day like Uncle Derek telling me about weird but awesome gaming devices.
OMG, that price reveal was so hurtin.
My first handheld console. I love playing Pandemonium on it.
Thank you for this awesome video!! As a long-term user (and huge fan) of the N-Gage, I love watching retrospect videos and hear other people's opinion about it - especially if they didn't have the phone themselves back then. I got this phone as a birthday present in 2004, and it replaced my (also incredibly quirky) Nokia 5510. Since I was so used to green backlit, monochrome screens, the N-Gage felt like alien technology and my perception was always a bit biased - to me, it was the greatest thing in the entire world! I held on to it for almost 4 years, until I finally laid it to rest and replaced it with a Nokia N95 8GB. Unfortunately, my original N-Gage doesn't work anymore. Luckily though, I bought another used one back in 2009 for very little money, that surprisingly still works! Every once in a while, I still take it out and play SonicN or Red Faction on it.
Thanks for this nice walk down memory lane, greetings from Vienna (Austria)! ITX
What an interesting little failure the N-Gage was. I remember seeing kiosks of these set up right next to GBA kiosks in the GameStops I went to. Those N-Gage kiosks vanished in a year or less. Not even the almighty Sonic the Hedgehog convinced me to beg my dad to buy me one.
As the huge gamer I’ve always been, this was also my first phone. I used it for almost 10 years, believe it or not.
When I finally changed, I got an iPhone - and it was mind blowing 😅
The greatest handheld to ever come out from Finland.
Technically correct. The best kind of correct.
I remember my store manager got one and we were all really impressed by the tech, but horrified by the gaming
I can't help but ponder what the N-Gage would've been like had Nokia decided to drop the 'phone' element and embrace the gaming aspect entirely... a larger screen, better buttons, and more games might've made enough of a difference for the N-Gage to gain serious footing in the industry.
I love how you have some Tombi / Tomba songs in many of your videos!
Still love that game to this day! ❤️♥️
I hear you playing that "TimeSplitters" music, and I'm happy!
I've been looking forward to this one for so long! Up next is Zeebo time, right?
riiiight?
2:20 Finland is considered to be part of Western Europe despite its location.
Gun to my head I would have called it Northern Europe.
Yeah Eastern Europe generally refers to ex soviet countries (at least in common parlance). Finland is technically northern Europe but usually lumped in with West Europe politically speaking
Gotta love rulue
it was poor word choice, but I think Derek was alluding to Finland being right up next to the Soviet union, but not part of it. He was talking about Gorbachev using a nokia phone afterall
Rather be called a part of Eastern Europe than Scandinavia. Yuck.
Lord, I can remember when sidetalking was the meme of the day.
The internet deals with disappointment in strange ways.
I remember having to sell this when I worked in GameStop as a young lad - even then, no one I knew (myself included) was convinced that it was going to sell over. Great concept and certainly ahead of its time with its ambitious ideas, but this is very clearly a case of the statement that it's one thing to have an idea and altogether something else to actually execute on it.
I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when the Nokia engineers were in the design phase for the hardware.....
Sweet, time to sit back for a half hour and chill
and man I wanted one of these SO BAD as a kid. Back then what was cooler than a cellphone+game console?
Like now. Its so cool to have a xperia play...
Aww common it wasn’t that bad. I remember playing tony hawk and splinter cell in this back in the day and being amazed that those games were on a phone.
If Nokia had released the QD FIRST instead of the original unit, it might have had a chance. But Nokia's own hubris is what killed the N-gage more than the games. I remember it's original release and wanting it during the prerelease period, and even the taco-phone wasn't enough to deter me... but what ultimately killed it for me was the fact that you had to remove the battery to change games. When I saw that I knew that no killer app could save it.
To quote another UA-camr: "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!"
Honestly, my lasting meme of the N-Gage is the running gag from X-Play where one of the other crew members dressed up as Picard from Star Trek: TNG and doing an impression while shouting "ENGAGE!"
The N-Gage QD came with a dummy SIM card itself. It just has the N-Gage logo on it, and no EMC operator information at all (reports network ID 0 if you ask it).
It let you put in that SIM to boot the phone the first time, where you could do the setup and then set it to airplane mode (which btw required a reboot to get into haha).
Probably actually illegal but... somehow they were allowed to do it.
Ngl, I was actually missing the past mortem title screen for the longest time after binging the past videos. Glad to see it back!
I seem to recall a friend of mine owning one, but never could recall how it felt to play. He absolutely made a point to never answer calls on the darn thing though.
This video was so well made! It’s extremely entertaining and flows perfectly! I’m glad Sonic N got a little bit of the spotlight too! Fascinating watch!
Damn, he didn't even heart your comment.