In All About Symbian Insight #40 (AAS Podcast #93) Rafe, and Steve discuss SMP (Symmetric Multiprocessing) on Symbian OS and what some of the key benefits might be. Steve gives us his first impressions of the Nokia N79 and finally there's some chat about gaming on the N-Gage versus the iPhone.
Hot on the heels of Star Wars being released and Resident Evil being announced, the official N-Gage blog has now confirmed that Spore Origins will be coming to the N-Gage platform. There's no release date yet, but it could be soon as the N-Gage blog includes a link to a hands-on preview of the game.
Over on All About N-Gage, resident gaming Jedi Ewan Spence has put Star Wars: The Force Unleashed through its paces on the N-Gage platform, including the innovative "cellweaver" control system designed specially for mobile phones. Is the force with this game, or is it just a pile of bantha fodder? Read the review to find out...
The much talked-about Star Wars: Force Unleashed is now available from the N-Gage application's showroom (select "Options" and then "Update Now" if you can't see it). We'll be bringing you the review in due course as always. See AAN's game page for more info including screenshots and the official trailer video.
A quick plug for our sister site, All About N-Gage, in which the number of listed 'unofficial' games has doubled in the last couple of days, as Tzer2 has seriously got to work, with new N-Gage games 'Prince of Persia Zero' and 'Million Dollar Poker' being announced, and with Nokia themselves being scored in an editorial assessing how well (or badly) N-Gage has been coming along.
Nokia's 70,000 euro game concept competition closes tomorrow (8th of September) so you'd better get your skates on if you want to take part. They're not looking for any actual code, all they want are detailed ideas for Symbian, Java or N-Gage games optionally including mockup images and/or video too. Note that the competition is only open to professional development companies, private individuals cannot enter.
There's a new episode of Sauna Talk on the N-Gage developer site, where once again host Arnold Faber discusses mobile gaming with Nokia's Miikka Skaffari while not wearing any clothes.
As the N-Gage platform has recently been released for the Nokia 5320 XpressMusic, All About Symbian has updated its review of the phone to take account of this expanded functionality. It definitely adds a great deal of value to an already-inexpensive device, and you can find out more (including the new score) by clicking on the link.
The N-Gage application is now available for download for the Nokia 5320 XpressMusic. If you want to download the app directly onto the handset, just go to the 5320's Games folder, click on the N-Gage logo and then click on the 5320 XpressMusic link from the list of downloads. If you prefer downloading the app via your computer, click here to find out how to install using the PC and Mac method.
Forum Nokia has published the official tech specs for the upcoming Nokia N79 and Nokia N96-3 (which is a variant of the N96 for the Americas). Oddly they don't list free RAM for either device, but that's possibly because the release firmwares aren't finished yet. You can also see the tech specs for the original Nokia N96 too.
T'Zer takes a look at the latest N-Gage release, but isn't at all impressed with what's on offer. It's not as good as The Sims: Pets that's also available on the next-generation N-Gage system and it's "possibly the worst game on the platform." Why? Read the review to find out.
You might recall the discussions over Scott Foe's look at the future of gaming from the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. Well now you can see the whole talk online via the online video service, Vimeo. There's a number of areas that the article glossed over, so here's your chance to see Foe's unfiltered thoughts.
The puppy simulator Dogz is now available from the N-Gage application's showroom section. If you can't see it in the showroom, select Options and then Update Now. If you still can't see it, click on Available Games and then scroll to the bottom of the list. (Thanks to ccraig for alerting us!)
It might be flagged up heavily as a mix of rumour and speculation, but Stuart Dredge's column over on Pocket Gamer makes a certain amount of sense. In it he puts forward the idea that Nokia will launch a 'Comes With Games' service, similar to 'Comes With Music' that we know is coming. The rumor was repeated by many at the recent Leipzig Game Developers Conference, with one major label allegedly signed up.
Over on All About N-Gage we've reviewed the new adventure game Dirk Dagger And The Fallen Idol, a noir detective story with a good sprinkling of humour done in the style of the classic Lucasfilm and Sierra adventures. Has Nokia resurrected this long-forgotten genre? Click on the link to find out...