The Video Game Critic

[QUOTE=Marriott_Guy] 
Nokia NGage
o Atarifever provided a good synopsis.  Definitely a unique experience at the time, with a couple of models.  Kind of pricey to now acquire if looking for a CIB unit.
[/QUOTE]
The model to get (now) would be the QD. It was much more attractive, but lost a couple features at the time that don't matter now (all I remember is the FM radio, but there was something else that was more important I think). I sold mine a couple years ago in my great collection purge. If I could have any version it would be the beautiful, and rare, silver QD. 

Behold what could have been instead of touch based garbage phones:
http://www.engadget.com/2005/08/03/nokia-n-gage-qd-silver-edition/

By the way, to read great NGage reviews from back when it was still alive, just search "Justin Leeper, NGage." He was Gamespy's NGage reviewer, and he fell in love with the thing eventually.

@Atarifever - That is a pretty sweet version!  I had the first model before selling it - never ending up getting the QD.

Did anyone ever try one of those Sony PlayStaction Xperia phones? Did they just have PS1-type games?

That kind of seemed like a missed (or botched) opportunity on Sony's part.

I thought Paul had one of those at one point.  They looked like they'd be fun.  

I researched them quite a bit at one time.  Whey they released they were considered under powered compared to the Droid X so I went with that instead.  

The Nuon was definitely an interesting recommendation, but far and away the best of the "missing consoles" is the Nokia N-Gage.  I've said it before and I'll say it again -- the N-Gage is the most underrated handheld system ever.  Sure, it's no Game Boy Advance..but it is definitely better than the Game.com and Neo Geo Pocket, both of which Dave already reviews.

I just skimmed through a list of every system ever, looking for ideas.  In doing that, here's a few other possibilities that came to mind, in order of oldest first:

-- 1972 Magnavox Odyssey (at least for a system review, if not individual reviews of the games)

-- Microvision handheld

-- Amiga CD32

-- Bandai WonderSwan handheld

-- Mattel Hyperscan


...Nothing too compelling on that list, which is really a testament to the breadth of systems Dave currently reviews.  It'd be nice to see an Odyssey review, even if only for the historical value.  But the rest could easily be passed up.  The N-Gage, on the other hand, is truly worth reviewing.  It deserved to fail 10 years ago for many reasons, but I think now is the time to look past its faults and ridiculousness and just enjoy the decent set of games that came out for it.

I am all for ngage reviews,but is it a portable game system that can be a phone, or a phone that plays games.

The hyperscan! I had forgotten about that one, and it really was not that long ago. It has a ben 10 game and x-men, so mattel bought some licenses. Anyone have/did have one of those?

The original odyssey is a neat idea for some bedrock. I have too many pong era machines myself (its like I run a pong rescue), and it would fun to read dave's take on them. I think most readers though would not be that interested, but maybe a few reviews for background. I do not have the granddaddy ofmthe first system. Got to a have the right sized crt for the overlays, although you could probably recreate something scaled up to fit a larger tv.

As for more tales from the distant past, how about the RCA Studio II, twice as good as the studio I. There is also the hang on for dear life Gakken compact vision tv boy.

Dave has barely scratched the surface of the family computers, like the Atari 8 bit line he grew up with. Others mentioned the amiga and trs-80, but there are yet others.

There are legions of plug and play, a few of them more fun and durable than you think. I have a little motion controlled star wars arcade type game in particular that is fun with company over.

There is also the genre of barcode games, which segues into Radica's Skannerz line of barcode monster fighter game systems. My brothers family had a lot of fun with those. If that is too toyish (again, where is the line), the is the barcode battler by Epoch seems very much like a portable system, and that could be used to enhance some nintendo games. Nothing like going through grandma's kitchen scanning her barcodes for monsters.

There was a console system that scanned cards called the Hyperscan that came out in 2006, it barely lasted a year, but it would be interesting to see a review of it.

[QUOTE=scotland17]I am all for ngage reviews,but is it a portable game system that can be a phone, or a phone that plays games.[/QUOTE]

10 years ago it was tough to tell.  But nowadays that's easy -- it is a portable game system that can be a phone (if any carrier even supports it anymore).  You DO still need to put an SIM card in the N-Gage for it to work, but it can be a blank SIM card (you can buy them online for like $1 or so, or do like I did and get a free one from your local AT&T store if they're willing to sneak you one).  However, you do not need phone service for it to work.  As a result, it works just like a Game Boy or any other portable system -- just stick in your cartridge, boot it up, and play.



[QUOTE=scotland17]The hyperscan! I had forgotten about that one, and it really was not that long ago. It has a ben 10 game and x-men, so mattel bought some licenses. Anyone have/did have one of those?[/QUOTE]

I have one that I bought several years back, shortly after it bombed and went out of production.  I figured I'd buy it while it was cheap and on clearance.  I also bought and tried all the games for it (there are around 5 or 6).  The concept is very similar to the Spyro Skylander games -- for the Hyperscan, you buy trading card packs, and the system reads the cards in order to unlock various characters, features, and power-ups in the game.  It's cool in concept, but incredibly lacking in gameplay.  Every game has horrendous controls and is just no fun to play.  It has been a long time, but I think I recall the Spiderman game being the only one that was semi-playable and capable of holding my attention for a brief period of time..and even that wasn't a good game.



[QUOTE=scotland17]The original odyssey is a neat idea for some bedrock. I have too many pong era machines myself (its like I run a pong rescue), and it would fun to read dave's take on them. I think most readers though would not be that interested, but maybe a few reviews for background.[/QUOTE]

I think most retro gamers have an appreciation for gaming history and, as a result, few consoles have the same mystique as the original Odyssey from 1972.  Sure, in terms of owning it, I'd bet that few gamers have interest in forking over $200+ for one -- and for good reason, it's certainly extremely rudimentary and weak in the gameplay department -- but I think a lot of gamers would be intrigued by an article by Dave giving the system a spin and reviewing its merits.



[QUOTE=scotland17]Got to a have the right sized crt for the overlays, although you could probably recreate something scaled up to fit a larger tv.[/QUOTE]

I haven't gotten much use out of my Odyssey.  I only set it up for a day to make sure it worked when I bought it several months ago.  But, when I did, the larger overlays seemed to work almost perfect on your standard 19" CRT TV.  And the smaller ones overlays should work on a 13", I think.  (The small and large overlays are identical, but the system came packaged with both, to allow it to work on varied TV sizes.)

[QUOTE=scotland17]I am all for ngage reviews,but is it a portable game system that can be a phone, or a phone that plays games.  [/QUOTE]
At the end of their run, in the marketing materials they were calling it "The gamer's phone."  That was about right.  If you were a gamer and you wanted a phone, you should have had an NGage.  It was a smartphone, but it was specialized for gamers.  Again, I wish this sub-market had taken off.  Instead, we still have smartphones biting into the gaming market, and what we are getting is not half the quality of what was on the NGage. 

As PSX said, now it is just a game system.  I don't know if it would still even work as a phone, but it certainly still works as a handheld gaming unit.  Mine came with the SIM card, so I didn't even know it needed one; I just left the one in it that came with it.

You can see the games used to get front of page display, and the term "Gamer's Phone" is used here (courtesy of the wayback machine):
http://web.archive.org/web/20051126114924/http://www.n-gage.com/en-CA/home/home.html