Nokia N-Gage Cracked 232
According to Mr. Belvedere over at CD Freaks, the Nokia N-Gage has been cracked. From the article: "The games that were designed for the N-Gage will of course only work with the Nokia device but not anymore. Now that the security on the N-Gage has been cracked the games can be played on other mobile phones as well such as the Siemens SX1." The article notes that Sonic N is the only game seen in public yet, but others are sure to follow soon. It'll be interesting to see how Nokia handles this.
Fortunately (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Some moderators have no sense of humor (Score:1)
Strange (Score:3, Insightful)
Now that I think about it, that's basicaly what MS did with the Xbox. I wonder how easy/difficult it would be to play those games on a standard PC?
Re:Strange (Score:1)
Re:Strange (Score:1, Informative)
I'm sure you can play an XBox game on a PC with the right loaded and drivers. How else would you develop for it.
Re:Strange (Score:4, Informative)
When you develop on one you use Visual Studio with an XBox SDK coupled with a special developer edition of the XBox. (Which has special BIOS and 128MB RAM among other things.)
You can then execute code and debug code on the developer Xbox from you PC over the network. (And if you mod your XBox you can develop like this too.)
Re:Strange (Score:3, Informative)
You're confusing a one-to-many relationship with a one-to-one relationship. In a "closed box" system like the Xbox there is only one possible graphcis device, one prossible sound device, one possible controller interface, etc. The code is targeted specifically for those exact devices and optimized heavily. Even the BIOS presents things to software differently from the standard AT BIOS. To
Re:Strange (Score:2, Informative)
That's my understanding of Xbox internals.
Re:Strange (Score:1)
No, it's a standard Series 60 platform - AFAIK the programs are coded with C/C++ but not Java.
Sure, the OS also supports J2ME, but the commercial games are hardly coded with it.
Re:Strange (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Strange (Score:3, Informative)
Too bad you have to be an "authorized N-Gage developer" to program in C/C++. With all the competition in the market, they need all the help they can get.
From the source [n-gage.com]:
N-Gage(tm) supports two different game styles: downloadable titles and rich games distributed on MMC cards.
Downloadable titles for N-Gage are developed in Java(tm) MIDP in the same way and with the same tools used to develop downloadable games for any other Series 60 Platform device. You do not require authorization to develop dow
Re:Strange (Score:2, Informative)
As I understand it, that's only necessary to develop games which are supposed to use the copy protection feature. Otherwise, you can just grab the Series60 SDK and start programming. I'm not sure however if there is any additional benefit in the N-Gage SDK such as 2D/3D or input APIs. But reading that the N-Gage games seem to also run on other Series60 devices, I'm sceptical about that.
Re:Strange (Score:3, Interesting)
not java! (Score:2)
Re:Strange (Score:5, Insightful)
it's a standard s60 system(as pointed out), and s60 has been available for a while and most software available for it can be found cracked on the net(yahoo groups, irc, the usual places where you would find warez). this shouldn't really surprise anyone.
as for playing on pc, i'm not so sure about that(but it shouldn't be overhelmingly difficult to find enough docs that would make it possible to do such an emulator that would run binaries compiled for them).
also theres slight differences in thos s60 phones, for example while the pad in ngage doesn't block itself(so that you can press both up and left at the same time) the pad in 3650 blocks itself(so that you can't press up and left at the same time). i'd just except them to come with up some better execution environment checks with the next range of games(after which the crackers find a way around them too).
anyways, this should give some indication how much nokia had to shell out for actually developing the ngage hardware(not much, as they had done it for other phones already). kind of how their first mp3 playing phone was basicly a quick hack too(though, now it seems they're unifying the hardware to be pretty same in most of their phones, the cheaper smaller phones have already mostly exactly same innards).
next week on slashdot: crackers crack securerom cd protection on pc! gp32 has copied games!
Re:Strange (Score:3, Interesting)
The XBox is a different architecture than a standard PC. For example, the video RAM and system RAM are shared. From what I've heard, it wouldn't be that easy, you'd need to emulate the hardware. Doing a little Googling, there are some XBox emulators and even a project that attempts to convert XBox executables to PC executables. I don't know whether these ar
Re:Strange (Score:2)
Uber-nerds (Score:5, Funny)
DMCA (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
lookit me! (Score:5, Funny)
MIDI WARNING! (Score:2)
Re:lookit me! (Score:2)
Hey good news for Nokia (Score:3, Funny)
Well... (Score:1)
IMHO, alot. (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, not to sound like an Nokia marketteer, but in my opinion, the N-Gage has recieved alot unfair critisism, maybe because of it trying so hard to be both fish and fowl.
First of all, the N-Gage is a standard Series60 phone, exept for a few small differences, as f.eks. stereo sound(enabling Stereo MP3's/ogg's), FM-radio(which no other series60 phone has) and lack of camera(which all other series60 phones has). So, if you simply want a cheap series60 phone(to f.eks. use as a small PDA/web browser on the go(Opera)/radio/MP3/Ogg-player), and don't need a camera, the N-Gage might be a better alternative than f.eks. any of the other series60 phones. If not used primarly as a gamedevice, alot of it's criticism will be more or less irrelevant. And as of the speaker/microphone placement, using a handfree will solve that...
Another thing that is worth pointing out, is that even though you can now download and run games on other Series60 devices(and that is, *ONLY on series60 devices*), most of them don't support more than one simultanous key-press, and the keys aren't exactly layed with gaming in mind. Anyone who has ever played emulated gameboy games on f.eks. a Nokia 3650 will probably nod their heads when I say that it sucks.
So, even though it seems to be vogue to hate it, It's still a great device(in a PDA-sense) in my opinion, even though it's not too successfull at what Nokia had in mind, namely gaming.
Re:IMHO, alot. (Score:2)
Actually, according to most reviews I've seen of it [and supported by the little sample one they have at EB games] the buttons ON the n-gag e weren't really layed out with gaming in mind either. I'm not really sure WHAT was in mind when they were layed out, but it wasn't gaming. (If I had to hazard a guess what WAS on mind though, I think I'd have to say it was "pain".)
Re:Well... (Score:2)
ROMs (Score:1)
Re:ROMs (Score:1)
Re:ROMs (Score:2)
More Importantly (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:More Importantly (Score:3, Interesting)
(Who do you think leaked the info in the first place?!) [/conspiracy]
Re:More Importantly (Score:5, Interesting)
heck, you want to develop for series60 with c++? forum.nokia.com has all the tools you need. there's c64 emulator, zx spectrum emulator and a gameboy emulator along with gazillion homebrewed titles out there already.
it is the most 'hacker friendly'(that is affordable) phone platform out there. which is the reason why i got myself a 3650 last summer, sure helped a lot of those crappy train rides. while the concept of having computer programs on your phone might be confusing to some, to nerds it's very convinient. ngages best selling point is that it is the cheapest s60 phone out there(and at the same time, the cheapest phone that has loadable programs more powerful than j2me, and while at that it has the most powerful j2me too).
Re:More Importantly (Score:2)
anyways.. there's programs(file explorers) that allow you to run just about anything(though porting linux for it might be pointless for anything else than academical joy of seeing i
Re:Whatever.... (Score:2, Insightful)
article text aleady /.'ed (Score:5, Informative)
Posted by Dennis on 11 November 2003 - 14:50 - Source: SPOnG.com
Mr. Belvedere, our Club CD Freaks Moderator, used our news submit to tell us that Nokia's N-Gage device has been cracked according to this information. The Nokia N-Gage device is primarily a handheld gaming device but it can also be used as an MP3 player, wireless browser and last but not least as a telephone.
The games that were designed for the N-Gage will of course only work with the Nokia device but not anymore. Now that the security on the N-Gage has been cracked the games can be played on other mobile phones as well such as the Siemens SX1:
Nokia will today be licking its wounds and doing a fair amount of worrying, with the revelation that the N-Gage's security has been cracked like an egg, with other manufacturers' handsets able to play the machine's software.
Specifically, the Siemens SX1 is already capable of running N-Gage games, with Sonic N being the only game seen in public, though it's expected that the others won't be too far behind.
This is expected to be the start of a process that will see third-party hardware add-on sales of devices that will enable many phones to simply suck up the N-Gage content, then go on their merry way.
Nokia's reaction to this new, seemingly unforeseen problem, will be interesting to observe, to say the least.
Some screenshots and video's of the Siemens SX1 mobile phone running the Nokia N-Gage games can be found on Club-Siemens. More information on the hacked N-Gage can be read here and here.
Talk about ego (Score:2, Funny)
"In other news, all of us here at CD Freaks have ten-inch penises and can eat shattered glass without feeling pain. Boo-ya!"
But even funnier (Score:4, Funny)
I don't know what to say...
While I respect the effort, ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not quite. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not quite. (Score:2)
though i haven't tested these for myself yet..
Re:Not quite. (Score:2)
WHAT PLAYS (Score:5, Informative)
Siemens SX1 plays:
Sonic
Tomb Raider
Puyo Pop
Pandemonium
Tony Hawk
Nokia 6600 plays:
Pandemonium
Puyo Pop
Sonic
Tomb Raider
Tony Hawk
(Puzzle Bubble fails)
Nokia 3650 plays:
Sonic
Puyo Pop
(everything else fails due to insufficient RAM)
Re:Not quite. (Score:2)
And neither does the N-Gage. The 3D-games on the N-Gage are all using software-renderers like f.eks. Fathammer's X-Forge engine [fathammer.com].
The N-Gage is simply a standard Series60-phone,(exept that it lacks a camera, and have stereo sound and FM-Radio instead) with a different key layout.
I'll give you one guess (Score:5, Funny)
I assume it will be with lawyers?
Re:I'll give you one guess (Score:4, Interesting)
If Nokia is like every other console company, they take a cut of sales of the cartridges. Sure, most make a little bit on hardware too, but Nokia has really lost that battle. Getting a cut of games released that will play on someone else's platform would be ideal. Think about how much money IBM would have made if they had some way to require licenses to release games on any hardware compatible with their system.
As they don't control the hardware it isn't a viable long-term solution, but if Nokia was smart (tacophone aside) they would release their own attachments to other phones to facilitate N-Gage playing. That way, at least, they could bow out gracefully and make a little money along the way.
Shouldn't this be true only for J2ME games? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Shouldn't this be true only for J2ME games? (Score:2)
A failure of DRM is likely the last nail in the coffin for the nGage. Now that the content can be readily pirated - I'm not sure the remaining 'gung-ho' companies will stick with the platform.
Re:Shouldn't this be true only for J2ME games? (Score:2)
But from a practical standpoint, who cares? All of these games are cut-down versions of games available on PC or on systems already well-emulated on PCs...
Re:Shouldn't this be true only for J2ME games? (Score:2)
Re:Shouldn't this be true only for J2ME games? (Score:2)
I think you missed your parent's point. The parent was asking what exactly has been achieved by cracking Nokia's DRM, since your grandparent suggested that the best point about this was that now a PC emulator could play the games.
Most of the similarly-equipped phones to the N-Gage are more expensive, so this crack doesn't seem to have any real benefit to anyone except perhaps those who wish to distribute the games illegally.
Big impact (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't get me wrong, it's still neat in a way, but "Crappy game system with no games gets cracked so you can play those nonexistant games elsewhere" seems somewhat underwhelming.
Mechanik
Re:Big impact (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Big impact (Score:2)
Re:Big impact (Score:2)
Funny (Score:2)
I was actually surprised when I saw N-Gage games on some ftp's starting three days back. I don't have the N-Gage myself, but I saw like 5 games and an installer...
The cool thing with the N-Gage is the homebrew stuff. It'll be cool if someone can write an app so you can stream shoutcast to the phone... then I'll get one for sure
Re:Funny (Score:2)
Even still, the bandwidth and unreliability of UDP over the cellular networks (including GSM) would most certainly make you want to beat yourself to death with the nGage rather than use it
Re:Funny (Score:2)
Technologically, Nokia are usually behind the curve, with the obvious exception of the cool Communicator they brought out years ago. On the other hand, they have a very good marketing department.
Distracted Drivers (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Distracted Drivers (Score:1)
Damon,
Re:Distracted Drivers (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Distracted Drivers (Score:2)
thats great but.... (Score:1)
Re:thats great but.... (Score:2)
another site, pics (Score:1, Informative)
Obligatory (Score:4, Funny)
Gameboy emulator. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Gameboy emulator. (Score:4, Interesting)
Would someone please explain to me why I would want a game system, phone, answering machine, mp3 player, pda, web brwoser, toaster, ftp server, IceCast streaming server, microwave, linux ssh client, alarmclock radio, dvd player, and cell phone portable, buggy monstrosity that seem to be the norm these days? When my car breaks down I want to call a wrecker, not have to close apps and load a phone dialer program and worry about a system freeze/crash.
Re:Gameboy emulator. (Score:3, Informative)
Eh? Because you only need to carry one device with you? I love being able to kill time by just doing daft things on my mobile, such as games, writing, eBooks, internet/e-mail.
I can think of worse way
Here's Nokia's reply (Score:3, Informative)
"We're aware of it and we're taking it seriously," Damian Stathonikos, spokesman for Nokia Mobile Phones, which is responsible for the N-Gage device, told Dow Jones Newswires.
Stathonikos said after a cursory look at the Web sites it wasn't clear that the claims being made about hackers cracking the protection was true. "Sometimes it's not 100% clear what they've done and if they've done what they say they have. The bark can be louder than the bite," he said.
Complete article here [yahoo.com].
Re:Gameboy emulator. (Score:2)
Indeed. That's one of the favourite things about my phone. Playing the GBC version of tetris is where it's at!!
I wonder if that explains... (Score:4, Funny)
[snicker]
-T
Re:I wonder if that explains... (Score:2)
The Slashdot readership has often been a bunch of intellectual parrots but it has gone to a new low.
Re:I wonder if that explains... (Score:2)
I think that the increased media coverage is actually helping the interest in their crummy product.
I wouldn't be surprised if nokia was actually assisting the hacking effort. actually, considering the dev-friendly attitude on nokia's forums, I'd say that they DID encourage it to happen, for precisely this reason.
Re:I wonder if that explains... (Score:2)
Has anyone even purchased one? (Score:1)
Do people really think they're gonna get a decent gaming system that's even remotely close to a GBA or Sony's up-coming handheld PSX?
Re:Has anyone even purchased one? (Score:2)
It might as well be another machine. The point of having everything in one device is convenience. It's not convenient that you have take the damn thing apart to make a phone call or play a game. They should not have released this device until they could get the phone & games to work at the same time. If they could have done that, people might be moderately impressed. C'Mon, Nokia, get with the times.
The crack is really easy too (Score:3, Funny)
Sweet!
Re:The crack is really easy too (Score:2)
Re:The crack is really easy too (Score:3, Funny)
Frightening Stuff
Woo-freakin'-hoo! (Score:1)
So am I the only person left that only uses his phone for talking to people?
What's next? NetHack for my toaster?
Re:Woo-freakin'-hoo! (Score:2)
Does your toaster run WinCE? [nethack.org]
Bittorrents ... (Score:1)
suprnova.org already
nick
Lousy Games (Score:4, Insightful)
Game Ranking has ever removed the N-Gage from the frontpage listing of platforms, that they had a few week ago.
Re:Lousy Games (Score:2, Informative)
They must have put it back then. Either that or I'm seeing things.
Re:Lousy Games (Score:2)
Look at the Latest review listing there is no N-Cage games. Maybe it's because there has not been any reviews for a N-Cage game within the relevant period. If so My Bad
This is Old News (Score:3, Interesting)
It started with Tomb Raider.
Last week a warez game group "Blizzard" released all 5 games plus a installer that installs directly to any blank mmc. The N-Gage does not have any special hardware all it uses is software to run these games. Kind of sucks I bought one for the fact it had a mp3, radio and a setup to be able to play java games and such easiar. Sad to say that it is cracked it was bound to happen anyways. Its a great phone has all the features anyone woudl want minus a camera.. and only bad thing i find about it is the ear speaker being on the side of the phone unlike the 3300
sidetalkin' (Score:4, Funny)
Nokia Press Release (Score:1)
"Fuck you. That is all."
Take the train (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Take the train (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Take the train (Score:2)
N-Gage (Score:5, Funny)
It's a better cell phone than the Game Boy Advance
Re:N-Gage (Score:2)
However, even my '87 Honda Accord is a better automobile than both the Nokia nGage and the GBA. Then again, none of those things have the flavor, texture, or nutritional value of Pringles potato crisps.
Cross comparisons just plain don't make sense. Why not talk about how the nGage stacks up against other gaming-enabled cell phones, especially considering the asking price for the unit and games?
Pictures (Score:2, Informative)
here [club-siemens.net]
HORRAY! (Score:3, Funny)
* throws PS2 out of window *
Horray!
Hackers fix N-Gage games (Score:2)
Now that I can have the comme
Re:Slashdotted Already - Here's a copy (Score:2)
Surely you meant... (Score:3, Funny)
N-GAGE!