Would you buy a GBA cellphone? + Nintendo patent (2001)

[Capeta]

Ok when I came upon these pics the first thing I thought was GBA SP mobile phone. Now since Nintendo already has a GBA Micro out there I was wondering about the possibility of incorporating the Micro with this mobile phone. Wouldn't that be pretty neat? I have a feeling Nintendo has already been investigating a product like this. Even though there are a few mobile phones out there that have nice 3D graphics chipsets like the MBX series, none of them really have any worthwhile game libraries to make them truly practical. Just like Apple who's iPhone will bring music listening to the masses of mobile phone users, I think Nintendo or SONY should do the same with games phone.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

N-gage? The problem is that you cant make a device thats good at both. You cant have a small, easy to use mobilephone wich doesnt make you look like an idiot while holding it to your ear and make it a full handheld like the psp or DS. Handhelds need ''alot'' of room wich makes them big and nobody wants a big dumb looking phone. Exept for the GBA maybe because you can probably fit all the hardware in a normale phone model.

 

[Simon F]

. Handhelds need ''alot'' of room wich makes them big and nobody wants a big dumb looking phone. Exept for the GBA maybe because you can probably fit all the hardware in a normale phone model.

What hardware? Surely the only hardware size issues would be the dimensions of the controls / display?

 

[Capeta]

What hardware? Surely the only hardware size issues would be the dimensions of the controls / display?

Yep the GBA Micro is tiny not to mention that the size is due to screen, controls, battery, cart slot. The chipset itself is tiny. Mobile phones already have the display, controls, battery so the only thing that needs extra space is the cart slot and chipset. Heck the big cart slot could be completely eliminated if they allowed some sort of microSD card slot instead that could hold many different GBA games that you can download from your PC with a GBA cart to microSD flash adaptor. As for the controls, they just need to be repositioned since most phones already have D-pads and buttons.

 

[Simon F]

Yep the GBA Micro is tiny not to mention that the size is due to screen, controls, battery, cart slot. The chipset itself is tiny.

What I meant was that the electronics itself is irrelevant. IIRC the GBA has a relatively low spec ARM CPU (possibly with simple 2D hardware/blitter) whilst modern phones are likely to have a much higher perfomance version.

If you also consider the fact that an increasing number of phones now have integrated 3D graphics processors, why bother aiming for something as low-spec as a GBA?

 

[Ty]

If you also consider the fact that an increasing number of phones now have integrated 3D graphics processors, why bother aiming for something as low-spec as a GBA?

My guess is for the vast library.

Though you could always just look at emulators on a smart phone. That would give you access to a huge library too.

 

[Capeta]

What I meant was that the electronics itself is irrelevant. IIRC the GBA has a relatively low spec ARM CPU (possibly with simple 2D hardware/blitter) whilst modern phones are likely to have a much higher perfomance version.

If you also consider the fact that an increasing number of phones now have integrated 3D graphics processors, why bother aiming for something as low-spec as a GBA?

I agree it's just that if they go with GBA chipset, there's already a huge existing game library. I'm all for 3D chipsets in phones, but that would mean having to start from scratch to build a gaming library unless they use a new 3D chip that's backwards compatible to leverage that huge GBA library. I guess an enhanced DS-like chipset would work single ARM for single screen but with GBA compatibility and better 3D (better than DS 3D).

Here's the DS mobile phone equivalent of the GBA phone. It's the D800iDS from Mitsubishi.

www.mobilewhack.com/ntt-docomo-d800ids

 

[Arwin]

If I could call with my PSP and add a keyboard on it for email and stuff, I'd be very happy and throw away my blackberry.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Why dont you just carry around a laptop then with a bluetooth headset then? imo the n-gage showed people arnt interrested in a gamephone. Atleast, not the majority of the market.

 

[Arwin]

Why dont you just carry around a laptop then with a bluetooth headset then? imo the n-gage showed people arnt interrested in a gamephone. Atleast, not the majority of the market.

Hmm, let's see. My PSP fits in my inner coat pocket very neatly. My laptop doesn't. I already use my PSP for internet, for listening to podcasts, watching vodcasts, listening to mp3s, watching movies, and, last but not least playing games. I have it with me always and use it more often than my BlackBerry. Nevertheless, I have that with me always too.

For me, having the two combined would be great. The N-Gage proved nothing, by the way, other than that Nokia didn't manage to gain mass-appeal with it.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

And why didnt it have mass apeal? because it sucked. You looked like a complete idiot if you wanted to call with it and it also wasnt very good at playing games. Would you see alot of people holding their psp's next to their ears? I dont think so. Same problem as the N-gage though the psp/ds/gba will be good at playing games. A bluetooth addon might be a better solution since the machine itself doesnt matter that much anymore if you do that but I get the idea alot of people find it a bit weird to talk into the air without holding something in their hands. Not to mention the DS, and especially the psp arnt really that great with battery life.

 

[GwymWeepa]

The comparison between a gba enabled phone and well, all other gaming solutions on cell phones is like comparing apples and oranges...for one simple reason. The gba has a monstrous library, and is still a very hot seller in the US. A phone that happened to have a gba inside, that could play any gba cart, would be a huge seller IMO.

 

[Berek]

What I don't consider feasible is games meant for a PC or console being developed for a handheld like a cellphone. Now, something like a PSP or maybe a DS would be fine. Take a look at Oblivion for the cellphone, yeah, that is a joke.

I'm pretty conservative in this regard, I think of phones as, well, phones. That's it.

 

[Corwin_B]

If priced right, I would buy that. I've about 50 GBA games in my library.

 

[SiBoy]

Why dont you just carry around a laptop then with a bluetooth headset then? imo the n-gage showed people arnt interrested in a gamephone. Atleast, not the majority of the market.

I don't think it showed that at all. It just showed that no one would buy a lousy gamephone.

 

[MfA]

N-gage? The problem is that you cant make a device thats good at both. You cant have a small, easy to use mobilephone wich doesnt make you look like an idiot while holding it to your ear and make it a full handheld like the psp or DS. Handhelds need ''alot'' of room wich makes them big and nobody wants a big dumb looking phone. Exept for the GBA maybe because you can probably fit all the hardware in a normale phone model.

How about the Nokia Concept phone as a flip-phone? Basically the handheld is one side, and the phone is the other. Only problem is that the exposed screen and controls might break a little too easily.

 

[StefanS]

Nintendo Patent 2001

hey have a patent for just such a device dated November 2001. For some reason, it took the USPTO until June 2006 to issue this thing, so there's no telling if Nintendo still has any interest in its "Electronic apparatus having game and telephone functions," but that doesn't mean we can't ogle the mockup screenshots all the same.

 

[gokickrocks]

lets see, i own(ed) a gameboy, gameboy color, gameboy advance, gameboy advance sp, micro, ds, ds lite...so yes, i would buy a gba cellphone (as long as its not too clunky)

 

[Capeta]