# N-Gage Soft Mod?



## Friend of Sonic (Apr 11, 2014)

Hey everyone,

I found an archive of every N-Gage game there was, and I was thinking of loading up my N-Gage QD. I tried searching on Google, but I could not find very much discussion on enabling playing these games. Is a soft mod required or could I just pop the MMC in? I read the N-Gage reads a max of 1GB-- is that true?

Thanks in advance

EDIT: Now I'm reading multiple people using 2 and 4GB cards, so now I don't know. They also advise overclocking it to combat slow speeds


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## Foxi4 (Apr 11, 2014)

You can just pop them onto an MMC card, they'll work just fine. I'm also reading about _"experiments"_ with 2-4GB cards, but I don't see a reason why you'd want this much space on the system. It's hardly a viable MP3 or media player in this day and age, so you'll practically only use it for games and applications which are relatively small. Not only that, the N-Gage appears to have some issues with indexing when the card has a large number of files.

As for overclocking, I've never done it myself back in the day, but from what I've seen it does improve performance, so it's worth considering if used in moderation.


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## Friend of Sonic (Apr 11, 2014)

Further reading indicates OCing isn't possible on the QD. XD

That's good to know it's that easy to put them on there. I read that there's an alternative file explorer that is better than stock, so I'll look for that. As for why I'd want 2GB, the complete library of N-Gage games is just slightly over 1GB in size (although there's some obvious stuff I could cut out that is just garbage) and, also, I might mess around with some of the Symbian games.

My only gripe-- MMC cards are incredibly expensive. 2GB for almost 30 bucks... yeesh. Makes me want to try the Chinese cards, but that'd probably be a foolish idea.


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## Foxi4 (Apr 11, 2014)

It's pretty obvious why they're pricy - it's deprecated hardware. If someone wants a high-capacity MMC card, it means that someone _really_ needs it, so you might as well gip him.  2GB should work perfectly fine, it's well-within the limits of FAT16, I believe that's the file system used by the N-Gage.


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## Friend of Sonic (Apr 11, 2014)

Awesome. I'm seeing a lot of posts too where people reporting that 2GB work fine-- music player doesn't support it, but not looking to mess around with that. Thanks Foxi4.


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## ov3rkill (Apr 11, 2014)

Try checking out BLZPDA or Blizzard Ngage Installer. I'm not sure if it'll be compatible or what. Quick google will result in those things.


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## Friend of Sonic (Apr 20, 2014)

Well, I think there might be a little more than just copying the files over. I did so, and followed the instructions for copying the "apps" and "libs" folder from the game folder into my system folder on the MMC card, and it makes an icon appear in my app list. Playing it makes an error appear though, "Please insert Game MMC" Any ideas?


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## Jayro (Apr 20, 2014)

Since SD cards are basically MMC cards with a read/write switch, can't you just use a cheap $4 2GB SD?


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## Friend of Sonic (Apr 20, 2014)

JayRo said:


> Since SD cards are basically MMC cards with a read/write switch, can't you just use a cheap $4 2GB SD?


 
No, the pinouts are different from MMC I think, unless someone wants to correct me.


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## Deleted-236924 (Apr 21, 2014)

MMCs can be used in a standard SD card reader, but the opposite cannot be done.


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## Friend of Sonic (Apr 24, 2014)

Yep yep!

(Sorry for the cheesy bump but I'm really at a loss on how to get this to work properly)


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## Count Duckula (Apr 24, 2014)

I have an old original ngage around somewhere, havnt touched it in years. From memory it's not anything you need to mod in the OS but how the games are patched.
I recall that some games i downloaded would give and error similar to the one you're getting but others would launch fine (a different copy of the same game).Have you tried dumps of games from another source?
If you're really desperate i can find the thing, it likely still has some games on its memory card.

*Nightmares of playing sonic on a portrait-oriented screen are coming back*


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## Friend of Sonic (Apr 24, 2014)

Oooh yes, that port should not exist.

I tried two romsets and both copies of Ashen and Asphalt didn't work. There's all of this maneuvering of the folders you have to do for each game and I'm thinking I'm just doing something wrong.


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## cearp (Apr 24, 2014)

the blizzard installer was really nice, it even let you install the .blz games on other phones that weren't officially supported to run the games 
i was happy with my 256mb mmc card at the time, i thought it was huge haha!


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## Friend of Sonic (Apr 25, 2014)

I'm guessing then I need to find the installers? I had trouble locating anything but random download pages that didn't really have an explanation on how the installer worked, or the benefit of using them (the guides I've read about installing games on the N-gage don't mention the installer but maybe I need it?)


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## Friend of Sonic (May 23, 2014)

Any information anyone else can provide? Still having issues.


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## Count Duckula (May 23, 2014)

Friend of Sonic said:


> Any information anyone else can provide? Still having issues.


 
Still no luck eh? That sucks. No games at all work?
Do they not run, run with an error, not show up in the apps menu of the phone or something else?

Managed to find my old original Ngage. Battery was nicely puffed up and didn't want to charge, luckily also managed to track down a box of other old phones and one of them had a nokia 5c battery. Hurrah for hoarding 

I'm probably not the best person to get info from, I honestly havnt touched the thing in a many many years, cant find any of the files on my PC. Last I used it was likely 3 or more PCs ago.
The MMC in the phone does have about 20 games and a few emulators on it however including asphalt which works.

The MMC has a lot of folders in X:\system\apps, many with random names such as 6R29.
I googled a few of them along with 'ngage' and 6R29 appears to be asphalt. Some games may need more than 1 folder in there to work, I'm not sure.


Edit: Just found my old Ngage game folder (along with one full of nokia 6300 games, hurrah for digital hoarding), 68 games, 951MB. I do remember that some (perhaps many) didnt work. Pretty sure all the ones still on the phone (about 20) do.
From the dates on save games it looks like I last played it in 2005 

Looks like many games need folders and files in x:\system\libs and sometimes x:\system\programs as well as the one in x:\system\apps. Does your copy of asphalt have the 'libs' folder as well as the 'apps' one?

I never used an installer app, you should only need to:

Extract the zip/rar of the game you downloaded to somewhere on your PC
Browse into the folder you just extracted, find the 'system' folder (eg c:\<folder you extracted to>\<Game Name>\system)
Copy the contents of that 'system' folder to the 'SYSTEM' folder on the MMC. Say yes to overwrite.
Play game


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## Friend of Sonic (May 23, 2014)

I reformatted the card so I could start fresh, and followed your instructions. Copied over the game's system folder and merged it with the SYSTEM folder on the MMC. Tried playing the game, which appeared as an app in the menu, but it said invalid game card.

EDIT: To answer your question, yes my copy of Asphalt has libs and apps in it.


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## Count Duckula (May 24, 2014)

Friend of Sonic said:


> I reformatted the card so I could start fresh, and followed your instructions. Copied over the game's system folder and merged it with the SYSTEM folder on the MMC. Tried playing the game, which appeared as an app in the menu, but it said invalid game card.
> 
> EDIT: To answer your question, yes my copy of Asphalt has libs and apps in it.


 
OK. I just:

Took the MMC out of the phone
Formatted to FAT (not FAT32) via windows (the format option on the phone itself was seriously slow, likely doing a full format not a quick one)
created a 'SYSTEM' folder on the root of the card
Copied the contents of the 'system' folder from a few games (asphalt 1, bomberman, crash nitro kart) to the SYSTEM folder
Did the normal safely remove process for removable storage in windows
Went to the menu on the ngage, waited a few seconds for it to refresh and show the games
They all worked fine. I did notice that if I copied asphalt 2 then asphalt 1 no longer showed up. Not sure if this is to do with many games overwriting the files in x:\system\libs with different versions or something else.
Either way there's no reason why asphalt, on the card by itself, shouldn't work.

Not sure what else I can suggest other than to find a different source for the ROMS or try other games. Im not aware of any additional restrictions on the QD beyond those on my original Ngage.


Edit: http://pastebin.com/9yZNYza0
That's the folder structure of my MMC when it has Asphalt 1, Bomberman and Crash Nitro Kart on it.


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## Friend of Sonic (May 24, 2014)

It must be my ROMs. I followed your list exactly, and no go. Thank you for messing around with this to help out-- hopefully when I get a different ROMset, it'll work.

EDIT: The only other thing is the error I get upon booting the phone "Sim Registration has failed"

EDIT: Also, I read something to the effect that higher capacity cards run into these errors. That has me wondering now. Count, are you using a small capacity card?


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## Count Duckula (May 24, 2014)

Friend of Sonic said:


> It must be my ROMs. I followed your list exactly, and no go. Thank you for messing around with this to help out-- hopefully when I get a different ROMset, it'll work.
> 
> EDIT: The only other thing is the error I get upon booting the phone "Sim Registration has failed"
> 
> EDIT: Also, I read something to the effect that higher capacity cards run into these errors. That has me wondering now. Count, are you using a small capacity card?


 
You're welcome 

The SIM registration shouldnt be related, mine has no SIM in it at all.

I'm using a 1GB card (damn it was expensive in 2004 or so), certainly could be an issue with 2GB MMCs.
Most of the games are tiny so likely were sold on cards less than 64MB in size. I wouldnt think it should be an issue as its still FAT(16) but you never know, old devices often had strange limitations.


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## iNFiNiTY (Jun 3, 2014)

I never heard of this but it sounds like it's an updated firmware model if games like Ashen say insert game card or similar errors, the game is cracked most likely any copy you get is already done.. but if there was some updated version of the firmware on late models maybe there's some extra check? Otherwise there should definitely not be a problem. Maybe every QD is not the same, although i have never heard of revisions.. 

Or is it possible it's a fake sized MMC? Like one of those SD cards with the size made to look a lot larger but not function correctly because they are tiny in reality. MMC was probably popular enough for fakes to be made, it's a possibility? Or just the 2GB problem like people suggested. Maybe format to a smaller size just to see if it makes a difference, if the game icon shows up its reading the game so it's a strange problem.


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## Friend of Sonic (Jul 8, 2014)

I'll certainly try though I am confident the card is legit. I also got the prototype to Alien Front to work, so I don't know. I'm gonna start messing with it this week.


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## iNFiNiTY (Jul 20, 2014)

Only the prototype? That's strange, do other prototypes work? That's the only version of Alien Front, it was never released in the end. Prototypes had the same checks as final versions though, the ones i saw at least. Make sure you are using the most recent system files that go with the game (the files in /app? i forget, but the files separate from the game folder). If you have old app dir it might have uncracked system files in, you want the latest ones so let it overwrite when you copy new games onto the card.

Every time you copy a game its going to replace the files so you want the most recent cracked ones, by the file dates. You might have unintentionally overwrote with clean system files which would break every game from working.


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## Foxi4 (May 21, 2019)

Please remember that sharing or even requesting warez is strictly prohibited on GBAtemp. As for the games themselves, they should work as-is on any compatible storage medium, they don't need patching of any kind.


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## 7ank0v1c (May 21, 2019)

Foxi4 said:


> Please remember that sharing or even requesting warez is strictly prohibited on GBAtemp. As for the games themselves, they should work as-is on any compatible storage medium, they don't need patching of any kind.



I do apologize, I didn't fully realise. I do actually own the games and have copied the files from the official card to a mmc but it doesn't work. I am very sure they are supposed to be cracked/patched first. I am just completely unable to find them anywhere. Not sure what to do really at this point...


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## Foxi4 (May 21, 2019)

7ank0v1c said:


> I do apologize, I didn't fully realise. I do actually own the games and have copied the files from the official card to a mmc but it doesn't work. I am very sure they are supposed to be cracked/patched first. I am just completely unable to find them anywhere. Not sure what to do really at this point...


You can't just copy-paste them from the original medium, they're only meant to work on the particular MMC card they're on. Digital games are actually hard-coded to the handset they were downloaded to initially. Because of that you either needed to use custom installers or download cracked versions back in the day. Where to find cracked games is a question you should ask Google - finding N-Gage ROMs is trivial and, to my knowledge, all of the officially released games, as well as many betas, have been dumped.


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