# Open-source Symbian and Nokia N-Gage emulator "EKA2L1" releases on Android



## Deleted member 397813 (Apr 18, 2021)

"ayo what's your favourite mobile game?"

"nokia n gage"


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## DinohScene (Apr 18, 2021)

I wonder if touch controls are as awkward as a real NGage.
Neat tho!


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## Vila_ (Apr 18, 2021)

I will finally be able to play a bad version of rayman 3!


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## Phearoz (Apr 19, 2021)

*Neat!
*
Are there worthwhile games exclusive to the N-gage though? I thought it was all crappy ports....


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## RobXcore (Apr 19, 2021)

My favorite part was that Skyrim clip in the middle of the showcase.


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## Silent_Gunner (Apr 19, 2021)

DinohScene said:


> I wonder if touch controls are as awkward as a real NGage.
> Neat tho!



Actually tried one?


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## DinohScene (Apr 19, 2021)

Silent_Gunner said:


> Actually tried one?



NGage or the NGage emu? I never tried the latter no.


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## Silent_Gunner (Apr 19, 2021)

The N-Gage itself!


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## Foxi4 (Apr 19, 2021)

Hot damn, this is my time, this is what I've been waiting for. I was one of those teens who *did* have an N-Gage, and there are some dope forgotten gems on that platform which nothing runs well these days besides one obscure and well out-of-date emulator that's no longer in development. Happy to see this, Pathway to Glory (base and the expansion) and WH40K: Glory in Death alone are worth downloading an emulator for, and there's a lot more to play on Symbian.


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## CloudStrife190100 (Apr 19, 2021)

I remember picking up the N Gage QD from my local gamestation for £100... I never really did play games on it considering most of them at the time were hot garbage


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## Xzi (Apr 19, 2021)

Ah I see they were going for accuracy with that "cinematic" 5 FPS in 3D games.


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## osaka35 (Apr 19, 2021)

Symbian...my auto-correct almost got me in trouble.

I remember the N Gage. I also remember being too poor at the time. What a neato project. I'll add it to my list of "things to stream".


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## Sterophonick (Apr 19, 2021)

If Sonic N is playable I'm down


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## RedBlueGreen (Apr 19, 2021)

Phearoz said:


> *Neat!
> *
> Are there worthwhile games exclusive to the N-gage though? I thought it was all crappy ports....


Worthwhile, probably not. But there are The Elder Scrolls Travels games, and a couple Resident Evil ones, though it's just a Japanese mobile version of 4 (so, the iOS game), and one based on the CGI film Resident Evil Degeneration. I'm sure there are a couple notable ones I'm forgetting though. The worthwhile ones are probably Civilization and Super Monkey Ball Jr. if they were good ports.


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## Gronbar (Apr 19, 2021)

Foxi4 said:


> Hot damn, this is my time, this is what I've been waiting for. I was one of those teens who *did* have an N-Gage, and there are some dope forgotten gems on that platform which nothing runs well these days besides one obscure and well out-of-date emulator that's no longer in development. Happy to see this, Pathway to Glory (base and the expansion) and WH40K: Glory in Death alone are worth downloading an emulator for, and there's a lot more to play on Symbian.



What games would you recommend? FPS was bad for 3d games like in this trailer?


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## phonemonkey (Apr 19, 2021)

Chary said:


> ​
> 
> Taco phones are on the menu tonight. A new emulator called EKA2L1 has released on the Google Play Store, and is designed to emulate Symbian devices, as well as the Nokia N-Gage, the latter of which was a "gaming phone" released in 2003. Though it began development around two years ago, last week marked the first release of a stable Android build. EKA2L1 works primarily on 64-bit devices, though it does have limited "experimental" support for devices that use 32-bit architecture. Right now, it can emulate three different forms of Symbian: S60v1, S60v3, and S60v5, with high compatibility for the fair few N-Gage games that exist, like Sonic N, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Rayman 3, and others.
> 
> ...




Skyrim? Wonder if Todd was involved in this.


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## BitMasterPlus (Apr 19, 2021)

Revolutionary.


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## BaamAlex (Apr 19, 2021)

Now imagine you have to plug out the battery the whole time to switch the game xD

But thx for the video. I like the song.


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## stanleyopar2000 (Apr 19, 2021)

Symbian OS?? does this mean that Palm OS games and other JAR games are playable...or?...


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## The Real Jdbye (Apr 19, 2021)

DinohScene said:


> I wonder if touch controls are as awkward as a real NGage.
> Neat tho!


What touch controls?


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## StrayGuitarist (Apr 19, 2021)

The Real Jdbye said:


> What touch controls?



Pretty sure he means the touch controls of the Android emulator, comparing them to how awkward the NGage's garbage face buttons and D-Pad are.


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## pustal (Apr 19, 2021)

Sterophonick said:


> If Sonic N is playable I'm down



Why not just play it on GBA or a GBA emulator? XD


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## The Real Jdbye (Apr 19, 2021)

StrayGuitarist said:


> Pretty sure he means the touch controls of the Android emulator, comparing them to how awkward the NGage's garbage face buttons and D-Pad are.


Ahhh, that makes sense.


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## StrayGuitarist (Apr 19, 2021)

Sterophonick said:


> If Sonic N is playable I'm down



While I do applaud people being able to play it again for preservation's sake, Sonic N is just an awful port of Sonic Advance. There's no extra content or anything, it's just got compressed graphics in an awful aspect ratio that make it hard to see what's coming, tinny audio, worse physics, and a generally pretty bad reception among those who have played it.


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## Deleted User (Apr 19, 2021)

My last Nokia phone was the first and only Flagship I bought from them, the Nokia N96.
It was a sweet Smartphone for its time, and it had the best N-Gage capabilities Nokia ever released.
It also paired well to their line of Wireless Headsets, of which I bought the BH-604.

But that's about as far as I can force those rose-tinted glasses on myself.

Support for the OS ended a few months into 2009, barely a year after release and the N-Gage Library is a gimmick at best.
I mostly used the phone to watch YouTube, listen to MP3s, video-call and chat, all of which worked remarkably well and, with that metal body, felt the most comfortable out of all the Nokia line-up.

I still believe Symbian could be a viable OS in 2021 for standard Telephony, and I actually wouldn't mind owning a nice metal phone with this OS in the future, just focused on those core aspects. As for an N-Gage Emulator, as a former N-Gage User, I can appreciate its novelty, but not much else when there are Emulators of better Gaming peripherals.


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## raxadian (Apr 19, 2021)

Symbian had a lot of great games, hence why I have keep my Nokia N8.


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## xatzimi (Apr 19, 2021)

This still doesn't support N-Gage 2.0 games right? Such as Metal Gear Solid Mobile


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## Foxi4 (Apr 19, 2021)

Gronbar said:


> What games would you recommend? FPS was bad for 3d games like in this trailer?


Define "bad". Framerate was choppy in some 3D titles, but that didn't bother me at the time, plus you could overclock the phone-sole which solved most issues. The control scheme was fairly simplistic and some of the games look outdated, there's a good chance nostalgia glasses are in full effect here, but remember - this thing was pegged against the GBA. In that context, a lot of the early portable 3D games looked mindblowing - you couldn't play stuff like that on the go before. Since the phone-sole was fairly easy to find cracked games for, I've played nearly every major official release, and then some (there's lots of homebrew available, as well as some cancelled official releases that were pretty much 100% complete but remained unreleased due to poor sales). Out of the ones I've tried, I would consider these to be must-play/try ones:


Spoiler




Pathway to Glory + Pathway to Glory: Ikusa Islands
WH40K: Glory in Death
Call of Duty (shush, it's the good OG one)
Red Faction
Requiem of Hell

System Rush
TES Travels: Shadowkey
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm
Tomb Raider
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Worms World Party
Asphalt 1 + 2
Pocket Kingdom: Own the World
Ashen



Some of those games were later released on the DS or other systems and they're better-played on those since the aspect ratio of the N-Gage is a little annoying, but that's the original releases. There was also a wealth of strictly Symbian OS 6 stuff, and lots of homebrew. I remember having a great time with it, and I sure do miss it.


Sterophonick said:


> If Sonic N is playable I'm down


Don't do it, don't do it! 

One thing I will say, Sonic N is a waste of time - just play Sonic Advance instead, it's the same game, but with better aspect ratio (and curiously better performance) on Nintendo's system.


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## subcon959 (Apr 19, 2021)

Isn't a symbian for pleasuring the ladies?


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## CaptainHIT (Apr 19, 2021)

Wow! Finally! There were some Symbian games I liked to play. I hope the touch controls are better than on the originals phones.


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## The_Green_Nerd (Apr 19, 2021)

stanleyopar2000 said:


> Symbian OS?? does this mean that Palm OS games and other JAR games are playable...or?...


No! Symbian OS has nothing to do with Palm OS. JAR and JAD files are playable on almost every featurephone. 
Nokia used. SIS files for it's packages.


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## ClickCLK (Apr 19, 2021)

I've waiting for this so long. Finally an n-gage emulator.

But I didn't understand one thing from the video (I watched without sound, at work atm): is it emulating n-gage phone (I mean symbian 6-8) or n-gage 2.0 software platform (symbian 9 and up) or both? From the trailer it looks like both, but this are very different systems.

Anyways, there are good games on both of them. On n-gage I remember SSX Out of Bounds was amazing (this is a cut-down but full 3d version of SSX 3, much better than GBA version), Ashen (3d fps), pocket kingdom (rpg), mile high pinball - all this were exclusive, Asphalt urban gt 2 (best version port of this game imo), the sims bustin' out (very different from other sims games, more like an rpg with a story), sonic N and Colin McRae Rally were good ports too. There are also a couple of good strategy games, like Pathway to Glory 1 and 2, and The elder Scrolls Shadowkey, but I hadn't played them (but judjing by forum post of the time this were good games). Oh, and Worms World Party, but it has lost its appeal (ok port, but had local and online multiplayer back in the day).

And on the n-gage 2.0 we have the one and only Reset Generation - this is a very good game and a must play for any gaming fan. Seriously, please play it.


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## Foxi4 (Apr 19, 2021)

ClickCLK said:


> I've waiting for this so long. Finally an n-gage emulator.
> 
> But I didn't understand one thing from the video (I watched without sound, at work atm): is it emulating n-gage phone (I mean symbian 6-8) or n-gage 2.0 software platform (symbian 9 and up) or both? From the trailer it looks like both, but this are very different systems.
> 
> ...


The software lock on the N-Gage ecosystem was completely artificial - there were always ways to run "N-Gage-specific" games on other compatible phones. Symbian in general runs sis/sisx and jad/jar (the latter being J2ME), and as long as the hardware is compatible, it won't complain (much). This seems to emulate the OS without any restrictions, so in theory it should run any Symbian executable. I think support for later Symbian revisions is coming in the future, but for now it seems to have pretty wide coverage.


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## Flame (Apr 19, 2021)

ClickCLK said:


> I've waiting for this so long. Finally an n-gage emulator.
> 
> But I didn't understand one thing from the video (I watched without sound, at work atm): is it emulating n-gage phone (I mean symbian 6-8) or n-gage 2.0 software platform (symbian 9 and up) or both? From the trailer it looks like both, but this are very different systems.
> 
> ...



I love reading good post with a person who have love for a niche device!


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## ClickCLK (Apr 19, 2021)

Foxi4 said:


> The software lock on the N-Gage ecosystem was completely artificial - there were always ways to run "N-Gage-specific" games on other compatible phones. Symbian in general runs sis/sisx and jad/jar (the latter being J2ME), and as long as the hardware is compatible, it won't complain (much). This seems to emulate the OS without any restrictions, so in theory it should run any Symbian executable. I think support for later Symbian revisions is coming in the future, but for now it seems to have pretty wide coverage.



As I wrote earlier, n-gage and n-gage 2.0 was very different systems. The n-gage and n-gage qd (phones) runs on symbia 6.1 as i remember, and symbian software was backwards compatible up to symbian 8 (I think there was some problems on later symbian 8 versions, but I'm not sure, this was so long ago), but symbian 9 and up is NOT compatible with symbian 6-8 apps, and n-gage 2.0 was a software platform for symbian 9 phones. I do know that most original n-gage games woked on other symbian 6-8 phones (albeit with some problems, but there were patches), but n-gage phones and n-gage 2.0 platform are very different things (there never were n-gage 2.0 phone, only software platform). Even online services (n-gage arena) were incompatible.


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## Foxi4 (Apr 19, 2021)

ClickCLK said:


> As I wrote earlier, n-gage and n-gage 2.0 was very different systems. The n-gage and n-gage qd (phones) runs on symbia 6.1 as i remember, and symbian software was backwards compatible up to symbian 8 (I think there was some problems on later symbian 8 versions, but I'm not sure, this was so long ago), but symbian 9 and up is NOT compatible with symbian 6-8 apps, and n-gage 2.0 was a software platform for symbian 9 phones. I do know that most original n-gage games woked on other symbian 6-8 phones (albeit with some problems, but there were patches), but n-gage phones and n-gage 2.0 platform are very different things (there never were n-gage 2.0 phone, only software platform). Even online services (n-gage arena) were incompatible.


Well yes, N-Gage 2.0 was just a software distribution platform, not an actual phone, and older games are not binary-compatible with later revisions of the OS, or vice versa. I thought you meant that N-Gage 1.0 games were somehow specific to the N-Gage/N-Gage QD phones or the N-Gage 2.0 games were restricted to N-Gage 2.0-compatible phones, which isn't the case. Other than that, yes, S60v3 and onwards is different to first and second edition.


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## FanNintendo (Apr 19, 2021)

Cool about time! I remember it had lot of buttons  kinda like alien weapon in your hand


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## HideoKojima (Apr 19, 2021)

Now I can play the Metal Gear Solid NGage version


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## EvilGoku (Apr 19, 2021)

Finally! There were some Symbian games I liked to play


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## raxadian (Apr 19, 2021)

How does Frozen Bubble work? It had a S60 version and even a big screen version for the S60.


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## eriol33 (Apr 19, 2021)

If I recall correctly there are a lot of games in nokia phones, but I think they were programmed using java. I wonder if they are preserved well these days. I really appreciated how those developers back then tried to overcome technical limitation and brought entertainment to mobile phones.


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## rehevkor (Apr 19, 2021)

Sweet. Maybe time to re-visit the From Doom RPG series.

Seriously the id RPG games were great, if anyone is looking from for some games to try. 
Orcs and Elves, Wolfenstein, Doom 1 & 2.


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## MadMakuFuuma (Apr 19, 2021)

i like this news, because preservation is aways good. even in cases wen consoles are sh*t XD. never played any n-gage game, so i don't know if is good or not. my only memories are from adverts inside MTV programs, here in Brazil.


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## Deleted User (Apr 19, 2021)

I believe Microsoft bought Nokia, so technically if they wanted to they could do a re-release or n-gage games on xbox/pc lmao not that they ever will.


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## evlspcmk (Apr 20, 2021)

Ooh pathway to glory 1 & 2 here I come, I bought a n-gage QD just for these games back in the day, I remember I got it the same day as that tsunami with my Christmas money. 

I remember buying a 1 or 2GB MMC card and pirating just about the whole library on it good times. Pathway to glory was the stand out series on that device but I remember asphalt was good, worms, tomb raider and sonic were the others I didn’t mind playing. You want to find the worst call of duty game ever made? Look no further than the one made or ngage now that was terrible.


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## Reynardine (Apr 20, 2021)

Oooh, finally! I have a few N-Gage titles that I'd like to play again, but the D-Pad on that thing is truly atrocious.
Emulating them would be a lot more enjoyable.

Would be sweet if this could become part of Retroarch in the future.


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## tfocosta (Apr 21, 2021)

This is amazing! I still have my N-Gage QD, that was fully restored few years ago and is still working perfectly. Just need to find a MMC adapter to use a microSD on it and expand its storage, if that's a thing.


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## 7ank0v1c (Apr 23, 2021)

I’m actually psyched about this. I been hoping for this for literally years. I used to love my ngage when I was a teenager. It was the first handheld console I had which was capable of emulating other systems. I have the game boy, game boy colour, nes, snes, and mega drive emulating my fav games on there. Plus I could play tomb raider an pandemonium on the go. I loved it.

I’m really hoping for an iOS port of this emulator. I’m sure it can’t be too hard right? It can then be installed through the AltStore?


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